Speech in infants

Birth to One Year

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Disclaimer: The communication milestones included in ASHA's "How Does Your Child Hear and Talk" products are currently being revised and will be published in 2023. Changes include (a) shorter timeframes and (b) evidence regarding the percentage of children demonstrating specific milestones. Feeding and swallowing milestones will be added.

How Does Your Child Hear and Talk? | One to Two Years | Two to Three Years |
Three to Four Years | Four to Five Years | Learning Two Languages |
What should I do if I think my child has a problem?

Children develop at their own rate. Your child might not have all skills until the end of the age range.

What should my child be able to do?

What can I do to help?

• Check if your child can hear. See if she turns to noises or looks at you when you talk. Pay attention to ear problems and infections, and see your doctor.
• Respond to your child. Look at him when he makes noises. Talk to him. Imitate the sounds he makes.
• Laugh when she does. Imitate the faces she makes.
• Teach your baby to imitate actions, like peek-a-boo, clapping, blowing kisses, and waving bye-bye. This teaches him how to take turns. We take turns when we talk.
• Talk about what you do during the day. Say things like “Mommy is washing your hair”; “You are eating peas”; and “Oh, these peas are good!”
• Talk about where you go, what you do there, and who and what you see. Say things like, “We are going to Grandma’s house. Grandma has a dog. You can pet the dog.”
• Teach animal sounds, like “A cow says ‘moo.’”
• Read to your child every day.
• Talk to your child in the language you are most comfortable using.

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Speech and Language Developmental Milestones

How do speech and language develop?

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.

What are the milestones for speech and language development?

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.

What is the difference between a speech disorder and a 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.

What should I do if my child’s speech or language appears to be delayed?

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).

What research is being conducted on developmental speech and language problems?

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

Reacts to loud sounds

YES NO

Calms down or smiles when spoken to

YES NO

Recognizes your voice and calms down if crying

YES NO

When feeding, starts or stops sucking in response to sound

YES NO

Coos and makes pleasure sounds

YES NO

Has a special way of crying for different needs

YES NO

Smiles when he or she sees you

YES NO

4 to 6 Months

Follows sounds with his or her eyes

YES NO

Responds to changes in the tone of your voice

YES NO

Notices toys that make sounds

YES NO

Pays attention to music

YES NO

Babbles in a speech-like way and uses many different sounds, including sounds that begin with p, b, and m

YES NO

Laughs

YES NO

Babbles when excited or unhappy

YES NO

Makes gurgling sounds when alone or playing
with you

YES NO

7 Months to 1 Year

Enjoys playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake

YES NO

Turns and looks in the direction of sounds

YES NO

Listens when spoken to

YES NO

Understands words for common items such as “cup,” “shoe,” or “juice”

YES NO

Responds to requests (“Come here”)

YES NO

Babbles using long and short groups of sounds (“tata, upup, bibibi”)

YES NO

Babbles to get and keep attention

YES NO

Communicates using gestures such as waving or holding up arms

YES NO

Imitates different speech sounds

YES NO

Has one or two words (“Hi,” “dog,” “Dada,” or “Mama”) by first birthday

YES NO

1 to 2 Years

Knows a few parts of the body and can point to them when asked

YES NO

Follows simple commands (“Roll the ball”) and understands simple questions (“Where’s your shoe?”)

YES NO

Enjoys simple stories, songs, and rhymes

YES NO

Points to pictures, when named, in books

YES NO

Acquires new words on a regular basis

YES NO

Uses some one- or two-word questions (“Where kitty?” or “Go bye-bye?”)

YES NO

Puts two words together (“More cookie”)

YES NO

Uses many different consonant sounds at the beginning of words

YES NO

2 to 3 Years

Has a word for almost everything

YES NO

Uses two- or three-word phrases to talk about and ask for things

YES NO

Uses k, g, f, t, d, and n sounds

YES NO

Speaks in a way that is understood by family members and friends

YES NO

Names objects to ask for them or to direct attention to them

YES NO

3 to 4 Years

Hears you when you call from another room

YES NO

Hears the television or radio at the same sound level as other
family members

YES NO

Answers simple “Who?” “What?” “Where?” and “Why?” questions

YES NO

Talks about activities at daycare, preschool, or friends’ homes

YES NO

Uses sentences with four or more words

YES NO

Speaks easily without having to repeat syllables or words

YES NO

4 to 5 Years

Pays attention to a short story and answers simple questions about it

YES NO

Hears and understands most of what is said at home and in school

YES NO

Uses sentences that give many details

YES NO

Tells stories that stay on topic

YES NO

Communicates easily with other children and adults

YES NO

Says most sounds correctly except for a few (l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, and th)

YES NO

Uses rhyming words

YES NO

Names some letters and numbers

YES NO

Uses adult grammar

YES NO

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

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

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
• Language
• Speech-language pathologists

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]

Early speech development of young children

"... in the community, under guidance, with the help of a child can always do more and solve the most difficult problems than on their own." A.V. Zaporozhets, a well-known Russian psychologist.

