what to do about speech delay

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Speech and language delay.

Last Updated October 2023 | This article was created by familydoctor.org editorial staff and reviewed by Kyle Bradford Jones, MD, FAAFP

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Every child develops at his or her own pace. But if your child doesn’t talk as much as most children of the same age, the problem may be speech delay.

What is a speech and language delay?

A speech and language delay is when a child isn’t developing speech and language at an expected rate. It’s a common developmental problem that affects as many as 10% of preschool children.

Symptoms of a speech and language delay

Your child may have a speech delay if they aren’t able to do these things:

• Say simple words (such as “mama” or “dada”) either clearly or unclearly by 12 to 15 months of age
• Understand simple words (such as “no” or “stop”) by 18 months of age
• Talk in short sentences by 3 years of age
• Tell a simple story at 4 to 5 years of age

What causes a speech and language delay?

The most common causes of speech delay include:

• Hearing loss
• Slow development
• Intellectual disability

Other developmental or genetic disorders include:

• Psychosocial deprivation (the child doesn’t spend enough time talking with adults)
• Being a twin
• Autism (a developmental disorder)
• Elective mutism (the child just doesn’t want to talk)
• Cerebral palsy (a movement disorder caused by brain damage)

Living in a bilingual home also may affect a child’s language and speech. The child’s brain has to work harder to interpret and use 2 languages. So, it may take longer for these children to start using one or both languages they’re learning. It’s not unusual for a bilingual child to use one language for a while.

How is a speech and language delay diagnosed?

Your doctor can help you recognize a speech and language delay. They will ask you what you have heard and can listen to your child’s speech and check your child’s mental development.

Your doctor may refer you to other specialists to determine why your child isn’t speaking. For example, if your doctor thinks your child may have trouble hearing, they may refer your child to an audiologist for a hearing test. This is a licensed health care professional who treats hearing problems.

Can a speech and language delay be prevented or avoided?

Depending on the cause of your child’s speech delay, you may not be able to prevent or avoid it.

Speech and language delay treatment

Your child may not need treatment. Some children just take more time to start talking. But if your child needs treatment, the type will depend on the cause of the speech delay. Your doctor will tell you the cause of your child’s issue and talk to you about treatment options. Your doctor may refer you to a speech and language pathologist. This person can show you how to help your child talk more and speak better, and also can teach your child how to listen or how to lip read.

Teaching young babies and children a version of sign language also can help them with their language development. Contrary to what some might think, using sign language with babies and young children does not delay their language development.

Other specialists your doctor may recommend you see include a psychologist (a specialist in behavior problems), an occupational therapist (for help with daily activities), or a social worker (who can help with family problems). Your doctor may also suggest early intervention programs in your area. Many are associated with your local school district

Living with a speech and language delay

If your child’s speech is delayed due to a hearing loss, hearing aids or cochlear implants may help your child hear speech. Once your child has access to sound (and speech), they may be able to develop language and even catch up to their hearing peers.

If your child hears and understands language, you can encourage them to speak by talking as much as you can around them. Describe what you’re doing as you do everyday activities. Keep talking. If your child speaks, confirm what they are saying. Always provide positive feedback.

Speech and language delays can be frustrating for parents and children. Children who can’t express their thoughts and emotions are more likely to act out. They anger easily. They may use unexpected behavior to get your attention. Try to remember your child does want to communicate with you. Read to your child and talk as much as you can. Encourage your child to speak. When they try to speak, praise their efforts.

Questions to ask your doctor

• Why is my child not talking yet?
• Should I talk to my child more to help them figure out how to talk?
• Is it normal for my child to not be speaking yet?
• My child seems to have trouble understanding what I’m saying. Is it possible they have hearing loss?
• Does my child have a developmental disability?
• What can I do to help my child speak or understand better?
• Do you have any materials I can read about speech and language delay?
• Will my child be able to attend school?
• Is there an early intervention program available in my area and would it be helpful?

National Institutes of Health, MedlinePlus: Speech and Language Problems in Children

Child-Psych.org: Will teaching my baby to sign delay his speech?

Last Updated: August 3, 2022

This article was contributed by: familydoctor.org editorial staff

Copyright © American Academy of Family Physicians

This information provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone. Talk to your family doctor to find out if this information applies to you and to get more information on this subject.

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Delayed Speech or Language Development

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As with other skills and milestones, the age at which kids learn language and start talking can vary. Knowing a bit about speech and language development can help parents figure out if there's cause for concern.

How Do Speech and Language Differ?

• Speech is the verbal expression of language and includes articulation (the way we form sounds and words).
• Language is giving and getting information. It's understanding and being understood through communication — verbal, nonverbal, and written.

What Are Speech or Language Delays?

Speech and language problems differ, but often overlap. For example:

• A child with a language delay might say words well but only be able to put two words together.
• A child with a speech delay might use words and phrases to express ideas but be hard to understand.

What Are the Signs of a Speech or Language Delay?

A baby who doesn't respond to sound or vocalize should be checked by a doctor right away. But often, it's hard for parents to know if their child is taking a bit longer to reach a speech or language milestone, or if there's a problem.

Here are some things to watch for. Call your doctor if your child:

• by 12 months : isn't using gestures, such as pointing or waving bye-bye
• by 18 months : prefers gestures over vocalizations to communicate
• by 18 months: has trouble imitating sounds
• has trouble understanding simple verbal requests
• by 2 years : can only imitate speech or actions and doesn't produce words or phrases spontaneously
• by 2 years: says only some sounds or words repeatedly and can't use oral language to communicate more than their immediate needs
• by 2 years: can't follow simple directions
• by 2 years: has an unusual tone of voice (such as raspy or nasal sounding)

Also call the doctor if your child’s speech is harder to understand than expected for their age:

• Parents and regular caregivers should understand about 50% of a child's speech at 2 years and 75% of it at 3 years.
• By 4 years old , a child should be mostly understood, even by people who don't know the child.

What Causes Speech or Language Delays?

A speech delay might be due to:

• an oral impairment, like problems with the tongue or palate (the roof of the mouth)
• a short frenulum (the fold beneath the tongue), which can limit tongue movement

Many kids with speech delays have oral–motor problems. These happen when there's a problem in the areas of the brain responsible for speech. This makes it hard to coordinate the lips, tongue, and jaw to make speech sounds. These kids also might have other oral-motor problems, such as feeding problems.

Hearing problems also can affect speech. So an audiologist should test a child's hearing whenever there's a speech concern. Kids who have trouble hearing may have trouble saying, understanding, imitating, and using language.

Ear infections , especially chronic infections, can affect hearing. But as long as there is normal hearing in one ear, speech and language will develop normally.

How Are Speech or Language Delays Diagnosed?

If your child might have a problem, it's important to see a speech-language pathologist (SLP) right away. You can find a speech-language pathologist on your own, or ask your health care provider to refer you to one.

The SLP (or speech therapist) will check your child's speech and language skills. The pathologist will do standardized tests and look for milestones in speech and language development.

The SLP also will check:

• what your child understands (called receptive language)
• what your child can say (called expressive language)
• sound development and clarity of speech
• your child's oral–motor status (how the mouth, tongue, palate, etc., work together for speech as well as eating and swallowing)

Based on the test results, the speech-language pathologist might recommend speech therapy for your child.

How Does Speech Therapy Help?

The speech therapist will work with your child to improve speech and language skills, and show you what to do at home to help your child.

How Can Parents Help?

Parents are an important part of helping kids who have a speech or language problem.

Here are a few ways to encourage speech development at home:

• Focus on communication. Talk with your baby, sing, and encourage imitation of sounds and gestures.
• Read to your child. Start reading when your child is a baby. Look for age-appropriate soft or board books or picture books that encourage kids to look while you name the pictures.
• Use everyday situations. To build on your child's speech and language, talk your way through the day. Name foods at the grocery store, explain what you're doing as you cook a meal or clean a room, and point out objects around the house. Keep things simple, but avoid "baby talk."

Recognizing and treating speech and language delays early on is the best approach. Call your doctor if you have any concerns about your child’s speech or language development.

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When Your Child's Speech Delay Is a Red Flag

Verywell / Michela Buttignol

There is a wide range of normal language development in toddlers and two-year-olds . Children hit milestones at different times, and many factors can influence how much or how clearly a child speaks.

For instance, children who live in a bilingual home may take a little longer to become fluent in either language (but in the long run may have significantly better verbal skills than their peers). Toddlers in a family with older siblings sometimes speak later because brothers and sisters "talk for them." Research also shows that girls speak earlier than boys.

Sometimes, though, speaking late or speech that is unclear can signal a developmental delay or a physical problem. In those cases, your child may benefit from speech therapy . The first step is to determine whether your child's speech is really off target for his age. Check with your child's pediatrician anytime you have a question or concern.

Speech Milestones

Around the first birthday, baby babble starts to change. As little ones try harder to imitate the sounds around them, the noises they make start to take the shape of actual words. In subsequent months, they begin to string words together into toddler sentences.

After the second birthday, there is usually an explosion in vocabulary and the use of more complex sentences. Use this list of milestones and signs of possible delay when considering whether your little one's speech is progressing normally.

12 to 18 Months

At this age, toddlers have a wide range of speech sounds. You’ll probably be able to recognize at least one or two common words, such as "baba" (bottle) or "mama." Nouns that are, in a child's view, essential to daily life are usually the first words that they master.

Aside from those key words, your child’s speech at 12 months will mostly be limited to babbling sounds. Over the following six months, though, you should start to see your child begin to develop more advanced communication, such as:

• Trying to copy your words
• Imitating the back and forth of real conversation
• Inflecting speech to ask a question (saying "Ju?" when requesting juice) or make a demand (shouting "Ju!" when insisting on juice)
• Spontaneously using words, rather than just responding to sounds you make
• Using a combination of gestures and vocalized sounds to communicate

While paying attention to the words or sounds your child is making is important, also consider whether or not your toddler can follow simple directions that involve one step (for example, "pick up the block").

18 to 24 Months

There continues to be a wide range of normal in verbal skills during this developmental period. Your child’s personality and circumstances can play a role in how many words you hear and how often. On average, though, by the time your child reaches age two, you can expect the following milestones:

• Increasingly adding words to their vocabulary
• Forming two-word phrases—although they won’t be grammatically correct (“no go,” “book read”)
• Using words to identify pictures in a book or surroundings
• Naming body parts and animals and sometimes making animal sounds (“moo” for cow)

It's still important to notice how well your child is able to comprehend what you say. Do they respond to you when you ask questions? Can they follow simple two-step commands by age two?

2 to 3 Years

Between two and three years old is usually when parents see an explosion in children's speech and verbal skills. It's often said that a child's vocabulary grows to 200 or more words during this time. Some of the milestones to look for this year include:  

• Saying more words and picking up new words regularly
• Combining three or more words into sentences (which may still be grammatically awkward)
• Beginning to identify colors, shapes, and concepts, such as more or less and big versus little
• Singing nursery rhymes and songs or repeating stories from books you've read often together
• Beginning to express feelings with words ("I hungry," "Sam sad")

The total number of words your child learns during this time is less important than a consistent increase in the number of words they start to use week by week.

At this age, it's still common for people outside your immediate family or caregiver to be unable to understand your child as well as you can. In the coming year, your child’s speech should become clearer and clearer. If you are concerned about your child's speech, talk to your pediatrician about causes of speech delays and ways you can support language development at home.

