So, we see three kinds of difficulties in the classroom: Developmental, Speech and Language.

Developmental uh speech difficulties are first seen by the families, by the parents because it starts uh any time after the age of 1, you will start seeing delays.

From the classroom perspective, we will see Speech issues and I am I am talking about when teachers notice these things and then refer to a specialist, a Speech-Language pathologist.

So as a um teacher, one of the first things we also have to consider is whether the student can hear well and see well.

So, this is, these are the basic questions that we have to uh determine before we decide that there is a bigger problem, Uh, can the child hear?

And a hearing assessment is absolutely useful uh before we jump into uh the deeper uh specialized uh consultations.

So, we generally look for uh um issues like drooling in the classroom.

Uh and if we see excessive drooling, excessive uh saliva spray during speech.

So these are the uh this is one of the signs that uh we will talk to parents about, referring to a specialist.

Another sign that we uh see is enunciation where pronunciation, articulation is not clear and of course, this is, we look at also the age of this child.

Some younger children will have enunciation and pronunciation problems but it has to be age-appropriate.

If we see that it is not age-appropriate uh then we will refer the, we will talk to the parents about taking the child to a Speech pathologist.

Uh and so this could be for issues like Cleft lip, Lisp, uh uh uh and uh Dental issues if the teeth are not coming in the proper location and there could be tongue issues.

It is the structure of the mouth, the bones of the face that can create all these articulation and pronunciation problems.

Uh one other thing that we usually talk to parents about is voice modulation uh because as children grow in school, they usually understand what an indoor voice and what is an outdoor voice.

Uh and when they are supposed to be loud and when they are supposed to be soft. And if the child is using a loud voice inside a classroom or a soft voice on the playground that means the child is not able to understand the environment in which uh the voice has to be modulated in a particular way.

So, this is another issue where we talk to parents about uh taking the child to a speech pathologist.
Then we see, with older kids, Language issues.

Language issues are where the speech is coming out fine but the language has to come from the brain to the, to be expressed.

And uh for that if we find that the child is uh taking very long to compose an answer, like the child has understood your question but the answer is not coming out and the child is like thinking and taking time to compose an answer.

So, this could be a Language issue and as a teacher, I always say ‘could be-could be’ because we are referring to a specialist and the specialist will make the diagnosis.

And another thing is where a child is able to understand and tell, tell you something but then is not able to write.

These all are language issues, where the language has to come from the brain, out the mouth or through the fingers.

So, when we see that that pathway is not smooth and clear that could be a Language issue and that is something that a Speech-Language pathologist can help with.
I hope this was informative.
Please contact your Speech-Language pathologist for any further details.