Moms are often very concerned about the situation when a neighbor's baby, the same age as their own child, is already utterly pronouncing the first words, and no sound is heard from their child. The situation is also aggravated by doctors, who for some reason are very fond of making the diagnosis of “delayed speech development” to everyone who is at least a little below the standards adopted in Soviet times.
In fact, all babies grow and learn in different ways, and if there are no obvious health problems, you should not worry about something wrong with the child. Some children begin to walk early, others speak, still others master some other skills. It is better to direct your efforts to help the baby pronounce his first words, and then the sentences. But first things first.
When does a child start talking? Official version
If you believe the already mentioned standards, then at the age of one, the baby must have an active dictionary, consisting of at least five words. By one and a half, his passive speech is noticeably increasing, that is, an understanding of what adults are talking about. In two years, the child should be able to build simple sentences. At a minimum, they should consist of two words. Well, in two and a half children are simply obliged to read poetry by heart.
By the age of three, the baby should be able to inflect nouns and conjugate verbs. At four and a half or five, his problems with the pronunciation of the sounds “p”, “l” should disappear.
Meanwhile, many experts note that recently these age norms are shifting, and not towards the earlier beginning of speech, but vice versa. The reasons for this are many.
When does a child start talking? Factors that influence speech formation
In many respects, when the child pronounces the first words depends on other family members with whom he lives in the same house, especially from his mother. So, live communication, frequent contact with the baby, singing songs contribute to the acceleration of speech development.
A significant influence on the moment when the child begins to talk, have his older brothers and sisters. Often the youngest children in the family are ahead in the development of the older ones, and this applies not only to the long-awaited first word. It's all about the additional motivation that appears in this case, because the baby has someone to follow.
Sometimes parents, unaware of it, postpone the long-awaited moment when it will be possible to conduct a dialogue with their beloved child. This happens if all the child’s requests that come in any form (stomping a foot, gesture or half-sentence) are fulfilled immediately. In this case, the baby simply has no incentive to learn to speak correctly. In this case, parents should refuse this method of communication. The second example is when relatives, believing that the child is still very young, communicate with him in “children's language”, even when his age approaches a three-year mark. The words "bibika", "naka", "ava" and other similar words should forever leave the vocabulary of adults, as soon as the baby is one and a half years old.
Another factor that influences when a child begins to talk is his socialization. Today there are many opponents of kindergartens who believe that before school children can learn more at home. But even daily activities will not replace him live communication with peers. A lot of parents admit that their two-year-old baby, who connected two words with difficulty when he went to kindergarten, began to speak much more and more correctly.
When a child begins to talk: hereditary features
All children are individual. And you don’t have to go far for evidence. If you pay attention to peers, swarming in the playground, you will notice that some do not crawl out of the sandbox, others cannot be dragged off the swing, and still others simply rush headlong over the entire walk.
The same thing with speech. If one of the parents up to three years old was uncommunicative and non-talkative, the baby may have the same developmental features. Of course, this situation is not obligatory at all, but it is quite possible and explainable.
The child says poorly: how to fix the situation
If the child is lagging behind the norm in the development of speech, the first thing to exclude is possible health problems. To begin with, you can just watch the baby: does he listen to the speech of adults and does he understand it. Well, the second step is to consult a specialist.
If there are no apparent reasons, you should devote more time to your child: read poetry, for example, Agnii Barto, attend general developmental classes for kids, play finger games and talk to him, not forcing him to utter new words, but causing him to do so. And then he will certainly please you with his speech.