home › It is interesting › If a child at 3 years old does not speak well. The child does not speak at three years: when to worry and what to do

If a child at 3 years old does not speak well. The child does not speak at three years: when to worry and what to do

In the mental, emotional and speech development, our children consistently go through several stages. But they go through them differently, which creates confusion for worried parents. There are certain norms, focusing on which, neurologists and pediatricians can evaluate the development of the crumbs. However, they are significantly influenced by various factors: the course of pregnancy and childbirth, lifestyle, even the gender of the child. It is generally accepted that boys develop somewhat more slowly than girls and are more likely to have speech problems. How to understand whether it is a deviation if a child at 3 years old does not speak at all or does it very badly?

Why is the child silent?

There is an opinion that up to 5 years of age there is no point in worrying if the child does not speak, and also turning to speech therapists or speech pathologists. However, this is primarily due to the fact that such specialists often refuse to deal with very young children, since this is a rather difficult and specific job (they do not know how to speak and understand little, it is difficult for them to choose and organize classes).

Parents mistakenly believe that by the age of 5 everything will come back to normal by itself. But here you should always keep in mind: speech problems do not go away on their own, their causes must be clarified and eradicated as early as possible. Then the chances of helping the child are much greater. The age of 2-3 years is optimal for this. But by the age of 5, the baby is already at risk of getting a diagnosis of "delayed psychoverbal development", since the lag in speech entails a lag in the development of thinking, memory, and attention.

Do not think that the constant "communication" of the baby with the TV will help him speak. Not at all. It has been proven that a child learns to speak only during constant live communication with others.

What are the reasons why children cannot speak for a long time? They can be both physiological (due to pathologies or deviations in the development of certain organs or the nervous system) and psychosocial (caused by "non-physical" factors).

Physiological factors

The most common cause is hearing loss. If the child does not hear the people around him, then he will not be able to learn to speak on his own. Although at the same time he can distinguish other sounds and navigate in them, so parents do not suspect anything for a long time.
Violation of the structure of the organs of the oral cavity. Such problems create a mechanical obstacle to normal pronunciation. These can be enlarged adenoids, a short frenulum of the tongue, a cleft palate.
General developmental delay due to prematurity of the baby. At the same time, the degree of lag depends on the period of prematurity and is accompanied by a lag in other areas (they also “ripen” with a delay).
hereditary predisposition. If the child had relatives with delayed speech development, then most likely it will be transmitted to the baby in a more complex form. Therefore, to think that the time has not come and the baby will speak after three years (or maybe four), in this case, is a big mistake.
Deviations in the development of the brain or nervous system. Such violations require the most serious and complex work to identify and correct.

Psychosocial factors

Psychotype of "contemplator". Such children are immersed in themselves, in their thoughts and contemplative knowledge of the world. They always speak later.
Lack of motivation. If a child is overprotected, running in front of him and hurrying to fulfill the slightest whim, he simply does not want to talk, because there is no need for this: everything will be provided for him anyway.
Lack of communication. If a child is often left to himself or brought up by a grandfather or grandmother who is stingy with words, he simply lacks a speech example.
The twin phenomenon. Such children always start talking later, because they perfectly understand each other without words.
Pedagogical neglect. Usually it is typical for dysfunctional families, where children are practically not brought up, no one takes care of them.

There may be other reasons, which can only be identified by a complete examination of the child.

Speech landmarks and "alarm bells"

What should a child achieve in terms of speech at 3 years old? Today, the following is considered normal:

the baby's vocabulary ranges between 300 and 700 words, he can understand up to 1500 words;
he speaks in correct sentences of 3-5 words with a subject and a predicate, although errors in agreement are still possible;
the baby uses nouns, verbs and adjectives;
can give his name, gender, age;
uses generalizing words in speech (clothes, dishes, animals);
pronounces most sounds correctly, with the exception of hissing, whistling, [r] and [l].

It often happens that a child does not speak well, but understands everything, fulfills all requests, recognizes his loved ones and responds to them, actively communicates and seems to develop otherwise at the level of peers. Then the doctors say that for the time being there is no need to worry.

When do you need to worry? The following should be of concern:

a child at 4 months does not show animation when adults appear, does not smile at them, does not hum;
by 7 months, the first repeated syllables did not appear in his speech;
at 18 months, the baby utters only syllables, without speaking words, does not understand appeals and simple requests;
by the age of 2, his vocabulary consists of only a few simple words;
at 2.5 years old, the baby says no more than 20 words and does not compose them into sentences;
by the age of 3 does not know the names of body parts, does not understand the simplest explanations;
speaks “in his own language” (if only his mother can understand a child at the age of 3, this is definitely not the norm).

Do not listen to the idle neighbor, whose son "spoke at once at the age of 5 and that's okay." So you are hopelessly wasting time. Try to find the root of the problem before time is lost.

Waiting or not waiting?

It has already been said that 2–3 years is the optimal age for correcting speech problems in children. The more you delay the situation, the more significant the consequences will be.

In any case, if a child at the age of 3 does not speak even the simplest sentences, this is a good reason to turn to specialists.

It is important to conduct a comprehensive examination of the baby with a pediatrician, neurologist, psychiatrist, otorhinolaryngologist, psychologist, speech pathologist. Specialists will prescribe various types of examinations in all areas of the development of a non-speaking child. So it will be possible to draw an accurate picture of what is happening, find the cause and draw up a plan to eliminate it.