Barbu S, Nardy A, Chevrot JP, et al. Sex differences in language across early childhood: Family socioeconomic status does not impact boys and girls equally . Front Psychol. 2015;6:1874. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01874

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Important milestones: Your child by one year .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Important milestones: Your child by eighteen months .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Important milestones: Your child by two years .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Concerned about your child’s development? .

Bowers JM, Perez-Pouchoulen M, Edwards NS, McCarthy MM. Foxp2 mediates sex differences in ultrasonic vocalization by rat pups and directs order of maternal retrieval . J Neurosci. 2013;33(8):3276-83. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0425-12.2013

By Maureen Ryan Maureen Ryan is a freelance writer, editor, and teaching consultant specializing in health, parenting, and education.

Language and Speech Disorders in Children

Helping children learn language, what to do if there are concerns.

• Detecting problems

Children are born ready to learn a language, but they need to learn the language or languages that their family and environment use. Learning a language takes time, and children vary in how quickly they master milestones in language and speech development. Typically developing children may have trouble with some sounds, words, and sentences while they are learning. However, most children can use language easily around 5 years of age.

Parents and caregivers are the most important teachers during a child’s early years. Children learn language by listening to others speak and by practicing. Even young babies notice when others repeat and respond to the noises and sounds they make. Children’s language and brain skills get stronger if they hear many different words. Parents can help their child learn in many different ways, such as

• Responding to the first sounds, gurgles, and gestures a baby makes.
• Repeating what the child says and adding to it.
• Talking about the things that a child sees.
• Asking questions and listening to the answers.
• Looking at or reading books.
• Telling stories.
• Singing songs and sharing rhymes.

This can happen both during playtime and during daily routines.

Parents can also observe the following:

• How their child hears and talks and compare it with typical milestones for communication skills external icon .
• How their child reacts to sounds and have their hearing tested if they have concerns .

Learn more about language milestones .  Watch milestones in action.

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Some languages are visual rather than spoken. American Sign Language uses visual signals, including gestures, facial expressions, and body movement to communicate.

Some children struggle with understanding and speaking and they need help. They may not master the language milestones at the same time as other children, and it may be a sign of a language or speech delay or disorder.

Language development has different parts, and children might have problems with one or more of the following:

• Not hearing the words (hearing loss).
• Not understanding the meaning of the words.
• Not knowing the words to use.
• Not knowing how to put words together.
• Knowing the words to use but not being able to express them.

Language and speech disorders can exist together or by themselves. Examples of problems with language and speech development include the following:

• Difficulty with forming specific words or sounds correctly.
• Difficulty with making words or sentences flow smoothly, like stuttering or stammering.
• Language delay – the ability to understand and speak develops more slowly than is typical
• Aphasia (difficulty understanding or speaking parts of language due to a brain injury or how the brain works).
• Auditory processing disorder (difficulty understanding the meaning of the sounds that the ear sends to the brain)

Learn more about language disorders external icon .

Language or speech disorders can occur with other learning disorders that affect reading and writing. Children with language disorders may feel frustrated that they cannot understand others or make themselves understood, and they may act out, act helpless, or withdraw. Language or speech disorders can also be present with emotional or behavioral disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or anxiety . Children with developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorder may also have difficulties with speech and language. The combination of challenges can make it particularly hard for a child to succeed in school. Properly diagnosing a child’s disorder is crucial so that each child can get the right kind of help.

Detecting problems with language or speech

If a child has a problem with language or speech development, talk to a healthcare provider about an evaluation. An important first step is to find out if the child may have a hearing loss. Hearing loss may be difficult to notice particularly if a child has hearing loss only in one ear or has partial hearing loss, which means they can hear some sounds but not others. Learn more about hearing loss, screening, evaluation, and treatment .

A language development specialist like a speech-language pathologist external icon will conduct a careful assessment to determine what type of problem with language or speech the child may have.

Overall, learning more than one language does not cause language disorders, but children may not follow exactly the same developmental milestones as those who learn only one language. Developing the ability to understand and speak in two languages depends on how much practice the child has using both languages, and the kind of practice. If a child who is learning more than one language has difficulty with language development, careful assessment by a specialist who understands development of skills in more than one language may be needed.

Treatment for language or speech disorders and delays

Children with language problems often need extra help and special instruction. Speech-language pathologists can work directly with children and their parents, caregivers, and teachers.

Having a language or speech delay or disorder can qualify a child for early intervention external icon (for children up to 3 years of age) and special education services (for children aged 3 years and older). Schools can do their own testing for language or speech disorders to see if a child needs intervention. An evaluation by a healthcare professional is needed if there are other concerns about the child’s hearing, behavior, or emotions. Parents, healthcare providers, and the school can work together to find the right referrals and treatment.

What every parent should know

Children with specific learning disabilities, including language or speech disorders, are eligible for special education services or accommodations at school under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) external icon and Section 504 external icon , an anti-discrimination law.

Get help from your state’s Parent Training and Information Center external icon

The role of healthcare providers

Healthcare providers can play an important part in collaborating with schools to help a child with speech or language disorders and delay or other disabilities get the special services they need. The American Academy of Pediatrics has created a report that describes the roles that healthcare providers can have in helping children with disabilities external icon , including language or speech disorders.

More information

CDC Information on Hearing Loss

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders external icon

Birth to 5: Watch me thrive external icon

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association external icon

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7 Ideas for How to Help a Child with Speech Delay

7 ideas for how to help a child with speech delay.

As speech therapists, we cannot minimize the importance of speech therapy early in a child’s life if delays are observed. What we’ve observed to be even more essential is parental involvement in speech therapy and taking learned strategies from speech therapy to integrate to the home.  Even if a child gets speech therapy a few times per week there are many other hours in the day. And many more opportunities to learn how to help a child with speech delay by creating a language rich environment i n the home, so that a child has many opportunities to work on their skills.

RELATED: Does My Child Need Speech Therapy?

A language rich environment is one in which parents create scenarios in which their child has to communicate. It’s important to create this at home since children are more motivated to speak and are better able to adapt their newly gained abilities to other contexts when they learn to interact in their natural surroundings in real-life scenarios with their caregivers.

Before reading on, it is important to note that this article will review how to increase a child’s exposure to vocabulary and grammar that is appropriate for their age. In reality, this is language, NOT speech. Yet, many parents call their child’s language delay a speech delay. Speech is how a child sounds when they talk. Here is an example to differentiate between the two:

• Speech Delay – a child might say “tat” instead of “cat” when seeing a picture of a cat.
• Language Delay – a child would see a cat and not know the word “cat” when asked what it is.

Each of the ideas below can be modified depending on a child’s language level. Knowing the strategies in general as to how to help a child with speech delay is what is important. Moreover, parents should know that they do not need anything special (toys or tools) to use these strategies.

RELATED: Parent question: What are Two Year Old Speech Milestones?

1-  Model the language you want them to use . For example, if  your child comes over to you and lifts up their arms to be picked up, you can say, “Can you pick me up please?” or even just “Up” depending on the child’s current level of communication skills. Add gestures and make good eye contact as well.

2- Narrate Playtime : Parents can talk about what they’re doing and what their child is doing during play. Since children often like to play the same thing over and over again, they will be exposed to the same vocabulary repeatedly.  For example, you can say: “Pick up the red block…. Stack it on top.” Narrate the child’s actions too: “Oops! You knocked it down!”

3-Expectant Pause: Give your child  opportunities to use language by using familiar phrases and letting them “fill in the blank.” For example, while reading a story to your child they are familiar with, read the first part of the sentence and  leave off the last word, pause and look at them.  Wait for several seconds.  If they fill in the blank with the expected word (or even if not!) praise them and keep going. If not, provide the acceptable response (model) and then continue with the story.

4-Give Choices: Even if you know what your child is going to pick for their snack today, give them a choice between two items. For example, “apple or pear?” or make it more complex by saying: “big apple or little apple?” Depending on your child’s language level you can modify this and you can also accept different communication responses depending on the level the child is at. You can accept: eye contact, pointing, reaching, grunting, verbal approximations (e.g., “ah” for “apple”), the word itself and 2 word combinations (e.g., big apple, more apple).

5-Give the Wrong Thing: You can sabotage your child on purpose to create a situation where they need to communicate with you to correct the event or get the right item. For example, you can give your child a hairbrush when they expect the bath towel. If it’s time to eat and they need a spoon, give them their stuffed animal. This is sure to create some laughs. Make sure it does not cause frustration so if you see your child not able to understand what is going on or what they need to do, give a model for the correct response and move on.

6-Piece by Piece: If you are playing blocks or Legos with your child or giving them a snack, don’t give them all of the items of pieces. Provide them with a block one piece at a time, or put an apple slice on their plate one at a time. This creates an opportunity for using language or a communication attempt. Model the expected response if your child does not know what to do. If you’re wondering how to help a child with speech delay, the answer is: practice every day. You can also watch a video model of this here .

7- Read. Often: Studies have shown that young children whose parents read to them multiple times per day, hear a significant amount of books more than kids who were never read to. When you’re reading, ask questions and let them guess words they may have heard before. Children require frequent exposure to vocabulary which is why books can have repeating words and phrases. Here is a post with a list of books that has repeating words and phrases .

Reinforce your child’s speech and language in daily situations. To put it another way, talk through the day. You can name goods at the grocery store, describe what you’re doing when cooking or cleaning, point out things about the house, and talk about sounds you notice while driving. Ask your child questions and acknowledge their replies (even if they are difficult to comprehend). Keep it simple but try not to use “baby talk.”

Identifying and treating issues early on, regardless of your child’s age, is the greatest way to help with speech and language difficulties.  Your child can make progress in their communicating skills with the help of good speech therapy, parental involvement and time.

Therapy Works Together – Online Speech Therapy for Children and Adults

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Ages & Stages

Language Delays in Toddlers: Information for Parents

Your baby is able to communicate with you long before they speak a single word! A baby's cry, smile, and responses to you help you to understand their needs. Learn how children communicate and what to do when there are concerns about delays in development.

Milestones during the first 2 years

Children develop at different rates, but they usually are able to do certain things at certain ages. Following are general developmental milestones . Keep in mind that they are only guidelines. If you have any questions about your baby's development, ask your child's doctor—the sooner the better. Even when there are delays, early intervention can make a significant difference.

By 1 year most babies will

Look for and be able to find where a sound is coming from.

Respond to their name most of the time when you call it.

Wave goodbye .

Look where you point when you say, "Look at the _________."

Babble with intonation (voice rises and falls as if they are speaking in sentences).

Take turns " talking " with you—listen and pay attention to you when you speak and then resume babbling when you stop.

Say "da-da" to dad and "ma-ma" to mom.

Say at least 1 word.

Point to items they want that are out of reach or make sounds while pointing.

Between 1 and 2 years most toddlers will

Follow simple commands, first when the adult speaks and gestures, and then later with words alone.

Get objects from another room when asked.

Point to a few body parts when asked.

Point to interesting objects or events to get you to look at them too.

Bring things to you to show you.

Point to objects so you will name them.

Name a few common objects and pictures when asked.

Enjoy pretending (for example, pretend cooking). They will use gestures and words with you or with a favorite stuffed animal or doll.

