To the question of at what age children begin to pronounce words, there is still no single correct answer. Yes, there are some standards “fitted” under a single framework, according to which all physically and mentally healthy children develop in one way or another. But at the same time, the available averaged data do not really reflect the real picture completely, since the development of children in general and the development of children's speech are too different from statistical information.
Expected activities and expected results
Strengthen the role of school personnel in the behavioral behavior of the child and in the implementation of fundamental educational tasks. Activity 2 includes regular meetings with the school staff of eligible children. Activity 3 includes training sessions and preparation of parents, individual and couple conversations about the course of therapy, moments of observation of behavioral intervention, educational groups, self-guided meetings.
How and when does a child start talking?
One of the main questions parents try to answer is: At what age does a child start talking? How do you acquire a language? Language is structured through a variety of biological and environmental factors. Let's see what are the main stages of communication.
So, there are children who at 10-12 months already quite tolerably own an active dictionary of 10-15 words. But there are also frequent cases when babies aged 2.5-3 years continue to remain silent, although they understand everything perfectly and have normal mental development.
Reports of psychologists and speech therapists have been repeatedly published, in which they made unsuccessful attempts to calculate exactly how much and what words kids should know at a particular age. However, things are still there - the speech of each child develops according to its own scenario, regardless of the desires and efforts of mom and dad, the immediate environment, psychologists, doctors and speech therapists.
During the first three months, the baby begins to make sounds that can be considered the forerunners of the first words. From 3 to 6 months, the baby is receptive to the mother's voice, easily modulates the voice if he speaks, and tries to play with the vocal sounds he feels.
Between 6 and 9 months, installation takes place. Installation, also known as English mite, is a physiological phase linguistic development child, which usually occurs six months later, immediately after the vocalization phase. At this stage, the child does not have communicative intentions, but it is the adult who, by responding to this first language, gradually introduces the child into the awareness that the sounds he makes are causing a response of care, love or communicative behavior for him.
Although in fairness it should be noted that the development of the speech of babies (as well as how old or even months they begin to consciously pronounce words) is significantly influenced by the environment and conditions in which children live. But more on that below.
Approximate stages of the formation of speech
- Between 1 month and 5 months, healthy infants learn to respond to adult cues addressed to them, stop crying and try to focus on the image of adults. By 3 months, among the sounds made by babies, consonant sounds are clearly manifested. In addition, usually by 3 months, babies already know how to "ugug" and "walk". At 5 months, many babies "sing" - say long "remarks" in their "baby language" with a change in intonation, volume, and even some emotionality.
- At the age of 6 months, many children already know how to pronounce the first syllables: “ba”, “pa”, “ma”, etc. Of course, these are not words yet, but already clear prerequisites for them. In the same period, the correct reaction to intonation is formed, they learn to recognize familiar voices.
- At about 8 months, a stable speech function is formed - babies are more and more willing to mutter, that is, they repeat the same syllables with a clear understanding of what they are talking about. For example, repeating "ma-ma" or "pa-pa", the baby is fully aware that he is addressing his parents. In the child's personal vocabulary, the volume of actively used sounds, letters and syllables increases. At this stage, boys and girls develop more or less the same.
- Between 9 and 12 months there is an active development of the dictionary, the first consciously spoken words appear, and not as a random set of sounds, but as a specific address. For example, mom, dad, woman, lala, etc. By the way, “mother” is far from always the first word of a baby. At the age of 9-12 months, children already understand adults quite well, tolerably follow simple instructions and requests (kiss mom, pet a kitty, throw a piece of paper in the trash).
- Some children as young as 1 year old, saying simple words and dismantling simple gestures, it is possible to explain to adults their desires, intentions or plans. Although, according to average statistics, babies begin to talk more or less tolerably at about 15-18 months, when they vocabulary, in some cases, increases to 20-30 words. This does not mean at all that during this period there comes a moment when the child should begin to speak in our traditional sense, but often this happens precisely at this moment in time.
On the first birthday, the child begins to speak
Between 9 and 12 months, communicative intention, mature prasmatic motor skills, and articulation of language appear. Words spoken by a small one gradually increase. At this stage, it is important to assess the quantitative aspect of the language, not the qualitative one, because the child is still small, unable to quickly move all the muscles of the mouth involved in the articulation of sounds, and this is normal, so at this stage words are often distorted by an adult target.
