Martinez TracyHow old are children’s first sounds, syllables and words, what it depends on, when they start using sentences in speech and how to help them pass each stage of speech development in time.
Without exception, all parents are waiting for the moment when a child starts to speak mommy and daddy. Many people think that children’s speech begins its development on the day when the baby utters the first word. In fact, to make it happen, it takes a long time to prepare the organs of articulation, their coordinated work, the ability to switch, mobility of the lower jaw, lips, tongue, soft palate. It is impossible to say exactly those sounds that make up the first words if the child can not distinguish them from phonemes similar in sound, such as words like cat-kit, hill-crust and others.
In simple terms, speech is produced during the fetal period when the organs of hearing, articulation, and brain structures are formed. These processes are influenced by heredity, diseases that the mother had, the presence or absence of her bad habits, lifestyle of the baby’s parents. The course of birth and the health of the infant are important factors in its successful debut as a person who speaks and thinks.
The age at which a baby should start speaking is individual, but ranges from 8 to 14 months.
Immediately after birth, intensive development of the brain structures begins and new connections between neurons are established. At the same time, the organs of hearing and articulation develop, and physical and phonemic hearing is formed. Without adequate hearing, children cannot learn speech, since the distortion or absence of sound signals to the brain makes it impossible to form speech skills.
In the first weeks and months of life, it is the speech of others that stimulates the initial phase of speech development. The baby listens to the speech of loved ones, he is quiet for a while when he hears his mother’s voice, the impulsive movements of the arms and legs stop for a while. After some more time, he begins to turn his head toward the source of the sound.
Not all moms and dads talk to newborns and infants in the first months of life. They think it is unnecessary because the baby doesn’t understand anything yet. Such one-way “conversations” between parents and babies that accompany bathing and waking develop auditory concentration and a desire to respond. Attentive parents may notice how the child tries to move his lips as if he wants to say something. Even better, if parents often call the baby by name, show him toys and call the child, not moving away from the crib.
These sounds still sound vague and spoken involuntarily. These skills indicate the first stage of speech development – humming. In addition, the baby’s cry at 1-3 months is quite expressive. By the intonation, mom can tell if the baby is bored, wants to eat, or it is time to change a wet diaper, that is, he began to master the intonation.
