The touching babbling of the neighbor's baby often causes some moms a slight feeling of envy and anxiety, because her toddler barely mastered the first words and is not in a hurry to enter into intimate conversations with her parents. Maybe something is wrong with the baby and it's time to contact a specialist? In fact, each child is too individual and develops completely unique. The delay in speech development, most likely, is not related to mental abilities, and whether its vocabulary corresponds to age norms - let's try to figure it out together.
The development of the child's speech in the first year of life
From 0 to 3 months
The first weeks of her life the baby gets used to the new conditions of existence and sleeps almost all day. However, very soon, during short-term wakefulness, he begins to react to light, sound and focus his gaze on mom. The next two months are characterized by closer acquaintance and fellowship — at the sight of the native face, the crumb smiles, sonorously rejoices, and in 2–3 months begins to “roar” - at first the jerky sounds become more drawn and melodic.
3 to 6 months
The child’s speech development continues successfully - the lingering vowel sounds smoothly transform into each other, and gradually the consonants begin to be added to them. Scarce tries to imitate mom and dad and pleases with the first syllables - pa-pa-pa, yes-yes. This stage is called babble.
From 6 to 9 months
An important period - the baby begins to understand the speech. Dialogues arise between him and his parents, in which the crumb tries to repeat the words addressed to him, without really thinking about their meaning. At times, he stops his babbling, observing her mother's reaction, and, with even more enthusiasm, continues the conversation. At nine months, some kids can please the first short word - on, mom, dad, give.
From 9 to 12 months
Clearly pronounced vowels and consonants more and more successfully add up, new words appear, consisting mainly of the same syllables - woman, uncle, kaka. The kid understands about two dozen words, carefully repeats new combinations.
The speech development of the child may differ slightly from the average, but it is quite acceptable. In order to wake the dormant speech activity in him, now it is necessary to talk with him more often, to acquaint with surrounding objects, to look at bright pictures in books, to play Ladushki, Soroka-Belobok and other similar games.
The baby is one year old - the first results
With what success your baby came to his first birthday and how to find out if the child’s speech development is in line with the norm. The child approached this milestone responsibly - he pleased Mom with the first words, diligently learning to repeat new ones, with great pleasure enters into dialogue and understands the correct meaning of at least 20 words. However, now some signals may appear that should alert mom and dad:
- the baby does not respond to the sound and does not turn the head when it is addressed;
- the child does not even try to imitate the speech of the parents, he has no reaction to the change of intonation, the sounds “b, p, m” may be absent in pronunciation;
- A one-year-old crumb does not understand the meaning of words, and he only uses crying to express his desires.
If the observed delay in speech development is due to poor hearing, then the sooner the doctor finds the cause and takes action, the better for the crumb. After all, late diagnosis can cause the loss of precious time, when it is still possible to help the baby.
Sometimes the speech delay is associated with a weak muscular tone of the face. This is evidenced by:
- breath through the mouth;
- increased salivation;
- unwillingness to speak and slurred pronunciation.
The main reason for the doctor is called early weaning, and games and fun exercises that develop the muscles of the mouth will help to cope with the problem. Among the toys should be present pipes and whistles, and tasty juice is better to drink through a straw.
Speech development of a child from 1 to 2 years
Active cognition of the world continues. Together with him, sometimes successful, and sometimes not quite, speech development of a child takes place, which with great delight comprehends the unknown. The conquest of space, the first achievements and experience are reflected in the volatility of Egoza The kid loves to communicate, reacts to the pronounced names and familiar names of objects, new words are fixed in his lexicon. He already understands quite a lot and even with pleasure fulfills the simplest of my mother's requests - to bring a book, to show a dog, to demonstrate the mooing of a cow.
By the age of one and a half years, the development of a child’s speech is characterized by the presence of the first, very simple, sentences and the smooth execution of the required actions. Of course, it is still a bit early for long connected tirades, and the child speaks poorly, but tries hard. The baby can shorten too long words, leaving only the stressed syllable, and many concepts are united by one, well understood only by him, designation. Am, for example, may refer to food, a plate, bread, and a cat that nourishes lousyly at the feeder. With regular active communication, by two years the child’s speech development is pleasantly pleasing. His main achievements are:
- understanding and use of masculine and feminine nouns, plural or singular;
- can apply the verb not only in the present tense, but also in the past;
- it is curious to require mothers to call unfamiliar objects;
- perfectly knows the names of relatives;
- makes sentences of two words - subject and predicate.