Learn about 1 new word per week between 11/2 and 2 years.

By 2 years of age most toddlers will

Point to many body parts and common objects.

Point to some pictures in books.

Follow 1-step commands without a gesture like "Put your cup on the table."

Be able to say about 50 to 100 words.

Say several 2-word phrases like "Daddy go," "Doll mine," and "All gone."

Perhaps say a few 3-word sentences like "I want juice" or "You go bye-bye."

Be understood by others (or by adults) about half of the time.

When milestones are delayed

If your child's development seems delayed or shows any of the behaviors in the following list, tell your child's doctor. Sometimes language delays occur along with these behaviors. Also, tell your child's doctor if your baby stops talking or doing things that he or she used to do.

Doesn't cuddle like other babies

Doesn't return a happy smile back to you

Doesn't seem to notice if you are in the room

Doesn't seem to notice certain noises (for example, seems to hear a car horn or a cat's meow but not when you call his or her name)

Acts as if he or she is in his or her own world

Prefers to play alone; seems to "tune others out"

Doesn't seem interested in or play with toys but likes to play with objects in the house

Has intense interest in objects young children are not usually interested in (for example, would rather carry around a flashlight or ballpoint pen than a stuffed animal or favorite blanket)

Can say the ABCs, numbers, or words to TV jingles but can't use words to ask for things he or she wants

Doesn't seem to be afraid of anything

Doesn't seem to feel pain in a typical fashion

Uses words or phrases that are unusual for the situation or repeats scripts from TV

Delays in language

Delays in language are the most common types of developmental delay. One out of 5 children will learn to talk or use words later than other children their age. Some children will also show behavioral problems because they are frustrated when they can't express what they need or want.

Simple speech delays are sometimes temporary. They may resolve on their own or with a little extra help from family. It's important to encourage your child to "talk" to you with gestures or sounds and for you to spend lots of time playing with, reading to, and talking with your infant or toddler. In some cases, your child will need more help from a trained professional, a speech and language therapist, to learn to communicate.

Sometimes delays may be a warning sign of a more serious problem that could include hearing loss , developmental delay in other areas, or even an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Language delays in early childhood also could be a sign of a learning problem that may not be diagnosed until the school years. It's important to have your child evaluated if you are concerned about your child's language development.

What your child's doctor might do

Sometimes more information is needed about your child before your child's doctor can address your concerns. The doctor may

Ask you some questions or ask you to fill out a questionnaire.

Interact with your child in various ways to learn more about his or her development.

Order a hearing test and refer you to a speech and language therapist for testing. The therapist will evaluate your child's speech ( expressive language ) and ability to understand speech and gestures ( receptive language ).

Refer your child for evaluation through an early intervention program.

What to expect after the doctor's visit

If your child's doctor tells you not to worry (that your child will "catch up in time") but you are still concerned, it's OK to get a second opinion. You can ask your child's doctor for a referral to a developmental specialist or a speech and language therapist. You may also contact an early intervention program for an evaluation if your child is younger than 3 years, or your local school district if he or she is 3 or older.If what your child says ( expressive language ) is the only delay, you may be given suggestions to help your child at home. Formal speech therapy may also be recommended.

If both what your child understands ( receptive language ) and what he or she says are delayed and a hearing test is normal, your child will need further evaluation. This will determine whether the delays are caused by a true communication dis order, generalized developmental delays, an ASD, or another developmental problem.

When an ASD is the reason for language delays, your child will also have difficulty interacting with other people and may show some or all of the concerning behaviors listed previously. If there is concern your child might have an ASD, your child will usually be referred to a specialist or a team of specialists for evaluation and treatment of an ASD or a related disorder. The specialist(s) may then recommend speech therapy and may suggest other ways to improve social skills, behavior, and the desire to communicate.

Programs that help children and families

If your child has delays or suspected delays, your child's doctor will probably refer you to an early intervention program in your area. The staff there might do additional evaluations and reassure you that your child's development is normal or tell you that your child would benefit from some type of intervention. Your child does not need to have a diagnosis of a developmental problem to receive services through this program.

If your child is younger than 3 years , the referral may be to an early intervention program in your area. Early intervention programs are sometimes called "Part C" or "Birth to Three" programs. Early intervention is a federal- and state-funded program that helps children and their families. You may also contact the early intervention program yourself.

If your child qualifies for services , a team of specialists will work with you to develop an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) . This plan becomes a guide for the services your child will receive until 3 years of age. It may include parent training and support, direct therapy, and special equipment. Other services may be offered if they benefit your child and family. If your child needs help after 3 years of age, the early intervention staff will transition your child to services through your local school district.

If your child is 3 years or older , the referral may be to your local public school. You may also contact the local public school directly. If your child is eligible, the school district staff will, with your input, develop an Individual Education Plan (IEP) . This plan may provide some of the same services as the early intervention program but focus on school services for your child. The level of services also may be different. If your child continues to need special education and services, the IEP will be reviewed and revised from time to time.

As a parent, follow your instincts. If you continue to have concerns about your child's development, ask for a reevaluation or referral for additional formal testing.

Listing of resources does not imply an endorsement by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The AAP is not responsible for the content of the resources mentioned on this page. Web site addresses are as current as possible, but may change at any time.

More information

• Ask the Pediatrician:  My baby is turning a year old this month. Should she be talking by now?​
• How to Raise Concerns About a Child's Speech and Language Development
• Language Development: 8 to 12 Months
• Language Development: 1 Year Olds
• Language Development: 2 Year Olds
• Family Voices
• Learn the Signs. Act Early.

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Speech and Language Developmental Milestones

On this page:

How do speech and language develop?

What are the milestones for speech and language development, what is the difference between a speech disorder and a language disorder, what should i do if my child’s speech or language appears to be delayed, what research is being conducted on developmental speech and language problems.

• Your baby's hearing and communicative development checklist

Where can I find additional information about speech and language developmental milestones?

The first 3 years of life, when the brain is developing and maturing, is the most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills. These skills develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others.

There appear to be critical periods for speech and language development in infants and young children when the brain is best able to absorb language. If these critical periods are allowed to pass without exposure to language, it will be more difficult to learn.

The first signs of communication occur when an infant learns that a cry will bring food, comfort, and companionship. Newborns also begin to recognize important sounds in their environment, such as the voice of their mother or primary caretaker. As they grow, babies begin to sort out the speech sounds that compose the words of their language. By 6 months of age, most babies recognize the basic sounds of their native language.

Children vary in their development of speech and language skills. However, they follow a natural progression or timetable for mastering the skills of language. A checklist of milestones for the normal development of speech and language skills in children from birth to 5 years of age is included below. These milestones help doctors and other health professionals determine if a child is on track or if he or she may need extra help. Sometimes a delay may be caused by hearing loss, while other times it may be due to a speech or language disorder.

Children who have trouble understanding what others say (receptive language) or difficulty sharing their thoughts (expressive language) may have a language disorder. Developmental language disorder  (DLD) is a language disorder that delays the mastery of language skills. Some children with DLD may not begin to talk until their third or fourth year.

Children who have trouble producing speech sounds correctly or who hesitate or stutter when talking may have a speech disorder. Apraxia of speech is a speech disorder that makes it difficult to put sounds and syllables together in the correct order to form words.

Talk to your child’s doctor if you have any concerns. Your doctor may refer you to a speech-language pathologist, who is a health professional trained to evaluate and treat people with speech or language disorders. The speech-language pathologist will talk to you about your child’s communication and general development. He or she will also use special spoken tests to evaluate your child. A hearing test is often included in the evaluation because a hearing problem can affect speech and language development. Depending on the result of the evaluation, the speech-language pathologist may suggest activities you can do at home to stimulate your child’s development. They might also recommend group or individual therapy or suggest further evaluation by an audiologist (a health care professional trained to identify and measure hearing loss), or a developmental psychologist (a health care professional with special expertise in the psychological development of infants and children).

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) sponsors a broad range of research to better understand the development of speech and language disorders, improve diagnostic capabilities, and fine-tune more effective treatments. An ongoing area of study is the search for better ways to diagnose and differentiate among the various types of speech delay. A large study following approximately 4,000 children is gathering data as the children grow to establish reliable signs and symptoms for specific speech disorders, which can then be used to develop accurate diagnostic tests. Additional genetic studies are looking for matches between different genetic variations and specific speech deficits.

Researchers sponsored by the NIDCD have discovered one genetic variant, in particular, that is linked to developmental language disorder (DLD), a disorder that delays children’s use of words and slows their mastery of language skills throughout their school years. The finding is the first to tie the presence of a distinct genetic mutation to any kind of inherited language impairment. Further research is exploring the role this genetic variant may also play in dyslexia, autism, and speech-sound disorders.

A long-term study looking at how deafness impacts the brain is exploring how the brain “rewires” itself to accommodate deafness. So far, the research has shown that adults who are deaf react faster and more accurately than hearing adults when they observe objects in motion. This ongoing research continues to explore the concept of “brain plasticity”—the ways in which the brain is influenced by health conditions or life experiences—and how it can be used to develop learning strategies that encourage healthy language and speech development in early childhood.

A recent workshop convened by the NIDCD drew together a group of experts to explore issues related to a subgroup of children with autism spectrum disorders who do not have functional verbal language by the age of 5. Because these children are so different from one another, with no set of defining characteristics or patterns of cognitive strengths or weaknesses, development of standard assessment tests or effective treatments has been difficult. The workshop featured a series of presentations to familiarize participants with the challenges facing these children and helped them to identify a number of research gaps and opportunities that could be addressed in future research studies.

What are voice, speech, and language?

Voice, speech, and language are the tools we use to communicate with each other.

Voice is the sound we make as air from our lungs is pushed between vocal folds in our larynx, causing them to vibrate.

Speech is talking, which is one way to express language. It involves the precisely coordinated muscle actions of the tongue, lips, jaw, and vocal tract to produce the recognizable sounds that make up language.

Language is a set of shared rules that allow people to express their ideas in a meaningful way. Language may be expressed verbally or by writing, signing, or making other gestures, such as eye blinking or mouth movements.

Your baby’s hearing and communicative development checklist

Birth to 3 months, 4 to 6 months, 7 months to 1 year, 1 to 2 years, 2 to 3 years, 3 to 4 years, 4 to 5 years.

This checklist is based upon How Does Your Child Hear and Talk ?, courtesy of the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association.

The NIDCD maintains a directory of organizations that provide information on the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language.

Use the following keywords to help you find organizations that can answer questions and provide information on speech and language development:

• Early identification of hearing loss in children
• Speech-language pathologists

For more information, contact us at:

NIDCD Information Clearinghouse 1 Communication Avenue Bethesda, MD 20892-3456 Toll-free voice: (800) 241-1044 Toll-free TTY: (800) 241-1055 Email: [email protected]

NIH Publication No. 00-4781 September 2010

*Note: PDF files require a viewer such as the free Adobe Reader .

General Phone: (281) 298-1144   | Gulf Coast is Open!  San Antonio Location Coming Soon!

4 Causes of Speech Delays in Children

One out of five children develops speech and language at a pace that’s slower than their peers. Sometimes children overcome the delay by the time they enter kindergarten. However, a speech delay can also signal an underlying problem that needs specialized intervention.

