Is it true that a child’s silence is a sign of slowness in speaking?

To this day, many people still think that their children don’t speak because they are “slow to speak”, and they don’t understand “language delay”. When they find that their children are lagging behind in speech, they often miss the best time for intervention. The editor will take parents to understand what language delay is, so that they will not be misled by “slow to speak”, find problems in time, seek standardized intervention, and grasp the golden period of children’s language development.

What is language delay? Language delay refers to the situation where children in the language development period cannot express, understand language, or communicate using language as their peers within the expected time due to various reasons. Language delay not only affects children's language comprehension and expression ability, but also affects their interactions with others and society.

What are the causes of language delay?

• Mental deficiency and intellectual retardation;

• Congenital defects: such as congenital deafness, cleft lip and palate;

• Oral muscle impairment: inability to freely move or control oral muscles, or insufficient oral and facial muscle strength, resulting in inability to speak or express correctly;

• Poor concentration and inability to focus;

• Lack of appropriate environment, such as overprotective parents, lack of learning opportunities and motivation, etc.

What are the characteristics of delayed speech development? • Being too quiet or unresponsive to sounds as a baby;

• Low eye contact with parents or other adults;

• Not uttering any single words at age two;

• Still unable to use simple sentences at age three, such as “I want a cake”;

• At the age of four, he still has many mispronunciations and his speech is difficult to understand;

• Unable to narrate events or tell simple stories by age five;

• The number of words does not increase with age, and sometimes the words are not expressive enough, and there is a phenomenon of language expression regression or unwillingness to talk;

• Difficulty understanding abstract words or complex sentences, often giving irrelevant answers;

• Poor sentence organization skills, making it difficult for them to express their ideas or needs.

What can parents do to help their children develop language? No electronic products are allowed: iPad, computer, TV, mobile phone, etc.

Prolonged use of electronic products can lead to:

Your baby’s play time is reduced;

The baby lacks thinking and imagination, which hinders the baby's language development;

The child’s learning ability is affected;

Children's attention is affected and they tend to be hyperactive;

Children and parents cannot establish a good parent-child relationship;

Stay away from electronic products. You can do this:

Let your baby get in touch with picture books and books early.

Take your baby outdoors more often to play and get in touch with nature.

Take your baby to complete some small tasks in daily life together to increase parent-child interaction and improve your baby's hands-on ability.

Parents should set a good example by not using electronic products in front of their babies.

Improve your baby’s language environment

Mom and dad should become cute and fun chatterboxes, use lively and interesting language/tones to interact and play with their babies, and describe what they see and hear around them.

Let your baby participate in interactions with children of the same age as early as possible to improve his communication, imitation and game abilities.

Mom and dad should learn to wait for their children’s spontaneous communication, not to “understand” their baby’s needs too much, and give their children the opportunity to express their needs.

Unify parenting concepts to prevent children from "taking advantage of opportunities" and cultivate good emotions and behaviors.

Increase the time of interaction with children. Parents should put down their mobile phones and devote themselves to interacting with their children to make them happy. This is also the process of his/her learning.

Be good at discovering the fun of children and play with them, such as throwing toys, trampoline...

When playing, mom and dad need to use exaggerated voices and expressions, as well as limbs that can "talk", to make children like playing with you.

It is not terrible for children to have delayed language development. What is terrible is that parents think that it is "delayed speech" and delay treatment for their babies, thus missing the critical period of language development. I hope that this introduction can help you discover your baby's language problems in time, so that your baby can gradually master language skills during play and promote language development.