I want to draw the attention of parents to a very important period in the development of the baby, which we call "pre-speech". It is during this period that the baby is preparing for further speech development, which is not yet noticeable, but is already very actively taking place. From my many years of experience, I know that many mothers pay little attention to the cooing and babbling of the baby, many do not even know what it is and how they differ.

But the first symptoms of trouble can manifest themselves precisely during this period, when the child's nervous system is still very plastic and pliable to therapeutic effects. You should also not make preliminary diagnoses, because we are adults too, very different. Someone is talkative, someone is called a "silent person", one cannot live without communication, and the other likes to be alone. And our children are ours and, of course, they look like us. Along with the norm, I give examples that, in combination with other symptoms, should alert parents.

Often there is nothing serious behind these symptoms, only a slight correction is needed. Mothers with perfectly healthy children come to see me, who had features of babbling and cooing. Yes, not everyone who had deviations in pre-speech development later developed problems with speech and reading, very often everything returned to normal. But all children with speech difficulties necessarily had violations of early speech and pre-speech development.

Stages of pre-speech development

• The first year of life is called the period of pre-speech development, during which preparation for mastering speech takes place. From the very first day of life, the child is preparing for speech. From the moment of birth, there are voice reactions - screaming and crying. With these signals, the baby reports that he is ill, he is hungry, sick. A healthy newborn makes separate sounds, intermediate between "a" and "e".
• Pay attention if the baby sobs on sigh, with a characteristic nasal tint, or there is a piercing, painful, continuous cry, which is commonly called "brain". If these symptoms do not go away, you should consult a specialist.
• Gradually, the child learns to listen to his speech and the speech of others. From the 1st month, the baby calms down when he hears a lullaby. An increased interest in human speech in the form of a concentration reaction appears at 4-5 weeks. When an adult bends over a child, gently talks to him, he stops crying and moving, “listens”. At 5-8 weeks, in response to the speech of an adult, the child smiles, from 8 weeks - a real smile, by 9-12 weeks laughter appears. Starting from 6-8 weeks, in response to an attempt by an adult to make contact, the baby utters separate sounds - cooing (initial cooing). True humming or melodious humming appears on the 2-3rd month. The child, being in a calm state, makes long vowel sounds.
• With certain pathologies of the nervous system, the child may not show interest in the speech of an adult, not respond to surrounding objects. In children in such cases, negative reactions usually predominate (monotonous crying, prolonged crying on one tone), a smile is extremely rare, and there is no cooing.
• By 5-6 months, the nature of the sounds becomes more complicated. Combinations appear: “baaa, maaa”, “taaa, paaa”. Observing the child, it can be noted that at the moment of pronouncing sounds, he slows down his vocal movements, as if listening and imitating himself, pronounces sounds in the form of chains. By about the 5th month of life, sound and syllabic pronunciation begin to acquire some semblance of words. By 5-6 months, the cooing gradually turns into clear and distinct speech sounds, babble appears. The first babble consists of short chains of syllables: ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma. Parents sometimes take such babble chains for meaningful speech, but these, of course, are not words yet.
• Children with a lack of cooing, low expressiveness of speech, and a lack of imitation deserve special observation. A child with initial signs of early childhood autism may be clearly non-contact, passive, orienting reactions will be reduced or, conversely, physical activity, anxiety, negative emotional reactions to new objects (crying, screaming) will prevail.
• By 9 months babbling is enriched with new sounds, intonations, develops into long rows of syllables. Babble becomes a constant response to the adult's voice appeal and accompanies various actions with objects and toys. AT 9months, the child demonstrates understanding of the speech addressed to him, reacts to his name, perceives some simple verbal instructions and responds to them with an action: “open your mouth”, “give a pen”, press your cheek to the mother at the request “kiss mom”, raise your head and eyes to the lamp to the question “where is the light?”, they are looking for a toy hidden in front of their eyes, at the word “no” they stop reaching for any object, or stop pulling it into their mouth, etc. Children 9-10 months old are characterized by active babbling, consisting of 4-5 syllables or more. The child repeats new syllables after the adult, which he himself has not previously pronounced, copies the intonation well, accompanying it with expressive facial expressions and gestures. By 9-10 months he pronounces separate words consisting of the same paired syllables (mom, dad).
• A child of 11-12 months increasingly pays attention to the face of the speaker, begins to nod his head as a sign of affirmation and shake it as a sign of denial. The syllables included in the babbling become components of the words: ma-ma-ma - “mother”. The kid begins to designate certain objects with sound combinations, for example: car - “beep”, etc. At the same time, children of this age usually show a new interest - looking at picture books. Recognizing familiar objects in pictures or showing them at the request of an adult, children designate them with babble words.
• By the year, the dictionary usually reaches 8-10, and sometimes more "words" (baba, kitty, mu, be, etc.), which have a specific meaning. By the age of 1, the child understands and follows 5-10 simple instructions: “bring this”, “close the door”, “give me a cup”, etc. Thus, in the first year of life, the child is preparing the speech apparatus for the pronunciation of sounds. At the same time, there is an active process of developing speech understanding.

