The child is 2 years old but talks. If a child at two years old does not speak: reasons and training. Deviations from the norm

Parents are touched by the first conscious "words" of their baby. But the opposite picture is often observed: the child does not speak at a year and does not even make attempts.

Stages and norms of speech development

Since speech is important not only for full-fledged communication, but also affects the mental development of the child (associated with the development of memory, attention, thinking and imagination), it is worth paying close attention to the delay in speech development.

Knowledge of the stages and norms of speech formation helps to identify such a violation.

It is important to remember that the norm is a relative concept, and each child has individual capabilities and characteristics, the time of appearance of certain speech forms can vary in terms of time.

The main stages of development:

• From birth to 1 month life, the baby reacts to the intonation of the speech addressed to him (shows joyful animation, cries). At this time, the first vocal reaction appears - the child screams, and by the second or third month, the cry is distinguished by various intonations.
• From 2nd to 3rd month humming is observed - the toddler makes separate melodious sounds and listens carefully. These sounds are the same for children of any nationality - ah-ah, o-o-o, gu-oo-oo, uh-uh. By the 4th month, the combinations become more complicated, and the baby gradually weeds out combinations of sounds that are unusual for his native language.
• From 4 to 5 months humming turns into babbling - the baby reproduces combinations of syllables, imitating the speech of others. After the 6th month, babbling sounds intensively accumulate and gradually turn into babbling words.
  Important: in case of delayed speech development, babbling appears at a later age, and if there are hearing problems, humming stops.
• From 6 to 10 months “Quantity turns into quality” - the baby repeatedly repeats the same babbling chains of sounds, babbling words also appear, correlated with specific objects and persons (“BBC”, “av-av”, etc.). Speech is characterized by emotional expressiveness, there is a reaction to your name. The kid begins to correlate the sound image of the word with the object, reacts to questions (shows the named object, looks in its direction).
• From 10 months to a year words-sentences appear (the word expresses, depending on the situation, a feeling, desire, designates an object).
• From 1 to 3 years old the pace of speech development in a child actively learning about the world is accelerating. The child is interested in how new objects and objects are called and actively uses new words. There are sound distortions, rearrangement of syllables, and difficult to pronounce sounds are skipped. Often, only the initial syllables are used.

It is important - normally, a child of the second year of life is able to pronounce without difficulty the sounds o, n, t ', d', t, d, k, g, x, v, f, and closer to the 3rd one is also d, l ', uh, s'.

Elementary phrasal speech is formed by the age of 2 - the baby is able to combine several simple words in the process of communication (give me a drink, etc.).

At a year and a half, a child's vocabulary is approximately 100 words, at two years old it is about 300, and by the end of an early age it is approximately 1500 words.

The correct use of grammatical categories begins in toddlers after 2.5 years.

Deviations from the norm

Slight deviations from the timing with the preservation of the stages of speech development usually indicate an individual peculiarity of the toddler. It should be remembered that girls usually start talking earlier than boys and like to imitate adults more. The stronger sex is more action oriented; in boys, the first words are often the designations of actions, and sometimes they do not want to repeat after adults.

If the baby does not speak at 2 years of age, but differs little from his peers and understands perfectly what adults want from him, you should not worry too much. Sometimes active speech manifests itself suddenly, and yesterday's silent, with due attention from adults, turns out to be a quite talkative child.

In case of concern, parents should establish the cause of the baby's silence by excluding possible pathology. To this end, you need to contact a pediatrician, the doctor will give referrals to a speech therapist and other narrow pediatric specialists (ENT, neurologist, psychiatrist).

Why isn't a two-year-old child speaking?

All children who do not speak at the age of two can be divided into two groups:

1. Absolutely healthy babies, "keeping silent" due to temperament and other individual characteristics of development.
2. Children with various pathologies that interfere with the normal development of speech.

Often, in the absence of health problems, a baby at 2 years old does not speak in the following situations:

• Speech is unclaimed. This situation also occurs in children left to themselves, and babies suffering from overprotection. For a long time, the crumbs are silent, for various reasons they do not receive full-fledged communication with their parents - they have neither an example to follow, nor an incentive to develop speech. Adults shaking excessively over the child, practically guessing the child's desires and immediately rushing to fulfill them, stimulate prolonged silence (usually such children have a limited set of words that allow them to manipulate others). Children who are too closely guarded have no need to voice their desires and feelings; they do well with gestures.
• There are stressful situations, fear. Healthy children, who are in an emotionally unfavorable environment, become isolated and silent due to strong stressful experiences (first of all, regular family scandals have a stressful effect on the child). Moving, a serious illness requiring inpatient treatment, improper adaptation to kindergarten, etc., has a negative effect on the baby at this age. Particularly acute children of this age perceive separation from their mother.
• The family is bilingual. Although children learn a variety of languages ​​much more easily than adults, the regular use of different names for the same objects makes it difficult for a child to determine exactly which names should be used.
• The child has a negative attitude towards speech. Usually, children with a stubborn, independent character are stubbornly silent and do not respond to requests to say something, to repeat. And the more parents insist, the more withdrawn and silent the child becomes.
• The child has unlimited access to a TV, computer, etc. - in this case, he often perceives speech as a background noise, without separating the parental voices from the stream of sounds.

