Speech Skills In Teens

By the time your child reaches his/her teens, the social scene and the challenges of academics at school are usually front and centre!  

Speaking with friends, asking a question in class, writing, computing like texting are necessary tools to be successful. 

Speech and language concerns, if there are any contributing to your child’s life, are usually already identified within the family.

Fluent speech and well connected sentences are the verbal skills used by teens.  Challenges most often reported are related to

  • language learning difficulties
  • attention difficulties
  • stuttering or other forms of disfluency
  • memory and word retrieval difficulties
  • comprehension of spoken and written messages (e.g. the teacher’s instructions)
  • expressing a message in a sequence
  • overall mental health challenges (e.g. depression)

Talk to your teen about his/her concerns and how to best address the challenge.  What does he/she think the most comfortable way to handle the situation would be?

Explore ideas in a private discussion with your school speech-language pathologist.  If the service is not readily available at school, try contacting a speech-language pathologist in private practice for a consultation.  There may be recommendations that your teen may find useful.  A one time consult would be the best first start.