Parents need to be prepared for the fact that treatment can last quite a long time. But in the early stages it is always more effective. So it pays to be patient.

If you can't find a speech therapist or speech pathologist who specializes in working with young children, work with the baby on your own. In any case, it will be better than nothing.

How to play with a non-speaking child?

The following tips will help parents conduct developmental activities with a small silent child.

It is important to constantly talk with the child, read a lot of fairy tales, nursery rhymes, rhymes to him, accompanying his speech with expressive intonations.
Create situations in which the child has to turn to adults, explaining what he wants.
Develop fine motor skills. Drawing, modeling, sorting through cereals, peas, beans, stringing large beads, fastening zippers, buttons, buttons, and other similar activities with small objects will help to use the speech areas of the baby's brain.
The development of speech, surprisingly, is facilitated by massage of the hands and (games for the development of flexibility and mobility of the fingers and hands). These can be “Forty-white-sided”, “Paladushki”, “Horned Goat” and other similar exercises.
In a playful way, you can imitate different sounds (animals, birds, natural phenomena, technology). Imitate the crowing of a rooster, the cackling of a chicken, the bleating of a ram, the lowing of a cow, the noise of the wind, the growl of a vacuum cleaner, the rumble of a car. This develops articulation. To make the game more interesting, you can add visibility - select the appropriate pictures, examine them, imitating sounds. It is good to do this in front of a mirror so that the baby can see both his mother and himself at the same time. Over time, the pictures can become plot (a hen is calling chickens, a bear is picking raspberries, a car is carrying wheat).
Play emotional games (blow bubbles, stroke kittens, clap your hands, jump, play hide and seek). Anything that evokes an emotional response helps develop speech.
Play funny rhymes in motion (for example, the well-known "Clumsy Bear").
Always talk while walking. Pay the child's attention to everything that surrounds him, what changes in nature from day to day, why different objects are needed, where people go, what they built for ...
Always praise the child, even if his attempt was unsuccessful - he still tried! He needs your praise!

What to remember

To interest a child, it is best to choose interesting games that are understandable to him and suitable for age, causing an emotional response. These can be games for movement, for changing types of action, for developing physical skills, role-playing games. For them to be productive, you need to remember a few rules.

In classes with a non-speaking child, the parent must take an active role: he organizes and leads the game, interests the baby, and controls his condition.
An adult accompanies the game with active speech: comments, describes all the stages, encourages the baby to act, praises. At the same time, the speech of an adult should be emotional, clear, understandable, calm, cheerful, not too loud or quiet.
All exercises or games should take place in a warm, welcoming atmosphere, with frequent bodily contact and constant support of the child.
An adult must constantly monitor the progress of each game, constantly monitoring its beginning, middle and end, monitoring the mood, fatigue of the baby. The game continues while the child is enthusiastic, cheerful and cheerful, and stops when he begins to be distracted, capricious.

In such games, special attention should be paid to what kind of speech accompaniment is “attached” to them. All speech instructions should be simple and understandable. Poems in such games should not be very long (it is better for an adult to memorize them). Their content should be age-appropriate, without excessive figurativeness, be understandable, interesting. Your speech should be a role model: correct, without distortion, clear, calm, energetic.

There is another important point that you need to know about when building classes with non-speaking children. All the skills acquired in the game, children master through imitation. At the same time, classes are built in such a way that the baby learns actions sequentially: first the simplest, then more and more complex.

The sequence should be something like this:

simple movements (waves of hands, steps, jumps);
several simultaneous movements (walking with claps);
logic games with objects or toys (for example, take a car, load cubes into it, take it to a “warehouse”, unload it);
games with poetic accompaniment (playing out simple rhymes);
activities on playgrounds (climbing, swinging, slides);
games aimed at teaching the correct use of objects (shovels, buckets in the sandbox, dishes when feeding the doll).

Given all these features, parents can build developmental activities with children with a delay in speech development so that they bring the desired results. It is worth remembering that the child will have to study for a long time. You need to be patient, rejoicing in even a small achievement. Then more significant ones will surely follow him.

Speech is the main tool of communication among people. Parents look forward to when the child speaks in order to understand his needs even better. After all, with the development and replenishment of the vocabulary, the baby will be able to express his thoughts and desires. Mom and dad, whose baby goes to kindergarten, are much less worried, because the child will be able to tell what he likes, how the day went, etc. But this is the case when the baby can talk, and if not? Quite often, doctors are faced with a situation where, at the age of three, children can say only a few words or do not speak at all. What is the reason for this and should parents worry? And most importantly, how to help the baby learn such important skills as speaking.

The development of speech occurs from the moment the baby is born: the child constantly hears the conversations of his parents, the brain processes information and activates certain centers that are responsible for speech and the ability to pronounce words, phrases, sentences. The stage of formation of speech skills is completed closer to five or six years, when the baby can already pronounce all the sounds of the Russian language.

The most important period in the development of speech falls on the age of one to four. It is at this age that the first words first appear in the child, then the baby learns to link them into simple sentences, and then he can clearly formulate and express his thoughts and needs through speech.

Parents should talk to the baby as often as possible so that the baby learns to pronounce words, repeating after adults

What speaking skills should a toddler have at the age of 3-4 years

At three years old, the baby already has a fairly diverse vocabulary, which consists of 300-500 words. The child may not pronounce some sounds: most often, problems arise with the pronunciation of “r”, “z”, “zh”, as well as hissing sounds “sh”, “h”, “u”. But parents should not worry, because every month the baby will delight adults with the development of a new sound.

