Every mother eagerly waits for her baby to say his first word. Most often this word is “mother”. However, you should not rush your baby, since children’s speech skills develop at different speeds. It depends on heredity, on the sex of the child and on how often parents, grandparents, and older brothers and sisters communicate with him.
The first words are the most important
Time for conscious pronunciation of words
All parents want to know when their child says “mama.” The time for conscious pronunciation of words varies for each child and is determined by the following factors:
- Gender (boys usually start speaking later than girls);
- Heredity;
- The presence or absence of abnormalities in the development of the palate and tongue (for example, speech development may slow down with a shortened frenulum);
- Features of the bite;
- Individual temperament of the child.
The physical well-being of the baby also plays a big role. Often sick children begin to speak later than their peers.
When will the baby learn to form phrases?
Babies will speak phrases later. Boys begin to speak in sentences and phrases more often later than girls. The difference, however, is not too great, rarely exceeding 1-2 months. Most children learn their first word combinations between the ages of 1 and 1.5 years.
Sometimes a child begins to talk later: often this disorder is caused by a long-term illness. It is recommended to visit a child psychologist or neurologist if speech disorders are noted.
Approximate age of first words
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The question of what time children say “mom” is difficult to answer unambiguously. A healthy baby, already at 9-10 months, tries to name objects that are in his field of vision. Such speech cannot yet be called conscious. The baby simply imitates adults, copying the sounds they make. After a year, the baby begins to understand how to use speech; It is precisely at this time that the first conscious words belong. Thus, a toddler can call his dad, mom, or “babu” to him, using a specific word in relation to a specific person. When a child begins to say “mom”, “dad” and other words consciously, you can already talk to him almost like an adult.
As the year progresses, the child’s vocabulary increases significantly
First sounds
Every baby, when he is born, has only one way to talk to others, to tell them about his problems. This is crying. The first sound that the mother hears from the newborn indicates that he has arrived alive and unharmed in the new world. And from this very moment the baby’s continuous development begins, which will last for more than one year.
At first, the child speaks only the simplest sounds. At first it’s only vowels; after a few months, consonants are added to the baby’s arsenal, but it will still be a long time before he says “mom” consciously. Is it possible to teach him this? There are things that children learn exclusively on their own. However, parents may well push the child and contribute to the rapid development of the baby.
Variants of the first words
Daily routine of a 5 month old baby
Statistics say that the first word in the vocabulary of 70% of children under one year old is “mom.” However, this is not at all necessary. Other options are also possible: “nanny”, “woman” or even “kisya” (if the baby is shown a cat every day and repeats its name). The first word can be any word, except those that contain consonant sounds that are difficult to articulate: “sh”, “sch”, “ts”, “r”. A young car lover can say “beep” for the first time; a girl, seeing a beautiful doll, can say “lala.” If the mother is often away, the baby may be the first to name the adult with whom he communicates most: these are grandmothers, aunts, brother or sister (“Anya”, “Lelya”, “Yulia”). Therefore, you should not wait for the child to say “mom”. Perhaps he will say a completely different word first.
In “children’s” language, the baby tries to name everything that interests him
Interesting. The baby's articulatory apparatus develops gradually. At first he pronounces only sounds (the so-called “humming”), then the consonants “m”, “n”, “l” are added to them, as the most convenient for pronunciation. Perhaps this is why the word “mother” sounds similar in all languages of the world - the sounds “m” and “a” are the easiest for a baby to pronounce.
Stimulating the baby to conscious speech
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When babies begin to speak their first words, it becomes a joyful event for parents. A completely healthy child can remain silent for a long time, “like a partisan,” if his parents do not encourage him to utter conscious words. It is known that the brain areas responsible for the development of speech actively develop during any manual actions: finger games, drawing, sculpting. To hear the first words faster, parents should:
- Play with your child more often in construction sets, cubes, pyramids to develop coordination and fine motor skills;
- Name the baby objects that he sees every day (cat, dog, spoon, car);
- Sing children's songs to the baby and tell age-appropriate fairy tales (“Kolobok”, “Ryaba Hen”);
- Look at children's illustrated books with your baby and make up short stories based on the pictures.
You need to pronounce all words in a conversation with your baby clearly, correctly placing the emphasis and pronouncing all the letters. If the pace of speech is too fast, the child is unlikely to understand anything, so the conversation between an adult and a child should be calm and measured. It is not recommended for your child to play modern children's songs that sound at a fast pace (for example, the Kukutiki ensemble); such music is for children aged 3 years and older.
Games for the development of fine motor skills contribute to the development of conscious speech
Achievements up to six months
During the first month of life, the baby learns to respond to the speech of adults. Often children walk parallel to the conversations of adults. This happens especially often if parents talk to the baby and address him. Begins to distinguish intonations: the mother’s affectionate address helps to calm down faster, screams and aggression are frightening and can cause crying.
By 3 months, the first syllables appear. They are simple, consisting of a small number of sounds. You can hear “ua”, “gu”, “ga”.
By 4-5 months, baby talk acquires an emotional connotation. The child does not just sing or squeal: you can distinguish the intonation with which the sounds are pronounced. Reacts well to adult speech, understands intonation better; When a child hears a sound, he can turn his head correctly in the direction of its source.