Seeking help as early as possible goes a long way toward improving your child’s skills and supporting their ability to succeed. If you have any concerns or questions about your child’s speech development, don’t wait to meet with the caring team at THINK Neurology for Kids .

Speech delays explained

A speech delay is typically called a speech-language delay because the two go hand-in-hand. However, they represent different skills, and a child may be delayed in one or both:

Speech refers to talking and the ability to form sounds and words properly. Children with a speech delay may use words, but you have a hard time understanding them. They could also struggle to speak because they have a hard time forming words.

Language encompasses communication and comprehension. It refers to a child’s ability to convey information that others understand. Children with a language delay may speak clearly but only use a few words. They may also have a hard time understanding others.

Speech-language milestones

Children have a speech-language delay when they fall behind their developmental milestones. Your child may have a speech-language delay if they:

• Can’t use gestures to communicate by 12 months
• Prefer gestures over vocalizing by 18 months
• Have trouble imitating sounds by 18 months
• Can’t understand simple verbal requests by 18 months
• Imitate speech but can’t produce words or phrases by two years
• Can’t speak to communicate their needs by two years
• Can’t follow simple directions by two years
• Have an unusual tone of voice by two years

Parents and caregivers should be able to understand half of everything their child says at two years and at least 75% of their words by their third birthday. Nearly everyone should be able to understand what a child says by the time they’re four years old.

Top causes of speech-language delays

Some children with a speech-language delay have an underlying developmental or physical problem causing the delay. In others, we can’t identify a specific reason.  

Four of the most common causes of speech-language delays include:

Oral-motor problems

Speech delays often occur when there’s a problem in the areas of the brain that control the muscles responsible for speech. As a result, children may struggle to produce sounds because they can’t coordinate their lip, tongue, and jaw movement.

When the brain doesn’t communicate with facial muscles, a condition called apraxia, children can’t move the muscles needed for speech. Another oral-motor disorder, dysarthria, occurs when the muscles controlling the face, lips, and tongue are too weak to work properly.

Speech delays frequently affect children with autism . One study found that half of the 3-4-year-olds diagnosed with autism couldn’t speak at a level typical for their age. Autism spectrum disorder also affects language development in other ways.

Children with autism have difficulty communicating nonverbally, so they may not point to express their needs by 12 months. 

Autism also causes another common problem for a speech-language delay: Others may not understand them because they keep repeating the same words, usually a phrase they heard in a TV show, video game, or movie.

Hearing problems or auditory processing disorder

Difficulty hearing significantly impacts your child’s ability to speak, use language, and understand others. Some children have a hearing problem called auditory processing disorder that prevents them from understanding what they hear.

Intellectual disability

Children with an intellectual disability often have widespread developmental delays affecting their speech and language and their learning, social, emotional, and physical development. 

These kids may have trouble producing or pronouncing words that others can understand. They may also struggle to put sentences together or to understand language.

The most important thing to remember about a speech-language delay is that an early diagnosis and treatment make a big difference. With intensive intervention, we can target each child’s unique speech challenge and help them improve.

If you’re concerned about your child’s speech or language, call THINK Neurology for Kids or book an appointment online today.

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The Best Speech Delay Exercises and Activities for Toddlers

By Lori Ennis, M.S. Ed

You want to know how to help your toddler with speech delay. It’s what parents do best—helping their children in areas where they need help. And, you’ve of course consulted a speech-language pathologist to ask how to deal with speech delay in toddlers so your little one can continue to grow and develop in speech and language. Your next step? Finding the best speech delay exercises for your toddler .

Are there speech delay exercises for toddlers that you can do at home? Absolutely, and we’ve asked clinicians for how to help your toddler with speech delay. Check out these speech delay exercises for toddlers and feel empowered in helping your little one’s speech and language blossom.

How to Help Your Toddler with Speech Delay

Take it from the experts, best tips to help speech delay in toddlers, real life brings about real speech.

You recognize that there is a speech delay with your toddler . Whether it’s an articulation issue, an enunciation or pronunciation issue or something in their motor planning that may be preventing typical speech development (or something completely different), you find yourself googling “Tips for speech delayed toddler” or “How to help your toddler with speech delay.” We know because we’ve been there. If you’re the parent of a toddler with speech delays, how to help them communicate effectively is one of your main concerns. Effective communication helps eliminate frustration on your end and theirs while preparing them for preschool, school and life. 

So really, are there speech delay exercises for toddlers that you can do at home? Do they really make a difference in how to help your toddler with a speech delay ?

The answer is a resounding, “YES!” and we’ll share them.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is a wealth of resource when it comes to ways you can encourage development when you have a toddler with speech delays. When it comes to how to help your toddler with speech delay, they recommend some of the following activities to encourage word development, proper articulation and enunciation and auditory processing/comprehension:

• Model good speech. Be clear and precise in your speech to and around them. 
• Make sure you use the appropriate word for a baby-talk word as well. You don’t have to stop saying the baby-talk word; just be sure to give them the correct word. (“You’d like your yogi? Sure, here is your yogurt.”)
• Help your child create catalogs of categories for words. “Look, there’s a dog. It’s an animal. What else is an animal? Yes, a cat is an animal. So is a lion. So is a cow.” 
• Have them develop speech with the ‘Yes/No’ game. “Do cows eat at the dinner table?” “Am I your mother?” “Do you have four ears?” “Are you wearing a red shirt?” This can be a fun game for your toddler to try and trick you.
• When asking questions of your toddler with a speech delay, give choices. “Do you want to eat spaghetti or grilled cheese?” The more words they hear in context, the better their vocabulary base is.
• Sing songs and tell nursery rhymes and read, read, read to your toddler. The more words they’re exposed to, the better. A recent study suggested that children who were read to each night were exposed to more than a million words more than their peers who were not read to. 

Will Oral-Motor Exercises Make a Difference? Dr. Gregory Lof is an Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Communication Studies and Disorders at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. He has suggested that oral-motor exercises may not be as beneficial to speech and language development in toddlers as some might believe.

Dr. Lof believes and offers additional research that suggests oral-motor exercises like blowing bubbles or whistling or chewing on a talking tool may be exercises in futility as they don’t strengthen necessary muscles, and goes one step further in suggesting that strength is not necessarily crucial for speaking anyway. 

So what do Dr. Lof and so many other clinicians he cites suggest as tips for speech delayed toddler help? He advises working on speech tasks that will actually relate to speech production. In this, you can over pronounce early sounds and be sure to pronounce them very clearly. 

Typically sounds that toddlers with speech delays struggle with are /p/, /b/, /m/, /n/, /h/ and /w/. You can help your toddler by being sure (particularly when beginning and ending consonants) to really enunciate the letters. ‘B’ in ‘bubble’ has a lot of opportunity for over pronunciation and enunciation, but any time you use words with those consonants, be sure to give them definition clearly. 

Additionally, making eye contact with your child when you are speaking to him or her is important. Not only does eye contact culturally build bonds and relationship, but it also allows your toddler to look at the way you’re forming your letters as you make sounds and words. This is something she can copy as she’s working on developing her own speech.

Most importantly, use everyday situations to help your toddler with speech delays. By this we mean spend a lot of time talking to your child, and through your day. When he gets up in the morning and you’re helping him get dressed, name his clothes—“This is your shirt! Those are your pants! Now it’s time for socks.” When you’re at breakfast, discuss how you’re preparing it, what it will do for your brain and your body—“This is orange juice, and it will help build your bones and keep you healthy!” “I had to crack this egg open before I could cook it. This what cracking your egg open looks like.”

Especially if your child’s responses are challenging to understand, allow them to respond to you and converse with you so they have the practice with not just speech, but speech that is contextually appropriate and meaningful to them. There’s often little fun in ‘speaking’ words only to speak or to learn, but when speech and language acquisition occurs naturally, it makes a more permanent impact. 

If you’re looking for more tips on how to help your toddler with speech delay, thankfully there are lots of additional resources to which you can turn as well. If you’re unsure as to whether your toddler’s speech is typical for her peers, or you’re interested in any more tips and information, you can check out the Toddler Speech Boost site and download their free milestone assessment guide. 

Am Fam Physician. 2024;109(4):361-362

As published by the USPSTF.

The full recommendation statement is available at https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/speech-and-language-delay-and-disorders-in-children-age-5-and-younger-screening .

The USPSTF recommendations are independent of the U.S. government. They do not represent the views of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.S. Public Health Service.

This series is coordinated by Joanna Drowos, DO, contributing editor.

A collection of USPSTF recommendation statements published in AFP is available at https://www.aafp.org/afp/uspstf .

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This content is owned by the AAFP. A person viewing it online may make one printout of the material and may use that printout only for his or her personal, non-commercial reference. This material may not otherwise be downloaded, copied, printed, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any medium, whether now known or later invented, except as authorized in writing by the AAFP.  See permissions  for copyright questions and/or permission requests.

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Receptive language delay struggles

We haven’t yet potty trained but I’m preparing. No idea how it’s going to go since he doesn’t use potty words yet but he knows how to flush! Lol.

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Watch CBS News

Haven't filed your taxes yet? Here's how to get an extension from the IRS.

By Aimee Picchi

Edited By Anne Marie Lee , Alain Sherter

Updated on: April 15, 2024 / 11:18 AM EDT / CBS News

If you're one of the millions of Americans who have procrastinated filing their taxes ahead of the April 15 deadline, there is a way to get some breathing room: File for an extension. 

The step gives taxpayers until October 15 to file their federal tax returns, and the process is fairly quick — and also free. About 90 million people have filed their 1040s with the IRS as of March 29, the tax agency says . But as it  expects about 128.7 million tax returns this year, that means almost 40 million people have pushed off filing until the last two weeks of the regular tax season.

Almost half of Americans delay working on their taxes, a new survey from tax prep company TaxAct found. Many are stressed by the task, but more than 1 in 4 is worried about owing money to the IRS, the study found.

"Some people don't want to pay the balance due, and say, 'I'll let the government come after me,'" Mark Jaeger, vice president of Tax Operations, at TaxAct, told CBS MoneyWatch. 

But other taxpayers may have had a major life event, like the birth of a child, that prompted them to put off their taxes, he noted. Sometimes an individual's tax forms can be delayed, which then causes the taxpayer to scramble, once the forms arrive, to get their 1040s filed by April 15. 

The good news is that getting an extension "is actually pretty simple," Jaeger said.

What time are taxes due on April 15? 

The regular deadline to file a 2023 tax return with the IRS is 11:59 p.m., in your time zone, on Monday, April 15. 

However, there are some exceptions. For instance, taxpayers in Massachusetts and Maine have until April 17 to file and pay taxes because of the Patriots' Day and Emancipation Day holidays. 

Taxpayers living in some areas affected by extreme weather have  extensions  to file, while individuals and businesses impacted by the Oct. 7  attack on Israel  have also been given more time. Certain active-duty military members and citizens living abroad are also eligible for an extension.

How to request a tax extension

The IRS will give taxpayers an automatic extension if they file  Form 4868 . This one-page document asks for basic information such as your name, address and Social Security number. 

There's another way to request an extension that's even easier, Jaeger said. 

"The simplest way is to go through a do-it-yourself tax software or go to the IRS website and make a payment," he said. "Simply by making a payment, you are filing an extension."

Indeed, the IRS says it automatically counts payments made by the April 15 deadline as an extension, and by taking that step, you won't even need to file a separate Form 4868. 

