As a parent your child is perhaps your most precious possession. Thus you want to provide the best to your child. You want to take the best care of him or her. If you find out that your child is late in speaking or need speech development, we can well understand how worried you must be. We therefore thought about sharing some facts about this issue to help you to deal with the same. Here are some facts which you must know.
Speech Development in Babies: What you must know?
Doctors are of the opinion that babies generally start learning since the time they are in the womb by listening. They do so by responding to familiar voices. Experts in the field feel that newborns start developing their speech after they turn 2 months old. Much of the speech and language development in children happens between the ages of 2 and 5 years.
Time line for speech development:
Sounds
By the time your baby turns 2 months old, he or she should begin cooing and making gurgling sounds.
Babbling
As your baby turns 6 months old; he or she might start making sounds with vowels strung together. This is referred to as babbling. Generally babies babble in a singsong manner.
Jargon
As your baby is about to reach the first birthday, he or she might talk in gibberish which is usually known as jargon. It seems like they’re talking in a language of their own and they would not usually realize the meaning. By this time your Baby may say words which have double consonants like, ‘da-da’ and ‘ma-ma’ and so on.
Words
By the time your infant turns 18 months old, he or she should normally be able to understand more that what they can express in words. By the time they are about 18 months of age, kids would in most cases be talking all the time. As your toddler turns 24 months old, he might be able to use up to 50 words. He or she may also able to speak in two-word phrases.
However if these are not happening as expected, you need to take certain steps which could help your child speech development these are as follows:
As a Parent you too could play a vital role in encouraging your baby to speak and help in your language development. Some ways to boost a baby’s language and speech include:
- You could read out to your baby
- You could respond to his or her babble by using eye-contact, smiles and language cues
- You might Talk to your baby when he or she is trying to express
- You may try to imitate the baby’s babble
- You could also try to play nursery rhymes to him or her
- You could also Point out sounds to the baby
Some Concerns you may have:
It is not always uncommon to find mild and temporary delay in speech in some children. Some children may learn words faster than others. Some signs that may indicate delay in speech and language development include:
- If there is no babbling by the time your baby is 9 months old.
- If you find that your baby does not use of words by the time they turn 18 months old.
In spite of your best efforts if you find that your child is still not speaking as expected you need to consult a Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP). To know more about treating delayed speeches please visit our website.