At the age of six months, children recognize their parents' voices well, even with a large number of people around. Syllables vaguely reminiscent of “ma” and “pa” slip into speech. They will become clearer only closer to 7 months.
Helping the little “silent one”
It happens that parents are actively engaged with their baby: they sculpt, draw, sing songs and read fairy tales, but the boy (girl) is still silent. To gently and unobtrusively help your baby learn to speak, you need to:
- Visit an orthodontist and dentist (speech delay may be caused by problems with teeth or bite);
- Start weaning off the pacifier (prolonged pacifier sucking can significantly slow down speech development);
- Ask the child more often what exactly he wants, so that the baby does not show with gestures, but names objects in words;
- Tell your child about everything he sees at home, on a trip, on a walk.
It is known that children of silent parents, as a rule, are also not talkative, this is normal. Heredity plays an important role in the acquisition of speech skills. The most important thing is to work with your baby every day, then the baby’s vocabulary will begin to grow very quickly.
Under no circumstances should you put pressure on a 12-16 month old baby, forcing him to pronounce a specific word (for example, “mom”). At this age, children pronounce only what they are able to pronounce; each person’s speech apparatus develops individually. For some it’s easier to say “mom,” for others it’s easier to say “dad” or “baba.” Sooner or later, when the time comes, the baby will master all the sounds of the Russian language without exception.
If a healthy baby is silent for a long time, this is not a reason to worry
If the child is left-handed
Why is it not worth retraining a left-handed person and how can this affect his speech? By forcing the baby to work with his right hand, mom and dad shift the innate functions of the “commander” of the right hemisphere of the brain to the left hemisphere, which is not ready for this. As a result, speech perceived by ear “does not know” in which hemisphere it should “settle.” Retrained left-handers not only speak later, but their other abilities do not fully develop.
Signs of speech delay
If after one and a half years a boy or girl continues to remain silent, a pediatrician or neurologist may diagnose “delayed speech development.” It should be borne in mind that such a diagnosis is most often made against the background of other concomitant disorders and diseases. If the baby is practically healthy, you don’t have to worry and just wait a little. You should sound the alarm if:
- The baby not only does not speak, but also does not understand the speech of adults;
- The baby does not respond to words addressed to him;
- The child does not show interest in the world around him and does not like to look at children's picture books;
- The little silent man's medical history includes congenital neurological pathologies.
Experts say that intensive speech development is facilitated by a child’s attendance at a child care facility (nursery) and age-appropriate developmental group classes, as well as active communication with older brothers and sisters (if there are other children in the family). If a baby spends a lot of time alone and is often left to his own devices, he may not utter his first words for a very long time.
Parents should monitor not only the quantity, but also the quality of the first words. Children after one year can already be delicately corrected, stimulating them to speak correctly (for example, not “bibika”, but “machine”). In order for the development of speech skills to proceed correctly, speech therapists categorically do not recommend teaching children under three years of age a foreign language, even in the form of a game.
The exception is bilingual families, where parents initially speak different languages; in this case, a healthy baby easily learns both, but this happens gradually.
Attention! If a healthy baby actively communicates with others in his own language, which no one understands, this is a variant of the norm. The child is already speaking, just in his own way for now. If a child one and a half years or older is constantly silent, is wary of others, often shows aggressiveness and refuses to communicate, this may be a sign of autism.
If the baby is already one year old, but he is in no hurry to please his elders with his first words, there is no need to panic. A healthy, physically well-developed baby will definitely speak; the main thing is to encourage him to do this by personal example. If the baby suffers from any neurological disorders or is often sick, a delay in speech development may be caused by serious disorders that require specialist supervision.
Don't miss warning signs
Parents evaluate all the skills of their children differently. For some, the inability to say “mom” by 10 months is already a pathology, for others, “silence” after 3 years is nothing to worry about. How can we determine that a baby has not just “individual characteristics” (and he will speak, albeit relatively late), but serious deviations that require correction?
There are several signs that a child is lagging behind in speech development:
- at 1 year old there is not a single word in the baby’s speech (even onomatopoeic);
- by the age of 2, the child cannot remember the names of objects and the essence of requests, does not fulfill them, does not respond when his name is called;
- at 2 years old pronounces individual words, does not know how to “assemble” them into simple sentences, does not repeat new words after adults;
- after 2 years does not recognize colors, does not know the names of body parts or surrounding objects;
- at 3 years old does not speak in sentences of 3-4 words, does not understand the meaning of short stories;
- pronounces guttural sound combinations instead of normal speech;
- speaks indistinctly, in a “gibberish” language that even parents do not understand;
- cannot learn to chew;
- hyperactive;
- keeps his mouth open all the time;
- can't make eye contact.
Such symptoms may indicate a delay in psycho-speech development, which is often caused by diseases that require treatment, correction, and adaptation of the child.
If you find similar symptoms in your child, contact a pediatrician, psychiatrist, neurologist, psychologist, or speech pathologist. These specialists will be able to determine the root of the problem and help solve it as completely as possible.