Pathologies causing delayed speech development

In addition to the above socio-psychological factors, there are also medical reasons. These reasons include:

• Hearing impairment. Hearing is the leading speech analyzer, and various problems with it lead to speech disorders in children. A child who is deaf from birth is not able to master speech on his own. In children with hearing impairment, speech comprehension and reproduction suffer due to impairment of speech perception.
• Limited mobility of the organs of speech that occurs in case of damage to the nervous system (dysarthria) in babies. It appears due to injuries, cerebrovascular accidents, neuroinfections, etc. It is often one of the manifestations of cerebral palsy. Depending on the severity of the pathology, the speech of children is characterized by minor articulation disorders or is practically absent.
• Congenital anomalies development of the maxillofacial region, impeding the development of speech in children.
• Hereditary diseases (familial bradilalia, myasthenia gravis, Down's syndrome, etc.).
• Brain and nervous system pathologies. With organic lesions of the cortical speech centers located in the brain (they are intrauterine or occur during the first years of life), alalia develops, in this case, the baby's speech reactions appear late, the vocabulary is poor, the syllable structure and sound pronunciation are impaired. Local organic lesions of the brain lead to the development of aphasia in children, in this case, previously acquired speech skills are lost.

A fairly common reason explaining the silence of a child in the absence of physical pathologies is autism. This is a violation of the development of the nervous system, which is expressed in isolation, weak expression of emotions and active avoidance of the outside world. A slight delay in speech development is also observed in the case of Asperger's syndrome, which resembles autism.

The predisposing factors for the fact that the baby does not speak by the end of 2 years of life are:

• long-term toxicosis, mother's illness during pregnancy;
• too long / rapid labor;
• fetal hypoxia;
• birth trauma in children;
• taking contraindicated medications by the mother during pregnancy.

Helping your child to master speech skills

When a pathology is the cause of the child's prolonged silence, the development of speech should be accompanied by treatment of the underlying disease. Medical / surgical therapy for children is prescribed by doctors of a narrow specialty - a neurologist, psychiatrist, ENT.

Cortexin and other drugs, magnetotherapy, and, in the absence of contraindications, electroreflexotherapy contribute to the activation of the activity of the child's speech zones.

Classes are held with a defectologist, helping to prevent the development of new deviations on an individual basis and correct the existing ones.

Speech therapy massage is also indicated for poorly speaking children.

Sick and absolutely healthy silent people need regular "conversation" sessions with their parents to develop their speech skills, including:

• Articulatory gymnastics.
• Various activities that develop fine motor skills (modeling, finger games, pouring and fingering small objects, etc.), they stimulate the work of the speech center.
• Slow, with expression, reading (rhythmic speech is more easily perceived by children, give preference to children's poetry), storytelling from pictures.
• Singing children's songs together, playing with imitating the voices of animals, etc. (what you said together, the baby remembers faster).

If, in the event of violations in the baby, the actions of the parents are corrected by a specialist, then what to do and how to get the child to talk, who does not suffer from any pathologies?

If a stubborn independent kid understands, but does not repeat the words after you, do not insist, otherwise he will begin to resist the "imposed" even more. Try to create a situation in which he wants to speak up on his own.

Exercises that contribute to the development of speech are shown for an absolutely healthy child.

Komarovsky's opinion

If a child does not speak at 2 years of age, this may signal a possible delay in speech development. And when a child does not speak at 3 years old, it is a clear sign of its presence. What does it mean to lag behind the established norms of speech development?

The difference from other children is that the baby begins to speak only much later. This affects the formation of the child's psyche and makes it difficult for him to communicate with others. In this connection, cognitive processes are also disturbed.

The prerequisites for the development of speech are the need for emotional communication with parents and other adults.

Speech is one of the important components of a child's overall development. Mental processes such as memory, attention, thinking and imagination are directly related to understanding the speech of others. This is why it takes a lot of effort afterwards. After all, it is necessary to make up for lost time, while the baby is not talking. The onset of mental retardation is considered a severe consequence.

For the timely correction of speech delay, it is important to understand the features of its development.