A child at the age of three and a half years expands vocabulary, forms words into sentences, and also uses prepositions in speech. The conversation of the crumbs is becoming more and more like the speech of adults. Some sounds may still not succumb to the child, but speech therapists consider this scenario to be the norm.

By the age of four, the baby already speaks a language understandable to adults. The child can pronounce most of the sounds correctly, the exception is “r”, but there is still time to speak out: speech therapists consider it normal if children cannot pronounce “r” correctly before the age of five.

How to determine the level of speech development of a child at home

Speech therapists offer parents to conduct a small test that will help determine the level of speech development. Based on the results of this test, adults can understand whether it is worth taking the baby to a speech therapist or the baby is talking normally for his age. Often such tasks are offered by specialists when mom and dad bring children for a consultation. This test is suitable for children aged three to six years. Invite the child to look at the picture, which depicts one object. It is better if it is some kind of animal, so the baby will be more interesting.

The image should be large with clear details

The task of the child is to tell as much as possible about what he sees in the picture. At the same time, parents should not ask leading questions or prompt the baby. Depending on the answers of the child, you need to determine the points for completing the task as follows:

0 points for the answer "I don't know";

the correct answer is “hare” and nothing else will help the baby earn 1 point;

"little white hare" - 2 points;

“This is a little white bunny. He has pink and long ears” – 3 points;

“I see a bunny in the photo. It is small and white, with long ears. He has big eyes and sits” - 4 points;

“I see a bunny sitting on its paws. It is small and white. Bunnies have long ears and big eyes. He is very kind.” – 5 points.

The result depends on how many points the child scored:

0–1 point: low level of speech development. Parents should contact a speech therapist for advice, as well as do more with the baby at home. Reading fairy tales and talking more with the baby are perfect;

2-3 points: the baby's speech is developed at an average level. For children of three years, this is an acceptable result, so parents should not worry;

4 points: sufficient level, parents need to ensure that the baby continues to expand vocabulary. This result is shown by children of four years;

5 points: the highest level, excellent development of speech and thinking. Usually children at the age of five - six years show such a result.

Is it worth worrying if a child does not speak at the age of three - video

Possible Causes of Speech Problems in Three-Year-Old Children

The diagnosis of "delayed speech development" is made only by a speech therapist or a neurologist. The reasons why the baby does not talk can be different and depend on many factors. Some of them can be corrected, and by the age of five, the baby is diagnosed with RDD, but in some cases, children do not speak due to physiological disorders that may be incurable. In this case, parents need a clear plan of action and constant supervision of a doctor.

If the child is three years old, and he prefers to remain silent, parents should not immediately panic, but there is no need to waste precious time either. Only a doctor can determine the real cause of speech delay and help the baby master this skill.

You may need frequent visits to a speech and neurologist to help your child learn to speak.

Internal factors affecting the development of the baby's speech

The development of speech skills is greatly influenced by physiological factors that have affected the violation or underdevelopment of the brain centers responsible for the development of speech:

complication during pregnancy: oxygen starvation of the fetus, infections that the woman suffered during the gestation of the fetus. The most dangerous are rubella, influenza, scarlet fever, chicken pox;

trauma during childbirth: often due to the complex course of labor in an infant, some parts of the brain are damaged. The child experiences asphyxia due to entanglement with the umbilical cord, weak labor activity in the mother, as well as a long anhydrous period. Some developmental deviations are noticeable already in the first year of a baby's life, so the child should be under regular supervision of a neurologist;

hearing pathology: hearing loss or congenital deafness is possible. The reasons may be different, most often these are negative factors or complications after the transfer of infectious diseases during pregnancy;

injuries received in early infancy: concussion, blows to the head and others;

disturbances in the work of the central nervous system;

complications after illnesses in the first months of life;

heredity: if the parents spoke late, but with a high probability it can be said that the baby will not rush to chat too early.

Children who do not speak for physiological reasons often do not speak at all or simply mumble to themselves in an attempt to let their parents know what they want. If a baby is diagnosed not only with ZRR, but also with mental retardation, he may not only not speak, but also not understand his parents and other adults. The child seems to live in his own world and does not perceive the environment.

Recently, doctors are increasingly diagnosing childhood autism. Physically, the baby may be completely healthy, but as they grow older, parents notice that their child is not like everyone else. He does not seek to communicate with other children, has a negative attitude towards everything new, and is silent all the time, and if he does speak, then only with people he knows and just a couple of phrases. Outwardly, this is an absolutely normal child, but he does not need communication with the outside world at all, the baby is always in himself, alone with his consciousness. Several specialists deal with autistic children at once: a neurologist, a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Of great importance is the perception of such a child by parents who must interact with their baby.

Children diagnosed with autism hardly speak or constantly repeat familiar phrases and phrases.