What to do for a mother

“Infecting” the baby with positive emotions, the mother stimulates his interest in the outside world, and since the satisfaction of this interest is associated with the expenditure of physiological resources, she stimulates in a certain direction both metabolic processes and differentiation of tissues in the body of her baby . On the contrary, by conveying negative emotions to an infant, we suppress not only his interest in the outside world, but also certain biological processes in his body. It is not better when the adults around the child "infect" him with too strong affective emotions.

These energy-intensive emotions drain the child's nervous system and can lead to somatic illnesses. The adult's mechanical fulfillment of routine moments, his indifferent, indifferent attitude towards a small child excludes the possibility of any kind of emotional contact at all. With such an adult, the child does not have the need to communicate, and therefore the cognitive experience does not develop and the necessary communicative and cognitive means are not formed. There is a threat of mental retardation and a disorder in the further interaction of the child with an adult. The child's brain develops incorrectly or is delayed, in the absence or deficiency of external stimuli.

And vice versa: interest in an adult, curiosity about the outside world and communicative-cognitive activity are caused and supported, as we have seen, by positive emotions emanating from an adult. Therefore, we can repeat once again that for infancy, the emotional communication of a child with an adult is not a luxury, but a prime necessity, a condition for the formation of his psyche according to a human social type. Depriving the infant of the emotional attention of an adult leads at this early age primarily to abnormal development of the child's personality.

If parents have noticed trouble, and this is not one symptom, but several (lack of babbling, cooing, change in voice, behavior), then you should contact a specialist. And then, along with speech therapy correction (massage, articulatory gymnastics, stimulation of voice reactions), drug treatment, physiotherapy, etc. are prescribed.

How to stimulate speech development specialists, the better the results will be: the reserve capabilities of the brain are especially high at an early age, during the period when speech is actively developing.

At the stage of pre-speech development (1-3 months) it is necessary to encourage motor and communication functions, develop and reinforce the child's need to communicate with adults, strengthen the ability to fix the gaze and follow a moving object. Gradually move on to active stimulation of fine motor skills. In the absence of cooing at this stage, violation of voice reactions, the doctor may prescribe, along with the use of drug therapy, speech therapy correction (facial massage, breathing and articulation exercises). At the 3rd stage of pre-speech development (3-6 months), the baby manipulates toys, pulls them into his mouth, rolls over and crawls to an object that interests him, throws toys and follows their movement. In cases where there is a delay in pre-speech skills, it is advisable to conduct their purposeful stimulation. For example, create situations that cause a child to laugh, coo, as imitation reactions. If necessary, speech therapy correction may consist of active speech therapy massage, activities aimed at the development of babbling. At the 4th stage (6-9months) and the 5th stage (9-12 months), the possibilities of speech therapy assistance are expanding.

Along with active massage and gymnastics, tongue movements, chewing movements, and lip movements begin to be stimulated. Stimulate the ability to recognize the intonation coloring of addressed speech. Babble and initial syllable formation are stimulated with the help of appropriate imitative or imitative games (“Okay”, “Goodbye”, “Geese flew - sat down on their heads ..”, etc.) The effectiveness of speech therapy correction of pre-speech disorders cannot be carried out without active stimulation of mental development. After 6 months, the child is stimulated with purposeful actions with various objects, stimulation of repeated actions, object-effective communication with adults. From the second half of a child's life, they are taught to handle objects and manipulate them.

