The child does not say “mom”. How to teach?

There is a joke - first parents wait for the child to speak, and then they can’t wait for him to shut up.
Little explorers of the world are called “why girls”, they are interested in everything and with their questions and conversations they are able to “chat” the most patient mother. However, there are also silent people. Now all the peers are talking with all their might, but this kid doesn’t even say “mom.” From a certain age, this situation causes justifiable concern among parents.

When should you worry?

Each child has a “convenient” pace of development. One began to babble earlier, the other was the first to sit down or stand up, and the third walked and spoke before his comrades in the sandbox. If age-related variations occur within a couple of months, there is no need to worry.

However, all parents need to know the norms of children’s speech development. If the lag becomes significant (and speech therapists consider a delay of no more than 2-3 months to be a normal option for a particular skill), it is better to seek advice from a specialist.

Children usually begin to say the notorious word “mother” by the age of one or one and a half years. What if the first birthday has been celebrated a long time ago, but the long-awaited word is still missing? Is it time to go to the doctors?

Consulting a specialist never hurts. When it comes to speech development, you shouldn’t wait for everything to form “somehow on its own.” However, in order not to panic ahead of time, take a closer look at your baby. It is quite possible that he is simply a little delayed in pronouncing the words so expected by his parents and nothing terrible happens. Important factors:

A one-year-old child understands speech addressed to him. That is, it responds to its own name and gives an adequate reaction to the words of its parents.
There are no hearing or vision impairments.
The baby's cooing was replaced by babbling speech. The child is already trying to designate specific words with some kind of imitative syllables.
In games, there is a noticeable desire to repeat after an adult and perform given actions.

At an early age, the process of speech formation is closely related to the development of the psyche and thinking. Parents should keep an eye on these aspects. If any suspicions still arise, it is best to seek advice from specialists.

Who to visit:

neurologist;
child psychologist;
speech therapist-defectologist.

Formation of speech function in children 1-2 years of age

At what time does a child begin to speak his first words? The baby's development occurs gradually. At first there is practically no hint of speech until 2 months. By the age of 3-4 weeks, the baby begins to smile for the first time, thereby showing a desire to communicate with his parents. The baby perfectly understands the intonation of adults, so when he hears the friendly voice of his mother, grandmother or father, he feels calm. If adults begin to swear, the baby becomes very worried, which often leads to sleepless nights and causeless crying.

Crying is a sign that something is bothering the child. The baby may cry when he needs to change his diaper, wants to eat, or is in pain. Also, shouting is a sign of a call for communication. The baby calls on his mother to just stand next to him, take him in her arms, and talk to him.

The first signs of speech appear only at 2-3 months. The baby starts to walk. Humming may occur earlier than 2 months, depending on the characteristics of the brain. It is a sign of preparation for speech. The muscles of the articulatory apparatus are trained and strengthened. This stage continues for a long time.

The next stage of development is the formation of babble. It starts at 7-9 months. The baby tries to speak in syllables: ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba and others. Syllables later form words. The reproduction of syllables is often not connected with anything. The child says them unconsciously.

Infants aged 9-11 months perfectly understand the speech of adults. They know 50-100 words by ear. When the baby hears the words of an adult, she tries to repeat them.

How to teach a child to say “mama”?

So, if your baby, according to doctors, is developing in accordance with the norm, he does not have any special problems, but for some reason he has not started talking, parents can force things a little.

The main condition for the correct formation of speech is communication. The biggest misconception of some mothers and fathers is that they think that the child does not understand them yet, and therefore there is no need to talk to him. This is not true at all!

The more you communicate with your baby, the more words will be in his passive vocabulary. This means that over time they will become active. In addition, it is by listening to speech addressed to him that the child learns to speak!

How to communicate with a small child:

Use the correct forms of words in your speech. Undoubtedly, many kids say “bo-bo” about a scratch or “beep-beep” about all types of transport. This sounds very nice, but parents should not make it easy for their child to learn. Let the “long” words remain in a passive form for some time, but over time the baby will speak as he should!
Try to speak in simple words that the child can understand. Repeat them many times every day.
Speak as clearly as possible and face your baby. It is by “reading” articulation that the child learns to pronounce new words.
Create the illusion of dialogue. Ask questions and answer them yourself. But take a short break, give the child the opportunity to insert a familiar word at one point.
Talk about everything. Comment on the process of dressing, washing, talk about what you see while walking, and so on. After all, the baby learns the world with the help of his parents.
Do not turn on television or radio in the background. Such sounds are not perceived by small children as speech, which means they will not teach him anything.
Use your pacifier less often. How will a baby talk if his mouth is always busy? In addition, constant sucking can ruin your bite and lead to poor articulation.

Why does a 2-year-old child not speak and how to help him?

18.02.2020

Every mother wants her baby to develop correctly, reaching all the required standards in a timely manner. One of the problems that young parents face is the lack of speech in a child at the age of two. But before you give in to panic, you need to understand the reasons for the baby’s silence and try to help him as much as possible.

How should speech develop at different age stages?

