Reciprocal contact with the infant is important from the start.

Sucking, learning to chew and ‘tasting’ objects, i.e. getting to know the world with the help of the mouth, are part of development. Moving the mouth is also speaking practice.
At the age of 7–9 months, infants usually babble a lot. At the age of 10–15 months, they begin to use gestures to support their expression. Children usually say their first words at around the age of one.

Ask for advice & request assistance if 

• you have difficulty making contact with the child or if the child does not show any interest in his or her surroundings or in interaction with others
• the child’s voice sounds different from that of other children around the same age or the child makes very little sound and does not babble much
• it appears that the child cannot hear normally
• the child has difficulty eating, sucking or swallowing

Between the ages of 1.5 and 2 years, the child usually already has a vocabulary: a few words at first and then gradually more. The child always understands more than he or she is able to say. The child is able to follow easy instructions and prompts; for example, to fetch a named toy when asked. The child is also able to play symbolic games, such as taking care of a doll or driving a toy car.

Ask for advice & request assistance if 

• the child does not have a need to communicate with others
• the child does not use any words or gestures to ask for things or express his or her needs or emotions  
• it seems that the child cannot understand verbal instructions and everything also has to be shown
• the child does not begin to play symbolic games or he or she otherwise plays very little
• the child’s voice is abnormal
• someone in the immediate family has or has had a special language difficulty and the child appears to have difficulty understanding speech.

Around the age of 2, children usually already know well over 200 words. The child uses word combinations with inflections as well as expressions that are several words in length.

At the age of 2 and a half years, the child seems to learn new words every day. The child uses nouns and verbs the most, i.e. the names of objects and things and words that express action.

Little by little, the child begins to use an increasing number of descriptive words, i.e. adjectives, pronouns (such as I, you) and conjunctions (such as and, or, as, only, but).

During the process of learning and trying out his or her new language skills, the child may also use ungrammatical self-invented inflections.

Ask for advice & request assistance if 

• the child’s vocabulary includes less than 10 words
• the child is unable to form sentences with two or more words
• the child does not follow easy instructions or misunderstands them: the situation requires further evaluation particularly when a child has a limited vocabulary as well as difficulty understanding speech
• the child or the people around him or her are bewildered over the child’s difficulty to speak or stuttering symptoms
• the child’s voice is abnormal.

The speech of a 3-year-old is mostly understandable, even to an adult unfamiliar with the child.

The child uses auxiliary verbs (I can draw), different tenses (I can, I heard, I have seen, I will do) and conjugates verbs in accordance with the person (I sit, dad washes).

The child forms and uses command, negative, and interrogative sentences (Wait! Don’t take it! I don’t know. Where’s mum?).

The child is able to express the place or location of an object.

The child uses comparative and superlative adjectives (big, bigger).

The child is interested in wordplays and nursery rhymes. The development of linguistic awareness begins.

Ask for advice & request assistance if

• the child’s speech is very unclear and the phonetic form of the words is so lacking that an adult unfamiliar with the child cannot understand his or her speech at all
• the child’s vocabulary is very limited
• the child does not use inflections
• the child cannot follow compound instructions (for example, put the car in the toy box and come to the kitchen) or misunderstands them
• the child exhibits stuttering symptoms or has difficulty speaking, which bewilders the child and the people around him or her
• the child’s voice is abnormal

A 4-year-old child understands everyday language well. The child talks about things using various parts of speech in the same proportion as an adult would in everyday speech.

The child knows the basic rules of inflection and sentence formation. He or she also uses subordinate clauses.

The child asks ‘why’ questions and tells and invents stories.

The child rarely uses self-invented inflections anymore.

The expressions of place and time start to become more precise.

The child’s speech is understandable, even if the child is still unable to articulate some sounds (such as ‘f’ and ‘s’) or cluster sounds (such as ‘tw’ and ‘gl’).

