Online speech and development support for Urdu-speaking families in India

Mostly Urdu-speaking households who want guidance in their mother tongue, in a big city or a small town. Some have already seen a paediatrician or a government service and want an at-home coaching layer in Urdu. Others are right at the start — a two-year-old not talking yet, a child who will not sit for anything, a five-year-old strangers cannot follow.

Many come because the local waiting list is long and they would rather not spend those months doing nothing. That is a fair use of us; it is not a reason to cancel the local appointment, and we will say so. What families tell us helps most is not having to explain the joint family, or the relative who says ladka hai, der se bolta hai.

A video call on a phone or laptop, in Urdu or English, usually around 45 minutes, once or twice a week. We ask you to point the camera at your child during ordinary play rather than sit them in front of the screen. We watch what really happens, coach you live through the moment, then talk it through with you afterwards.

You need no equipment — a quiet-ish corner, a charged phone, and two or three toys your child already likes. Sessions run in short blocks; at the end of a block we go through the goals with you and decide together whether to carry on, change the plan, or stop. Our write-up of what happens in a first therapy session walks through the format.

Because India is only half an hour ahead of us, we can meet when your child is fresh rather than exhausted — after a nap, before homework, on a weekend morning.

Almost certainly not. Learning more than one language does not cause a speech or language delay, and does not make one worse. Mixing Urdu, Hindi and English inside one sentence is a normal feature of bilingual speech, not confusion. A child juggling three languages is doing something harder to display, not something harmful.

What matters is how you count. Add the words together across every language your child uses: twenty Urdu words, eight English and five Hindi is thirty-three words, not twenty. Counting one language alone is the commonest way an ordinary bilingual child gets labelled delayed — and the commonest way a real delay gets missed, because the family assumed the languages explained it. So on the first call we look across all of your child’s languages, including the ones nobody at the clinic speaks. There is more in our guide to whether bilingualism causes speech delay.

One thing we will not tell you to do is drop a language. Cutting Urdu at home to “help” usually costs a child the language they share with their grandparents, and buys nothing.

Ask for a proper look if your child has no single words by around 18 months, is not putting two words together by around two years, or is hard for familiar adults to understand at three. Ask sooner, without waiting, if words your child once used have disappeared, if they do not respond to their name, or if they never point at things.

Published milestone guides differ from one another by a few months — some place two-word phrases nearer 30 months than 24 — so treat any of them as a prompt to ask a question, not as a diagnosis. Our own age-by-age write-ups go further: speech and language milestones by age and the red flags to watch for at two years.

If any of the red-line items apply, please see a doctor or a qualified local professional in India promptly — a paediatrician, a government hospital, a DEIC or an RCI-registered therapist. Losing skills a child already had is something to have looked at in person, and soon. We sit on top of that care; we do not replace it.

You do not have to wait for a first session. Four things that cost nothing:

Go quiet. Sit at your child’s eye level and wait five slow seconds after you speak. Most adults fill the gap in under two, and the pause is where a child’s attempt has room to arrive.

Say it, do not test it. Instead of “what is this? say ball”, hold the ball and say “ball” twice, cheerfully, then move on. Questions put a child on the spot; commentary hands them the word.

Add one word. They say “doodh”, you say “garam doodh”. Always one step above where they are, never five.

Make them ask. Favourite toy in view but out of reach; biscuit packet handed over unopened. A small, kind obstacle creates a reason to communicate.

Ten minutes, twice a day, inside something you were doing anyway — bath, snack, the walk to the gate. More ideas are in our guide to speech therapy activities at home.

We cannot examine your child, test hearing, or issue any Indian diagnosis, certificate or report that a school, a medical board or a government scheme will accept. We cannot prescribe. We cannot put a therapist in the room when your child needs hands-on work — feeding and swallowing difficulties, for instance — and we will tell you when that is what we think you need.

When we reach that point we say so directly and help you work out what to ask for locally, rather than quietly keeping you on our books. We work the same honest way with families in Qatar, Canada and Australia.

If you would like to talk it through, get in touch with our Multan centre on WhatsApp or by phone. Tell us your child’s age, the languages spoken at home, and the one thing that worries you most. The first consultation is free, and if we are not the right help we will say so.