Normally, a growing child’s speech should go through the following stages:

1) lasts from the birth of the child to one year. It is called "preparatory". At this stage, experts distinguish three more periods:

The baby’s very first interaction with the outside world is his screaming and crying. To express joy, the baby squeals, to express dissatisfaction, he whines. This period lasts from birth to three months;
from three to six months, the child goes through a period of speech called “humming,” that is, prolonged pronunciation of sounds ;
the next period is “babbling,” when the baby begins to repeat certain syllables. Normally, it ends by about a year. Ideally, a child should pronounce from 5 to 9 words;

2) the second stage occurs from one to three years of the child. It's called "preparatory". While developing his vocabulary, the baby tries to pronounce words in full, and not just individual syllables. At one and a half years old, a child should normally already know 20-40 words. By the age of two, begin to construct simple sentences. And by three - sentences become complex, questions are used in speech , as well as almost all parts of speech ;

3) the third stage lasts until the child reaches the age of seven years. By the end of it, children are constructing sentences correctly using all sounds .

But, unfortunately, this is not always the case. Why does this happen, and what could be the reasons for the lag behind the norm?

Possible causes of speech delay

Most likely, the reasons for the delay are neurological in nature. Doctors note that this could be damage to the brain , hypoxia during pregnancy , bad habits of the mother, birth injuries, childbirth earlier or later than expected.

Physiological reasons for delay include the baby’s hearing ; the speech apparatus may also be underdeveloped. In addition, autism and mental retardation may be causes.

It is important to pay attention to whether the baby understands the speech of adults, how he reacts to requests to bring some thing. Often, at 2 years old, a child understands everything, but does not speak.

How should parents behave in this case?

If the reason for the child’s “silence” is organic, you should consult a doctor who will make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe appropriate treatment. But when the problem is psychological or social, parents need to create the most favorable conditions for the development speech .

It is recommended to use special speech therapy exercises and techniques that can be easily found on the Internet or in special books. It is also advisable to talk to the child as much as possible so that he can see the articulation. It is useful to sing songs, read books, and develop fine motor skills .

The most important thing when developing speech is to come up with situations in which the baby will be “forced” to speak: these could be alternative questions or a request to ask something from other family members. The main thing is to communicate as much as possible, then by school speech will definitely catch up with his peers.

Published in Defectology Premium Clinic

How to help a child talk?

Help depends primarily on the reason for the delay. If this is a lack of communication, you should talk more with the child, read books to him, sing songs and nursery rhymes. But at the same time, you don’t need to “jump” around the child and entertain him all the time, rush to fulfill any of his wishes - you need to create situations where the child is forced to ask you for something. One mother constantly repeated to her daughter: “Tell me what you want, I don’t understand you,” thereby ensuring that the girl did not hum, pointing at the object, but said “give it.” Of course, there is no need to go too far and bring the child to tears; remember that the first words are given to the baby with great difficulty.

Some parents mistakenly believe that television can help their child learn speech skills. This is not true: when a child hears speech from speakers, his body does not react to the sounds in any way.

And, of course, be sure to show your baby to an otolaryngologist and neurologist. After all, only a specialist will be able to determine the presence and severity of the disease or prescribe the correct treatment. If the baby does not have hearing problems, then a neurologist will deal with the child. In the treatment of speech development delays, in addition to correctional classes, various nootropic drugs are usually used, such as Cortexin, Encephabol, Nootropil. These drugs have a positive effect on the higher integrative functions of the brain, improving the learning process and memory.

Sometimes, when speech is delayed, a speech therapist is also brought in, but, unfortunately, the vast majority of speech therapists do not work with children until they are 3-4 years old, and sometimes it is necessary to start working with the child much earlier.

Scientists at the Institute of Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a new method for treating speech delays in children, which can reduce the manifestations of brain immaturity. This occurs through the therapeutic effect of a low-power direct electric current on brain tissue. By influencing the child’s brain in this way, scientists manage to activate the child’s speech zones.

Helping a child with speech development

It is very difficult for the baby to start speaking on his own, so you need to work with the child a lot. You should talk more, talk through your actions. Speech therapists recommend often reading poetry, singing songs and nursery rhymes. The baby carefully looks at the lips of his parents, remembers the articulation while pronouncing words, so you need to turn to face him during a conversation. You should speak in simple phrases and sentences; long phrases are difficult for a baby.

You can't babysit with a child. This prevents him from learning to speak correctly. The pronunciation of relatives should be clear and not very fast so that the baby can understand the conversation. It is useful to pronounce animal sounds and the manner of their pronunciation. Example: cat - meow, dog - gaf, lamb - be and others. The child will first begin to pronounce cat using the word “meow”, and then will fully say the word “cat”.

Speech therapists advise showing pictures from the beginning of the year and saying everything that is drawn on them. Instead of picture cards, any children's books that are drawn brightly and in close-up will do. The child will visually remember the object or animal and try to name it.

Everyone has their own time

It is generally accepted that a child first pronounces the word “mother” at about one to one and a half years.
Of course, a six-month difference is a lot, but each baby has its own, individual development schedule. Therefore, for the time being, parents have nothing to worry about. The little one didn’t say the cherished word at one year old, but he will say it at one year and three months. Or a year and a half. We just need to wait a little. It’s another matter if, even after one and a half years, the child does not try to say anything. In this case, there may be some disturbances in the baby’s development, and therefore you should definitely seek medical advice. If the baby develops somehow incorrectly, the doctor will prescribe treatment.

But if everything is normal with the child’s health, and the baby is delayed in development for natural reasons, mom and dad should help him say the long-awaited word “mom.”