What is Early Intervention?

Early intervention is a service that supports infants and toddlers, birth to 3 years of age, who have delays with developmental milestone skills such as walking and talking. Early intervention is uniquely developed for each and every client encompassing the child’s current skills, developmental needs, and the family’s desired goal outcomes.

Some skills that an early intervention team (audiologists, speech-language pathologists, physical therapists and occupational therapists) may help develop are: 

• cognitive skills—thinking, learning, problem-solving

• communication skills—gesturing, talking, listening, understanding

• physical and sensory skills—crawling, walking, climbing, seeing, hearing

• social-emotional skills—playing, understanding feelings, making friends

• adaptive or self-help skills—eating, bathing, sleeping, getting dressed

Intervention for Late Talkers

The terms Late Talkers, or Late Language Learners refer to children who exhibit delays in language onset without any other developmental delays. Early therapeutic intervention can be critical for supporting and fostering growth of a child's language skills, reducing developmental milestone setbacks. Early identification of language delays typically occurs around 18-24 months of age. A child may go through a standardized assessment that focuses on Receptive and Expressive Language Comprehension, Pragmatics, Play, Gesture, and Interaction- Attachment.

• Children with mixed expressive and receptive language delays show difficulty with oral language production and language comprehension (ASHA, 2024).

• Screening and assessment results are interpreted within the context of a child’s overall development and in collaboration with family members and other professionals as appropriate (ASHA, 2024). 

• Treatment interventions include:

• Clinician-directed— Professional led therapeutic strategies specific to target areas. Examples of this therapeutic approach can be commonly seen in articulation based therapies.

• Child-directed—play-based language modeling centered around the child’s active play; often reflecting their play in a naturalistic manner seen in a variety of environments. This type of approach can be targeted in both individual and group based therapies. 

• Hybrid— A combined approach utilizing both clinician and child centered therapeutic models.

Early intervention for Late Language Learners can significantly improve overall milestone development and Language skills. By providing targeted support and engaging families in the process, we can enhance outcomes for these children and help them reach their full potential.

How can you help your Late Language Learner?

Create a language rich environment:

Talk frequently to your toddler or young child. Narrate what you are doing throughout your daily routines such as cooking dinner, bath time, going to the grocery store. Asking open ended questions and providing binary choices when speaking with your child. Sitting face to face with your child during story times so that they can see the book pages as well as your face for verbal modeling. 

Model language: 

Speak in clear and simple sentences with varied pitch that reflects a natural conversational tone. To foster continual language growth, think about modeling phrases/sentences that are slightly above your child’s current language skills. You can do this by expanding and extending upon their independent verbal expressions! For example, if they say “ball” you could acknowledge their productions and state: “Yes, you have the red ball!” or “Go Ball! Bounce, bounce, bounce.

Encourage play-based learning: 

Play games that encourage back and forth communication and physical turn taking. This creates opportunities for your child to express themselves while also encouraging social and emotional interaction and language use. A helpful tool to encourage this is when playing with a basket of toys, instead of giving access to the whole bin, provide your child with a few at a time. Further encouraging communication attempts when seeking toy items. 

Promote social interaction:

Arrange playdates with peers to encourage peer based interactions. Children often engage in imitation of physical and verbal models when in a group based environment. By engaging in play with same aged peers, there is an increased potential for problem solving, the repair of communication breakdowns, and social pragmatic growth. Some opportunities for group based social programs include: music and art classes.

Be patient and encouraging:

Celebrate all communication attempts! When children see the excitement their efforts elicit, they will be encouraged to try it again. By reducing the pressure and modality of ‘quizzing’ the language from our children, we see an increase in natural observed language imitation. Positive reinforcement and acknowledgment of spontaneous communication will help boost your child’s confidence while keeping your interactions fun and light.

Technology is not speech therapy.

Excessive screen time can be detrimental to the brain development of young children. Increased technology usage such as I-pads, TV, phones, etc., can have a negative impact by reducing personal face-to-face interactions, which are crucial for language acquisition and social skills (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). A young child may become dependent on technology to communicate and learn which later hinders their ability to have effective problem solving, communication, and interpersonal skills. Technology can lead to sensory overstimulation, which may negatively impact children with sensory processing difficulties. This can result in increased anxiety and frustration, making it harder to engage in therapeutic activities (Kirkland & Hollis, 2019).

Recommended Screen Time:

Infants (0-18 months)

• Avoid screen time: Except for video chatting with family and friends.

Toddlers (18 months to 2 years)

• Limited screen time: If screens are used, ensure it's high-quality educational content and watch together to help understand what they see.

Preschoolers (2-5 years)

• 1 hour per day: Aim for high-quality programming. Co-viewing is recommended to discuss and engage with the content.

What is the connection between screen time and language development?

• 70% of children with language delays have a TV in their room.

• There is a decrease in verbal interaction between parents and children when screen time is in use, reducing the amount of spoken words in the exchange by an average of 500-1,000 words.

• Screen time is associated with decreased expressive and receptive language skills.

• Excessive screen time exposure is found to have unfavorable effects on a child’s short term and long term memory.

• Insufficient exposure to interactive physical and social play caused by technology is affiliated with altered brain processing and hyperactivity of the visual brain resulting in an increased difficulty with word processing.

What are some ways you can cut out screen time for your child?

Introduce your child to and engage with them in physical play based activities such as kicking a ball in the yard, playing peek-a-boo, role play, or going to the local playground. These physical play based activities provide your child with naturally occurring social skills leading to increased social interaction, conflict management, problem solving, and collaboration.

Engage in outdoor exploration with your child to ignite their sensory development. Incorporate language rich discussions investigating the sight, feel, smell, and sounds that are all around you. Examples include the sound of leaves crunching under your boots, the feel of the bark on the trees, the smell of freshly mowed grass or dew in the mornings, and so much more! This will aid in introducing your child to new vocabulary and cultivate discussions growing their overall communication skills. 

Be patient and supportive! Encourage exploration, creativity, and problem solving.