Stages of speech formation

1. Pre-verbal period. It starts from the moment of birth and lasts up to 6-10 months. It manifests itself in the form of screaming, babbling or humming. In this way, he communicates his needs to others. That he is hungry, that it hurts, scary, wet, cold or hot, etc. Up to 5 months, a speech addressed to him causes an emotional reaction in the form of a "revitalization complex". At this age, they actively listen to the conversation of adults. And although they still do not know how to speak themselves, by the end of this period they already understand from 50 to 100 words. They may try to pronounce simple syllables such as "ma", "pa", etc.
2. Stage of speech emergence. It starts at 8-10 months and lasts up to two years. During this period, the baby begins to understand that sounds can be combined. And use these combinations to meet your needs. For example, call mom, saying: "ma-ma" ... And they can also answer questions with gestures. Through intonation, one learns to express emotions such as anger, joy, or fear.
3. The stage of development of verbal communication. It starts at two years old and lasts up to 6-7 years. The kid has come a long way in order to recognize speech and be able to use it in communication. At this age, the first words already appear. Perhaps even phrases of two or four words. He perfectly understands what is being told to him and is able to carry out assignments. Having mastered a vocabulary of about 300 words, he is able to point to objects that are named to him.

Normal speech development table

Required Vocabulary Table

You can learn more about how to develop vocabulary in preschoolers from the article on.

If your baby does not speak, or does not speak well, you should find out the reasons for the delay in speech. You can turn to specialists such as a speech therapist, psychologist, pediatric neurologist, psychotherapist and otolaryngologist. They will help to find the factors that influenced the fact that the child does not speak at 2 or 3 years. And also to eliminate them in order to contribute to speech development.

Causes of speech delay

Physiological

• Genetics. The maturation process of nerve cells that are responsible for speech activity is very slow. This immaturity of the nervous system is inherited. This means that one of the close relatives of the child was also in no hurry to join the conversations.
• Sometimes the baby does not speak due to a general disorder of the nervous system. It manifests itself as one of the symptoms against the background of intellectual delay and motor impairment.
• Hearing impairment. Speech can only be formed by reproducing what is heard. The child does not understand how the words sound. Hearing loss can be congenital. Sometimes it occurs due to trauma to the auditory canal or a serious illness.
• Diseases of the brain or its damage. They arise due to the transferred infectious diseases in the prenatal period and during the first year of life. Due to trauma, especially during childbirth. And also with hypoxia.
• The baby may speak poorly because he has poorly developed facial muscles, in particular, the mouth.
• And also if he has congenital anomalies of the tongue, lips, palate or facial muscles ("cleft palate", "cleft lip" ...).
• Mental illness. With mental retardation, a characteristic feature is a lag in speech activity. With autism, the baby does not need to communicate with others, all attention is directed inward. Therefore, speech can be very belated.

Social

• Lack of demand for speech. When parents do not pay attention to the child, they do not talk to him. Accordingly, he does not develop a need to express emotions or demands to satisfy his needs.
• Hyper-care. Likewise, the need for expression is not formed. Why does the baby not speak. Parents themselves do not give such an opportunity. They guess his desires, anticipate them. Because of such overprotection, he has no need to understand something, to try to understand something. Another will do it for him.
• Unfavorable social conditions. They can lead to mental illness, emotional disorders. And, accordingly, to a delay in speech development.
• Negativism. It usually occurs when the parents put in too much effort to get the baby to speak. They force them to repeat the word they said, scold if they refuse, beg or punish. If a child at three years old spoke, albeit badly, then over time it will stop altogether. Refusal is expressed passively, in ignoring the request. Or it is actively rejected. The difficulty is that the baby refuses not only to repeat when asked. But he does not speak at all in all situations.
• Distraction by gadgets. Excessive passion for TV, computer games or constant watching cartoons negatively affects the body as a whole. Up to the development of autism. It is sometimes convenient for adults that the child is distracted, but the consequences will not be long in coming.
• Bilingualism. When there are speakers of different languages ​​in the family, it is difficult for the baby. It takes him longer to learn to understand both adults. There is a risk that it will combine words from different languages ​​in one sentence. But over time, everything will return to normal and will be able to speak each of them.

Psychological

• Fright. The child may stop talking due to stress or fear. Sometimes violations are manifested in stuttering, sometimes children become silent altogether.
• Unfavorable family environment. If a child is two or three years old witnesses assault or frequent scandals, then this can affect his mental development. Stress in speech development can occur from persistent stress.

Alalia

Why still the child does not speak, or speaks badly, is when a pathology of the nervous system occurs, which leads to speech underdevelopment. Alalia is called. It is difficult to diagnose, but if detected early, it can be corrected.

There is sensory alalia and motor alalia. With sensory, the baby does not perceive speech, he cannot separate words from each other. Sometimes you can see how the last phrase said by someone else, or repeating a question. This is called echolalia and is sometimes present in autism. The speech of others sounds in the background, so the brain does not receive enough information. This is why mental retardation occurs over time.

With motor alalia, 3 degrees are distinguished, depending on the brain damage:

1. The child does not speak until the age of three, but then the period begins when he speaks in scraps of words, as if "swallowing" the endings.
2. If the baby understands what is at stake, then he himself is not able to put the tongue or lips in the right position to repeat.
3. May make mistakes in the wrong rearrangement of syllables, use the wrong case. Usually accompanied by undeveloped motor skills, simple movements are difficult for them. Thinking and memory suffer.

