Background of Speech Delay in Toddlers - Research Paper Sample

Speech is the sound that comes out of our mouth sand facilitates passage of information from one individual to another. Failure to communicate leads to misunderstanding a common problem facing young children during development. Delayed speech needs to be monitored to ensure that children are developing typically. Development of speech is one significant milestone that children in early years a crucial part of our lives as social beings. Many at times children experience different speeds when it comes to development milestones in areas such as this. According to McLaughlin, 2011) delay in speech is dependent on several factors that can either spur fast growth in speech or hinder it completely. Furthermore, children differ and are unique making it hard to predict the problems they have with speech.

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Identifying speech problems can be done through observing if your child is meeting the speech milestones as per their age. More speech problems are associated with poor listening such that whenever a child has difficulty expressing themselves they might probably because they have hearing defects. Speech however is influenced by several reasons such as childs learning disability, hearing loss, autism, apraxia of expression and selective mutism (Bishop &Leonard, 2014).

Statement of the problem

Issues of delay of expression from infants to toddlers is a problem facing many parents wishing to raise their children in an environment that facilitates growth in many areas by achieving development milestones. Factors contributing to this problem includes poor parenting, and failure to take more time to watch on the development milestones of the kids.

The issue of speech delay in infants to toddlers is of great importance as they give parents and potential parents a chance to have firsthand information on the need to keep track of kids speech development milestones (Hamaguchi, 2010). Secondly it creates awareness of issues and causes that lead to delayed speech hence the need to provide an environment that stimulates speech.

Purpose

The goal of this research paper is to explore the delay in a speech from infants to toddlers and to identify ways of preventing it and identifying at an early stage.

Research questions

Describe the relationship speech delay and hearing effects

What is the relationship between kids behavior and speech development

Significance of the study

the study is significant to parents and future parents as it provides information on how one can identify speech delay in infants and toddlers. It is also critical in ensuring that people learn some parenting tips that can minimize the problem causing the delay in speech.

Definitions of terms

Speech- A vocalized form of communication, based on the syntactic combination of lexical and names that are drawn from an extensive vocabulary.

Toddlers- children between the age of 2-3 years, years where there is significant cognitive, emotional, and social development.

Parents these are the caregiver of the of the offspring in this case children.

Assumptions

The assumptions for this is that parents and people in hospitals will give correct information when asked about the problem of delay in a speech from infantry to the toddlers.

Limitations

Information collected is prone to error as they might be incorrect especially from parents.

Unwillingness from hospitals management and pediatricians to release this kind of data on speech delay to the public.

Delimitations

Research on speech is only limited to a particular area as the covering a vast area is prone to challenges.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Speech is the verbal production of language. Among children and especially toddlers the speech delay is associated with increased difficulty in reading, socialization, and class attention (Chawaska, Macari & Shic, 2012). Delay in speech is a difficult problem to deal with a this is attributed to the fact that this kind of delay is hard to detect.

Speech come in two forms that are developmental speech and secondary speech. Problems with speech need close monitoring as they can negatively affect their education in future (Aron& Loprest, 2012). Children experience this kind of problem more regularly these days because of many conditions such as hearing loss, physical speech problems, Autism disorders and intellectual disability.

METHODOLOGY

Introduction

The study area covered one hospital and the parents of toddlers visiting the hospital. It was conducted in the children ward where parents often take rest as they wait for their kids to be attended to in the hospital.

Research design

This research is a qualitative study design where data was collected through interviews of parents and analyzing of records in the hospital.

Research question

What causes speech delay in toddlers?

How can we prevent speech delay in a child?

What time should we be worried about speech delay in children?

Participants

Doctors and parents of toddlers formed the participants of the study who visited the pediatrician in hospital on two days a week.

Data collection

The data for this research was collected using two methods that are through an interview and surveys. Records on the speech problems that are public from the said hospital also shall form part of the data to be used for the study. Participants shall be randomly picked based on only those who wish to take part of the research by volunteering honestly. This condition helps in minimizing errors and ensuring members provide honest answers.

Data analysis

The data collected from the field was then taken to my supervisor where verification was done through observation was done and recommendations on where to make improvements. This also helps in the detection of errors and clarity of the data collected.

Summary of the findings

Based on the data collected in regards to the delay of speech in toddlers it is evident that this development problem exists amongst parents and we need to be keen to identify this kind of problem amongst their children. From the records obtained the hospital we did our research in it was evident that there is a high number of speech delay as a development issue in children. According to the hospital 10 percent of the children in the community experience delayed speech problems as they grow up within the community.

The interview results indicated that community experiences speech delay in children amongst them based on the data obtained from interview and the survey. Parents show that one out of three children experiences speech delay in the community. According to the interview from the doctors in the hospital 20% percent of children within the community experience delay in speech based on his observation on a regular basis.

Survey questions also indicated that parents are mostly unaware of the symptoms that show that the child is experiencing a delay in speech making it difficult to deal with the issue at hand. 35% of the parents who participated in the survey believe that lack of knowledge to detect the delay in speech is the real cause of the high number of cases. Results also indicate that only 40% of the parents take the time to nurture their children growth and observe them if they are growing a problem attributed to commitments of these group of adults.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings of this study we ca comfortably conclude that speech delay from infants to toddlers is a problem that needs to be taken seriously. The high number of children experiencing this issue means that as a community we are not addressing the causes and identifying this problem at an early age such that we minimize its impact on the child in future. Parents in this case are the main players that need to observe their children and try to monitor their children developmental milestones not only in speech but in all areas, that the child might be having growth related problems. Issues such as screening and visiting a physician especially the toddlers are important in making sure that children are developing speech to be precise.

Doctors on the other hand should seek to educate the community on ways to detect the speech problems among children when to become worried and pay a visit to the hospital. Teaching the adults makes it easier to have a candid conversation about the child especially the type of speech problems that the child has failed to develop.

Suggestions for Future Research

In future, I would like to have a research on the ways to improve to early detection of the speech delay in children, steps to be taken and the measures the caregivers can put in place to stimulate the development of expression among the young children. Conducting this creates room to identify ways through which we can improve on taking care of the children and facilitate them in reaching their milestones.

REFERENCES

Aron, L., & Loprest, P. (2012). Disability and the education system. The future of Children, 22(1), 97-122.

Bishop, D. V., & Leonard, L. (2014). Speech and language impairments in children: Causes, characteristics, intervention and outcome. Psychology press.

Chawarska, K., Macari, S., & Shic, F. (2012). Context modulates attention to social scenes in toddlers with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(8), 903-913.

Hamaguchi, P. M. (2010). Childhood speech, language, and listening problems. John Wiley & Sons.

McLaughlin, M. R. (2011). Speech and language delay in children. American family physician, 83(10), 1183.