You can make a payment via the IRS'  Direct Pay , the  Electronic Federal Tax Payment System  or with a  credit or debit card or digital wallet . 

If I get an extension, can I delay paying the IRS? 

Nope. That's because receiving an extension to file isn't an extension to pay what you owe the IRS. 

"Taxpayers who owe should pay their entire obligation, or as much as they can, by the April 15 deadline to avoid penalties and interest," the IRS said on Thursday.

Knowing how much to pay the IRS can be tricky for people who haven't yet filed their taxes, but Jaeger recommends looking at your federal tax payment in the prior year. If you paid, for example, $5,000 in the prior tax year, but have only paid $4,000 in the 2023 tax year, you should send the IRS a payment for the $1,000 difference, he noted.

What is the penalty for failing to pay?

The IRS charges a penalty if you don't pay what you owe the government, the amount if which is based on the percentage of the taxes you didn't pay. 

For instance, if you file an extension and owe the IRS but don't pay by April 15, you'll face the penalty. The IRS charges 0.5% of the unpaid taxes for each month, with a cap of 25% of the unpaid taxes. 

What is the fine for failing to file?

The IRS also levies a fine if you don't file or ask for an extension by April 15.

The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of unpaid taxes for each month or part of the month that the tax return is late. The fine is capped at 25% of your unpaid taxes. 

People who both neglect to file and fail to pay what they owe won't have to pay both fines, however. The IRS said it reduces the failure-to-file penalty by the amount of the failure-to-pay penalty for that month, so that the taxpayer will face a combined total penalty of 5% for each month their return is late. 

What if I can't pay what I owe the IRS?

The IRS will set up a payment plan with taxpayers who can't afford to pay the full amount they owe the tax agency. 

Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.

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Appeals court rejects Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay April 15 hush money criminal trial

A New York appeals court judge has rejected the latest bid by former President Trump to delay his hush money criminal trial, less than a week before jury selection is set to start. Trump’s lawyers wanted the trial postponed while he fights a gag order.

Former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives for a GOP fundraiser, Saturday, April 6, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

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FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Mich., April 2, 2024. Social media accounts who shield their real identities have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online, even as they spread false information. When a user who uses a pseudonym on the social platform X made a claim against a government website, public figures including Trump, immediately started raising alarm. In three days, the claim, which election officials explained was inaccurate, amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

What to know about Trump’s hush money trial:

• Trump will be first ex-president on criminal trial. Here’s what to know about the hush money case.
• A jury of his peers: A look at how jury selection will work in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial .
• Donald Trump is facing four criminal indictments, and a civil lawsuit. You can track all of the cases here.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay his hush money criminal trial , taking just 12 minutes to swat aside an argument that it should be postponed while the former president fights a gag order .

Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling was the second time in as many days that the state’s mid-level appeals court refused to postpone the trial, set to begin next week, further narrowing any plausible path to the delay that Trump’s legal team has repeatedly sought.

Trump’s lawyers wanted the trial delayed until a full panel of appellate court judges could hear arguments on lifting or modifying a gag order that bans him from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the hush-money case.

They argue the gag order is an unconstitutional curb on the presumptive Republican nominee’s free speech rights while he’s campaigning for president and fighting criminal charges.

“The First Amendment harms arising from this gag order right now are irreparable,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove said at an emergency hearing Tuesday in the state’s mid-level appeals court.

Bove argued that Trump shouldn’t be muzzled while critics, including his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels, routinely assail him. Both are key prosecution witnesses.

Bove also argued that the order unconstitutionally restricts Trump’s critiques of the case — and, with them, his ability to speak to the voting public and its right to hear from him.

Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, countered that there is a “public interest in protecting the integrity of the trial.”

“What we are talking about here is the defendant’s uncontested history of making inflammatory, denigrating” comments about people involved in the case, Wu said. “This is not political debate. These are insults.”

Wu said prosecutors already have had trouble getting some witnesses to testify “because they know what their names in the press may lead to.” Wu didn’t identify the witnesses but noted they included people who would testify about record-keeping practices.

The gag order still affords Trump “free rein to talk about a host of issues,” noting that he can comment on Judge Juan M. Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg and “raise political arguments as he sees fit.” Trump has repeatedly lambasted Bragg, a Democrat, and the judge.

Barring further court action, jury selection will begin on April 15.

Merchan issued the gag order last month at prosecutors’ urging, then expanded it last week to prohibit comments about his own family after Trump lashed out on social media at the judge’s daughter , a Democratic political consultant, and made what the court system said were false claims about her.

Tuesday was the second of back-to-back days for Trump’s lawyers in the appeals court. Associate Justice Lizbeth González on Monday rejected their request to delay the trial while Trump seeks to move his case out of heavily Democratic Manhattan.

Trump’s lawyers framed their gag order appeal as a lawsuit against Merchan. In New York, judges can be sued to challenge some decisions under a state law known as Article 78.

Trump has used the tactic before, including against the judge in his recent New York civil fraud trial in an unsuccessful last-minute bid to delay that case last fall and again when that judge imposed a gag order barring trial participants from commenting publicly on court staffers. That order came after Trump smeared the judge’s principal law clerk in a social media post.

A sole appeals judge lifted the civil trial gag order , but an appellate panel restored it two weeks later.

Trump’s hush-money criminal case involves allegations that he falsified his company’s records to hide the nature of payments to Cohen, who helped him bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. Cohen’s activities included paying Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump has made numerous attempts to get the trial postponed.

Last week, as Merchan swatted away various requests to delay the trial, Trump renewed his request for the judge to step aside from the case. The judge rejected a similar request last August.

Trump’s lawyers allege the judge is biased against him and has a conflict of interest because of his daughter Loren’s work as president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm with clients that have included President Joe Biden and other Democrats. Trump’s attorneys complained the expanded gag order was shielding the Merchans “from legitimate public criticism.”

Merchan had long resisted imposing a gag order. At Trump’s arraignment in April 2023, he admonished Trump not to make statements that could incite violence or jeopardize safety, but stopped short of muzzling him. At a subsequent hearing, Merchan noted Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and said he was “bending over backwards” to ensure Trump has every opportunity “to speak in furtherance of his candidacy.”

Merchan became increasingly wary of Trump’s rhetoric disrupting the historic trial as it grew near. In issuing the gag order, he said his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the proceedings outweighed First Amendment concerns.

Trump reacted on social media that the gag order was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional” and said Merchan was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals.

Trump suggested without evidence that Merchan’s decision-making was influenced by his daughter’s professional interests and made a claim, later repudiated by court officials, that Loren Merchan had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.

After the outburst, Merchan expanded the gag order April 1 to prohibit Trump from making statements about the judge’s family or Bragg’s family.

“They can talk about me but I can’t talk about them???” Trump reacted on his Truth Social platform.

President Biden coming to Pittsburgh today, will speak at United Steelworkers union headquarters

P ITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- President Biden is coming to Pittsburgh today and will be meeting with workers and speaking at the United Steel Workers union headquarters Downtown this afternoon. 

The president was delayed and arrived in Pittsburgh around 1 p.m. He was greeted by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey when he got off the plane. From the airport, he traveled to the United Steelworkers' headquarters, where he met with steelworkers before his remarks. 

President Biden is expected to announce new actions  to protect American steel and shipbuilding industries from what his administration calls "unfair practices." Those actions could include tripling the tariff rate on Chinese steel and aluminum. 

This comes as U.S. Steel shareholders voted to approve a deal to sell the company to Nippon, a Japanese steel corporation. The deal still has to be approved by the Justice Department and the Committee on Foreign Investment. 

Ahead of the president's visit to Pittsburgh, the United Steelworkers are shining a light onto the side of a building near Fort Pitt Boulevard and Cherry Way, welcoming Biden to the city. 

Biden Administration announces new protections for American steel and shipbuilding industries

The president is asking the United States Trade Representative to triple the existing tariff rate on Chinese steel and aluminum. 

He's also directing his senior team to work with Mexico to prevent China from avoiding tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Mexico into America.

This all comes in light of the proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel and the president is sharing how he is committed to maintaining strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers.

Lastly, the president is investing in clean, American-made steel. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, $1.5 billion will go to six clean iron and steel projects that will support communities in Ohio, the South, Midwest, and here in Pennsylvania. 

WATCH: Erika Stanish reports

Traffic impacts from President Biden's visit

Rolling closures of the Parkway West are expected after the president arrives at the airport just after Noon as his motorcade and pooled media will travel to Downtown Pittsburgh.

It's unclear what roads in the Downtown area will be shut down during his visit at the United Steelworkers union headquarters, but expect detours if traveling through the area.

U.S. Steel's pending sale to Nippon Steel

The company's stockholders voted last week to approve a nearly $15 billion merger with Nippon Steel, Japan's largest steelmaker and U.S. Steel says that the vote was "overwhelmingly" to approve the transaction.

U.S. Steel CEO and President David B. Burritt promises the sale will make the company and the domestic steel industry stronger but the deal has raised questions from President Biden and numerous elected officials representing Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area. 

Pennsylvania's two Democratic senators, Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman, have both voiced opposition to the sale. Fetterman lives across the street from U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson plant in Braddock. 

Burritt says U.S. Steel will keep its name and remain headquartered in Pittsburgh. More than 98% of the shares voted in favor at the special meeting, representing about 71% of the shares of U.S. Steel common stock. 

"My presence being here sends volumes."

A steelworker from Penn Hills got the chance to see and hear Japan's prime minister during a joint session of Congress last week. 

Rob Jones was a guest of Representative Chris Deluzio and said that a rank and file union member being taken down to D.C. was an amazing process.

Rep. Deluzio joins Senators Fetterman and Casey in opposing the deal and has cited the need to protect more union jobs.

Under the pending sale agreement, U.S. Steel would keep its name and headquarters in Pittsburgh, but it worries Jones when it comes to national security and the military.

Jones said that his being invited for the Congress session shows that the union and the representatives are behind the workers. 

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The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial

Here’s what has happened so far in the unprecedented proceedings against a former u.s. president..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

It’s the first day of the Trump trial and just walking out the door in my house. It’s a beautiful day, 6:11 AM. The thing that keeps running through my head is it’s kind of amazing that hundreds of jurors are going to show up at the Manhattan courthouse. And some of them are going to know what they’re there for — probably talking to their friends, their relatives about it.

Some of them are going to learn this morning talking to other jurors in line, asking what all the fuss is about. But I really do imagine that there’s going to be at least one potential juror who, headphones on, getting into court. Here they’re going to be there for the first criminal trial of Donald J. Trump. And just, I mean, how would you react?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today, what it’s been like inside the lower Manhattan courtroom, where political and legal history are being made? My colleague, Jonah Bromwich, on the opening days of the first criminal trial of a US President. It’s Thursday, April 18.

Is that his mic? Hi, there.

Hello. How are you?

I’m doing good.

OK. Thank you for coming in, Jonah —

Thank you for having me.

— in the middle of a trial. Can you just explain why you’re able to even be here?

Sure. So we happen to be off on Wednesdays during trial, so.

We being not “The New York Times,” but the courts.

That’s right.

Which is why we’re taping with you. And because we now have two full court days of this history-making trial now under our belts. And the thing about this trial that’s so interesting is that there are no cameras in the courtroom for the wider world.