Experts call this stage of development of children's speech autonomous and believe that if at this stage the development of the child’s speech stops, this will indicate a delay in mental development.
Baby two years old - summing up the results of speech development
Reasons for concern parents of two-year-old karapuz:
- Inaudibility of speech, which parents understand by 50%;
- vocabulary is less than 20 words;
- lack of desire for communication and joint games with peers;
- does not name family members;
- simple questions cause confusion and the impossibility of an answer;
- ignorance of the names of the surrounding objects.
A child may have one or more signs from this list, but this is a good reason to see a doctor. It is possible that there is a problem with hearing, or there is a lag in development. Mommy needs to pay attention to verbal communication as much as possible - telling tales, reading books, singing songs, introducing new subjects with the use of verbs and adjectives - the ball is red, the kitty meows, the brother laughs. A little comforting words - the boys usually begin to talk a little later. Maybe you have a son, and a slight delay in speech development is associated with this?
Speech development in a child from 2 to 3 years
The third year of life is the stage of the coherent nature of speech. Sentences become longer and more complex, with different intonations and the use of adjectives. A crumb often asks his own questions, gives detailed answers to his mother's, performs consecutive requests - pick up a book and put it on the table, for example. The three-year-old peasant speaks simple familiar words clearly and without defects, and his vocabulary by this time is between 1,000 and 1,500 words. There are hesitations, repetitions, errors in pronunciation, of course, but this is a fixable matter. However, if the child speaks poorly and does not pronounce most of the letters - this is a cause for concern.
If at an earlier age a small speech delay was permissible, then after three years this may cause a delay in the development of the psyche of the baby. So it will be hard for such children to master the basics of reading and writing. They can even make decisions and react to the events taking place late. Therefore, it is worth paying the most careful attention to the compliance of the child’s speech development with age standards and, if necessary, ask for help from a psychologist or speech therapist. The doctor will surely either calm the agitated mother in vain, or suggest ways to solve the problem.
How to diagnose "delayed speech development"
For the correct diagnosis of speech delay is not enough the conclusion of a pediatrician or a neurologist. A comprehensive examination and consultations of narrow specialists - a children's psychologist, a speech therapist, a neuropathologist. The motility of the facial muscles is assessed, hearing is checked, a comparative analysis of speech understanding and reproduction is performed, testing of the psychomotor development level is proposed. To determine the lack of speech development of the child and its cause sometimes help special analyzes of the brain - ECHO-EG, ECG and others.
How to help your child with speech development delay
Parents need to know that the most successful results of speech delay treatment are possible with the timely detection of a problem. The best time for this is considered to be up to two years old. Therefore, if the child speaks poorly and the other signs listed above are present, you should not postpone the visit to the doctor. In the case when the delay in speech development is confirmed by the results of the examination, the treatment is prescribed a complex:
1. Drug therapy - the doctor prescribes drugs that nourish the neurons of the brain and stimulate the activity of the speech zones.
2. Procedures - Electroreflexotherapy and magnetic therapy are widely used, they restore the activity of brain centers responsible for intellectual abilities, vocabulary, diction. Contraindications are epilepsy and mental disorders.
3. Hippotherapy and dolphin therapy are excellent alternative treatments that are prescribed individually.
4. Lessons with a teacher-defectologist - classes, built in the form of a game, are conducted according to an individual plan.
5. Various types of massage, including speech therapy.
6. Regular classes with parents - a baby with speech development delay requires a lot of time and effort from dad and mom. Songs and fairy tales, tongue twisters and onomatopoeia, the implementation of special exercises, the development of facial muscles - all this requires patience, but a successful result will reward a hundredfold. It is very important to develop fine motor skills of hands - oddly enough, but it plays a significant role in the development of speech in a child.
Over the years, the lagging behind peers in mental and intellectual development will increase. Difficulties in reading and writing, inability to concentrate, misunderstanding of long sentences can lead to the fact that you need to transfer the child to a specialized school. Mommies need to understand that the child’s speech development depends a lot on how often they talk to him and how they help them to get used to the new world. Hearing the gentle voice of the mother and feeling her love, the baby will definitely respond in kind.
