The “Invisible” Milestones

So far this year, I’ve focused on what goes into our brains, how it gets there, and how it forms a foundation for speaking, reading and thinking. There’s so much that needs to happen in the brain before any child speaks, and so it’s important to check in to see how they’re getting things as they grow.

We call it receptive language. It can be called language comprehension or simply understanding. When we check in on understanding, we’re looking at how well a child is getting and storing all of the components of their language since birth. It’s hard to know exactly how well a child is understanding language, but we have tests that look at a variety of children’s responses to their environments that give us a fair idea of how it’s going.

There are a lot of behaviours we see in babies as young as infants. We wouldn’t expect a baby to look up when we tell her to look up, but we can surely see a baby turn her eyes or head to the sound of her mother’s voice. Whether a toddler comes running for snack time or speeds off when he hears “bath time!” doesn’t matter…so long as we have a response that is reasonably appropriate for what was said. “Get your baby and put her in the buggy” is a simple example of a two-step direction we’d expect a 2-year-old to accomplish, with perhaps a pause to “process” what we’ve said. 

As children grow, we tell them stories, give them instructions, and ask them questions that are longer and more complex. We tend to do it automatically and naturally, but sometimes kids just don’t “get” what we’ve told them. That’s why it’s important to use various ways to deliver messages so that our kids get a chance to process them. But if they get it all, then great! Keep pushing them to grow and to think and to do. Even if their speech isn’t on par (just yet), many will surprise you with what they understand!   

 

Mohamed (Mo) Oshalla, MHSc.,
Speech-Language Pathologist & Executive Director,
Ontario Speech & Language Services