1 in 12 children
In 2016 the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reported that 7.7% of American children have been diagnosed with a speech or swallowing disorder. That comes out to nearly one in 12 children, and gets even bigger if you factor in adults. Read more about this and the top speech language therapy disorders we can help with.
Over 3 million Americans
More than 70 million people worldwide stutter, which is about 1% of the population. In the United States, that's over 3 million Americans who stutter. Learn more about this here.
30min = 49% increased risk speech delay
A 2017 study by Dr. Catherine Birkin found that by an 18-month checkup, 20% of the children had daily average handheld device use of 28 minutes, according to their parents. Based on a screening tool for language delay, researchers found that the more handheld screen time a child’s parent reported, the more likely the child was to have delays in expressive speech. For each 30-minute increase in handheld screen time, researchers found a 49% increased risk of expressive speech delay. You may learn more about this here.
50-70% struggle in school
Nearly 5 percent of first graders have functional speech disorders, and 50–70 percent of all children with functional speech disorders struggle academically throughout elementary school and high school. Read more about this here.
1 in 4 are unable to talk
Cerebral palsy can affect a person’s ability to finely coordinate the muscles around the mouth and tongue that are needed for speech. Some people with cerebral palsy may not be able to produce any sounds, others may be able to produce sounds but have difficulty controlling their movement enough to produce speech that is clear and understood by others. 1 in 4 people with cerebral palsy cannot talk. Learn more about it here.