There’s no audio recordings. So all we really have is and your eyes and your notebook, maybe your laptop. And so we’re hoping you can reconstruct for us the scene of the first two days of this trial and really the highlights.

Yeah, I’d be happy to. So on Monday morning, I left the subway. It’s before 7:00 AM. The sun is just rising over these grandiose court buildings in lower Manhattan.

I’m about to turn left onto Center Street. I’m right in front of the big municipal building.

And I turn onto Center Street. That’s where the courthouses are.

I’m crossing.

And I expected to see a big crowd. And it was even bigger than I had anticipated.

Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Now, I finally see the crowd.

You have camera banks. You have reporters. You have the beginnings of what will eventually become a protest. And you have this most New York thing, which is just a big crowd of people.

[CHUCKLES]: Who just know something is going on.

That’s right. And what they know is going on is, of course, the first trial of an American president.

All right, I’m passing the camera, folks. Camera, camera, camera, camera. Here we go.

Let’s start with Sharon Crowley live outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan.

I want to get right to ABC’S Aaron Katersky who’s outside of the courthouse.

Robert Costa is following it outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Bob, I saw the satellite trucks lined up all in a row. Good morning.

Talk to us how we got here exactly.

So this is the case that was brought by the Manhattan district attorney. So prosecutors have accused Donald Trump of covering up the actions of his former fixer, Michael Cohen, after Cohen paid hush money to Stormy Daniels. Stormy Daniels had a story about having had sex with Donald Trump, which Trump has always denied.

Cohen paid her money, and then Trump reimbursed Cohen. And prosecutors say that Trump essentially defrauded the American people because he hid this information that could have been very important for the election from those people when he reimbursed Cohen.

Right. And as I remember it, he also misrepresented what that reimbursement was. Claimed it was a legal fee when, in fact, it was just reimbursing Michael Cohen for a hush money payment.

Exactly, yeah. He definitely didn’t say reimbursement for hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. It’s a cover up case. It’s a case about hiding information you don’t want people to see.

Right. And of course, the context of all this is that it is in the middle of a presidential election. It’s 2016. Trump wants to keep this secret, prosecutors allege, so that the American public doesn’t know about it and potentially hold it against him.

Right. And prosecutors are telling a story about election interference. They’re saying that Trump interfered with an election. And Trump himself is also using the phrase “election interference.” But he’s painting the trial itself as election interference as he now runs again in 2024.

Fascinating.

And because we’re in Manhattan, and because the jury pool is going to be largely Democratic, and the judge is a Democrat, and the district attorney is a Democrat, Trump keeps claiming he cannot get a fair shake. This is democrat central. And in democrat central, Trump doesn’t have a chance.

OK. So, what happens once you actually enter the courthouse?

Outside, there’s all this fanfare. But inside, it’s a little bit business as usual. So I go up to the 15th floor, and I walk into the courtroom, and I sit down, and it’s the same old courtroom. And we’re sitting and waiting for the former president.

Around 9:30, Trump walks in. He looks thin. He looks a little tired, kind of slumping forward, as if to say with his body like let’s get this over with. Here we go.

The judge walks in a little bit after that. And we think we’re all set for the trial to start, but that’s not what happens here. And in fact, there are a series of legal arguments about what the trial is going to look like and what evidence is going to be allowed in.

So, for example, prosecutors ask that they be allowed to admit into evidence headlines from “The National Enquirer” that were attacks on Trump’s 2016 opponents — on Ted Cruz, on Marco Rubio, on Ben Carson.

Because prosecutors are in some sense putting Trump’s 2016 campaign on trial. These headlines are a big part of that because what prosecutors say they show is that Trump had this ongoing deal with “The National Enquirer.” And the publisher would promote him, and it would publish damaging stories about his opponents. And then crucially, it would protect Trump from negative stories. And that’s exactly what prosecutors say happened with Stormy Daniels. That “The National Enquirer” tipped Cohen off about Stormy Daniels trying to sell her story of having had sex with Donald Trump, which he denies. And that led to the hush money payment to her. So what prosecutors are doing overall with these headlines is establishing a pattern of conduct. And that conduct, they say, was an attempt to influence the election in Trump’s favor.

And the judge agrees. He’s going to admit this evidence. And this is a pretty big win for the prosecution. But even though they win that one, they’re not winning everything.

They lose some important arguments here. One of them was that after the Access Hollywood tape came out, there were allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump. And you know this, Michael, because you reported two of them — two of the three in question at this very trial.

Prosecutors had hoped to talk about those during trial in front of the jury to show the jurors that the Trump campaign was really, really focused on pushing back against bad press in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump seemed to describe sexual assault. That was a big problem for the campaign. Campaign did everything it could to push back, including against these allegations that surfaced in the wake of the tape.

But the judge, saying that the allegations are hearsay — that they’re based on the women’s stories — says absolutely not. That is incredibly prejudicial to the defendant.

Interesting.

And that Donald Trump would actually not get a fair trial were those allegations to be mentioned. And so he will not let those in. The jurors will not hear about them.

So this is a setback, of course, for the prosecution, a victory for Trump’s legal team.

It’s a setback. And it also just shows you how these pre-trial motions shape the context of the trial. Think of the trial as a venue like a theater or an athletic contest of some sort. And these pre-trial motions are about what gets led into the arena and what stays out. The sexual assault allegations — out. “The National Enquirer” headlines — in.

OK. And how is Trump sitting there at the defense table reacting to these pre-trial motion rulings from the judge?

Well, as I’ve just said, this is very important stuff for his trial.

Right. Hugely important.

But it’s all happening in legal language, and I’m decoding it for you. But if you were sitting there listening to it, you might get a little lost, and you might get a little bored. And Trump, who is not involved in these arguments, seems to fall asleep.

Seems to fall asleep — you’re seeing this with your own eyes.

What we’re seeing, overall, including our colleague, Maggie Haberman, who’s in the overflow room and has a direct view of Trump’s face — I’m sitting behind him in the courtroom, so I can’t see his face that well.

You guys are double teaming this.

That’s right. I’m sitting behind him, but Maggie is sitting in front of him. And what she sees is not only that his eyes are closed. That wouldn’t get you to he is asleep.

And we have to be really careful about reporting that he’s asleep, even if it seems like a frivolous thing. But what happens is that his head is dropping down to his chest, and then it’s snapping back up. So you’ve seen that, when a student —

I’ve done that.

(CHUCKLES) Yeah. We all kind of know that feeling of snapping awake suddenly. And we see the head motion, and it happens several times.

Lawyers kind of bothering him, not quite shaking him, but certainly trying to get his attention. And that head snapping motion, we felt confident enough to report that Trump fell asleep.

During his own criminal trial’s opening day.

Does someone eventually wake him up?

He wakes up. He wakes up. And in fact, in the afternoon, he’s much more animated. It’s almost as if he wants to be seen being very much awake.

Right. So once these pre-trial motions are ruled on and Trump is snapped back to attention, what happens?

Well, what happens in the courtroom is that the trial begins. The first trial of an American president is now in session. And what marks that beginning is jurors walking into the room one by one — many of them kind of craning their necks over at Donald Trump, giggling, raising their eyebrows at each other, filing into the room, and being sworn in by the judge. And that swearing in marks the official beginning of the trial.

The beginning is jury selection, and it’s often overlooked. It’s not dramatized in our kind of courtroom dramas in the same way. But it’s so important. It’s one of the most important parts of the case. Because whoever sits on the jury, these are the 12 people who are going to decide whether Trump is guilty or whether Trump is innocent.

So how does jury selection actually look and feel and go?

So, jury selection is a winnowing process. And in order to do that, you have to have these people go through a bunch of different hurdles. So the first hurdle is, after the judge describes the case, he asks the group — and there are just short of 100 of them — whether they can be fair and impartial. And says that if they can’t, they should leave. And more than half the group is instantly gone.

So after we do this big mass excusal, we’re left with the smaller group. And so now, jurors are getting called in smaller groups to the jury box. And what they’re going to do there is they’re going to answer this questionnaire.

And this part of the process is really conducted by the judge. The lawyers are involved. They’re listening, but they’re not yet asking questions of the jurors themselves.

And what’s on the questionnaire?

Well, it’s 42 questions. And the questions include, their education, their professional histories, their hobbies, what they like to do whether you’re a member of QAnon or Antifa.

Whether you’re far left or far right.

That’s right. Whether you’ve read “The Art of the Deal,” Trump’s book, which some prospective jurors had.

Right. It was a bestseller in its time.

That’s right. And some of it can be answered in yes/no questions, but some of it can be answered more at length. So some of the prospective jurors are going very, very fast. Yes, no, no, no, yes.

Right. Because this is an oral questionnaire.

That’s right. But some of them are taking their time. They’re expanding on their hobbies. So the potential juror in seat 3, for example, is talking about her hobbies. And she says some running, hiking. And then she said, I like to go to the club, and it got a huge laugh. And you get that kind of thing in jury selection, which is one of the reasons it’s so fun. It’s the height of normality in this situation that is anything but normal.

Right. The most banal answer possible delivered in front of the former president And current Republican nominee for president.

Well, that’s one of the fascinating parts about all this, right? is that they’re answering in front of Trump. And they’re answering questions about Trump in front of Trump. He doesn’t react all that much. But whenever someone says they’ve read “The Art of the Deal —” and there are a few of those — he kind of nods appreciatively, smiles. He likes that. It’s very clear. But because there are so many questions, this is taking forever, especially when people are choosing to answer and elaborate and digress.

This is when you fall asleep.

This Is. When I would have fallen asleep if I were a normal person.

And by the end of the day. Where does jury selection stand?

Well, the questionnaire is another device for shrinking that jury pool. And so the questionnaire has almost these little obstacles or roadblocks, including, in fact, a question that jurors have seen before — whether they would have any problem being fair and impartial?

Hmm. And they ask it again.

They’re asked it again. And they’re asked in this more individualized way. The judge is questioning them. They’re responding.

So, remember that woman who said she liked to go to the club got a big laugh. She reaches question 34. And question 34 reads, “Do you have any strong opinions or firmly-held beliefs about former President Donald Trump or the fact that he is a current candidate for president that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial juror?” She said, yes, she does have an opinion that would prevent her from being fair and impartial. And she, too, is excused.

So that’s how it works. People answer the questionnaire, and they get excused in that way, or they have a scheduling conflict once they reach the jury box. And so to answer your question, Michael. At the end of day one, given all these problems with the questionnaire and the length of time it’s taken to respond to and people getting dismissed based on their answers, there is not a single juror seated for this trial.

And it’s starting to look like this is going to be a really hard case for which to find an impartial jury.

That’s the feeling in the room, yeah.

We’ll be right back.

So Jonah, let’s turn to day 2. What does jury selection look like on Tuesday?

So when the day begins, it looks almost exactly like it looked when the day ended on Monday. We’re still with the questionnaire, getting some interesting answers. But even though it feels like we’re going slow, we are going.

And so we’ve gone from about 100 people to now there’s about 24 the room there’s 18 the jury box. And by the time we hit lunch, all those people have answered all those questions, and we are ready for the next step in the process.

Voir dire. And what it is the heart of jury selection. This is the point where the lawyers themselves finally get to interview the jurors. And we get so much information from this moment because the lawyers ask questions based on what they want out of the jurors.