Sound pronunciation

• The pronunciation side of a child's speech can be judged only when he has accumulated a significant vocabulary. The time and order of the appearance of sounds in different children is not the same. In the third year of life, the child has the right to incorrect sound pronunciation. So, whistling sounds (S, Z, Z ', C), hissing (Sh, Zh, Ch, Shch) and sonorous (R, R ', L) he usually skips or replaces (S-S '; Z-S ' , V; C-T'; W-S', T'; W-S', D'; Ch-T'; SH-T'; R-L'; R'-L'; L-L')
• If any violations of the pronunciation side of speech are found in infants, it requires timely corrective measures, additional examinations by other specialists. The prospects for mental development, the success of teaching children with disabilities in neuropsychic development, their school and social adaptation depend on the early detection of disorders in cognitive activity. But often speech therapists in the clinic advise you to wait a bit - "don't come before 5 years." This can be explained by the fact that classes with a baby require a special individual approach, and not every specialist has the necessary knowledge, experience, and most importantly, the desire to work with young children. But a good speech therapist won't brush off anxious parents.
• In the absence of active speech in a 1.5-3-year-old child, it is necessary to arrange an appointment for a consultation with competent specialists: a neurologist, psychologist, speech therapist, otorhinolaryngologist, and conduct a series of diagnostic studies. Parents should be alarmed by speech delays not only when the child does not have speech at two years old, but also in cases where development is delayed or there is a complete absence of cooing and babbling. Observations of specialists and objective data from medical studies will clarify the nature of the violation, the degree of its complexity, suggest possible causes of occurrence and organize adequate assistance to the child.
• At any age, speech disorders limit cognitive activity and the possibility of social adaptation of a person. Consultations of competent specialists and remedial classes with speech pathologists will help to distinguish speech disorders from other disorders (mental retardation, mental retardation, hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorders), and make a more accurate diagnosis. Early correction, conducting systematic speech therapy classes, which in essence are a well-organized game, can completely compensate for a speech defect.
• The importance of speech development at an early age is great: speech, along with intelligence, is an important indicator of the development of the baby, and its violations are evidence of ill health in the mental sphere. Speech reflects the success (or failure) of mastering the native language, the main social acquisition of the child during this period.
• The speech of a young child reflects the development and lays the foundations for future higher mental functions: memory, attention, thinking, and hence all further education of the child, and ultimately his social adaptation and success. That is why in correctional and developmental work with young children, special attention is paid to the stimulation (formation) of speech activity.

About the organization of classes

The development of a child's speech occurs at every moment of his life. Everyday situations, including getting ready for bed, washing, eating take place almost in the same conditions. This helps to enrich the vocabulary of children and consolidate speech skills. Appeal to children on various occasions forms their need for communication. At the same time, it is necessary to actively use play and everyday situations that are pleasant for the child. For example, when washing or bathing a child, you can sing a composed song on the go, drawing the baby’s attention to the parts of the body and the face that it sings about with a gentle touch:0004

• Where, where, where, where, where, where are our pens? (2 times)
• Here they are, here they are, here are our pens. (2 times)
• Where, where, where, where, where, where are our legs? (2 times)
• Here they are, here they are, here are our legs. (2 times)
• Where, where, where, where, where, where is our tummy? (2 times)
• Here it is, here it is, here is our tummy. (2 times)
• Where, where, where, where, where, where are our eyes? (2 times)
• Here they are, here they are, here are our eyes. (2 times)
• Where, where, where, where, where, where are our cheeks? (2 times)
• Here they are, here they are, here are our cheeks. (2 times)

The gentle voice of the mother, pleasant stroking movements will stimulate the child's independent vocal reactions.

Just communication with the baby in everyday life is not enough for his development. It is necessary to use speech in subject and game activities. It is also desirable to conduct specially organized classes (games-classes). It is important to bear in mind that at an early age all the tasks that are given to the child should be offered as an entertaining and interesting game. Only against a positive emotional background does the baby himself want to pronounce a new word, repeat the combination of sounds or phrases he heard.

When learning new words, always use the toy or object first and then the picture. If a child easily recognizes and names familiar objects and toys, one should gradually move on to working with subject and plot pictures.

Speech therapist, neurodefectologist Elena Gennadievna Timoshchenko, author of the series of lectures of the Territory of Health "Early development of speech and intelligence of a child".

The development of a child’s speech from 0 to a year

What kind of speech is there, you say, if you can only hear from him a loud “wow!”, And in moments of calm and good mood - “aha” yes “aha”, not counting other indistinct and obscure sounds. Many parents believe that before their child utters the first words (and this usually happens at the age of about a year), it is useless to talk to him, because he, they say, still does not understand anything and cannot learn anything yet.

Nevertheless, “obscure sounds” are already the formation of speech, and it begins long before the appearance of the first words. And already at this, the very first stage, the main function of speech is clearly visible - communication. Yes, yes, your baby is already able and wants to communicate with you!

In order to get an idea of ​​how to communicate with an infant, let's look at the main stages of speech formation.

