Approximately 8-10 percent of young children have speech and language disorders.

Effective communication is vital. It is the cornerstone to relationships and is the building block to all academic skills.

Building a solid foundation for speech and language skills is vital. Communication is key to building relationships and other academic skills. Speech and language is the first building block to reading. What happens in the preschool years dramatically affects reading development. For more details>

ACCESS offers the best outpatient pediatric speech therapy in Little Rock, Arkansas. We are the best because we design a treatment plan for each child (individualized). ACCESS pediatric speech therapy offers direct intervention and link therapy to the community. We integrate into the community, classroom and home setting. By training parents and teachers, ACCESS ensures they are successful in the use of therapy techniques in other environments. This process yields a high rate of therapy success!

Speech and Language Development Checklist 

 By 6 months

• Reacts to sound and respond to speaker
• Turns head to a sound
• Produces a variety of distinguishable cries 
• Mouths objects
• Vocalizes when talked to

Between 1 to 2

• Recognizes name
• Says two to three words other than "Mama" and "Dada"
• Imitates familiar words
• Uses two objects together in play
• Understands simple instructions
• Recognizes words and points to objects like a ball, car, shoe, cup, spoon, etc....
• Participates and initiates simple games like peak-a-boo, pat-a-cake, tickle games, etc....
• Responds to "no"
• Waves bye-bye
• Makes sounds of familiar animals
• Points to toes, eyes, nose, foot, mouth, etc....
• Understands words like "more"

Between 2 and 3

• Identifies most body parts
• Asks "what's that" and "where's my"
• Uses combinations of words, at least three words together
• Has a vocabulary of at least 450 words
• Uses simple descriptives; "big," "little," "wet," "dry," etc....
  
• Understands the use of objects
• Gets attention of adults; "watch me"
• Holds up fingers to tell age
• Combines nouns and verbs
• Uses "me" instead of name to refer to themselves

Between 3 and 4

• Can tell a story
• Has a sentence length of at least five words
• Has a vocabulary of at least 1,000 words
• Uses and understands words like "more," "most," "one" and "some"
  
• Knows colors
• Knows categories such as "all the animals" or "all the foods"

Between 4 and 5

• Uses past tense correctly
• Uses the concept of "where" and "why"
• Begins to understand time concepts like "in the morning," "next," and "last night"
• Asks many questions such as "who," "where," and "why"
• Uses imaginary conditions such as "I hope..." or "what if..."
• Knows shapes

Worried about speech and language development? Consult a professional immediately to have your child's skills evaluated.

Treatment Focus for Pediatric Speech Therapy

• Articulation disorders, speaking more clearly, pronouncing sounds clearly in words
• Communicating wants and needs
• Vocabulary development
• Using sentences appropriate for age
• Using correct sentence structures
• Telling stories and sequencing events
• Answering questions
• Social skills