So the prosecution is asking all these different kinds of questions. The first round of wajir is done by a guy named Joshua Steinglass, a very experienced trial lawyer with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. And he’s providing all these hypotheticals. I’ll give you one example because I found this one really, really interesting. He provides a hypothetical about a man who wants his wife killed and essentially hires a hitman to do it. And what he asked the jurors is, if that case were before you, would you be able to see that the man who hired the hitman was a part of this crime?

And of course, what he’s really getting at is, can you accept that even though Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer, made this payment, Trump is the guy who hired him to do it?

That’s right. If there are other people involved, will jurors still be able to see Donald Trump’s hands behind it all?

Fascinating. And what were some of the responses?

People mostly said, yes, we accept that. So that’s how the prosecution did it.

But the defense had a totally different method of voir dire. They were very focused on their client and people’s opinions about their client.

So what kind of questions do we get from them?

So the lawyer, Todd Blanche, is asking people, what do you make of President Trump? What do you think of President Trump?

And what are some of the responses to that?

Well, there’s this incredible exchange with one of the jurors who absolutely refuses to give his opinion of Donald Trump. They go back and forth and back and forth. And the juror keeps insisting you don’t need to know my opinion of him. All you need to know is that I’m going to be fair and impartial, like I said. And Blanch pushes, and the guy pushes back. And the only way the guy budges is he finally kind of confesses almost at the end that, yes, I am a Democrat, and that’s all we get.

And what ends up happening to this potential juror?

Believe it or not, he got dismissed.

[LAUGHS]: I can believe it. And of course, it’s worth saying that this guy and everybody else is being asked that question just feet from Trump himself.

That’s right. And you might think you were going to get a really kind of spicy, like, popcorn emoji-type exchange from that. But because these are now jurors who have said they can be fair and impartial, who, to some extent, want to be on this jury or at least wouldn’t mind being on this jury, they’re being very restrained.

Mostly, what they are emphasizing — much like that guy just described dis — is that they can be fair. They can be impartial. There’s one woman who gives this really remarkable answer.

She says, I thought about this last night. I stayed up all night. I couldn’t sleep, thinking about whether I could be fair. It’s really important to me, and I can.

What ends up happening to that particular juror?

She’s also dismissed. And she’s dismissed without any reason at all. The defense decides it doesn’t like her. It doesn’t want her on the jury. And they have a certain number of chances to just get rid of jurors — no questions asked.

Other jurors are getting dismissed for cause — I’m doing air quotes with my hands — which means that the lawyers have argued they actually revealed themselves through their answers or through old social media posts, which are brought up in the courtroom, to be either non-credible, meaning they’ve said they can be fair and they can’t, or somehow too biased to be on the jury.

Wait, can I just dial into that for a second? Are lawyers researching the jurors in real time going online and saying — I’m making this up — but Jonah Bromwich is a potential juror, and I’m going to go off into my little corner of the courtroom and Google everything you’ve ever said? Is that what’s happening in the room?

Yeah, there’s a whole profession dedicated to that. It’s called jury consultant, and they’re very good at finding information on people in a hurry. And it certainly looked as if they were in play.

Did a social media post end up getting anybody kicked off this jury?

Yes, there were posts from 2016 era internet. You’ll remember that time as a very heated one on the internet, Facebook memes are a big thing. And so there’s all kinds of lock him up type memes and rhetoric. And some of the potential jurors here have used those. And those jurors are dismissed for a reason.

So we have these two types of dismissals, right? We have these peremptory dismissals — no reason at all given. And we have for cause dismissals.

And the process is called jury selection. But you don’t actually get selected for a jury. The thing is to make it through all these obstacles.

You’re left over.

Right. And so when certain jurors are not dismissed, and they’ve made it through all these stages, by the end of the day, we have gone from zero juror seated to seven jurors who will be participating in Donald Trump’s trial.

Got it. And without going through all seven, just give us a little bit of a sketch of who so far is on this jury. What stands out?

Well, not that much stands out. So we’ve got four men. We’ve got three women. One lives on the Upper East Side. One lives in Chelsea. Obviously, they’re from all over Manhattan.

They have these kind of very normal hobbies like spending time with family and friends. They have somewhat anonymous jobs. We’ve got two lawyers. We’ve got someone who’s worked in sales.

So there’s not that much identifying information. And that’s not an accident . One of the things that often happens with jury selection, whether it be for Donald Trump or for anyone else, is the most interesting jurors — the jurors that kind of catch your attention during the process — they get picked off because they are being so interesting that they interest one or the other side in a negative way. And soon they’re excused. So most of the jurors who are actually seated —

Are not memorable.

Are not that memorable, save one particular juror.

OK. All right, I’ll bite. What do I need to know about that one particular juror?

So let me tell you about a prospective juror who we knew as 374, who will now be juror number five. She’s a middle school teacher from Harlem. And she said that she has friends who have really strong opinions about Trump, but she herself does not. And she insisted several times, I am not a political person.

And then she said this thing that made me quite surprised that the prosecution was fine with having her on the jury. She said, quote, “President Trump speaks his mind, and I’d rather that than someone who’s in office who you don’t know what they’re thinking.”

Hmm. So she expressed approval of President Trump.

Yeah, it was mild approval. But the thing is, especially for the defense in this trial, all you need is one juror. One juror can tie up deliberations in knots, and you can end with a hung jury. And this is actually something that I saw firsthand. In 2019, I was the foreperson on a jury.

How you like that?

Yeah. And the trial was really complicated, but I had thought while we were doing the trial, oh, this is going to be a really easy decision. I thought the defendant in that case was guilty. So we get into deliberations, but there’s this one juror who keeps gumming up the works every time we seem to be making progress, getting a conversation started.

This juror proverbially throws up his hands and says, I am not convicting. This man is innocent. And we talked and we talked. And as the foreperson, I was trying to use all my skills to mediate.

But any time we made any progress, this guy would blow it up. And long story short, hung jury — big victory for the defense lawyer. And we come out of the room. And she points at this juror. The guy —

The defense lawyer.

The defense lawyer points at this juror who blew everything up. And she said, I knew it. I knew I had my guy.

OK. I don’t want to read too much into what you said about that one juror. But should I read between the lines to think that if there’s a hung jury, you wonder if it might be that juror?

That’s what everyone in the courtroom is wondering not just about this juror, but about every single person who was selected. Is this the person who swings the case for me? Is this the person who swings the case against me?

These juries are so complex. It’s 12 people who don’t know each other at the start of the trial and, by the end of the trial, have seen each other every morning and are experiencing the same things, but are not allowed to have talked about the case until deliberations start. In that moment when deliberations start —

You’re going to learn a whole lot about each other.

That’s right. There’s this alchemical moment where suddenly, it all matters. Every personality selected matters. And that’s why jury selection is so important. And that’s why these last two days are actually one of the most important parts of this trial.

OK. So by my math, this trial will require five more jurors to get to 12. I know also they’re going to need to be alternates. But from what you’re saying what looked like a really uphill battle to get an impartial jury or a jury that said it could be impartial — and Trump was very doubtful one could be found — has turned out to not be so hard to find.

That’s right. And in fact, we went from thinking, oh, boy, this is going awfully slowly, to the judge himself saying we could be doing opening arguments as soon as Monday morning. And I think that highlights something that’s really fascinating both about this trial and about the jury selection process overall.

One of the things that lawyers have been arguing about is whether or not it’s important to figure out what jurors’ opinions about Donald Trump are. And the prosecution and, I think, the judge have really said, no, that’s not the key issue here. The key issue is not whether or not people have opinions about Donald Trump.

Right. Who doesn’t have an opinion about Donald Trump?

Exactly. They’re going to. Automatically, they’re going to. The question is whether or not they can be fair and impartial. And the seven people we already have seated, and presumably the five people that we’re going to get over the next few days and however many alternates — we expect six — are all going to have answered that question, not I hate Trump; I love Trump, but I can weigh in on the former president’s innocence or guilt, and I can do it as fairly as humanly possible.

Now, Trump is not happy about this. He said after court yesterday, quote, We have a highly conflicted judge, and he’s rushing this trial.” And I think that he is going to see these beats of the system the criminal justice system as it works on him as he is experiencing it as unfair. That is typically how he talks about it and how he views it.

But what he’s getting is what defendants get. This is the system in New York, in the United States. This is its answer to how do you pick a fair jury? Well, you ask people can you be fair? And you put them through this process, and the outcome is 12 people.

And so I think we’re going to see this over and over again in this trial. We’re going to see Trump experience the criminal justice system.

And its routines.

Yeah, openings, witnesses, evidence, closings. He’s going to go through all of it. And I think, at every turn, it makes sense to expect him to say, well, this is not fair. Well, the judge is doing something wrong. Well, the prosecutors are doing something wrong. Well, the jury is doing something wrong.

But at the end of the day, he’s going to be a defendant, and he’s going to sit, mostly silently if his lawyers can make him do that, and watch this process play itself out. So the system is going to try and treat him like any other defendant, even though, of course —

— he’s not. And he is going to fight back like no other defendant would, like no other defendant could. And that tension, him pushing against the criminal justice system as it strives to treat him, as it would anyone else, is going to be a defining quality of this trial.

Well, Jonah, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Of course. Thanks so much for having me. [MUSIC PLAYING]

PS, have you ever fallen asleep in a trial?

I have not.

[CHUCKLES]:

Here’s what else you need to know today.

It’s clear the Israelis are making a decision to act. We hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible and in a way that, as I said —

During a visit to Jerusalem on Wednesday, Britain’s foreign Secretary left little doubt that Israel would retaliate against Iran for last weekend’s aerial attack, despite pressure from the United States and Britain to stand down. The question now is what form that retaliation will take? “The Times” reports that Israel is weighing several options, including a direct strike on Iran, a cyber attack, or targeted assassinations. And —

Look, history judges us for what we do. This is a critical time right now, critical time on the world stage.

In a plan that could threaten his job, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson will put a series of foreign aid bills up for a vote this weekend. The bills, especially for aid to Ukraine, are strongly opposed by far-right House Republicans, at least two of whom have threatened to try to oust Johnson over the plan.

I can make a selfish decision and do something that’s different, but I’m doing here what I believe to be the right thing. I think providing lethal aid to Ukraine right now is critically important. I really do. I really — [MUSIC PLAYING]

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky, Will Reid, Lynsea Garrison, and Rob Zubko. It was edited by Paige Cowett, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly Lake.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

• April 19, 2024   •   30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
• April 16, 2024   •   29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
• April 15, 2024   •   24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
• April 14, 2024   •   46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma
• April 9, 2024   •   30:48 How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall
• April 8, 2024   •   30:28 The Eclipse Chaser
• April 7, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Jonah E. Bromwich

Produced by Rikki Novetsky ,  Will Reid ,  Lynsea Garrison and Rob Szypko

Edited by Paige Cowett

Original music by Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano and Elisheba Ittoop

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Political and legal history are being made in a Lower Manhattan courtroom as Donald J. Trump becomes the first former U.S. president to undergo a criminal trial.

Jonah Bromwich, who covers criminal justice in New York, explains what happened during the opening days of the trial, which is tied to Mr. Trump’s role in a hush-money payment to a porn star.

On today’s episode

Jonah E. Bromwich , who covers criminal justice in New York for The New York Times.