The first stage is a cry

When a baby is born, getting from one environment to another, he needs to somehow declare himself, his presence in this world. While the child was in the mother's belly, all his needs were met instantly. Now he sometimes feels some kind of discomfort - and screams (still at the level of an unconditioned reflex). When the needs of the baby are satisfied, a certain stereotype of behavior is formed in the child, and the cry becomes a signal of discomfort (wet, want to eat or sleep, sad, lonely). A child has only one remedy - a cry. Gradually, with the help of a cry, the baby learns not only to attract attention to himself, but also to communicate. Remember, when your baby calls you, he first screams, and then waits for an answer: will mom come or won't she? Then he screams louder and waits again. Thus, the child gives his “interlocutor” the opportunity to join in his first dialogue.

Approximately by the third month (and for many children even much earlier), the intonation of cries also changes. An attentive mother can distinguish a lot of different cries of her child - it can be grumbling, whining, discontent, a sharp screech of pain, angry “exclamations”.

“Even in another room, I can almost certainly tell what is going on with my twins by their screams. When they quarrel and cannot share toys - the cry is one, when they are bored - the cry is completely different. And, of course, I always distinguish piercing and sharp “dangerous screams” (when you urgently need to run to help) from “non-dangerous” ones, when children simply express their displeasure.

The cry is present in the child for quite a long time, developing in parallel with speech. And even when real, “adult” words appear, the cry continues to play a very important role in communication.

Second stage - cooing

Cooing usually occurs at the age of one or two months and accompanies the child in the first six months of life. Usually these are various variations of sounds: a-a-gu, gee, gee, a-gee, etc. It is curious that babies of different nations walk the same way. Gradually, the baby's repertoire is enriched with new sounds, and new intonations appear. In cooing, as in screaming, the moment of interaction is also important. Of course, the baby can walk and be left alone in the room. But with your appearance, the cooing becomes more active. If you look closely at the child, you will see that he does not just make sounds. The kid at this time looks into your eyes, waiting for your answer, he is already trying to build a full-fledged speech dialogue. And this dialogue must be supported! After all, while cooing, the child learns to coordinate both voice and gaze, which will later become the basis of any social contact.

The kid seeks your attention and communication by the ancient, like the world, method of a stick and a carrot, but instead of a stick he uses crying, and instead of a carrot - his charming and joyful smile.

Answer the baby in his language, support and encourage his first “performances” in every possible way. He will be very pleased with your attention - look how he reaches out to you, tries to fold his lips in order to adequately answer such an important interlocutor! Gradually, the child begins to pronounce long chains of sounds, as if imitating himself. Moreover, he is trying to imitate you too!

A child at this age is trying to feel sounds and words for the first time. So far, it is not so much the meaning of words that is important for him, but different intonations, the rhythm of speech, the articulation of various sounds.

“My daughter, at the age of four months, began to feel my lips with her hands whenever I said something to her. It seems that she wants to check how different sounds are obtained, and tries to catch the flying words, contrary to the well-known proverb about the word and the sparrow. As soon as there is a pause in my speeches, the baby immediately begins to actively answer me.

Third stage - babbling

As the child develops, the cooing subsides and is replaced by babbling. This usually happens at 6-7 months of age. Your baby begins to pronounce individual syllables “ba”, “ma”, “ta”, etc. - at first once, very rarely and as if by accident. Gradually, syllables are heard more and more often in his speech, they are repeated in the form of chains: ba-ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma-ma.

Cooing and babbling are very important for the further development of speech. If your baby does not have them, try to activate them.

Holding the baby in your arms so that he can clearly see the movement of your lips, repeat various syllables, sing rhythmic songs, read simple rhymes, and most importantly, talk to the baby as much as possible. He needs to hear adult speech. However, these should not be just conversations that adults have with each other, but a speech addressed specifically to him, to the child.

“My son is now 6 months old. He hears different voices. If I talk to him, hiding behind a diaper, he begins to smile happily and look for where my mother has gone. And one day he heard the voice of someone else's uncle from the hallway - it was a thick bass, completely different from his father's voice - he heard it and burst into loud tears.

“My ten-month-old Dashunya loves to “read” books – most of all, traditional Russian fairy tales for the little ones, “Kolobok”, “Turnip”, “Ryaba the Hen”. She also really likes conversations on the topic: who talks how. The variations are endless, from pussy to big-o-o-th truck or steam locomotive.”

Again, even if it seems to you that the child is babbling to himself, nevertheless he is very eager to communicate with you. The first babble words-syllables do not yet carry a meaningful meaning. But it is thanks to the mother, who hears the words in these syllables, that the babble is filled with meaning.

“Surprisingly, the syllables “ma-ma” Fedya began to speak from the first days. Of course, at first he cried so much. But gradually, he realized that his “ma-ma” especially touches me, especially since everyone was talking around - he was calling his mother.