Alalia occurs with trauma or brain tumors. With pathology of the central nervous system and difficult childbirth. And also if there was a Rh-conflict with the mother. Why is it important to show the baby to specialists if he does not speak and there is at least one of the above reasons. They will be able not only to prescribe correction and treatment. And also to distinguish the usual tempo delay of speech from severe pathology of speech development.

What should parents do if their baby does not speak or speaks reluctantly and badly:

• In order to develop the baby's speech, it is important to adhere to a clear daily routine. This means that proper nutrition, alternation of sleep and rest must be present. This will contribute to its full development and health. In a vigorous state and in a good mood, he will be more active and easier to make contact. And accordingly, take the first steps in speech development.
• Talk to your baby and older child more often. Contact him, talk about the world around you, about yourself. Share experiences or joyful moments. This will not only develop his speech, but also teach him to understand himself and his reactions. And also create a closer and deeper connection in a relationship. Such a baby will grow up feeling the attention and acceptance of loved ones, which will contribute to his normal self-esteem and his own importance to others.
• If the baby does not speak or speaks reluctantly and badly, spend more time together, efficiently and actively. Have more outdoor activities together or do household chores together. Taking part in helping adults, the child will try to be like them, which is very motivating to develop speech abilities.
• Play various developmental games with him. All sorts of easy puzzles, cards with animals or objects will replenish his vocabulary and encourage you to repeat the correct pronunciation after you. The main thing is, do not press on him, do not force him, in order to avoid negativism. Carried away by the game, he himself will try to pronounce the words.
• Offer to end your phrase. Suitable in cases where the child understands, but it makes no sense for him to talk about his desires, because the adult predicts them. For example, "Today after sleep we will go ...", "Do you want to eat ...". It also helps you recognize your needs and understand that your parents are listening to their opinions and desires.
• Fine motor skills play a very significant role in activating the speech center. You can make dough or plasticine crafts together. Kinetic sand is for sale, which can captivate even adults. Let him go through cereals and pasta. Prepare space and clothing for finger painting. They develop motor skills and focus attention on various lacing when the little one tries to thread the tip into the hole. Sprinkle colored buttons and beads into a bowl. Tell us about their sizes in relation to each other and their shape.
• Read fairy tales, tell rhymes, nursery rhymes and ditties. It develops, replenishes the vocabulary of a two or three year old child. And what is important, it creates a joyful mood. And lullabies relax and evoke a feeling of comfort and safety.
• If your baby does not speak well, visit playgrounds, parks and play centers more often. When he plays with the kid who is already talking, he will try to copy him, do as he does. These parents are used to understanding and guessing the needs of their child without words. And strangers, especially children, will provoke the earliest possible connection of the speech center.
• If the "silent" is already three years old, and he hardly speaks, then psychologists recommend sending him to a kindergarten. In the company of the same preschoolers, he will be able to talk. The main thing is to prepare him for the garden. Explain to the caregivers that the baby is not yet speaking and that one should not pressure or demand. And over time, having passed the adaptation to new conditions, the little one himself will show a desire to do like the rest of the children.

You can learn more about how to develop speech in preschoolers from the article on. And you may also find useful exercises for the development of speech, in the article on.

The sooner you start corrective work, the easier it will be for your baby to speak. In 2015, psychologists and speech therapists of one of the preschool educational institutions in Moscow conducted research with children of three years of age who had delays in speech development. The parents of these ten babies adhered to the above recommendations. Basically, the task was to make fakes and so on for the development of small motorboats. And also read a lot of books, poems and nursery rhymes. A year later, 9 out of 10 children caught up with their peers in speech development.

When the child begins to pronounce the first sounds, the parents have a feeling of indescribable happiness. They hope that everything will be fine with him. Unfortunately, desires are not always a reality, and as they grow up, problems with speech appear. It can be incoherent, only some sounds are pronounced, the baby does not speak at all. Why does a child at 2 years old not speak, but only hums, points at visible objects with a finger? Whether there are physiological reasons for this or it may be wrong upbringing, we will understand the situation, outlining the existing reasons.

Symptoms of delayed speech development in a baby

When a child does not speak at 2 years of age, but grasps everything on the fly, he has a developed intellect, actively communicates with parents and people around him, usually the parents do not sound the alarm. In vain. This phenomenon is called expressive speech. In speech therapy and pediatrics, several reasons are distinguished, which are combined into groups: physiological, psychological and social.

Physiological

Changes in heredity, internal deviations in the development of the body.