Between 12 and 18 months we observe a gradual expansion of vocabulary. As a rule, before 18 months, the so-called "olophasic" or "phrase word" appears. This is one word used by a child to express what adults will say with a sentence. Meaning has to do with context and what parents think of as a child. The child can say "dad", which can take on the meaning "here's dad", "I want dad", or "dad's gone".
Of course, at the age of 1.5 years, speech is still too slurred, so that only the mother can make out frequently spoken words and phrases.
- At 21 months of age, babies begin to consume two complex sentences: “Mom, give!”, “Baba, go!”, “Tyoma bye”, “Mom, eat”, etc.
- By the age of 24 months or 2 years, the vocabulary of a "baby" may consist of about 50 words. At the age of 2 years, children, as a rule, are already able to follow more complex instructions and requests (“Step away from the TV and sit in a chair!”, “Put away your toys, it's time to go to bed”, etc.). In this period, children already know how to identify themselves in society, use pronouns correctly and begin to pronounce more complex sentences consisting of 3-4 words, begin to communicate more willingly with peers, and if this is possible, their speech development develops by leaps and bounds.
- At 36 months or three years of age, completely healthy children can have a vocabulary of 250-700 words. They know numerals, prepositions and verbs. At the age of 3, children understand well the poems and fairy tales they read, they can retell them to some extent close to the text, they begin to ask a lot of questions and even try to answer them on their own.
The above statistics are very conditional and ambiguous. In fact, at the moment when the child begins to speak, a lot of other equally important factors have an influence. But, even despite this, by about 3-3.5 years, all healthy children should already be able to more or less tolerably express themselves in English. mother tongue in such a way that not only the mother understands what the baby is talking about, but also other people, including peers.
From 18 to 24 months - the phase of the lexical explosion. A lexical explosion is a moment in the development of a child's linguistic development, characterized by the rapid acquisition of new words. Vocabulary explosion is important because it usually allows the child to start creating first combinations, that is, combining two or more words, the first fifteen sentences.
There are children where it happens "like a manual", others, on the other hand, where the increase in vocabulary is more gradual and continuous over time. It is important to point out how the above steps, even if they refer to accurate scientific sources, can vary greatly from child to child, especially up to 24 months. Starting at 24 months, variability tends to decrease and children's language levels tend to overlap.
Factors affecting the development of speech
- Mental and physical health is, if not of decisive importance in the development of children's speech, then one of the first.
- The immediate environment of the baby is also one of the most important factors contributing to the development of speech. So, for example, one should not wait for the development of speech within the established norm in a baby born in a family of deaf and dumb parents. In families where little attention is paid to the baby, where they do not seek to talk to him or verbal communications are minimized, there is also some lagging behind the established norms.
- The psychological situation in the family where the child lives has great value. In homes where an unstable emotional background is constantly observed, frequent conflicts occur, the child experiences stressful situations (fright, moving, parting with a loved one, etc.), violations in speech development and lagging behind norms and standards are possible.
- Personal interest and motivation of the child is another important element that contributes to the formation of speech or hinders its development. In families where attempts to pronounce new words and phrases are suppressed by excessive guardianship, “guessing” the baby’s desires, children, as a rule, are not interested in replenishing their vocabulary as soon as possible.
It is important to understand and take into account that the moment when the child begins to speak is different for everyone, at what age does the baby begin to pronounce his first words–the personality of the child, however,–This is a disease that can only be diagnosed by specialists: doctors, psychologists and speech therapists. Not a mother or other relatives who do not have the necessary qualifications.
About 3 years children's language should be perfectly understandable, and the 4 years should be substantially structured. But then when do you have to worry? In the first year of life, the child develops poorly, does not turn when someone speaks to him, does not use gestures with communicative intentions; For 18 months, the words do not appear or start to speak, but they seem to use words randomly, without a stable meaning, even simple queries are difficult to understand; The first two sentences have been missing for two years; Between the ages of 2 and 3, the vocabulary is reduced, his words are often incomprehensible, and parents often find themselves "translating" them into strangers; After 3 years, sentences are incomplete and telegraphic, trying to make sense of long sentences, often replacing a gesture with a word; It's still hard to create and comb sounds; After 4 years, the words are not pronounced correctly. If a parent should suspect a language disorder, they should first talk about it with their pediatrician, who is knowledgeable about the developmental stages of a child's language.
