My Child Has a Speech Delay — Should I Be Worried About Their Social Skills?

You’ve been looking forward to having real conversations with your child, but you’re finding that their ability to communicate verbally is slow. While a speech delay won’t present a significant hurdle as far as you’re concerned, you understand that your child needs to communicate and socialize with the world, and you’re worried.

At Celebrations Speech Group, our team of speech therapists and pediatric speech pathologists understands the difficulties that can arise from a speech delay, especially regarding social skills, and we’re here to help.

Diagnosing the speech delay

The first step in addressing a speech delay is to figure out what’s behind the issue. A speech delay is a developmental problem that affects about 10% of preschool kids, and it can develop for many different reasons, including:

• Hearing issues
• Slow development
• Anatomical issues in the mouth
• Learning disability
• Apraxia of speech

A speech or language issue can also be caused by perfectly benign and temporary issues, such as being twins or living in a bilingual home. In these cases, speech delays are common but are often nothing more than a delay.

Once we determine what’s causing the speech delay, we can take the appropriate steps to keep your child’s development on track.

Speech and social skills

The ability to communicate is essential when it comes to socializing; if your child struggles to do so verbally, they may have difficulty learning important social skills.

The social skills that a child learns are critical as they help them find their place in the world. Teaching and learning social skills can be more challenging but far from impossible without language.

Our practice specializes in helping kids with language and/or speech delays better navigate the world around them. Through our social skills education, we focus on the following:

• The art of conversation
• Listening
• Asking questions
• Facial expressions
• Gesturing
• Social cues

Through one-on-one and group therapy, we help your child to learn give-and-take communication skills that will improve their ability to understand and to be understood. These skills are vital in setting your child up for future learning and socializing.

Ultimately, our goal is to help your child gain speech and social skills simultaneously so that they have the tools they need to continue their development. This early intervention can make all the difference as your child moves into school and beyond.

To learn more about addressing your child’s speech delay through speech therapy and social skills therapy, please contact one of our offices near you — we have locations in Brentwood, Stockton, and Elk Grove, California.