How to teach a child to speak?
Are you wondering how to teach your child to speak and how to effectively encourage your child to speak? Are there any ways to speed up my child's learning to speak? How to teach a toddler to speak through play? What should you definitely not do so as not to discourage the child from developing speech? Find out how children learn to speak and how you can help them.
Speech is an extremely complex activity. Its proper development depends on many factors: on a properly shaped central nervous system, peripheral speech organ, hearing organ, proper mental development. The development of a child's speech is genetically determined, but it can only occur in contact with other people. Teaching a child to speak is a process that, as a rule, does not require much support. On the other hand, parents impatiently and often anxiously wait for the first words and sentences spoken by their children. So it is understandable to look for a way in which you could help the appearance of the word mamma tata. So: how to teach a child to speak?
Learning to speak a child
The development of speech in a child basically takes place from the moment of birth, and the foundations for this process are formed already in the fetal life. Initially, a child uses a scream to communicate with adults. It is after the scream that the mother recognizes whether the baby is hungry, whether it is cold or wet. The child, on the other hand, begins to associate that whenever he screams, mum or dad shows up. In the 2-3 months of life, the baby begins to deaf, that is, to make various sounds - they can be both consonants and vowels or vowel groups. This is not a speech yet, but an unconscious exercise of the articulation organs. Already at this stage, the infant begins to prepare to make basic speech sounds, so at this stage interaction in the form of vocalization on the part of the parents is important. It is worth talking to the baby, preferably by allowing the baby eye contact.
Expert advises
Every situation: cooking, cleaning, bathing is an opportunity to describe to the child in simple words, short sentences what is happening at a given moment. To get the baby's attention, you can include onomatopoeic words such as boom, knock, knock. It does not matter that your little one will not be eager to repeat it right away. Our words are recorded in his memory and there will come a moment when he will surprise us with his speech. Therefore, it is important to speak to a child as to an adult, i.e. without unnecessary diminutives or pampers.
The second half of the first year of life is the babbling stage for a baby. The child imitates both the sounds he made accidentally and those he heard in the environment. He often plays with the spoken sequences of sounds by himself. Talking is also a toddler's ear training. At the end of the first year of life, our child usually understands a lot and follows simple instructions.
How to encourage a child to speak?
She is a perfect stimulation reading books. Initially, those with simple illustrations, such as one pet on one side, work best. This is a great opportunity for aural fun, e.g. with the introduction of onomatopoeic words: (asking the toddler how a dog or a kitten does). You can point your child's finger at where the dog has an eye or an ear, while encouraging them to do the same.
It is also a time when it is worth introducing rhymes, rhymes. A short text will not tire the baby in time, and the rhythm and melody of the statement will attract his attention. Often, nursery rhymes contain words and phrases that appear several times in the same rhyme. This makes it easier for the child to remember it, and repeating with the parent is part of the game.
Expert advises
Nursery rhymes and counting out games combined with finger games are also very helpful: "she was cooking a magpie porridge", "there is a poor man's cancer". When reading to a child, it is worth making sure that the child can freely observe the face of the speaker. Poems, rhymes spoken by the mother with variable intonation, enriched with facial expressions, and most of all with touch, provide excellent auditory and sensory stimulation.
Listening and reacting is an encouragement to speak
Conversation is a dialogue, so it is important to give your baby time to speak, listen to what the baby says. This teaches the toddler to listen carefully and makes him feel that he is important to us. If he says incorrectly, let's repeat it correctly or ask the question: "did you mean ...?". Let us react to the child's speech, even if we do not understand what it is talking about. Showing interest motivates the child to continue talking.
How to teach a child to speak while having fun?
You can also stimulate speech through everyday play. They are very useful and liked by children breathing games (e.g. blowing soap bubbles, drinking through a straw or blowing on a mirror), drawing, painting or sensory games with plasticine, clay, sand, water. They will also be suitable for a slightly older toddler puzzles, blocks, puzzles, interweaves. Sorting and matching shapes stimulates the left hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for the development of speech. Having fun together will be a great opportunity to develop your child's language skills.
Proper feeding and the development of a child's speech
So that the sounds that the toddler utters are articulated in a proper way, it is worth taking care of the proper functioning of the articulation organs: lips, tongue, soft palate. Initially, their function is improved by basic food activities. It is important not only what, but in what form the baby gets to eat. Initially, liquid and mushy food should be enriched with foods of a solid consistency as the diet is extended. Chewing, biting, and biting off are great exercises that will prepare your muscles to pronounce correctly.
You should also pay attention to the way food is administered. The sixth month of a baby's life, according to pediatricians, is the best time to start spoon-feeding. By giving food with a spoon, we start introducing new products of a different consistency to the child's diet, which is also important in the process of stimulating speech development. It is also good to combine the inclusion of solid foods with the introduction of an open cup or a water bottle with a tube. Drinking from a cup and sucking through a straw activates the muscles of the tongue and lips. The respiratory-swallowing coordination is improving. Changing the consistency of food or a new way of serving it does not have to appeal to a toddler immediately, so patience, understanding and, of course, peace of mind are important here.
What can hinder or interfere with a child's language learning?
During the first two years of life, brain development is particularly intense, and the correct course of this process depends on the stimuli that the child encounters on a daily basis. Recent scientific studies have shown that modern, so-called high technologies. Currently, at home, radio and TV often play "in the background", we use tablets, phones, computers, and we use smartphones. The child eagerly reaches for a mobile phone, carefully observes the changing pictures, and watches cartoons on TV. Unfortunately, the excess of stimuli provided by this type of equipment has a negative effect on the little person, contributing to the disorder or even inhibition of its proper development. Pediatricians and speech therapists urge small children not to watch TV even until they are two years old, because it is a time when speech develops very intensively. For older children, up to the age of 5, it is recommended that TV or computer use be very limited and always under parental supervision.
Supporting and rewarding, without pressure
To encourage our children to speak, it is worth rewarding each attempt of verbal communication on his part. But certainly you cannot put pressure on your child and tire him out with exercises. Expanding everyday activities with auditory, visual or tactile games, introduced in an atmosphere of peace and mutual acceptance, may turn out to be extremely helpful in the development of a baby.
Źródła:
Dmochowska H: Thematic play is an important factor supporting the development of a small child [in:] Early intervention and support for the development of a small child (ed.) Cytowska B., Winczura B., Impuls, Kraków 2008;
Rodak H .: Therapy of a child with a speech impediment, WUW, Warsaw, 1997;
Sadowska L .: Early diagnosis of psychomotor development disorders in infants and the basics of their rehabilitation [in:] Propedeutyka Pediatrii, (ed.) Jankowski A. Wrocław. 2001;
Wituk-Światłowicz L .: Early communication of a child. The birth of love. [In:] Early intervention and support for the development of a small child (ed.) Cytowska B., Winczura B., Impuls, Kraków 2008.
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