Should I “wait and see?”

“Wait-and-see” is the concept that when a child shows signs of delays in development that the family should “wait and see” if the child’s skills improve rather than getting an evaluation at the first sign of delay. Sometimes physicians or teachers recommend the “wait-and-see” approach, whereas at other times, parents choose to wait. Wait-and-see is recommended more frequently for bilingual families (Capone Singleton, 2018).

However, specialists now agree that children should be referred for an evaluation at the first sign of language delay and that the earlier therapy begins, the better the outcomes (Koegel et al., 2014). Recently, researchers have found that toddlers with language delay are at higher risk for severe tantrums than children without language delay (Manning et al., 2019).

The takeaway? Don’t wait and see. If you, your child’s pediatrician, or your child’s teacher have concerns about your child’s communication skills, seek a speech-language evaluation right away. Still have questions? Check out speech-language milestones or contact us.

Resources:

Capone Singleton, N. (2018). Late Talkers: Why the wait-and-see approach is outdated. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 65(1), 13–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2017.08.018

Koegel, L. K., Koegel, R. L., Ashbaugh, K., & Bradshaw, J. (2014). The importance of early identification and intervention for children with or at risk for autism spectrum disorders. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 16(1), 50–56. https://doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2013.861511

Manning, B. L., Roberts, M. Y., Estabrook, R., Petitclerc, A., Burns, J. L., Briggs-Gowan, M., Wakschlag, L. S., & Norton, E. S. (2019). Relations between toddler expressive language and temper tantrums in a community sample. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 65, 101070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2019.101070