If you notice any problems with your child, do not allow relatives and friends to tell you that everything will be fine, that they know someone who had the same difficulties, and in the end, it was nothing serious. Don’t listen to others – consult a specialist! If your child, for some reason, hasn’t said their first word by the age of one, doesn’t form sentences by the age of two, or doesn’t pronounce letters correctly, don’t wait – it’s time for a speech therapist.
If your child is one year old and pulls on your sleeve instead of saying ‘mama’ – it’s time for a speech therapist. If they do not repeat words after you, do not turn when you call them, it’s time for a speech therapist. If something about your child’s behavior seems strange to you, it’s time for a speech therapist.
By the third month, the baby should react to sounds, stop crying when spoken to, coo when content, and change the way they suck depending on what they hear. Between the third and sixth month, they should start paying attention to music, laugh, repeat syllables, and notice sound toys.
From 6 to 12 months, the baby should listen when you talk to them, look in the direction the sound is coming from, recognize words for objects they use daily, babble for longer periods, use gestures when they want something, imitate sounds, and say their first word.
If these milestones are missing, consult a speech therapist. There might be deviations and that’s normal, but if several of these milestones are missing, it’s time to raise a red flag.
By 18 months, a child should be able to say between 20 and 50 words, after which they should start forming short sentences.
We should stress an important fact: parents often think that a speech therapist only deals with correcting the pronunciation of certain sounds. In fact, a speech therapist also deals with the stimulation and correction of overall speech and language development, reading, writing, learning difficulties, as well as voice problems.
Therefore, it is very important to establish early diagnosis of potential hearing, speech, and language impairments, in order to find solutions more quickly and, most importantly, to help the child.
And to do that, it is necessary for you as a parent to work with your child every day from the very beginning. Talk to your baby and sing to them, clearly and distinctly. Even though they can’t respond yet, the child is listening and absorbing, so when the time comes, they will start to repeat after you.
Every child is an individual, and therefore their development and progress will follow different paths. It is your responsibility to monitor everything and respond if there are significant deviations.