External factors that may be the cause of delayed speech development

There are several psychosocial factors that are associated with certain events in the life of the baby, methods of education in the family:

parents pay too little attention to the child: it is not for nothing that experts insist that it is necessary to talk with children from the moment of birth. The baby hears the speech of adults, remembers the name of objects, and as he grows up, he tries to repeat sounds, then syllables and words after his parents. If the crumbs have a lack of communication, then the development of speech does not occur, because. the brain does not receive enough information necessary to reproduce sounds and develop speech skills;

excessive guardianship on the part of parents and close relatives: this leads to the fact that the child loses the incentive to speak, because he does not need to ask for something, all desires are already fulfilled;

psychological trauma or deep shock: it can be fear, the sudden loss of a parent, the divorce of mom and dad, moving to a new place, and many other situations that have become stressful for the crumbs. Parents often quarrel in front of the crumbs, naively believing that the baby does not understand anything and is not able to realize. But this is not so: psychologists explain that constant scandals negatively affect the child's psyche. It often happens that the baby tries to talk, actively learns new sounds and words, but at some point it simply closes in on itself and does not utter a sound.

Depending on the reasons that influenced the developmental delay, the child may not speak at all, but understand everything. This most often happens after a psychological trauma: the baby simply stops talking, but fulfills requests and otherwise behaves like a normal child. Children who lack communication most often speak in syllables, abbreviate words or cannot form them into sentences, and talk a lot in their own language.

Psychologists and speech therapists have recently raised their concerns about replacing live communication with all sorts of gadgets. Often, work takes a lot of energy from parents and they do not want to devote time to the child. It is easier for adults to offer the baby a tablet. Parents can relax while the baby is busy playing games on the smartphone. But such situations lead to the fact that the child does not speak well. Experts warn that communication with adults is very important for a baby: regular reading of books, singing children's songs, etc.

Stages of speech development and causes of delay - video

Who will help: which specialists should be contacted

Only a doctor can determine the cause and help the baby and parents. First of all, the child is examined for the presence of diseases, the doctor collects an anamnesis starting from the course of pregnancy, the course of childbirth and the development of the baby throughout life. Parents will have to be patient and prepare to visit several doctors:

ENT: doctors insist that correct breathing contributes to the pronunciation of sounds. But if the baby suffers from adenoids, this can affect his speech. Also, the otolaryngologist will conduct a hearing examination and determine if the reason lies precisely in the violation of speech perception and the baby simply does not hear the conversations of adults;

neurologist: very often the cause of the RRR is disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system of the crumbs;

psychologist: this specialist will help to understand the causes of the ZRR, if they were due to a stressful situation that the baby could not cope with on his own;

orthodontist: often the baby loses milk teeth too early, there are violations in the formation of bite. This leads to the fact that the tongue of the crumbs does not become correct in the oral cavity during the pronunciation of sounds. Therefore, first it is necessary to correct violations in the development of the maxillofacial apparatus, and then the child will learn to pronounce sounds;

speech therapist or defectologist: a speech therapist can put sounds and help learn how to pronounce them. If the baby has serious speech defects, a defectologist deals with such a child.

After examining and determining the cause, the doctor will develop a treatment regimen. If medication is needed, the doctor will explain which drugs and why the baby should be taken. In most cases, the baby is under the supervision of several specialists who work together to help overcome speech delay. Usually one of the doctors is necessarily a speech therapist. But a lot also depends on the interest of the parents: you need to pay as much attention as possible to the baby and deal with it.

Quite often, a neurologist may recommend taking nootropics - medications that activate the speech zones in the brain and help speed up the development of speech. But the opinion of doctors about the advisability of using these drugs was divided. Dr. Komarovsky explains that if a child has a positive trend: six months ago, the baby spoke 5 words, and after a few months he knows and can pronounce 20 words, then he does not need this group of medications, it is enough to continue classes with a speech therapist and exercises at home.

How to help: what parents should do to teach their child to talk at 3 years old

Classes with a speech therapist will bring a good result only if the parents also work daily with the child at home. And this applies not only to those exercises that the doctor asks. The development of fine motor skills can help the baby speak. For this, it is worth offering the crumbs:

finger gymnastics;

massage;

games with development boards;

drawing, especially finger drawing helps;

games with sand, water, tactile pads;

modeling from salt dough, plasticine;

finger theater;

games with a designer with smaller details;

lacing exercises.

Lessons for the development of fine motor skills - gallery

The kid will definitely appreciate the development board. Such pads can be sewn on their own and filled with different cereals. In the cold season, playing in the sandbox is very problematic, so you can buy kinetic sand that does not leave stains.
Finger painting is one of the most popular exercises for developing fine motor skills. The child will definitely be interested in playing with small dolls.
Sculpting will help develop thinking and logic

Games for the development of fine motor skills - video

Parents should understand that without their help, the child will not be able to master speech skills on their own, so experts recommend that mom and dad listen to useful tips:

you need to deal with the baby for at least 15-20 minutes a day, this is not counting reading books, talking and live communication;

turn on your computer and TV less, but you shouldn’t ban watching your favorite cartoons at all. It is allowed to watch TV no more than 2 hours a day with breaks. But it is better to remove the tablet and smartphone with games away;

accustom the child to the ritual: joint reading of books before going to bed at night and during the day;

you can try to learn poetry together: parents begin the sentence, and the baby pronounces the last word;

often take your child to places where he can communicate with other children: a playground, a garden, a development center. The kid will strive to tell his friends about his desires and meet new children;

encourage the baby to dialogue: ask him what he wants to eat, what toy to take with him, where to go for a walk, who he met. The child will seek to talk with adults and share their thoughts;

encourage the baby: praise for any achievement. Even if the crumbs fail, it is worth praising for trying and perseverance.

