ABSTRACT
Most children will pass through pretty standard stages in their journey to talking. Baby signing classes are a popular activity for parents and infants, and take place across countries and languages. When a child is unable to produce speech correctly or fluently, she has a speech disorder. However, when there are difficulties understanding spoken language or expressing thoughts or ideas, then it is a language disorder. Risk for speech and language impairments can sometimes be picked up in infancy, when clinicians observe abnormal cries or social responses. Developmental language disorder is most often recognised through a difficulty in expressing meaning in words and sentences, in the absence of another intellectual or developmental condition. Some clinicians have suggested that using a dummy or pacifier may reduce babbling, an activity which is supportive of language development. While this has been a concern for some parents and nurseries, studies addressing this question have shown no significant differences in language development.
