Delayed speech development in children

The mouth of the baby is true. Confirmation of this phrase is found by every parent. And everyone will note that there is no happier moment than when the baby starts talking. However, not all parents are destined to feel this happiness. Time passes, and we have to state a sad fact - the child has a speech delay. What to do in this case and how to determine if it is worth the alarm?

Norms of speech development of babies

There are some features of the speech development of children that every parent needs to know. For example, the fact that girls start talking before boys is known. They are much quicker to remember new words, but they start talking late with whole sentences. In boys, full speech develops longer, but they quickly learn the names of various actions. Despite such differences, children of both sexes can fully communicate with others by 3-4 years. Determine whether to worry, you can know the norm of speech development of children. The child is completely healthy if:

• his physical development corresponds to his age;
• the child does not have neurological diseases;
• the child willingly communicates with others and even with strangers;
• the kid repeats everything that adults say;
• the child hears his own speech and tries to correct mistakes in it;
• the child reports his problems through speech.

The absence of at least one attribute is not yet a cause for alarm. However, if you are not sure that your baby is okay, you should watch him. So, the child lags behind in speech development if:

• in 4-6 months does not have in his lexicon the letters "b", "m", "n";
• in 10-12 months does not imitate the sounds of speech, does not turn around when his name is, and talks about his problems only with the help of crying;
• has in stock not more than 20 words and does not connect them in any way;
• in 1,5-2 years does not understand elementary requests such as "open your mouth", etc., can not show in the picture what he is being asked for and hear the objects;
• in 2,5 -3 years can not perform a simple command like "bring me the ball" or "take a bottle;
• in 3-4 years can not answer the questions "where", "who" or "what" and call someone from family members;
• the child does not play and does not interact with other children.

Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment of Speech Delay in Children

The psychology of the child's speech development depends on the environment where he was born and continues to grow, as well as on the way the mother's pregnancy proceeded. Among the physiological factors, due to which there may be a delay in the development of speech in children, distinguish the following:

• pathology during gestation;
• viral infections or intrauterine diseases;
• craniocerebral injury or brain disease.

However, most often the violation of speech development in children occurs for social reasons:

• the lack of active speech communication between the child and the adult, or the fulfillment of the child's requests without the participation of speech;
• problems with hearing, inability to repeat what others say;
• weak muscle tone of the face or undeveloped musculature;
• logoneurosis or stammering.

Diagnosis of speech development of children, as a rule, takes about three years. In this regard, there are many problems. Usually doctors expect that by the age of three the child will catch up with peers and begin to speak himself. And most often, the diagnosis of "delayed development" is put only if he has not started using speech. In this case, the corrective measures have a more complex and long-lasting form. Therefore, the sooner parents notice in communicating with the baby something wrong, the more likely it will be to correct the pathology.

If you are convinced that deviations from the norm still take place, you need to contact the speech therapist and psychologist to begin treatment of speech delay. In children who do not suffer from neurological diseases and have normal hearing, correction is quick and painless. The more regular classes with a speech therapist and a defectologist, the sooner the child will overcome the "speech barrier". If there are physiological factors that influence the development of the baby's speech, doctors can prescribe nootropic drugs that affect the higher functions of the brain and enhance the processes of remembering and concentrating attention. Such drugs as cortexin, nootropil, encephabol, etc. are popular.

Even if you did not notice the problems with learning the speech of your baby, remember that only on you depends on its development. You are a model for imitation and your attention is the main value for the baby, which not only will save him from the problems of communicative and psychological plan, but will also provide him with a quiet and happy future.