Does your child or adult loved one need speech therapy services?

Know the Signs

Feeding and Swallowing Disorders:

How to know the signs

During feeds, your baby might:

  • arch their back

  • splay their fingers

  • demonstrate watery eyes

  • cough or gag

  • present with gurgly/wet-sounding breathing

  • not be gaining weight

  • show difficulty latching

  • take a long time for a feed (I.e. >40 minutes)

During meals, your child might:

  • eat only certain textures, flavors, or colors of food

  • cry or refuse to eat or drink

  • demonstrate difficulty chewing

  • cough or gag

  • present with rapid or shallow breathing

  • demonstrate a wet/gurgly, breathy, or hoarse voice during or after meals

During meals, your adult sibling, spouse, partner, friend, parent, or grandparent might:

  • present with changes in swallowing after a stroke, brain injury, or illness

  • tell you swallowing is increasingly more difficult after a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, ALS, Alzheimer’s Dementia, or another progressive neurological disease

  • report the feeling of “something is getting stuck” while swallowing

  • demonstrate difficulty chewing

  • cough or gag

  • present with rapid, wet, or shallow breathing

Oral and Written Speech and language Disorders: How to know the signs

Your toddler might:

  • have difficulty understanding simple directions you tell them

  • have trouble pointing to their body parts or common objects in a book when you name them

  • use fewer words than other kids their age

  • have trouble answering “yes” or “no” questions when asked

Your child might:

  • use fewer words than other kids their age

  • have difficulty being understood by other people when they talk

  • be unsure of how to use social language

  • have difficulty communicating how they feel or what they want

  • use inaccurate grammar orally or in writing

  • have difficulty describing events during their day or giving specific details as they get older

  • have a hard time coming up with ideas to write about or having trouble in school with writing (i.e. has dyslexia)

Your adult sibling, spouse, partner, friend, parent, or grandparent might:

  • present with changes in speech or language after a stroke, brain injury, progressive disease, or illness

  • tell you they can’t say the word that is “on the tip of their tongue”

  • have a hard time naming items and people they normally would

  • be difficult to understand when they talk (slurred speech)

  • show changes in their writing

Cognitive-Communication Deficits:

How to know the signs

Your baby might have difficulty:

  • moving their eyes or head toward sound

  • bringing their hands to their mouth

  • watching items slowly moved through their line of sight

  • exploring objects in several different ways (i.e. banging it against a surface, visually looking at it, feeling all surfaces, shaking it)

Your toddler or younger child might have difficulty knowing how to:

  • roll wheeled toys

  • hand a toy to an adult for help

  • look at pictures in a book with an adult

  • stack blocks

  • imitate scribbling

Your older child or adolescent might have trouble:

  • counting objects

  • matching shapes

  • sorting items by physical characteristics when asked

  • drawing people (i.e. stick figures)

  • sequencing a few pictures to tell a story (i.e. get toothbrush out, put toothpaste on, put in mouth to brush teeth)

Your adult sibling, spouse, partner, friend, parent, or grandparent might:

  • have difficulties attending or focusing on tasks or conversations

  • tell you "finding their words" is increasingly more difficult after a serious injury or illness

  • have difficulty sequencing the steps to functional tasks or performing simple math calculations (i.e. time or money)

  • have a harder time than usual remembering events or people's names they would normally know

  • demonstrate difficulty with processing speed or follow through with tasks