1. Normal Development
In the first year of life, you may believe that your baby is speaking, but most of these words are just development babble. This gibberish does lay the groundwork for proper speech later on. At around 1 year of age, they will start to form words with a rapid development of initial speech in the next six to eight months. The child will replace syllables or wrap their own babble around a word they have heard from their surroundings until they are 2 to 3 years old, when full speech patterns develop. As a general rule, if the child is not talking by the age of 2, you need to consult a physician.
2. Do They Hear What I Hear?
One of the most common reasons for speech delays in children is a loss of hearing due to an illness or a genetic issue. Simply put, the child learns to talk by listening to and mimicking others. If they can't hear properly, it can delay proper speech development. There is bilateral hearing loss that affects both ears, and unilateral, which is a problem with only one ear. Some of the common signs of hearing issues are if the child does not react normally to loud noises or if they appear to look past you when are speaking to them and do not respond to you. If you suspect your child may have a hearing loss, visit a doctor.
3. On the Level
Some think that if you want a child to speak like an adult, you have to talk to them like one. This is a mistake because you can help speech development by talking to children on their level and even repeating the words they are trying to say. If you talk to your toddlers like adults, it will just confuse them and could exacerbate speech delays. Think of speech as a building where each word lays a foundation for good overall structure later in their development.
4. Be a Good Example
Your children learn from what they see, and if they do not see you talk correctly, they can develop bad speech patterns and habits. Therefore, when you talk to your kids, try to articulate the words and look at them when you speak. Also, use gestures to accentuate the meaning of the words you are saying. This way, they have a proper speech role model that they can emulate and who can help them navigate their way through to proper verbal expression.
5. Articulation
Articulation is another form of speech delay in which the child cannot enunciate the words, and the speech sounds a bit like gibberish that is hard to understand. There are a host of reasons the child may have trouble with articulation, some of which are chronic ear infections, weak vocal muscles and structural issues, such as a cleft palate. It is important that you understand that this could be a serious speech delay issue and not think it is cute or something that the child will grow out of.