Games to stimulate the development of speech skills - video

Articulatory gymnastics, which a speech therapist can teach parents, is very useful. It is recommended to conduct it in a playful way: all children love to make faces. Give the task to the crumbs to stretch their lips in a smile and hold whoever is longer. Or put your lips in a tube and fantasize as if playing a trumpet. Daily exercise has a positive effect on strengthening the muscles of the face and helps the development of speech.

Articulation gymnastics for children - video

Speech therapy is also very important. But experts insist that without the help of parents it is impossible to consolidate the successes that the baby achieves in the process of exercises with the doctor. After each visit to the speech therapist, he gives a list of exercises that adults should do at home with the baby. It is very important to perform these tasks correctly, so if mom and dad do not understand the principle of implementation, be sure to ask the specialist to explain again.

Speech therapist lessons: exercises for children aged 3-4 years - video

Common Parenting Mistakes: Bad Ways to Teach Your Child to Speak

Very often, parents themselves do not understand that their behavior negatively affects the development of speech crumbs. Psychologists come up with an interesting theory, describing two types of parental behavior:

in the first case, mom and dad put too much pressure on the baby: they don’t try to translate the exercises into a game so that the baby better perceives the tasks, and at every opportunity they try to achieve the correct and clear pronunciation in an orderly tone. For example, you can often hear the phrases “repeat again”, “you will keep talking until you get it right”, “you don’t try and you don’t know how”, “your friends already speak well, but you still can’t”, etc. . Adults must understand that the child does not intentionally mangle words or cannot pronounce a sound. And such cruel criticism will only close the crumbs in itself even more;

in the second case, parents prefer not to pay attention to the problem at all, motivating this by the fact that at the age of three the child is very small and will have time to speak out. He is not the first, he is not the last, so do not worry. It’s more convenient for them, but the precious time that could be used to develop the baby’s speech is running out, and then it may be too late to change something.

You can not yell at the child and scold him if he cannot pronounce the word or sound

Doctors insist that the success of the child's speech development depends on the correct behavior of the parents. Adults should not resort to such methods when teaching a baby to speak:

do not scold and punish the baby, this can lead to psychological trauma and the child will not speak at all;

you can’t scare a baby with trips to an evil doctor, etc. This will not only not help, but will also plant fear of doctors in the mind of the crumbs;

if the baby is not set up to do the exercises, you do not need to force him. It is better to turn your attention to something else, and work out a little later;

you can’t take long breaks in learning: the baby must get used to the fact that classes are mandatory and daily.

Parents are the closest and dearest people for the child, whom he unconditionally trusts. Therefore, they must be patient and help the baby, but not intimidate him.

Dr. Komarovsky on how to help a child learn to speak - video

Experts explain that at the age of three, a child's speech should be understandable and comprehended. And if for some reason the baby does not speak or there are very few words in his vocabulary, this is an occasion to turn to specialists. Of course, some children learn to speak quite quickly after the age of three, if this is due to a genetic predisposition. But the factors that influence the delay in the development of speech in a child can be more serious, ranging from psychological causes to serious disorders in the functioning of the nervous system. Therefore, you should not waste time, but you need to start acting as quickly as possible, so that by the time the child needs to go to school, his speech has been adjusted.

Diagnosis "speech delay"

My daughter started talking late... I'm leafing through her well-fed, shabby medical card, which has lain in my closet for many years. There are many records, every month there is a report from the patronage nurse, which says that the girl is developing in accordance with her age. Here is an excerpt from a record of 9 months: “The general condition is satisfactory. The girl is active. She walks holding on to a support (she walked on her own at 1 year 2 months), says “ma-ma”, ba-ba”, “give”, “on”, plays with toys, drinks from a cup on her own. At the age of one, “says separate words, walks enough. Massage is carried out, bathed daily.
Until the age of three, her vocabulary was almost not replenished, she continued to speak separate monosyllabic words. The child does not speak at 3 years old what to do?

At three years and nine months old, my daughter was diagnosed with speech delay.
We have been advised:

Treatment by a child psychiatrist.
Lessons with a speech therapist:

development of auditory and visual attention, general and speech motor skills,
phonemic hearing;
preparation of the articulatory apparatus for the production of sounds;
expansion of impressive and expressive speech;
increasing the level of understanding of the world around;
work on the grammatical structure of the language;
education of attention, memory, confidence, perseverance, efficiency.

To all this was added stuttering in the acute period. For some reason, I was not very alarmed because of the diagnosis of “delayed speech development”, as I was confident in my child - everything was in perfect order with her mental development.

At that time, I already had a daughter and we were expecting a third child (they were born one year apart), and I went with them to my grandmother in another city. Papa was left alone at home.

Getting rid of a phobia

Visiting my grandmother, my daughter, for no apparent external reason, was frightened of her own shadow. It was impossible to turn on the lamp at home, and there should be no sun outside. Doctors noted that we have hyperexcitability syndrome. In her arms or in the carriage, the daughter behaved cheerfully and naturally, but at the slightest attempt to put her on the ground, she began to tighten her legs and scream. The neuropathologist advised me to simulate some kind of joyful event for the child. After not very long deliberation, we called our dad (while we were away, he managed to pass the exams and go to college). We agreed on the time of arrival and waited for him on the street, my daughter was in my arms. We did not say anything to her about the arrival of the pope, we just walked, as usual. When she saw dad, she herself slipped out of my hands and rushed to dad. More she never even remembered her fears, which did not let her go for two weeks.