By the age of six months, this "mom" began to mean not "come to me", but "give me here MOM". At eight months, he clearly addressed me, and called me, being in the arms of others, and there was no doubt that this was already a real word.

Lesson or communication?

Of course, communicating with a child, we teach him in one way or another. But try so that your desire to teach a baby literally from the cradle does not obscure a more important thing - your lively emotional communication.

If you follow the theories of early development, you probably know the name of the American scientist Glenn Doman, who claimed that being in a special learning environment from an early age, a child can achieve very high intellectual results . At his Institute for Child Development, Doman conducted many experiments, the essence of which was as follows. From the age of two months, when their eyes begin to focus, babies were shown various cards at a fast pace, on which letters, words, notes, numbers, pictures, hieroglyphs and much, much more were depicted. During the show, the teacher or mother named the appropriate subject. At first, such "lessons" lasted 5-10 minutes, then their duration gradually increased.

When the kids grew up, it turned out this. They really memorized information very well, spoke foreign languages, read, counted, etc. But at the same time, the kids did not play at all, their emotional sphere was disturbed. Accustomed to only passively swallowing didactic material, they did not strive for active knowledge of the world around them, creativity was inaccessible to them, since they did not have real creative experience. And the huge store of knowledge that their tenacious childhood memory kept, they could not always put into practice. The saddest thing is that the violations of the emotional sphere in these children were already irreparable. After all, many very important milestones in emotional development are laid precisely in infancy, when the child wants and can communicate, build social models of behavior, and not fix countless dry facts in his brain.

In my psychological practice there was a boy, Andryusha, who could not adequately communicate with his peers. He ran in circles, constantly repeating the same phrase. At the same time, he had very big problems with the articulation of sounds: he simply did not pronounce about fourteen sounds at the age of five, so it was possible to understand him with great difficulty. He preferred to communicate in writing.

It turned out that Andryushin's mother at one time was very fond of the early intellectual development of her son. As a result, he learned to read before he could speak. At the same time, he did not play, doing numbers, letters, special cards, drawing only geographical maps.

When starting to teach your child letters using the newfangled developmental method, be careful! Some children who were taught to read, for example, using Zaitsev's cubes before they began to speak, had a delay in speech development. Instead of participating in live communication, they read and wrote using blocks.

Stage four – the first words

So, a word is born from babbling…

At this stage (usually it starts at 11-12 months) it is very important to help the child in his word creation. It is now that the baby begins to associate words with environmental objects, words for him are filled with meaning. Now you can expand your repertoire of reading aloud. Try to call the surrounding things by their proper names (not “Let's put this thing in there”, but “Let's put the doll in the crib”). Do not forget to comment on your actions when you are with your baby.

Speech therapists advise to train the muscles of the lips and cheeks. To do this, stock up on various whistles, harmonicas, a toy flute and teach your baby to blow into these instruments. It is also useful to blow soap bubbles (however, you will have to constantly monitor so that the child does not drink the soapy solution).

Another fun way to exercise your lip and cheek muscles is to make faces with your baby. Feel free to make funny faces, expressively depict a variety of emotions (surprise, fear, joy), stick out your tongue, lick your lips. You will see that the baby will really like this new game, and soon he will begin to repeat some movements after you.

Children usually love sounding toys. Take advantage of this, let the baby learn to extract a variety of sounds and reproduce them with his voice. His first words will be onomatopoeic: bang, boom, woof-woof, beebika. Do not be afraid of these infantile, “lyal” (as my eldest daughter says) words. This is a very important moment in the development of speech. It is still difficult for a child to associate an abstract word (for example, dog, car, fell ) with a specific object or action. If the word is at least somewhat similar to an object or action, such a connection is much easier to establish (for example, a dog says “av-av”, a car says “beep”, and a falling object makes “boom”). Infant words help the child to move to normal, "adult" speech.

When your baby tries to repeat some words after you, you can read poems “by roles”. For example, the well-known poem about desperate geese (as a rule, everyone remembers its beginning):

• Adult: Geese Geese !
• Child: Ga-ha-ha!
• Adult: Do you want some?
• Child: Yes, yes, yes!
• Adult: Bread and butter?
• Child: No, no, no.
• Adult: What about you?
• Child: Sweets!
• Adult: Well, fly as you like, t _ just take care of your wings - the gray wolf under the mountain won't let you go home. Flew-flyed_ (the child waves his arms), sat on the head.

When you read familiar poems or sing songs to your child, pause at the end of the line so that the child can complete the line.