1. There were relatives in the family with a speech delay, that is, they began to pronounce the first sounds late.
2. Violation of the development of the organs of articulation - a short frenum of the tongue, decreased tone of the facial muscles, congenital pathologies of the palate, tongue, lips.
3. Underdevelopment of the auditory organs: hearing loss, lack of hearing.
4. Nervous system disorders.
5. Autism.
6. Postponed injuries.

Psychological

The reasons are characterized by the psychological environment in the family.

1. The child is ignored.
2. Parents are in constant quarrel, do not talk to each other.
3. Quarrels, fights take place in front of a minor.
4. Bad habits of mom or dad, or joint.
5. Raised by a single mother or father.

Social

The reasons are related to external factors acting on the baby:

1. Constant lisping, distorting words by parents. The child cannot understand the correctness and meaning of the pronunciation of words.
2. Lack of motivation to talk. Mom and Dad usually do everything for him. Feeling guardianship, excessive care, the baby does not seek to talk.
3. Parents' dependence on work. Usually, such parents spend little time with their child, sit at a computer, tablet, TV and do not communicate with their child. The child will not be able to speak at all.
4. Bilingualism - Mom, Dad speak different languages. Trying to understand the meaning of words and their pronunciation becomes difficult for a child. He closes in on himself, stops participating in the conversation.
5. Excessive pressure - you cannot demand, you just need to push him to talk.

Do not postpone going to the doctor, as the problem only gets worse in the future. We'll have to seek help from specialists.

The norm of speech development in childhood

How to determine if a baby's speech is being formed correctly? A child has several organs responsible for speech, there is no single speech organ. Words are formed using: the respiratory system, chewing and swallowing reflexes. First of all, a certain part of the brain is responsible for speech.

Stages of the formation of children's speech:

1. 0 - 10 months. Usually, the baby reminds the parents that he is hungry, you need to change the diaper with the help of certain signals: gurgling, humming, screaming. With age, listening to the words of adults, he begins to pronounce syllables. Often these are the first letters of word forms. For example, the word mom, pronounced as "ma", etc.
2. 10 months - 2 years. The child has emotions, he understands the phrases said by adults, but responds with gestures. He is characterized by onomatopoeia. For example, the word sweetie can be replaced by "lyalka". Often, a mother, to make it easier for the baby, comes up with abbreviated names for objects, animals, following from her childhood (car - BBC, etc.).
3. 2 years and older. At 2-3 years old, a child can combine words, turn them into a semantic structure. His stock should be at least 300 words.

In almost every pediatrician's office, there are stands on the wall, on which the norms of the language development of the baby are painted. Every month, when visiting a doctor, he asks his mother questions about what sounds the baby makes. This is necessary in order to determine in advance whether there are pathologies of speech features.

Important! Girls develop faster. Daughters always, from an early age, try to imitate their mother in behavior and conversation. For boys, the first words most often are words that denote action.

Signs of "silent"

Determine the delay in speech for some symptoms, every caring mother should know them:

1. The baby has no reaction to the words, gestures of the mother.
2. At the age of 2 months, the baby is passive, does not pay attention to the environment.
3. Lack of speech exclamations before the age of 1 year.
4. In a year, he does not even pronounce syllables, does not respond to a request to show this or that object.
5. When at 1 year 6 months the little one cannot say the word mother.
6. At 2 years old, a child cannot make simple phrases, pronounces words incorrectly, it is easier for him to show an object with his hand than to say what it is called.
7. Children over 3 years old cannot make simple sentences, often they do not pronounce the word completely, they eat endings. Their speech is not legible.

With such manifestations, you need to consult a doctor for qualified help. And a speech therapist will help with this. Early detection of the problem will allow you to more quickly determine the cause and begin treatment.

How to help your baby learn to talk at an early age

Before going to the doctor, caring parents should deal with their child. For this, there are not very troublesome activities and games:

1. Developing pictures. Cut from newspapers, magazines, pictures of animals, vehicles, surrounding objects, etc. At the discretion of the parents. You can buy flashcards at a children's toy store. The child must get a picture and name what is depicted on it. If you find it difficult, name it yourself. Then drop the picture into a common pile and again ask to stretch the image. If the same card comes across, then the baby should remember what you said and how you called it.
2. Buy ABC for young children. In these there are small quatrains that are easily perceived by children. They are usually aimed at associative memory. Children remember them well.
3. Ask the child who says what? For example, having shown a rooster, the baby has to crow, etc. You can also ask what sounds are pronounced by objects: a car is driving, a bell is working.
4. The development of fine motor skills of the fingers and hands, which is responsible for the work of the brain in the field of speech.

There are a lot of such educational games. The effect depends on whether your toddler starts pronouncing the words you ask of him. You need to carry out such games and exercises every day. Remember the material covered.

Important! Do not press or scold, so that the desire to learn does not disappear.