Special school?

3 year old not saying what to do? At home, we transferred our daughter to a speech therapy kindergarten, and life went on as usual. The doctors were more worried than me. I was seriously alarmed when at the age of five I was offered to start registration in a special school for mentally retarded children. A real attack began on us - we were called to the hospital, to the house of public education for various commissions, threats were sent with some kind of punishment in case of failure to appear.

I took all the children to the children's art school, where they studied dancing, drawing and English - we liked the school. My daughter even learned a small quatrain in English, which subsequently saved us from a special school. I came to one of the meetings of the commission of public education, and there we agreed - in order to free myself from the attacks of doctors and teachers, I needed a psychiatrist's verdict. We went to a psychiatrist. Unfortunately, I have not preserved the text of his verdict, but it was in our favor. This was the first person who listened to me and then talked to his daughter. For quite a long time he played with her, asked from the pictures, and when he asked him to tell him something, if he wanted, his daughter gave him a simple poem in English. After that, he wrote us his verdict. He could not understand why we were sent to him. We should be observed and treated by a speech therapist. We proudly took this paper to the commission. We were no longer bothered.

homework

We went through a course of treatment with a speech therapist, and we almost got rid of stuttering. But they never learned to speak in sentences. At home, we worked with her every day. The incentive to start classes was a piece of hematogen, which I gave to my daughter before and after classes. She has already developed a reflex: after hematogen - classes. Classes were held in the form of a game. We played in the "seasons", played with words, read numbers and did a lot of other things. She did everything wonderfully, completely coped with the tasks, but she refused to speak complex words or sentences. She repeated all the syllables, pronounced all the sounds, but could not connect two different syllables. One fine day, I was preparing for classes, as usual (my daughter should have prepared a place for classes), she came up to me and said: “Mom, give me a hematogen” ... Tears spilled from my eyes, and she continued to answer my silent question : "please". The daughter naturally remembers this scene to this day. Apparently, something clicked in her, and she spoke. True, one problem still remained - the daughter answered questions with a delay, that is, she could not start talking for a long time. Something was bothering her, but soon she was going to school. Then I went to the teacher and talked to her.

Education

We were very lucky with the school: the teacher turned out to be wonderful. I am very grateful to her for her attention and patience with my child. Throughout the first grade, she asked a question or gave some task to her daughter at the beginning of the lesson, and at the end of the lesson she called her to the blackboard and listened to the answer. She graduated from elementary school with excellent grades. In high school, she discovered a craving for reading and memorizing large poems. The first was Alexander Blok's poem "Scythians". Then she was already looking for longer poems and in literature lessons helped the whole class with a long beautiful reading. After school, she tried to enter the university at the Faculty of Philology, but did not pass the competition. She studied at the school as a computer operator, then at a technical school as an accountant. She worked for several years, but the birth of children prevented her studies at the institute. I think she will still go to college, because she loves to invest her strength, money and time in education. She already has three red diplomas (music school, college, technical school and many other certificates). She collects them.

Speech delay story summary

Since childhood, my daughter has been very independent. At the age of three, she herself went to kindergarten, while I fed and dressed her little sister. The garden was in the yard. From a neighbor's house, a friend's windows overlooked the courtyard and she commented on her daughter's every step. At the age of 4, she went to donate blood from a finger to a children's clinic. At the age of 5, she already independently drove her sister and brother to donate blood. The children's polyclinic was in an annex to a neighboring house. In the first grade, she enrolled in a music school in the guitar class, successfully completed it. At the age of 20, she decided to give up everything and go to Estonia.

Now she has a family: a beloved husband and four small children - two boys and two girls. She loves to work with them. They are fine with speech. Plays the guitar and performs on stage with her husband.

Work on mistakes

Finally, I want to outline the moments that should not be done in any case, for which I am now ashamed, but I did not understand it right away. I experienced it first hand, I experienced it all, and maybe my advice will be useful to someone on how not to behave with a “problem” child.

If a child has difficulty speaking, do not force him to speak. Example: Previously, we lived in a room of 11 m2, there was little space, and toys could only be put away on the closet. Children could see them, but it was impossible to get them. And when my daughter asked me to get some toy for her, pointing at it with my finger, I “did not understand” her and forced her to say the name of the toy. She was nervous and, of course, did not repeat.

The first three years of a baby's life is a critical period for language development. It is during this period that a lot can be done if he has speech defects. If a child does not speak at 3 years old, this is a sign of a big emerging problem that needs to be addressed urgently.

Why is this segment of a child's life given such importance? By the age of 3, the areas of the brain responsible for speech mature, children master the basic grammatical forms of their native language, its rhythm and basic features, they accumulate a large active and passive vocabulary.

If the necessary corrective work is not started by the age of three, in the future this will require immeasurably more effort. Both moral and material.

According to research in the field of child physiology, during the formation of the functions of the central nervous system, they are easy to train. Since the sensitive (favorable) period for the intensive development of the brain lasts up to 5 years, right now a lot can be done for the development of speech.

What should a 3 year old say?

If a child does not speak at the age of 3, this circumstance alarms even those parents who ignored such a lag at an earlier age.