It is especially important to talk to your baby while playing. Do not forget that the game is focused specifically on dialogue, and not on your monologue. You can, for example, roll a ball to each other, accompanying this activity with comments: “Give the ball! The ball rolled to my mother. Pause, give the child the opportunity to join the conversation. “And now - on the ball! The ball rolled towards the baby” , etc. Try to match the game to the mood and condition of your crumbs.

Words and gestures

Facial expressions, gestures, intonation help a person to communicate with other people. Please note that adults in a conversation with each other convey a lot of information using facial expressions and gestures (which is why it is difficult for many people to communicate on the phone, although they can easily carry on a conversation during a personal meeting). But for young children, non-verbal communication is even more important, because at some stage it is the only way for them to “talk” to you.

It is very useful to reinforce words with certain gestures. First, the baby learns to reproduce the gesture, and then repeats the word. For example, the word "give!" usually accompanied by such a gesture: stretch out your hand with your palm up and bend and unbend your fingers several times. At the same time, try to use the words “give”, “bring”, “take” more often, ask the child to fulfill simple requests. You will see, he will be very happy to help you!

In a similar way, you can teach your baby other expressive gestures, for example, “Okay”, “Goodbye”, “Show how big (or big) you are, affirmatively or negatively shake your head. Do not be shy about childish gestures, such as pointing fingers, but on the contrary, help your child master them.

Gestures can also be emotional.

“Olezhka has recently learned to show what a sour tomato and what a sweet raspberry. When you ask him: “What kind of tomato?”, He wrinkles his nose hilariously, showing disgust for unloved food with his whole appearance. To the question: “What raspberry?” the child breaks into a blissful smile and smacks his tongue. Of course, at some point we taught him this, but now he often portrays some kind of taste without our asking. For example, if you say that a lemon is sour, Olezhka will certainly wrinkle.

“Marusya was shown that flowers can be smelled. Now, at the sight of any flower (in a flower bed, in a pot or even in a book), she reaches for it with her nose and smells it in rapture.

Your child can use gestures to accompany your poetry reading or singing.

For example:

• I play the violin - tili-li, tili-li, (the kid holds an imaginary violin in his hands and "plays" on it),
• Bunnies dance on the lawn - tili-li yes tili-li (“dancing”, twirling with raised arms).
• And then on the drum - bam-bam-bam, bam-bam-bam (the child taps his palms on some surface),
• In fear, the bunnies ran into the bushes! (hiding his face in his hands).

Or like this:

• A clumsy bear walks through the forest (the child sways with his legs wide apart),
• Collects cones, sings songs (leans over an imaginary cone).
• Suddenly a bump fell right on the bear's forehead (slaps his forehead).
• The bear got angry, and with his foot - top (the baby stamps his foot).

Or like this:

• Zainka, dance, gray, dance. So-and-so dance, so-and-so dance (the child “dances”).
• Zainka, stomp your foot, little grey, stomp your foot, stomp your foot like this, stomp your foot like this, stomp your foot like this (stomps first one foot, then the other).
• Zainka, clap your hands, grey, clap your hands, clap your hands like this, clap your hands like that, clap your hands like that (the kid claps his hands).
• Hare, bow, gray, bow, bow like this, bow like that, bow like that (bows).

You can also beat "Toys" by Agnia Barto. The kid shows how the bull sways on a shaky board, how the girl Tanya cries bitterly, pities and strokes the poor bear with its paw torn off.

By the way, the famous finger games simultaneously train the child's “speaking gestures” and fine motor skills, which are also very useful for the development of speech.

For example, the game “Cabbage”:

• We have cabbage, here it is, cabbage (we show how big cabbage is),
• We cut cabbage, cut (with the edge of the palm, like a knife, we knock on the table),
• we three cabbage, three (rubbing our palms),
• we knead cabbage, we knead ( we depict how we knead cabbage with fists).

And here is a finger massage game similar to the famous “Magpie-Magpie” - Pancake machines:

• Masha began to convene guests (stroke the baby's open palm):
• And Ivan, come, and Stepan, come, and Andrey, come, and Sergey, come, (we bend our fingers one by one, starting with the big one),
• And Nikitushka - well, please! (we bend the little finger, having previously stroked it).
• Masha began to treat guests: and Ivan pancake, and Stepan pancake, and Andrey pancake, and Sergey pancake (we unbend our fingers, kneading the pads - “distributing pancakes”),
• and Nikitushka - mint gingerbread! (unbend the little finger, also stroking it first).
• Masha began to see off the guests: and Ivan, goodbye, and Stepan, goodbye, and Andrey, goodbye, and Sergey, goodbye! (each finger bends and unbends in turn - as in the “goodbye” gesture),
• and Nikitushka - well, stay some more! (gently stroke the little finger).

These games will help your child build vocabulary and associate words with very specific actions or objects.

