Online speech and development coaching in Urdu for families in Saudi Arabia

Most are parents on work visas whose children were born in the Kingdom or moved there mid-childhood. Some hear Arabic at nursery, English at school and Urdu at home. A teacher says your child is quiet because the language is new, a relative says boys talk late, and a year goes by.

That is where an Urdu-speaking pair of eyes helps: usually one conversation is enough to say whether you are watching a child settle in or something worth assessing properly. We do the same for Urdu-speaking families in India. Families planning a move home use us to keep one plan running across both countries.

Growing up with Arabic, English and Urdu does not cause speech delay. Count the words your child has in every language and add them together — that combined total is their vocabulary. A child with fifteen Urdu words, six Arabic and nine English has thirty words, not fifteen. Mixing languages in one sentence is normal.

What does point to a delay is a gap in every language at once. A child who chatters in Urdu at home but is silent in an Arabic classroom is telling you about confidence and exposure. A child with few words in any language needs looking at. Our piece on bilingualism and speech delay goes through it. Nobody at a Riyadh nursery can count the Urdu words — only you can.

Have your child seen if they are not babbling by around twelve months, not using single words by around eighteen months, not putting two words together by two years, or if words and skills they already had have gone backwards at any age. Lost skills should never be left to time.

Also worth an appointment rather than a wait:

• Your child does not point to show you things, or does not follow where you point.
• Your child does not turn to their own name in a quiet room.
• Strangers still cannot understand much of your child’s speech by around four.
• Your child does not join in with other children at nursery or in the compound.
• Noise, clothing or food textures make ordinary days a battle.
• School has raised something twice and you have been told to wait and see.

None of this is a diagnosis, and neither is this page. If your child has lost skills, may not be hearing you properly, or you are simply frightened, see a paediatrician in the Kingdom first — a hearing check is often the sensible first step. Our free age-by-age milestone checklists are worth filling in before you speak to anyone.

It is a video call on a phone or laptop, with your child in the room playing normally. We watch for a while, then coach you through real moments as they happen: how to wait, how to phrase a question, when to say nothing. You finish with two or three things to try that week.

What changes first is usually not words but attention — your child looking a beat longer, bringing you a toy, waiting for the next line of a song. Then one routine stops being a fight. Words tend to follow, and they arrive first in the routines you practised. What happens in a first session has more.

We will also say when we are the wrong people. A formal diagnosis, a hearing or vision assessment, medical investigation of feeding, physiotherapy or clinical occupational therapy has to happen with a licensed service where you live. We help you prepare the questions to take, and keep coaching you while you wait.

The Saudi weekend falls on Friday and Saturday, so most families choose a weekday evening or a Friday morning. With the Kingdom two hours behind Pakistan, your 6pm in Riyadh is our 8pm in Multan — late enough for school and the commute to be done, early enough that nobody is on a call at midnight.

Sessions survive travel better than families expect. Umrah, Eid in Pakistan, a summer with grandparents in Multan — the plan carries, because it lives with you rather than in a clinic room. If you are in Multan over the summer, you are welcome at the centre in person.

To start, send a WhatsApp message to +92 314 6040262 with your child’s age and the one thing worrying you most, in Urdu or English. The first consultation is free, and no referral or diagnosis is needed. Our address and timings — Monday to Saturday, 10am to 7pm — are on the contact page.