The norm for the development of children's speech at 3 years:

active vocabulary (words used by the baby) ranges from 250 to 1000;
knows and says how old he is, whether he is a boy or a girl, his name, surname;
begins to change, sometimes with errors, words in sentences according to gender, cases and numbers;
sentences pronounced by a three-year-old consist of at least 3 words;
the baby is able to complete multi-step instructions such as “put the car in the closet”, “put the designer on the table”, “put the books on the bedside table”;
a large number of adjectives, pronouns, adverbs appeared in speech;
understands what “one” and “many” are, they try to count objects;
some children verbalize what they see or do when they play or do things alone;
listens with interest to literary works accessible to his understanding, examines pictures in children's books, remembers his favorite poems and fairy tales and tells them with pleasure to close people.

Analyzing the speech of your baby, you need to remember that all children develop along an individual route, and the older they get, the wider the range of skills that distinguishes one child from another. Nevertheless, when the level of development of children's speech differs significantly from the speech of their peers, it is necessary to conduct diagnostics with the participation of qualified specialists and understand what are the reasons for such a lag.

Signs of delayed speech development

The reason for parental alertness should be not only the mistakes made by the child in coordinating and changing words, in the pronunciation of sounds. At this age, speech is the main means of communication between children and loved ones. If the baby does not seek to turn to parents and other family members, if he expresses his requests with facial expressions or gestures, you should carefully evaluate his speech capabilities.

Trouble signals if a child at 3 years old does not speak well:

he has a limited vocabulary, consisting mainly of nouns, less often verbs, onomatopoeia, babble words.
his conversations are like those of a foreigner whom few can understand.
when pronouncing sounds, a large number of substitutions, distortions of sounds are observed. For example, instead of the sound [k], the sound [t] (cat - that) speaks, when he speaks, his tongue is between his teeth;
the baby speaks in phrases consisting of 1-2 words, with great reluctance repeats words or sentences after adults, or does not do this at all.
cannot fulfill a simple request, does not respond to his name, does not know how old he is;

If the reason for the delay in children's speech is hearing problems, the baby may not respond to the words addressed to him until he sees the face of the speaker. With auditory pathology, it is necessary to start hearing correction as soon as possible in order to make up for lost time for the formation of children's speech. The speech of such children, with properly organized training in a year and a half, almost does not differ from the speech of their peers.

When a child is silent or does not speak well at three years old, this can be a symptom of various disorders. To begin with, you should contact an otolaryngologist and a neuropathologist for an examination, get advice from a speech therapist, speech pathologist, psychologist. If a child does not speak for 3 years, this is not laziness, or a lack of education. He may have the following speech development problems:

motor or sensory alalia;
tempo delay of speech;
general underdevelopment of speech (OHP).

Each of these pathologies, despite the fact that it manifests itself with similar symptoms, requires a different corrective approach. A timely identified problem will allow you to choose an individual lesson plan with a speech therapist, psychologist, teacher-defectologist.

The reasons for the underdevelopment of children's speech may be the following:

chromosomal pathologies, congenital diseases;
heredity, when in one family several generations have a late onset of speech;
pathology of pregnancy and childbirth;
pedagogical neglect - it happens not only in asocial families where children are not paid attention, but also where they are madly in love and try to fulfill all his whims and desires;
diseases and injuries of the brain at an early age.

The most severe consequences are brain damage during fetal development, during childbirth and in the first year of life.

How to help your child

When a child at the age of 3 does not speak, you should definitely ask how to deal with him, how to teach him to communicate. The necessary recommendations on the formation of the speech environment will definitely be given by specialists - a speech therapist or defectologist. Parents can do a lot with them to stimulate the language development of a three-year-old child. And, on the contrary, with an indifferent attitude to the capabilities and achievements of the baby, professionals will be less able to help.

Tips for stimulating children's speech:

Accompany with your comments all actions related to joint activities with the baby, explain the functions of individual items, talk about what you saw interesting on a walk, from a bus or car window during a trip. Let you not get a response from the child yet, but his passive vocabulary will be steadily replenished.
Make sure that your speech is standard, has a clear sound and correct pronunciation.
Read children's literature, encourage repetition of phrases and lines from poems, look at illustrations, explaining what is depicted on them.
Do not leave your baby alone with a TV or tablet, watch cartoons and play games together, explaining the names of the characters and the actions of the characters.
Teach your baby to assemble a mosaic, string beads on a string, make buildings from cubes, lay out cereals, peas, beans on plates, because the development of fine motor skills actively stimulates the speech areas of the brain.
Learn a few finger games or nursery rhymes and play them more often, this activity also develops speech and fine motor skills.

Try not to rush to the aid of the child, fulfilling his silent requests. Let him try to express his wish. Sometimes a powerful impetus to overcome the tempo delay of speech is being in a children's team, in joint developmental classes. If he wants to communicate, the baby will try to use all the resources he has.

The video below shows several exercises for classes with children on the development of speech. If your baby does not speak at 3 years old, you should remember them and apply them in games:

Attentive attitude to the problems of speech delay in a three-year-old child, timely diagnosis, timely started classes with specialists will reduce the time for the necessary correction and prevent further lagging behind peers.

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

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

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

Speech is one of the important components of the overall development of the child. Such mental processes as memory, attention, thinking and imagination are directly related to understanding the speech of others. Why does it take a lot of effort afterwards. After all, it is necessary to make up for lost time, while the baby did not speak. A serious consequence is the occurrence of mental retardation.

