It is recommended that your school age child have a speech and language evaluation if he or she exhibits one or more of the following behaviors:
- Difficulty pronouncing words clearly.
- Difficulty expressing ideas clearly, as if words are on the tip of the tongue but won't come out. What the child says may be vague and/or difficult to understand.
- Using unspecific vocabulary, such as "thing" or "stuff" to replace words that cannot be remembered. Filler words like "um" may be used to take up time while the child remembers the word.
- The word order in sentences is "jumbled", indicating problems with sentence grammar (e.g., "He inside go").
- The child often uses gestures to "fill in" words and ideas in conversations.
- Difficulty staying on topic during a conversation.
- Difficulty with re-telling a story/movie plot and sharing recent events. The child may "jump around in time" as he/she tries to retell an event.
- Difficulty learning new vocabulary that a child hears.
- Difficulty understanding questions and following directions that are heard/read.