If your child does not speak at 2 years of age and refuses to speak, these are two problems. The first can be corrected by examining the reasons for the appearance of such a deviation. The second problem is also fixable, but it will take a lot of time and desire from you. Do not forget about children, do not think that the phenomenon will pass by itself. If you do not provide assistance in time (parental or medical), in the future it will be difficult for such a child with the wrong speech to live, communicate with peers.

The popular opinion that before 5 years old it is too early to go to a speech therapist-defectologist and does not make sense at all can play a very cruel joke. Many parents, whose children speak poorly or do not speak at all even by the age of 2-3, often dismiss them, recalling family stories about relatives who spoke late or an old English joke about a boy who was silent because "everything was fine anyway." Is it worth waiting for the child to speak himself or is it necessary to grab him in an armful and run to the specialists? Let's figure it out.

Why doesn't a child at 2-3 years old speak?

The reasons why the formation of speech in a child is delayed can be very different.
Physiological or internal factors:

• Decreased hearing. Often, parents of children under 2 years old do not even know that the baby has hearing problems. If he is not completely absent, then the child reacts to loud sounds, to the presence of loved ones. And what he doesn’t say, maybe it’s too early for him. After examination by specialists, it turns out that speech is not formed precisely because the baby simply does not hear it.
• Oral pathology. These include a short frenum of the tongue, cleft palate, and even adenoids. Such violations can be obvious and diagnosed immediately, or they can be mild. In this case, no one knows for what reason the child still does not speak. And it is difficult for him to pronounce sounds.
• Hereditary speech delay. “Your husband started talking at the age of 4 and nothing bad happened to him. How clever he grew up! " - says the mother-in-law. Such words should not soothe, but rather cause anxiety. No, there is nothing terrible with my husband. But the delay in speech development, being inherited, unfortunately, is aggravated in each subsequent generation. Your child needs more attention.
• Brain and nervous system pathologies. All possible violations on this side inhibit the development of speech. Even a migraine can provoke a delay, let alone more serious disorders.

External factors:

• Psychotype of the child and his relationship to the world around him. Such features also have an impact. For example, a contemplative toddler may speak little, making his parents anxious. And at the same time he is simply immersed in his thoughts and awareness of the world. If there are no other disturbing factors, he will most likely just tell you about his observations a little later.
• Having a twin. It has been noticed that in twins, speech begins to form with a delay. The thing is that they always have a person next to them, whom they understand perfectly.
• Birth of a younger brother or sister. The child was made the elder without asking. Sometimes he can say "like little" for this very reason.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors influencing the development of speech. That is why it is extremely important to find the cause in time and deal with the problem.

Why does "earlier" mean "better"?

The child's body is unique in its ability to compensate. Absolutely all doctors say that the earlier a disease or pathology in development is detected, the easier it is to eliminate it.

In particular, it is much easier to teach a small child to speak. At this age, the most active processes of speech formation are taking place. Right now, it will be much easier for him to catch up with his actively chatting peers. ...

In addition, a long speech delay leads to other troubles - mental retardation. Correct speech, the ability to communicate give the child the opportunity to develop. Lack of communication inhibits the formation of cognitive processes and the emotional-volitional sphere. Ultimately, the child will lag far behind his peers.
The preschool period is characterized by the most active development of all spheres. This means that the backlog will be very serious already by school.

When you can't wait

Parents should closely monitor their child's development. Undoubtedly, there are so-called variants of the norm and some deviations from the classical tables are quite possible. However, there are a number of signs that should make you worry:

• A four-month-old infant does not respond to adults. Doesn't smile at the sight of loved ones. No humming.
• By 6-7 months, babbling, repetitive syllables meaning a specific word - "ta-ta-ta", "na-na-na" and others did not appear.
• At a year and a half, the baby still does not even say simple words like "mom", "dad", "give." Doesn't understand simple requests like “come to me”, “bring a bear”.
• At 2 years of age, his vocabulary consists of just a few of the simplest words.
• By the age of 2, 5, the vocabulary is no more than 20 words and the child does not make sentences from them.
• By the age of 3, the child does not understand simple explanations and does not know the names of body parts.
• At 3 years of age, a speech therapist-defectologist expects to hear at least 1000-1500 different words and speech consisting of complex sentences. If the baby does not demonstrate this, then it makes sense to contact a specialist.

It so happens that a child speaks, but in his own language. Undoubtedly, at this age he has the right to "bo-bo" and "wow-wow" instead of a dog, and even to some incomprehensible word meaning something completely different in sound. However, such words should not constitute his entire vocabulary. If only a mother understands a baby at 3 years old, this is also a reason for contacting specialists.

Why you shouldn't wait to see if your child speaks or not

We have already mentioned that at an early age, many speech development disorders are corrected much easier. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for parents, worried that the child does not speak at 2-3 years old, were advised to wait until 5 years and even then come to study. And at the age of 5, doctors shrug their shoulders and say that it is too late.

