Abstract: Speech and language development delays in infants can significantly impact a child’s well-being, socioeconomic mobility and future academic success.

The American Speech Language estimates that approximately 10-20% of one to two-year-old children have delayed speech development. These delays begin to arise in their first year of development and have shown to be associated with poor attention, less socialization, and poor literacy levels that the infant is subjected to via their environment. Monitoring of speech and language development in infants and children and its timely assessment is crucial. Presently, children in the US and Canada are screened at 9 and 18-month checkups, respectively and development assessment for autism is mostly conducted at the ~18-month checkup in the US. These evaluation points may be too late. Once flagged, assessment and therapy may take another 6-12 months adding more time to pass before any intervention is begun….