Speech, Language and Communication for Teenagers and Young adults (11-19 years)

Teenagers and Speech, Language and Communication

• Your child’s language skills will always continue to grow, even as adults we bump into new words.
• Your child will have mature and well-established reasoning and problem solving skills and use their language to express their thoughts, ideas, negotiating etc.
• Your child will have a good understanding of their own behaviours and emotions and what outcomes may result.
• They will have clear friendship groups who share common interests, socialising and what this likes will be very much determined by their interests.

How can I support their communication?

High school can be a really exciting but also challenging part of a young persons life. There will be so many changes to their interests, friends, hobbies and what they are used to as life in primary school compared to life in high school.

It is important to link in with your child’s school e.g. at parents meetings or contact if support is needed.

As our children grow into teenagers their interests and what they need from us changes, make sure you still spend time with your child, talking with them about their day, their friends, talk about yours.

This will provide plenty of opportunity for them to build their confidence as they face new challenges both positive and more difficult.

When should I seek further help and how?

Remember no two children are alike and will develop at slightly different rates.

Some key things to look out for in children 11 – 17 years old:

• Difficulty understanding simple instructions and meanings of words
• Difficulty in conversing e.g. this could be telling you something that has happened or about something they enjoy, conversations/stories may appear jumbled, disjointed and out of sequence with frequent incorrect word choices or words that are close to but not words.
• They may have difficulty answering conversational questions
• Difficulty making and maintaining friendships with peers and those around them, they may struggle to join in conversations/discussions and they may find it difficult to understand responses/behaviour of those around them.
• Difficulty with speech sounds which may mean they are sometimes difficult to understand or they are becoming frustrated.