Ask for advice & request assistance if

• the child’s vocabulary seems limited; the child should know hundreds of words in several word categories
• the child is unable to tell the colour, size, shape and number of things or objects or makes mistakes in these matters
• the child only forms very simple sentences
• the child uses inflections wrong
• the child is unable to describe a picture
• the child seems to have obvious shortcomings in his or her social and conversational skills
• the child has so much difficulty articulating sounds or otherwise speaks so unclearly that his or her speech is difficult to understand
• the child exhibits stuttering symptoms or has difficulty in speaking, which bewilders the child and the people around him or her
• the child’s voice is abnormal.

A 5-year-old child understands and uses diverse language fluently. He or she has a grasp of the basic concepts and the inflection rules of his or her first language.

The child’s speech is clear, and he or she can articulate most sounds. The child is usually still in the process of learning to articulate sounds such as ‘r’, ‘v’, ‘s’ and ‘l’.

Ask for advice & request assistance if

• the child has clear difficulty understanding speech
• the child’s speech is limited and halting
• the child’s speech exhibits kinaesthetic difficulties, i.e. syllables and sounds may get switched around and the child may make mistakes when articulating sounds
• the child has stuttering symptoms
• the child’s voice is abnormal

The vocabulary of a 6-year-old, i.e. a preschool age child, is extensive, and his or her articulation is consistent with everyday language.

The child names objects and images without difficulty.

The child’s awareness of sounds begins to develop. The child has become interested in learning to read.

The child has basic interactive skills, i.e.:

• focuses on listening to speech
• asks questions about what he or she has heard
• answers questions and takes turns talking
• acts according to the provided instructions

Ask for advice & request assistance if

• the child has difficulty understanding speech
• the child’s oral expression is scarce or contains mistakes
• the child makes mistakes in articulating sounds
• the child has stuttering symptoms
• the child’s voice is abnormal

When multiple languages are spoken at home or when the language spoken at home differs from the surrounding language, many families may have more questions than usual regarding the development of speech and language.

In multilingual families, the responsibility for strengthening the child’s first language is usually mostly left to family, relatives and friends. The child learns the surrounding language outside the home.

Children can usually learn two or more languages at a young age without significant difficulty. However, the child’s skill level may vary greatly between languages: the child may have a significantly smaller vocabulary in one language than another, and the child may prefer to speak one language despite understanding a second and even a third. Language transfer often occurs in language structures, such as the formation of sentences and learning of conceptual language. In other words, the child may learn aspects of other languages even if he or she is only being trained in one language. Children who learn multiple languages may exhibit some mistakes in their speech longer than a monolingual child.

Ask for advice & request assistance if

• the child’s first language is slow to develop or exhibits strange characteristics
• the child is unable to learn to understand a second language (such as the surrounding language) despite hearing it often and regularly: when a child whose first language is not Finnish regularly attends Finnish day care, he or she is expected to learn enough Finnish in one year to use it passably and to be able to use it relatively fluently compared to his or her age group after two years of learning  
• the child has difficulty using inflections with verbs in particular, i.e. words that express action, in both or all languages
• the child uses simple and short sentences even though children in his or her age group are expected to be able to use longer sentences
• it seems that the child has difficulty learning the rules of language, and the mistakes he or she makes seem random

Further information on supporting the language acquisition of a multilingual child: Ota koppi programme (in Finnish): 

• Otakoppi-ohjelma

A speech therapist can usually evaluate a child’s proficiency in Finnish and Swedish. The development of another first language is usually evaluated by interviewing the parents. If the child has difficulty learning his or her first language, a speech therapist may provide guidance and advice to the parents for supporting the child’s language development..

Speech therapy may be provided to multilingual children to ease their language difficulties when the children also have difficulty in learning their first language and they have received support for learning Finnish or Swedish in early childhood education. In such cases, the situation is monitored constantly in cooperation with other professional groups. It is also evaluated whether there is need to have a medical specialist examine the child.

Mistakes in articulation are handled in the same manner as in the speech therapy counselling provided to monolingual children.