May is Speech and Hearing month and in honor of that a free speech and hearing clinic is being offered at the Hanover Early Years Centre.
It takes place from 1 PM till 3:30 PM today.
Speech Language Pathologist Cheryl Lindsay says early intervention is key in treating speech and hearing problems.
She says children that miss this early intervention often struggle in school with literacy.
By catching them early she says they are able to eliminate a lot of future schooling difficulties.
Lindsay says if parents suspect there is speech or hearing problem with their child they should have them screened.
As a rule of thumb, one year olds should being using single words, babbling and using gestures to communicate.
By age two, toddlers should be able to string two or three words together.
By age three to four children should experience a burst in vocabulary.
By age 5 to 6, children will have almost everything they need to continue on to develop adult language.
Todays clinic is being hosted by Lindsay as well as audiologist Mandy Rhody.
Because of the popularity of this clinic, Lindsay plans to offer a second free clinic later this year.