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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
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It's 3:10 AM....I will be doing a speech in 7 hours on...
Speech Delays.  Since I absolutely loath public speaking, I chose this topic that I am familiar with...
Topic: Speech delays in young children
General Purpose: To Inform
Specific Purpose: To explain to my audience the various causes of a speech delay and possible treatments.
Central Idea: Speech delays in young children can become very detrimental to a child’s growth and development, unless early intervention services are administered.
Introduction
I. Have you ever been in a situation where a child between the ages of 2 and 4 is misbehaving and not using any words to communicate? Throwing tempter tantrums and just being downright frustrating? This behavior can actually be an indication of a speech delay. According to the Speech Therapy and Information Resources website, a speech delay is the failure to develop speech capabilities at the expected chronological age.
II. The information I will be telling you today. may help you in recognizing and improving a possible speech delay in a young child you may know, such as your own son or daughter, niece or nephew, brother or sister, granddaughter or grandson, neighbor, friend’s child so on and so forth. Some of you may have even experienced a speech delay, first-hand, when you were a child.
III. Speech delays in young children may become detrimental to a child’s growth and development, unless early intervention services are administered.
Body
I. There are various causes for a speech delay
A. While children do develop at different rates, it is crucial to monitor a child’s communication milestones. Some common causes of a speech delay are hearing loss, chronic ear infections, congenital birth defects, brain defects before, during and after birth, delayed development related to prematurity, hearing loss, and plenty more! Sometimes, a cause for a speech delay is never discovered.
B. According to the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders, between 6 and 8 million people in the United States have some form of language impairment. And approximately 5 to 10 percent of children are diagnosed with some sort of speech and language delay, says the Parents Connect website. With information gathered from the American Academy of Family Physicians website, a speech delay is three to four times more common in boys than in girls.
C. My 3-year-old son, Ethan, was diagnosed with a moderate speech delay almost 2 years ago. Before his diagnosis, my son would constantly bang his head on the floor in our home. I noticed he would only do it to make himself cry out of frustration, and to gain my or my husband’s attention. My son would also point and grunt at want he wanted. Before my husband and I realized that he should have been using his words, we automatically just gave in to what ever our son was wanting, instead of us annunciating what he was pointing at.
Transition
II. There are programs and services available to assist children who do experience a speech delay.
A. Since his diagnosis, our son has received speech therapy services through the City's Early Intervention Program. During the school year, he receives speech therapy with a speech pathologist through the Public School system. During the Summer, my husband and I “play” school with our son using the Hooked on Phonics Learning Kit I purchased last month.(visual aid) Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read learning kits not only helps to teach a young child to read, but it also help them to improve their vocabulary and assists the child in recognizing and annunciating letters sounds properly.
B. Hooked on Phonics, Early Intervention services using speech therapists,
speech pathologists, increase reading of books,
C. By reading to their children more than once a day, several of my friends have noticed an increase in their child’s vocabulary and communication skills. They have become firm believers that introducing new words into a child’s vocabulary can help them to better formulate proper annunciation of consonant and vowel sounds.
Conclusion
I. In conclusion, if you suspect a child may have a speech delay, just remember that there are only benefits to seeking early intervention. There are no downfalls to seeking outside assistance to improve a child’s development. My husband and I are extremely happy with the improvement and results we have witnessed first hand with our son, by being proactive and seeking referrals in order to obtain speech therapy for our son.
II. As St. Augustine wonderfully said, "I learnt most not from those who taught me, but from those who talked with me."
Works Cited
Douglas, Ann. The Mother of all Toddler Books. New York, NY: Wiley Publishing, 2004. Diagnosing a Speech Delay. 2004. Parents Connect. 27 Jun. 2009 <http://www.parentsconnect.com/articles/Diagnosing_Speech_Delay.jhtml>
Leung, Alexander K.C. and C. Pion Kao, M.D. “Evaluation and Management of the Child with Speech Delay.” Academy of Family Physicians. June 1999. American Academy of Family Physicians. 05 Jul. 2009
< http://www.aafp.org/afp/990600ap/3121.html>
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Statistics on Voice, Speech, and Language 19 Jun. 2009. National Institutes of Health. Bethesda, MD. 03 Jul. 2009
< http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/vsl.asp>
Speech Therapy Information and Resources. “Speech Delay.” 05 Jul. 2009
<http://www.speech-therapy-information-and-resources.com/speech-delay.html>
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*PS....This outline looks better on Word...LOL! The format got distorted...
I'm such a procrastinator! I began this outline, ohhhhhhh about 5 hours ago. 
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07-11-2009, 02:14 AM