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

Stages of speech formation

preverbal period. It starts at birth and lasts up to 6-10 months. It manifests itself in the form of a scream, babble or cooing. Thus, he declares his needs to others. About being hungry, hurting, scared, wet, cold or hot, etc. Up to 5 months, speech addressed to him evokes 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. May try to pronounce simple syllables such as "ma", "pa", etc.
stage of speech development. 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 your mother, saying: “ma-ma” ... And also they can already answer questions with gestures. With the help of intonation, they learn to express emotions, such as anger, joy or fear.
Stage of development of speech communication. It starts at two years 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 to four words. He perfectly understands what he is told and is able to carry out orders. Having mastered a vocabulary of about 300 words, he is able to point to the objects that are called to him.

Table of normal speech development

Age	Form of speech
1–2 months	A cry that expresses joy or annoyance
2–3 months	Cooing appears, attempts to pronounce the first simple syllables
4–5 months	Attempts to repeat words after an adult
8 months - 1 year 2 months	The pronunciation of the first words consisting of simple syllables (ma-ma, ba-ba, ki-sa ...)
1 year 6 months – 2 years 2 months	Combines 2-4 words into sentences
1 year 9 months – 2 years 6 months	The period of the question begins: “what is this?”
2 years 4 months – 3 years 6 months	Tries to build sentences using numbers
2 years 6 months – 3 years 5 months	He actively talks, communicates with toys and can tell about himself (what he does ...)

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 speaks poorly, 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 eliminate them in order to contribute to speech development.

Causes of speech delay

Physiological

Genetics. The process of maturation 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 failure.
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 injuries of the auditory canal or a severe illness.
Brain disease or injury. Occur due to 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 not speak well 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”, “hare lip” ...).
Mental illness. With mental retardation, a characteristic feature is the 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 late.

Social

Lack of speech. When parents do not pay attention to the child, they do not talk to him. Accordingly, he does not form a need to express emotions or requirements to satisfy his requests.
Hyper-care. In the same way, the need for expression is not formed. Why is the baby not talking? Parents themselves do not give such an opportunity. They guess his desires, anticipate them. Because of such overprotectiveness, he does not need to understand something, to try to understand something. Someone else 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 talk. They force them to repeat the word they said, scold them when they refuse, beg or punish them. If a child spoke at the age of three, albeit badly, then over time it will stop altogether. Refusal is expressed passively, in ignoring the request. Or actively rejected. The difficulty is that the baby refuses not only to repeat when asked. But he does not speak at all in any situation.
Gadget distraction. Excessive passion for TV, computer games or constant watching of cartoons negatively affects the body as a whole. Until 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. He needs more time 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 normalizes and will be able to talk on 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 at two or three years old is a witness to assault or frequent scandals, then this can affect his mental development. Speech development can be delayed from constantly living stress.

Alalia

Why else the child does not speak, or speaks poorly, is when a pathology of the nervous system occurs, which leads to speech underdevelopment. It's called Alalia. 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 the words from each other. Sometimes you can see how he says the last phrase said to another, or repeats the 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. Why does mental retardation occur over time.

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

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

Alalia occurs with injuries 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 at least one of the above reasons is present. They will be able not only to prescribe a correction and treatment. And also to distinguish the usual tempo delay of speech from a 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 speech of the baby, 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 cheerful 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 babies and older children more often. Contact him, tell about the world around him, 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 to create a closer and deeper connection in the relationship. Such a baby will grow, 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 poorly, spend more time together, qualitatively and actively. Arrange more often joint outdoor recreation 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 games with him, aimed at development. All sorts of light puzzles, cards with animals or objects will replenish his vocabulary and encourage him to repeat the correct pronunciation after you. The main thing is not to put pressure on him, do not force him to avoid negativism. Fascinated by the game, he himself will try to pronounce the words.
Offer to complete your sentence. Suitable in cases where the child understands, but it makes no sense for him to talk about his desires, because an adult foresees them. For example, “Today after sleep we will go ...”, “Do you want to eat ...”. It also helps to recognize their needs and understand that parents listen to his opinion and desires.
Fine motor skills play a very significant role in activating the speech center. You can do crafts together from dough or plasticine. Kinetic sand for sale, which can captivate even adults. Let him go through cereals and pasta. Prepare space and clothes for finger painting. They develop motor skills and focus on various lacing when the little one tries to thread the tip into the hole. Scatter the multi-colored buttons and beads into a bowl. Tell us about their size in relation to each other and shape.
Read fairy tales, tell rhymes, nursery rhymes and ditties. This develops, replenishes the vocabulary of a two or three year old child. And most importantly, it creates a joyful mood. And lullabies relax and evoke a feeling of comfort and security.
If the baby does not speak well, visit playgrounds, parks and play centers more often. When he starts playing with a kid who is already talking, he will try to copy him, do like him. These parents are used to understanding and guessing the needs of their child without words. And strangers, especially children, will provoke the speedy connection of the speech center.
If the “silent person” is already three years old, and he hardly speaks, then psychologists recommend sending him to kindergarten. In the company of the same preschoolers, he will be able to talk. The main thing is to prepare it for the garden. Explain to the caregivers that the baby does not yet speak and that one should not put pressure on him or demand. And over time, after adapting 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 speech development exercises useful 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 from one of the preschool educational institutions in Moscow conducted research with three-year-old children who had speech development delays. The parents of these ten babies adhered to the above recommendations. Basically, the task was to make fakes and stuff 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.

Popular in category: