Speech and language is a major developmental milestone for all children. Sight plays an important role in speech development for typical children; they see something and parents identify it. This process begins very early, much earlier than when a child begins to speak. So it's not surprising that blind, visually impaired and especially deaf/blind children are at risk for speech delays.

Our Speech and Language department provides individual speech and language services to blind, partially sighted, and dual-sensory (blind/deaf) children ages 18 months to 6 years of age. Early intervention has a major impact on the patterns of development of language. Language skills tend to be delayed secondary to the fact that blind children learn communication through alternative routes. Blind children tend to use words in an imitative (echolalia or parroting) fashion without an appropriate understanding of their meaning. They use many verbal routines or stereotypic speech (imitative chunks or phrases) early in their speech development. Their descriptive language is less precise than sighted children secondary to the fact that they have to identify objects through sensory means. All modalities are used to help the children acquire indistinguishable language from their sighted peer.

Blind children may be slightly delayed in learning sounds that do not have identifiable tactile placement. Teaching tongue placement for proper speech sound production is much more difficult because the child cannot "see" where the tongue needs to be placed through imitation. The sounds have to be learned through phonological awareness and auditory prompting.

Children with dual sensory impairments have to be taught communication through tactile modalities in very simplistic forms. Until the child with dual sensory impairments can make the cognitive connection between an object, the sign, and the hand-to-mouth imitation, the teaching of language cannot be advanced. Development of language is significantly slower than sighted children.

Children in the center receive language, articulation, and oral motor therapy. Services are provided so that the children acquire age appropriate speech and language skills prior to entering kindergarten. It is our hope that speech and language therapy will provide them with the skills that they need in order to communicate and become independent, self-confident children.