Lack of progress leads to a strong lag behind the child's peers. Without speech, he cannot communicate, and therefore perceive and assimilate information. Thinking, attention and memory do not develop properly, contact with others is not being established, and, therefore, the emotional sphere suffers.

Diagnosis means only the absence of coherent speech, while the child's mental development is in full accordance with age norms. In 2-3 years, sometimes it is adjacent to another - ZPR - mental retardation. But for 5 years now, children who have not received appropriate treatment and correction receive exactly the RPRR. Unfortunately, only speech lag is rare at this age. Only 20% of children do not begin to lag behind in the psychoemotional sphere from their companions in the sandbox.

The amount of work that needs to be done to correct the backlog is enormous. And it is not always possible to completely eliminate the problem.
To get your child to do well, attend a regular school rather than a remedial school, have friends, and build a successful life, don't miss the challenge!

Parents are always waiting with special trepidation for the first words of the child. Usually by the age of 2, most children start talking, but this is not always the case. In the practice of speech therapists, there are often cases when a child does not speak at 2 years old, although he understands the speech addressed to him.

This causes concern for parents, they turn to specialists, trying to find out the reason why the child does not speak at 2 years old.

All experts agree in the same opinion: at 2 years old it is too early to sound the alarm that the child is not speaking. At this age, there may be some lag in speech development even in completely healthy children, which in the future can be compensated for.

However, if the parents really care about the problem, it is worth figuring out whether the child has a speech disorder or is developing normally.

Signs of delayed speech development at 2 years:

• The child does not want to talk, i.e. does not seek to repeat words after adults;
• The kid does not respond to requests from adults to repeat words;

Only if the child has the listed symptoms, we can talk about a delay in speech development.

If he tries to repeat the words of adults in his own way: hums, babbles in his own language, reacts to speech addressed to him, the child develops normally.

Parents need only help their child to start talking, stimulating his development through games and activities. If a child has signs of delayed speech development, you should figure out what the reasons are behind this.

Why doesn't a child speak at 2 years old

Neurological diseases are often one of the most common causes of speech abnormalities in children. These include:

1. Damage to the central nervous system and underdevelopment of the brain.
2. General hypotonia (and in particular the hypotonia of the facial muscles).
3. Congenital pathologies of the development of the tongue, lips, palate, facial muscles.

Neurological pathologies can lead to severe speech disorders, such as:

• Sensory alalia

Motor Alalia

This is a disease in which the child may not speak completely, or speak poorly, confusing the endings. At the same time, the child understands what adults are telling him.

The cause of the disease is damage to the speech motor analyzer - Broca's center and its pathways.

Signs of speech impairment:

• A child at 2 and a half years old does not speak yet. He begins to pronounce the first words at the age of 4 years.
• Builds sentences incorrectly, uses words in the wrong form and case.
• Has a very poor vocabulary.
• Hyperactive or, conversely, sedentary.
• Refuses to communicate with adults and children, does not want to make contact, sometimes aggressive.

Sensory alalia

A disease characterized by underdevelopment of impressive speech.
With preserved hearing, understanding of the speech of others is impaired.

The cause of the disease is damage to the part of the brain that is responsible for correct speech analysis.

Signs of this pathology:

• Disinhibited speech. The little one is chatting, but the adults do not understand what he is saying.
• Low intelligence.
• When communicating with a child, he hardly perceives the speech of others by ear.
• Substitution of letters.
• Pronunciation of several words together, in a single word.
• Hyperactivity combined with depression.

Dysarthria

This disease is characterized by a confused breathing rhythm, nasal voice, not clear pronunciation of sounds.

At the physical level, pathology is manifested by a weak tone of the facial muscles. The kid can hardly lift his tongue up, reach them to the outer corners of the mouth. The tongue of a child suffering from dysarthria at 2 years old trembles. Profuse salivation is observed.

The cause of the disease is cerebral asphyxia, genetic predisposition, diseases of the central nervous system.

Aphasia

It is a common reason that a child at 2, 5 years old does not speak. With this pathology, the child's speech is distorted: pronunciation and meaning of phrases are impaired. In this case, hearing may be normal.

The cause of the disease is head trauma, cancer, complications after infectious diseases.

Physiological causes

The physiological reasons for the lack of speech at 2 years include the following problems:

• Hearing impairment.

Any hearing impairment affects the development of speech negatively. Children with hearing loss always lag behind in speech development. If a child does not speak at 2.5 years of age, parents should contact an otolaryngologist and check the baby's hearing.

• Underdevelopment of the speech apparatus.

Weakness of the jaw and facial muscles can cause a child not to speak at 2 years of age. Signs of impaired articulation are increased salivation, an open mouth of the baby and a gag reflex that occurs when trying to swallow solid food. Articulation problems can be caused by weaning too early or by a short frenum under the tongue.

• Genetic predisposition.

