7. When should we start to work on my daughter's speech? We have been told that at three years old she is to young to worry about it.

Thursday, 20 October 2011

It's never too early to think about the development of clear speech. We are thinking about it when we massage our babies' faces in play, when we teach them to suck and chew, and when at about 9-12 months we begin to introduce them to sounds and corresponding sound/picture cards. We know that children with Down's syndrome are most likely to experience problems with hearing, discriminating, remembering and producing clear speech. It makes no sense to wait for the inevitable, when we can be helping them to learn about sounds in readiness for their speech as it begins to emerge.