Diagnosis & need
Au pair for speech and language delay & speech and language disorder
Support for families when language needs more time
Some children start speaking later than others. Some find it hard to form words and sentences or to understand language. Others communicate at first mainly through gestures, pictures, individual sounds, or their own particular way.
A speech and language delay or a speech and language disorder can affect everyday family life in different ways.
Especially when communication needs more time, patience and attention, an additional familiar person in everyday life can be valuable.
An au pair can accompany a child, play with them, talk, read aloud and, above all, do one thing: take time for communication.
At Besondere Sterne we place au pairs with families who have children with and without a disability or additional needs – including families with children with a speech and language delay or a speech and language disorder.
Speech and language delay or speech and language disorder – what is the difference?
The terms are often used alongside each other in everyday life, but do not always describe the same thing professionally.
With a speech and language delay, language develops more slowly than in children of the same age.
A speech and language disorder can affect different areas of language, for example vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation or understanding of language.
How the language difficulties show themselves, and what support a child needs, can vary a great deal.
For placing an au pair, the exact term is therefore not the decisive factor.
Far more important is:
- How does your child communicate – and where do they need support in everyday life?
When a child speaks little or not yet at all
'My child does not speak yet.
My child only says a few words.
Others can hardly understand my child.
My child understands far more than they can say themselves.'
Observations like these occupy many parents.
A child who communicates little or not at all through spoken language still has needs, wishes, interests and a great deal to communicate.
Perhaps they point at things.
Perhaps they use gestures or signs.
Perhaps they communicate through pictures.
Or the family has long understood a whole range of small signs that outsiders would not notice at first.
An au pair can learn to get to know this individual communication and respond to it in everyday life.
How can an au pair support a child with a speech and language delay?
An au pair does not replace speech and language therapy.
But language does not only happen in a therapy session.
It happens all day long.
At breakfast.
While getting dressed.
At the playground.
While shopping.
While looking at a picture book.
While cooking together.
While playing.
Depending on age and support needs, an au pair can, for example:
- look at picture books and read aloud together,
- play, sing and tell stories,
- give the child enough time to answer,
- accompany everyday situations verbally,
- respond attentively to gestures and other forms of communication,
- use the family's familiar communication aids,
- accompany the child to nursery (Kita) or school,
- accompany them to leisure activities or therapy appointments,
- support everyday routines,
- look after siblings,
- shape afternoons together,
- take on light tasks around the children,
- provide babysitting within the agreed working hours.
The au pair is not meant to carry out their own speech therapy.
But they can bring communication into everyday life quite naturally.
Time to answer
Asking a question – and then waiting.
That sounds simple.
In the rush of everyday family life, sometimes it is not simple at all.
When a child takes longer to understand a question, find a word, or express an answer, adults quickly step in.
An au pair can create extra time.
Time for a child to show, say or otherwise express what they want themselves.
This is not about constantly demanding speech.
It is about leaving room for communication.
Communication is more than spoken language
Not every child communicates exclusively through spoken language.
Depending on the child, signs, pictures, symbols or other forms of augmentative and alternative communication may also be used.
An au pair does not need to already master these forms of communication.
The family can show how their child communicates and which aids are used in everyday life.
What matters above all is the willingness to take the child's individual communication seriously and to learn it.
Because a child does not need to be able to speak in order to want to be understood.
When further particular circumstances are present
A speech and language delay or speech and language disorder can occur on its own.
But it can also occur alongside other particular circumstances.
Some children, for example, also have a general developmental delay, ADHD, autism, a learning disability, a hearing impairment or a rare genetic condition.
Other children are still in the middle of an assessment process and do not yet have a clear diagnosis.
This is not a barrier to a placement through Besondere Sterne.
We do not look at a single diagnosis alone, but at the whole child and their actual support needs.
An au pair does not replace speech and language therapy
An au pair is not a speech and language therapist and not a therapeutic or education professional.
They do not diagnose a speech and language disorder and do not carry out independent speech therapy.
If a child is supported by speech and language therapy or other therapy, the professional support remains the task of the relevant professionals.
An au pair can, however, support what happens every day anyway:
talking, listening, playing, experiencing things together and communicating with one another.
Which au pair suits a child with a speech and language delay?
A patient person who does not force communication can be especially important.
Someone who listens.
Who gives a child time to answer.
Who enjoys reading aloud, playing, singing and discovering things together.
If another disability or developmental difference is also present, experience with children with additional needs can be helpful.
At Besondere Sterne we therefore always look at the whole family situation and at which qualities and experience an au pair should bring for this particular child.
Relief for the whole family
With a speech and language disorder too, relief does not only mean engaging directly with the child's language development.
An au pair can take on a nursery (Kita) run.
Go to the playground with the siblings.
Take a child to sport.
Shape an afternoon.
Or simply be an extra person who has time for the children in everyday life.
This creates support not as an extra therapy session, but where families need it:
right in the middle of normal life.
Finding an au pair for a child with a speech and language delay
At Besondere Sterne we support families with children with a speech and language delay or a speech and language disorder in finding a suitable au pair.
Together we look at how your child communicates, where they need support, and which tasks you would like an au pair to take on.
Whether your child started speaking later, has a diagnosed speech and language disorder, or the cause of the speech differences is not yet clear:
What matters is not only the diagnosis. What matters is your child.
Getting to know each other
Are you looking for an au pair for a child with a speech and language delay or a speech and language disorder?
Then get to know our au pairs and find support that fits your everyday family life.
Besondere Sterne is an au pair agency — not a special-education service and not an advice centre. For legal and specialist questions there is the EUTB: teilhabeberatung.de. Go to whichever advice centre you feel comfortable with.