It so happens that a child is almost 2 years old and 9 months old, but he does not speak. At first glance, a healthy baby who does not have any physiological abnormalities may have a genetic predisposition to lag in speech development.

Perhaps one of the parents or other relatives had the same pathology, and it was inherited to the child. In this case, forcing the child to speak is useless. You can only help him by stimulating the development of speech through games and activities.

Psychological reasons

• Often a child at 2 years old does not speak due to the lack of the need to speak. Adults anticipate all his desires, overprotect and he no longer has to declare his needs to adults. In this case, parents should stop patronizing the child and begin to stimulate his speech: ask open questions more often, do not rush to satisfy every desire of the child, he just has to point his finger at the desired object.
• A common reason that a child does not speak at 2 is stress or fear of the child. The child can develop normally, and then, having experienced some kind of stress (separation from the mother, moving, illness), take a step back in speech development.

A case from practice: at the reception with a child psychologist, a mother says that her daughter began to talk at 2 years 2 months. However, after they divorced her husband, the child stopped communicating with loved ones. The girl became silent, "forgot" the words that she used to say. Now the child is 2 years 8 months old, and she does not speak. In this case, the child clearly experienced stress due to the divorce of the parents, which affected his development. When stressed, it is important to help get through it as quickly as possible. It is better to turn to a child psychologist who, in a playful way, will help the child to relieve the accumulated stress.

• Another psychological reason for not speaking at the age of 2 may be the lack of proper attention to him. In such families, parents spend little time with their children, communicate little, and do not encourage conversations and joint developmental activities.

What to do if the child does not speak

If the child does not have serious pathologies, it is in the power of each parent to help their baby start talking. Below are the recommendations of experts that will help to get the most silent toddler to talk.

1. Encourage your child to communicate. Try to talk to your baby more. Name the objects that you see around, try to speak the words slowly and clearly to the child.
2. Try to communicate with your child correctly, without distorting words.
3. Encourage and praise your baby for any sounds and attempts to pronounce words.
4. Ask open-ended questions: who is in the picture? What is the name of this doll? What color is this car?
5. Don't rush him to answer. Wait for the baby's answer, do not interrupt him, being ahead of the answer to the question asked.
6. Try to read more books to your child and tell fairy tales. This will enrich his vocabulary and promote speech development.
7. Sing simple songs. Singing songs with your baby will also have a positive effect on the development of his speech.
8. Do articulatory gymnastics. Try to get 10-15 minutes of exercise every day. This time will be enough for the baby to learn how to control his lips and tongue.
9. Teach your baby to breathe correctly. Correct will help him learn to pronounce sounds correctly, and then words.
   Speech inhalation should be done with the nose, speech exhalation - with the mouth.

• Breathing exercises.

These exercises will help shape correct speech breathing.

"Blow on the snowflake"

Roll a few balls out of paper or napkin. Invite your toddler to pretend they are snowflakes. Place them in the child's palm and offer to blow on the snowflakes so that they fall off the baby's palm.

"Butterfly"

Cut a butterfly out of paper or napkin and fasten it to a thread. Hold the thread in your hand and blow on the butterfly so that it "flies". Ask your little one to blow the butterfly on their own.

"Ships"

Make a paper boat. Pour water into a basin or baby bath. Blow on the boat, creating waves on the water.

• Exercise for the development of the articulatory apparatus

"Fence"

Open your mouth wide, stretching your lips in a smile, so that the closed jaws are visible. Lock your lips in this position for a few seconds.

Ask your baby to repeat after you. To make the exercise more fun to perform, read this rhyme.

We close our teeth exactly
And we get the fence,
Now let's part our lips -
Let's count our teeth.

"Baby elephant"

Draw out the lips with a tube, depicting the trunk of an elephant calf. In this case, the jaws should be tightly compressed. Hold your lips in this position for 5 seconds. Ask your baby to repeat after you. Show him how the mouth should be properly closed and the lips stretched out.

While the baby is doing the exercise, read a rhyme to him.

I imitate an elephant
I pull my lips with my trunk ...
Even if I get tired
I won't stop pulling them.
I will keep it like that for a long time
Strengthen your lips.

• Motor games

Simple exercises for the development of physical activity in combination with the pronunciation of rhymes also stimulate speech activity well.

We're going in circles, look
And we walk together: one, two, three.
We jump along the path, often changing legs.
Galloped, galloped: gallop, gallop, gallop,
And then, as the storks got up - and silence.

So, if a child at the age of 2 does not speak, parents should first of all find out if the baby has severe speech pathologies, physiological or psychological reasons for speech impairment. If there are any, it is important to contact a specialist: speech therapist, defectologist, pediatric neurologist.

If the baby is only slightly behind in speech development from peers, it is important for parents to provide the little one with a developing environment and in every possible way to stimulate his speech development with the help of classes.

Watch a video where a speech therapist talks in detail about why a child may not speak at 2 years old and how to help him start talking.