Speech delay in children

Paulomi Rahman Nisha :
Concerns regarding children’s language development are very common among new parents. As a child starts to grow up, parents often worry if their kids are not generating the words and sentences they should at that particular age. Developmental milestones help gauge a child’s progress. “Does my child have a speech delay?”
There are certain differences between a speech delay and a language delay, even though the two are usually confused and referred to as the same thing. There are three types of language delays: receptive, expressive, and combined. The receptive language deficit causes language understanding problems, whereas the expressive language disorder causes verbal communication problems. It can be challenging to respond to language, grasp words or sentences, speak initial words or learn new words, connect words together to form sentences, or increase vocabulary. Now, the question arises: what causes speech delay? A hearing disability, underlying neurological or developmental issues, or both, may lead to a speech delay. A speech delay in a child doesn’t always indicate a medical problem. The child might merely be a slow talker who will soon talk constantly.
Let’s have a look at the language acquisition stages of a child. From birth to about six months of age, a child goes through the Pre-Talking stage. Although the child is still unable to speak, they are starting to understand simple words and phrases that are significant to their interests and activities.
Babbling starts between six and eight months of age. The infant starts to “babble” during this stage, producing sounds and phrases that are not yet words. Teeth start to show up on a physical level, and the mouth muscles required for communication start to grow.
The Holophrastic or One-word stage lasts between nine and eighteen months of age. The infant starts to learn and speak single words throughout this stage. Beginning with sounds like “mama” and “dada”. These words are significantly focused on fundamental interests.
Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four months, the Two-Word stage occurs. Once kids can speak in single words, they start to string words together to form short sentences and expressions like “I want” or “That bird”
The Telegraphic stage occurs between the ages of two and three. Children gradually start to turn their two-word utterances into brief sentences. An example of a sentence in the telegraphic stage can be “I am playing ball.” As a way to make the words, they employ match the phrase. For instance, they understand that “cats” rather than “cat” should be used in the plural when referring to more than one cat.
Kids learn to use small segments of words to change the meaning of the words they use. They learn to use words like, but, in, the, and that. A child’s vocabulary grows from 50 words to up to 13,000 words throughout this time. A normal two-year-old can articulate two and three-word sentences and can articulate roughly fifty words. By the age of three, kids have a vocabulary of about one thousand words and can articulate three and four-word sentences.
Parents can play a great role in encouraging their kid’s speech in certain ways, such as speaking to their children directly, even if it’s merely to describe what they’re doing. Parents can make motions and point to the appropriate things, as they say, the associated words. Body parts, people, toys, colors, or objects they observe on a block stroll can all be used for this. When the child tries to communicate, they must have patience and pay close attention to what the child has to say. Provide options when posing questions, giving ample time for responses. Parents can also read to their young kids. As they go, they can discuss the images. Singing easy-to-repeat songs can be straightforward to learn. Sometimes parents answer the questions on their kid’s behalf when someone asks a question. This thing should be avoided. Let them respond. Even if parents foresee their needs, they should offer them the opportunity to express them. The child might make mistakes. It is a good way to recite the words accurately rather than calling out their mistakes. Parents must allow their young child to converse with other kids who speak clearly. The more crucial abilities to impart involve interacting with other kids and have nothing to do with machines: these are human abilities like empathy, teamwork, and problem-solving that computers or mobile phones find difficult to mimic. Furthermore, playing and building instead of staring at screens is said to be a better way for kids to learn. They should play and interact with one another and move about. It accelerates their cognitive development.
If the parents still notice that after taking all these steps, their kid is experiencing a speech delay or not developing normally for his or her age, they can consult a professional pediatrician. The pediatrician might diagnose the child’s hearing ability. Children with speech, language and literacy difficulties may benefit from the assistance of language therapists. They help to boost a child’s self-confidence and improve language development, they collaborate closely with the child’s relatives and parents.
None of the aforementioned indications or symptoms is clearly suggestive of a disability on its own. It could indicate a delay or difficulty in a certain area, which can be supported by seeking professional advice. By recognizing and solving these issues early on, there is no losing-only success.

(The writer is ELT practitioner).