Background reading

Here’s a recap of the courtroom proceedings so far.

Mr. Trump’s trial enters its third day with seven jurors chosen.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state criminal courts in Manhattan. More about Jonah E. Bromwich

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Politics latest: Nicola Sturgeon speaks after husband charged; Rishi Sunak accused of 'full-on assault on disabled people'

Nicola Sturgeon says the situation has been "incredibly difficult" after her husband Peter Murrell was charged by police; Rishi Sunak is criticised after promising "significant" welfare reforms. Listen to the latest episode of Electoral Dysfunction as you scroll.

Friday 19 April 2024 15:40, UK

• Sturgeon: 'Incredibly difficult' time after husband charged
• Yousaf speaks of shock in SNP
• Sunak sets out 'moral mission' to end UK's 'sick note culture'
• PM accused of 'full-on assault on disabled people' by charity
• Serena Barker-Singh: Is Sunak's diagnosis of welfare problems correct?
• PM refuses to say if suspended Tory should quit as MP
• Labour demands police probe into Mark Menzies
• 'We are going to get this done': Sunak vows to pass Rwanda bill
• Live reporting by Ben Bloch

Former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has just spoken to Sky's Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies and the gathered media outside her Glasgow home.

It is the first time she has been seen in public since her husband, ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, was charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the party

She said: "This is a difficult time. I don't think I'm revealing any secrets in saying that.

"But there's absolutely nothing I can say given the circumstances.

"So I'm now going to go out for a walk... There's nothing going to be happening here."

Asked by Connor Gillies how difficult this is for her personally, the MSP for Glasgow Southside replied: "It's incredibly difficult, but that's not the main issue here."

She said she can't and won't say any more due to the ongoing police investigation.

Rishi Sunak today announced he wanted to tackle what he calls "sick note culture" which he says is costing the taxpayer £69bn and rising.

In effect, he said that if his party wins a general election and he is still the prime minister, he plans to strip GPs of their power to sign of people off work.

Instead, unspecified "specialist work and health professionals" would be given the job of issuing sick notes in England to combat what he called a "worrying" number of 2.8 million younger people who were out of work as of this year.

General election posturing aside, is the prime minister's diagnosis of the problem the right one?

From OBR figures, the number of sick notes have stayed relatively stagnant over the past four years - essentially flat with the exception of lockdowns - and that it's difficult to determine why sick notes are issued, for mental health or otherwise.

Where increases do arise are on the levels of worklessness generally. 

"Economic inactivity" is now higher than in the pandemic and the biggest driver behind this seems to be long-term ill health - people out of work for more than three years.

The director of the Institute for Employment Studies, Tony Wilson, says these figures suggest the problem isn't higher flows of people out of work, but rather lower flows into work.

He says sick notes are important, but not the whole picture as the priority shul be to help those already out of work.

One of the rationales behind the government's announcement was that Britain simply "can’t afford" the current levels of sickness benefit and that it was "not fair on taxpayers".

Mr Sunak made a point of stating that those who are anxious or depressed should be expected to work, saying that while "we should see it as a sign of progress that people can talk openly about mental health conditions in a way that only a few years ago would've been unthinkable", he was also concerned that 53% of people inactive due to long term sickness reported they had depression, bad nerves or anxiety.

But Louise Murphy from the Resolution Foundation says most PIP claims among young people do relate to "psychiatric disorders" but  these tend to be long term conditions such as ADHD and autism rather than anxiety and depression.

Critics have also pointed out something missing from the speech was NHS mental health capacity, after NHS bosses warned "overwhelmed" services had been unable to cope with a big post-COVID increase in people needing help.

As these plans are promised for the next parliament and a consultation will be the next steps, it is likely there will be more detail in the coming months from the government on how these plans can be legislated for.

By Adam Parsons , Europe correspondent, and Tim Baker , political reporter

Young people could be able to move more easily between the UK and Europe and stay longer to work, study and train under proposed plans by the European Union

Under the proposal, which has been put forward by the European Commission ,  new rules would be drawn up to allow for greater movement between the UK and EU countries for people aged between 18 and 30.

Formal negotiations have not yet begun, and a UK source told Sky News no formal proposal had been put forward by Brussels to begin negotiating on.

The proposal will be further discussed by the European Council, which represents all the nations, before negotiations start in earnest.

The plans proposed by the EU would allow young people to stay in Europe for periods of four years, with the same rules extended to EU citizens coming to Britain.

It would also mean EU students paying the same fees as British ones. Since Brexit, UK universities have charged much higher fees to European students.

Announcing the move, the European Commission said it wanted to take an "innovative" approach to tackling the barriers experienced by young people looking to travel from the EU to the UK and vice versa for longer periods.

Read more here:

By Beth Rigby , political editor

This is a tale that's more than just a marmalade dropper. It's a story so astounding you have to pick yourself up off the floor.

Mark Menzies MP last December allegedly made a 3.15am phone call to an elderly party volunteer asking for £5,000 as a matter of "life or death" because he had been locked up by "bad people".

To secure his release, the money was paid by his office manager from her personal account and reimbursed from funds raised from donors, according to The Times . The newspaper also alleges Mr Menzies received thousands of pounds from campaign funds into his personal bank account which were used for personal medical expenses.

I will say from the outset that these are claims Mr Menzies, the MP for the Lancashire seat of Fylde, "strongly disputes".

In a statement to The Times, he said: "I strongly dispute the allegations put to me. I have fully complied with all the rules for declarations. As there is an investigation ongoing I will not be commenting further."

But when the story broke, Conservative chief whip Simon Hart suspended Mr Menzies from the parliamentary party pending the outcome of an investigation.

It is a mega story. Not just because of the staggering, astounding, eye-popping - take your pick - nature of the allegations, but the questions it throws up: If this had happened over three months ago, why is it only now that the Conservative Party are suspending the whip? Was there misuse of money and what are the implications of that? Can Mr Menzies really continue as an MP?

Read Beth's full analysis below:

👉 Tap here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts 👈

Email Beth, Jess, and Ruth at  [email protected] , post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.

Labour is today revealing more details about its housing plans, should it form the next government.

Speaking to Sky News, the party's shadow housing secretary Matthew Pennycook accused the Tories of "presiding over an acute and intensifying housing crisis", saying there is "no aspect of that housing crisis that is not improved by building many more homes across the country".

He went on: "What we're announcing today is a strategic release of some greenbelt land in order to meet housing need across the country."

Despite the government's claim it is "protecting every inch" of the green belt, he said it is releasing land, but in "an inconsistent and haphazard manner".

"Labour is saying there's a smarter way to do this when we have to release greenbelt land to meet local housing targets, we can ensure we're releasing the right parts of the green belt," Mr Pennycook says.

"So low quality grey belt land in the green belt. Disused petrol stations. Abandoned car parks. 

"And when that is released, we can ensure through our golden rules that the development that takes place on it does meet local housing with high rates of affordable housing, first class infrastructure and amenities, and access to local green space."

He rejected suggestions of a potential backlash from environmental groups, saying the move is backed by Natural England, for example.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was out on a visit this morning visiting a housing development in the East Midlands.

He told broadcasters: "Having a secure roof over your head is one of the dreams of so many people across the country. 

"Because it's a base camp, if you like. For life, for security, for everything they want to achieve."

The site he visited was "derelict", he said, and is now being developed, and he said: "We want to see more of that."

By Jennifer Scott , political reporter

A Tory activist who reported an MP over claims he misused party funds has told Sky News she is disappointed by the way her complaint has been handled.

Mark Menzies voluntarily quit the Conservative parliamentary party this week after a report in The Times claimed he called his ex-campaign manager Katie Fieldhouse, 78, early one day to say he was locked in a flat by "bad people" and needed £5,000 as a matter of "life and death".

The sum, which rose to £6,500, was eventually paid by his office manager from her personal bank account and subsequently reimbursed from funds raised from donors in an account named Fylde Westminster Group, the newspaper said.

But despite the incident taking place in December - and Ms Fieldhouse submitting her complaint in January - the Fylde MP had remained part of the parliamentary party and as a trade envoy for the government until the press reports surfaced.

He has now lost the Conservative whip and was suspended as one of Rishi Sunak's envoys.

Mr Menzies strongly disputes the claims, which also include accusations he used campaign funds to pay his personal medical bills.

Speaking to Sky News' Frazer Maude, Ms Fieldhouse said: "I am feeling dreadful because I am a devout Tory and as I have said to everybody else, I reported his actions to the chief whip… it is now the middle of April.

"Come to your own conclusions [about] what is happening."

Read her full comments here:

People voting in local elections in England on 2 May will need to provide photo ID.

It is the second year the requirement has been in place - but in 2023,  14,000 people couldn't cast their ballot because they didn't take ID to the polling booth.

There are 22 different types of ID you can use - and if you don't have any of them, you can register for a Voter Authority Certificate.

Here's everything you need to know to avoid being caught out:

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has breached government rules by being "evasive" about his links to a hedge fund that set up a meeting between him and the president of Venezuela, a watchdog has said.

Mr Johnson raised a few eyebrows earlier this year after his spokesman confirmed he had flown to the country to meet its controversial leader Nicolas Maduro.

But now, the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) Lord Pickles, has highlighted further controversary around the meeting which was arranged by a company called Merlyn Advisors - a hedge fund.

Under government rules, any minister leaving office must run new jobs or appointments by the Acoba watchdog before taking them up.

But Lord Pickles said despite "repeatedly" being asked to "clarify his relationship" with the firm, Mr Johnson had "not done so", nor had he "denied the reports in the media that he had been working with Merlyn Advisors on a non-contractual basis".

As we reported yesterday, the SNP's former chief executive and husband of ex-first minister Nicola Sturgeon, Peter Murrell, has been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the party.

We heard from SNP leader and Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf a few moments ago.

He told broadcasters: "These are serious, serious developments. And as per the police statement, we now know that an individual has been charged, Peter has been charged, [with] the allegation of embezzlement from party funds, and that's a really serious matter indeed.

"Many people in the SNP, right across Scottish politics, will be shocked by the news and this is an ongoing investigation.

"Police, the Crown have a job to do, just as I have a job to do as first minister."

He said he found out about the charges when the news broke in the press yesterday afternoon.

Mr Murrell has resigned his SNP membership, and although they have not been charged with any crimes, Mr Yousaf was asked if Ms Sturgeon and ex-party treasurer Colin Beattie should be suspended from the party.

When asked the same question following their arrests a year ago, Mr Yousaf said they have not been charged, and therefore their membership status should remain.

Today, the first minister said: "The circumstances in relation to those individuals hasn't changed."

As we've been reporting this week, MP Mark Menzies has been suspended from the Tory parliamentary party in light of allegations he used local party funds to pay off "bad people".

The MP for Fylde in Lancashire strongly disputes the claims, which also include accusations he used campaign funds to pay his personal medical bills.

According to The Times newspaper, the Conservative Party has been investigating the claims for three months, and the Labour leader says they appear to have "sat on their hands".

Sir Keir Starmer told broadcasters: "In the last 24 hours we have found out that the government was told months ago about this, and they seem to have sat on their hands.

"If they thought they could sweep this under the carpet somehow they were obviously very mistaken and that is why I think there are very serious questions now that need to be answered.

"Not just by the individual but also by the government on this."

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