About salted porridge

Do you remember the famous joke about the boy who didn't say anything until he was five? No medical luminaries and the most famous speech therapists could help him. But one day at breakfast, the boy suddenly said: “And the porridge is too salty today!” Happy parents rushed to congratulate each other, and when they calmed down, they asked their offspring: “Why were you silent before?” To this the boy replied: "Before, everything was in order. "

Jokes are jokes, but when the parents understand the child too well without words, he simply does not need to convey any message to them. Perhaps here sometimes you have to be a little tricky, pretending that you do not understand what the child wants from you until he tries to tell you about it.

Alina did not say anything until she was two years old, except for “yes” and “no”. I had already begun to worry about this, and suddenly I caught myself that I formulate all the questions for her in such a way that they could be answered unequivocally “yes” or “no”. When I began to ask more complex questions, as if not understanding my daughter, she had many more new words.

If a child communicates with you through babbling, gestures, his first words are about to appear. Don't worry if this happens a little later than you think it should. Don't compare your little one to the girl next door, your friend's son, and your colleague's niece! The development of each individual child may have its own individual characteristics.

However, there are some important milestones in your baby's speech development that you should pay special attention to:

• Cry, which is initially a reaction to discomfort (hunger). Too quiet and maximally comfortable baby is not as good as it seems.
• Revitalization complex (smile, revival) at the appearance of an adult (appears at 1-3 months).
• Cooing. How and when does your baby walk? Does he look into your eyes at the same time, does he “sing” his baby songs while in your arms, do you feel the need for communication with him?
• Babble (appears at 6-10 months), the child clearly attracts attention with the help of some sounds.
• Pointing gesture (appears at 8-13 months). This is a very important moment in the development of the child, preceding the appearance of the first words, because before naming an object, the baby needs to learn how to show it.
• Emergence of basic social gestures, such as “goodbye” (9–12 months).
• Understanding and fulfilling simple requests, the appearance of elementary story games (feed the doll). The child usually passes this stage at the age of about one year.

Inessa Smyk, Daria Golubeva

According to the materials of the journal "Aistenok", 03.04

Sources

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• Skovlund E., Selmer R., Skurtveit S., Brandlistuen RE., Handal M. In utero exposure to analgesic opioids and language development in 5-year old children. // Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf - 2020 - Vol29 - N6 - p. 736-744; PMID:32383248
• Yi YG., Lee DW., Kim J., Jang JH., Lee SM., Jang DH. Two Novel Mutations (c.883-4_890del and c.1684C>G) of WDR62 Gene Associated With Autosomal Recessive Primary Microcephaly: A Case Report. // Front Pediatr - 2019- Vol7 - NNULL - p.457; PMID:31788460
• Llaci L., Ramsey K., Belnap N., Claasen AM., Balak CD., Szelinger S., Jepsen WM., Siniard AL., Richholt R., Izat T., Naymik M., De Both M., Piras IS., Craig DW., Huentelman MJ., Narayanan V., Schrauwen I., Rangasamy S. Compound heterozygous mutations in SNAP29 is associated with Pelizaeus-Merzbacher-like disorder (PMLD). // Hum Genet - 2019 - Vol138 - N11-12 - p.1409-1417; PMID:31748968
• Wu Y., Li G., Ma Y., Zheng Y. [The development of vowel perception in pediatric cochlear implants of 1-3 years old]. // Lin Chung Er Bi Yan Hou Tou Jing Wai Ke Za Zhi - 2019- Vol33 - N10 - p.918-922; PMID:31623034
• Botticelli S., Küseler A., ​​Mølsted K., Andersen HS., Boers M., Shoeps A. , Emborg BK., Kisling-Møller M., Pedersen TK., Andersen M., Willadsen E. Influence of Infant Cleft Dimensions on Velopharyngeal Function in 5-Year-Old Danish Children Born With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate. // Cleft Palate Craniofac J - 2020 - Vol57 - N4 - p.420-429; PMID:31505955
• Salvago P., Gorgone E., Giaimo S., Battaglia E., Dispenza F., Ferrara S., Martines F. Is there an association between age at first words and speech sound disorders among 4- to 5-year-old children? An epidemiological cross-sectional study based on parental reports. // Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol - 2019- Vol126 - NNULL - p.109602; PMID:31374388
• Ingram SB., Reed VA., Powell TW. Vowel Duration Discrimination of Children With Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Preliminary Study. // Am J Speech Lang Pathol - 2019 - Vol28 - N2S - p.857-874; PMID:31306605
• Dawes E., Leitão S., Claessen M., Lingoh C. Oral literal and inferential narrative comprehension in young typically developing children and children with developmental language disorder.

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