Skip to main content

What Is A Speech-Language Pathologist?

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) assess communication skills, recommend strategies and offers supports to help children who are having difficulty with: clear speech, using words, expressing thoughts, understanding language, following directions, interacting with others, stuttering, voice, and/or early literacy.

Speech-Language Pathologists:

Master’s Degree

Must be registered with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario

Communicative Disorders Assistants:

Post Graduate Diploma/Certificate

From a recognized Communicative Disorders Assistant program

Who We Serve:

  • Children living within Sarnia Lambton
  • Newborn to 19 years, depending on the area of concern
Child Practicing Speech

What We Provide:

SoundStart provides preschool speech and language services from birth to entrance to school in Sarnia-Lambton, led through Pathways.

  • Parent/Caregiver training
  • Group and individual therapy sessions
  • Consultation and monitoring
  • Home programming

What To Expect:

Prior to starting any treatment, an SLP will ask for further information about your child/youth’s speech and development and will work closely with you and your child and others to build goals and plans specific to your child/youth’s need.

Treatment/Intervention strategies may relate to the development of:

  • Feeding and swallowing
  • Social communication
  • Expressive and receptive language
  • Motor planning
  • Speech-sound production
  • Early literacy skills
  • Stuttering
  • Voice

By 6 Months

By 6 months, most children will:

  • respond to sounds
  • watch your face as you talk
  • smile and laugh in response to your smiles & laughs

By 9 Months

By 9 months, most children will:

  • take turns making sounds with others
  • understand being told “no”
  • take turns playing “peek-a-boo”
  • babble and put sounds together, like “dadada”, “bababa”

By 12 Months

By 12 months, most children will:

  • follow simple directions, like “sit down”
  • look across the room to a toy when an adult points to it
  • consistently use 3 to 5 words (but not always clearly)
  • use gestures to communicate, like waving hi or bye
  • use sounds or actions to let you know what they want
  • combine lots of sounds together as though talking in a different language

By 18 Months

By 18 months, most children will:

  • respond to sounds
  • watch your face as you talk
  • smile and laugh in response to your smiles & laughs

By 2 Years

By 2 years, most children will:

  • follow two-step directions (e.g., “Go find your teddy bear and show it to Grandma”)
  • use 100-150 words
  • use at least two pronouns (e.g., “you”, “me”, “mine”)
  • consistently combine 2 to 4 words in short phrases (e.g.,“Daddy hat”, “truck go down”)
  • use words that are understood by others 50% to 60% of the time

By 2 ½ Years

By 2 ½ years, most children will:

  • understand the concepts of size (big/little) and quantity (a little/a lot, more)
  • use some adult grammar (e.g., “two cookies”, “bird flying”, “I jumped”)
  • use over 350 words
  • use action words (e.g., run, spill, fall)

By 3 Years

By 3 years, most children will:

  • understand “who”, “what”, “where” and “why” questions
  • use 5 to 8 word sentences, like “I want to go out and play”
  • talk about past events and tell simple stories • be understood by most people outside of the family most of the time

By 4 Years

By 4 years, most children will:

  • follow 3-part directions like “First get some paper, then draw a picture, last give it to Mom”
  • use adult grammar in sentences
  • tell stories with a clear beginning, middle and end
  • be understood by others almost all of the time
  • make simple rhymes like “cat-bat”

By 5 Years

By 5 years, most children will:

  • understand directions with “if…then”, for example “If you’re wearing runners, then line up for gym”
  • describe past, present and future events in detail
  • use speech sounds with few to no errors
  • know letters of the alphabet
  • identify the sounds at the beginning of some words, like “Pop starts with the ‘puh’ sound.”

How To Refer:

Telephone Icon
PHONE PATHWAYS

519-542-3471
or 1-855-542-3471

Printer Icon
COMPLETE A REFERRAL
Make A Referral
Speech Bubble Icon
CONTACT YOUR CHILD’S PRIMARY CARE PROVIDER