What else do parents need to know?
In addition to the conditional standards for the development of children's speech, there are other circumstances that affect the age at which babies speak.
- There is an opinion that girls start talking earlier than boys. This is explained by the development nervous system. However, this norm also has its exceptions, in which boys begin to pronounce words and sentences at an earlier age.
- In a pair of twins, usually one of the babies starts talking earlier, does it more actively and willingly compared to the second. This situation is the norm, it is especially typical for families where the twins are boys. In opposite-sex twins or twin girls, this feature is not noted.
- It is almost impossible to notice any violations in the speech development of a baby from birth to 8-9 months. In the same way, it is very difficult for caring parents not to notice them at the age of 3-3.5 years.
- There are frequent cases when completely healthy children aged 4-5 years, for one reason or another, do not want to master their native language. In such situations, however, timely consultation with specialists will not hurt, otherwise difficulties in the process of socialization and training of such silent people are too likely.
- If specialists diagnose violations in the speech development of a child, classes to correct them can take from several months to several years. Measures taken in time will not only increase their effectiveness, but also eliminate possible complications.
Thus, it is very important to know at what age children pronounce their first words, but it is equally important to understand that there are no strict frames and clear boundaries. Speech development the baby will pass within the established norms if he speaks both at 10 months and at the age of 3 years.
Seinon baby speaks after 2 years
In case of anxiety, the pediatrician will ask to visit a specialist. Eighteen months old, an English child at four is still unable to pronounce these words of 20 different international standards defined as the "threshold" below which you can diagnose language delay. And the percentage rises to one-fourth if only males are counted, who have always known more motor precocity and "laziness" in expression.
And if there is not enough cause for concern, it is also true that today's parents are very attentive, perhaps too much to the slightest symptom that can slow down their child in his path to growth. The daily experience of Italian pediatricians, the first to give answers and make a diagnosis that confirms the British data. And if a British study about 34 percent of girls and 27% of boys who uttered their first word after just nine months, in Italy, attention is growing for a delay in language.
Speech is one of the abilities that distinguishes a person from the animal world. The degree of development of speech is judged on the development of the brain as a whole.
Let's find out: that is, when the sounds and their combinations pronounced by the child can be designated as the beginning of speech. A newborn baby screams - he informs us that he is hungry, sick, he is not comfortable. But this is exactly what a dog does when you don’t feed it or close it in an unfamiliar room.
And, along with this, speed in "identify and treat their causes:" We requested and received the introduction of audiological screening at birth in some pilot cities such as Lecce - explains Giuseppe Mele, Secretary of Pediatrics Italian Federation - Deafness or hearing impairment, they, of course, only one of possible causes language disorders which we see every day are on the rise, but they are also easier to explore from birth.
Now incentives and comparisons are constant and every parent expects his child to do everything at once and doesn't care if it doesn't. They go if they see other people doing it, say to repeat the sounds made by their parent even learn to speak, however, television can have negative effects, although some think the opposite: it is passive listening, much better than the "interaction that exists between a child and adults, perhaps helped by an illustrated booklet, into a nursery rhyme or song. what to do and what to avoid Let small talk? without interruption, even if not so, listening carefully, prompting her gestures, repeating words correctly without pretending that he even does avoiding instead of teasing or worse - the habit of pretending not to hear his word was pronounced rudely.
So at what age do babies start talking?
The average standards adopted by children's specialists to assess the development of a child's speech are as follows:
Articulation of syllables appears at the age of seven months(ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba, etc.). Around twelve - the child begins to pronounce the first short words(often consisting of one syllable).
The number of immigrants in the Belska country is increasing, as well as the number of mixed marriages, which is common to many Western countries. Children born to families that speak a different language than their country of origin, or whose parents have different languages, will have to worry about solving a more complex and articulate language puzzle than their monolingual peers.
For us, bilingualism is not a choice, but a necessity. He calls it his native language and kindergarten. A bilingual child's brain has at least two words for every object, situation, or action. But it's even more difficult. Learning two languages means having two cultures, because the language cannot be freed from the cultural baggage that is behind. Someone who translates, perhaps literary or poetic texts, knows that the same phrase in two different languages can generate meanings and evoke emotions or feelings that are very far apart.
