Wondering About How To Help Your Kid In Speech Development?
Have a 1:1 Interaction With Your Toddler To Accelerate His speech Development.
Last week I had an appointment with doctor for my kid. As we were sitting, waiting for our turn. A mother with her two years old was having a chat with doctor for her kid’s flue. But then she asked doctor to prescribe some medicine for her kid because he has delayed his speech.
And you know what doctor has said ?
Instead of prescribing any medicine
He said
TALK WITH YOUR CHILD
Yes you read it right………..
A parent child conversation and interaction do magic on child’s cognitive and social development.
Parents are their child’s first teacher and caregivers. A child observes and responds them from the very start after his birth. In fact child can hear and recognize his mother’s voice in womb.
After coming into this world, a child is an active learner of voices, faces, gestures and language. He observes and he mimics his caregiver.
Researches show that an interactive conversation enhances children’s speaking ability more than just exposing to the vocabulary.
For example, if you just talk in front of your child without his involvement, or you give him a mobile or tablet to learn by himself, you are not helping him to speak but creating a hurdle to his cognitive development.
Didn’t get my point?
Let’s break it down psychologically:
First of all, let’s have a look at the child’s developmental phases regarding his speech and language.
Child’s developmenta for speech and language are divided into six phases and each phase has its own milestones. Here is a quick view of how children learn language.
Birth to 3 months:
Recognizes your voice
Reacts to loud sounds
Vocalize pleasure and displeasure sounds differently like laughs, giggles, coos, cries or fusses.
4 to 6 months:
Explores new sounds
Responds to instructions
Vocalizes back when speak to him
Begins to repeat sound like ooh, aah, Ba Ba
7 to 11 months:
Respond to his own name
Knows words for common things like, table, plate cup etc
Babbles like mama and baba, dada
Respond to requests of come here, pick it up
12 to 17 months:
Understands simple phrases like, put the book in the shelf.
Answer simple questions by shaking head
Vocabulary includes four to six words
18 to 23 months:
Understands action words like sit, clap go, jump etc
Points to some body parts when ask to
Make animal sounds like boo boo, meow
Starts to combine 2 to 3 words.
Uses a vocabulary of 50 words
Pronunciation is unclear
Begins to use pronouns
2 to 3 years old:
Knows more spatial concepts like in or on
Knows descriptive words like big, small, happy
Answer many simple questions
Uses three to four word sentences
Uses at least 100 words vocabulary
Uses question inflection to ask for anything.
Now, let’s have a clear understanding of how a child’s brain works while learning language and what part of brain is involved in it.
Broca’s area is identified as the origin of speech production and social cognition and is critical to language and reading.
Broca’s area of brain is responsible for turning our ideas and thoughts into actual words. For better speech, Broca’s is needed to be mature enough.
Interactive conversation or back and forth talking is real booster of Broca’s development.
Researches had supported this phenomenon as children need exchage of words rather than just dumping.
When we engage children in a conversation and question-answer session, their Broca’s become fully active, resulting in better verbal abilities, social connections and speaking expertise.
Simply, if we are commenting on everything every child is pointing and looking at, we are activating his Broca’s area, that cannot be achieved through merely watching TV or mobile.
Children who are regularly engaged in conversation by adults may have stronger connections between Wernick’s and Broca’s area- brain parts responsible for comprehension and production of speech.
So, we have a complete understanding of the brain mechanism of a child’s language development and deeply understand the phases of language development in a toddler’s life.
Now we are ready to dig out the most effective tricks of how to talk back and forth with our child.
Come to their eye level:
The best way of engaging with your child is to come at their eye level, so he can see straight to you. Build a positive relationship with your kid. Listen to them carefully meanwhile respond them friendly and curiously.
Reading together:
Though there are several learning apps available for children including vocal alphabets, audio books and games etc, but these cannot replace the importance of 1:1 interaction between a parent and a child.
Start to read books together from a very early age and keep it consistent over the time. When we read aloud to our toddlers we are equipping them with tools like vocabulary, gestures and tone of voice to have meaningful social interactions.
Reading fictional story books enhance their imagination and curiosity as well.
Playing together:
Another way of talking and interacting with your child is to play together without any interruption. Take some time out of your busy schedule to play peek a boo with your toddler, or make castle of legos together having same colour minarets and different coloured boundary line.
Cross questioning:
The most effective way of prolonged interaction with your little one is to question him about specific object, event or incident. Ask for his opinion, urge him to think and reply about a specific point.
Ask him always:
What do you think?
What will you do?
How do you say?
Summing up:
Always try to be available for your child personally for his growth and development. Not only for speech development but for his social and intellectual development too.