In about six months, a year, you will be able to hear from the lips of a son or daughter sentences consisting of two, three simple words.
During the second year of life, speech will improve. And by the age of three, the baby will already be able to speak in simple phrases.
By four - complex sentences.
But it's no secret that there are "silent" people who stubbornly refuse to speak even at the age of three, although with hearing, voice apparatus and their intellect is fine.
It is so true that many bilingual people often do not translate a sentence because there is a cultural load in this phrase that belongs to two different realms, which are sometimes very difficult to relate to each other. Just think of "tea" which is for of English language contains an unmistakable culture and tradition, and that the Japanese perfect with the strict rite of "chakai", while for most Italians, tea is a tasteless hot drink. There is a lot of research on the impact of bilingualism on children living in bilingual countries, and in Italy we have concrete examples in regions such as Valle d'Aosta or Trentino Alto Adige.
Why is this happening? What prevents the baby from starting to pronounce words, is it really only loving parents understanding their child perfectly?
Let's try to figure out how the child begins to speak
Man is a social being, he learns by imitating others, so the first thing, of course, the child must hear speech and be involved in this process. It's wide known fact. But it also happens that they constantly talk to the baby, but he is silent and does not even make an attempt to say anything. Many will be surprised now (pronunciation of words is easy for us, we perform this action already on the machine), but your child simply does not know how to do it, his speech apparatus does not receive the necessary signal from the brain. When the child begins to speak, yes, only when the motor speech area begins to form in his head.
But it is quite different when a child's bilingualism is created in the family and puts him in a position of "other" from others in a monolingual society. There are phases of growth in which the child experiences this other being and refuses to speak another language at school or in the presence of friends. But skip these steps, almost all bilingual children are proud of their knowledge and consider it an important gift.
But what are the benefits of being bilingual? Suppose one of two parents speaks the same language in the country where they live and the other knows it well enough to be able to work and live with it, is it really worth taking on the difficult path of bilingualism for your children? Under the assumption that it is entirely a personal choice, there are many benefits to being bilingual. The practical benefits are obvious to everyone because knowing more languages will give you more choice in life, but there are also more subtle benefits, such as a child's mental openness to accepting another.
Therefore, it is necessary to form and develop this center. How to do it?
If you carefully study the map of the brain, you will notice that the area of interest to us is located very close to the area responsible for movements, being, in fact, a part of it. This means that the speed of mastering speech depends on how well the child’s motor skills are developed.
Getting started with both languages is a very important step for proper development language. Sometimes parents think to start with a language and wait a couple of years before introducing a second one. However, it is not uncommon for a child to reject a second language because when they finally get to the stage where they can communicate, things get confusing again. He may also wonder why he no longer understands anything his mother tells him until he understood it until recently.
Everyone has their own language. Sometimes using the language occasionally speaks to our son, or worse, mixing them up in the same sentence doesn't help at all. The child must maintain separate languages and is forced to engage in continuous exercise in order to separate them into a posteriori. If mom speaks Chinese and dad speaks Italian to son, she will be fine even if mom and dad speak one of two languages or even a third language. Among the most common consequences of not adhering to particular languages are stuttering, severe delays in the development of the language, and even the possibility that the child refuses to speak at some point, even if the children do not get along one way or another.
Scientists have conducted research in this area, and revealed a clear dependence of the speed of mastering speech on motor activity children, specifically on the development of their hands and fingers (the ability to perform subtle movements).
At five months little man begins to oppose the other fingers of the hand with a large one. The capture of the object is now carried out not with the palm, but only with the fingers. After two months, the baby pronounces the first syllables.
At eight, nine months, he takes small objects with two fingers, and by the year the first words appear.
During the first years of life, a new and improved finger movement first appears, followed by an improvement in speech. Never turns around.
What to do if the child started talking late or does not speak at all
Instead of asking everyone in a row when the child starts talking, get busy. Massage your fingers, sculpt from plasticine, draw, play finger games, exercise on simulators, sort out cereals, lace up shoes, make beads. Teach your child to show on his fingers how old he is. Know that there is a test conducted in young children, according to the results of which you can immediately confidently say whether the child already speaks or not. The testing teacher asks the kid in turn (imitating him) to show one, two and three fingers. If the movements are clear, then the child is speaking.
Love and educate your children.