How to talk to a child at age 2

Practice shows that even if you start lessons to develop speech right after the birth of the child, it is still not a guarantee that the child will surpass the norm of his development or at least will correspond to this norm.

The story in this article will focus on the development of spoken language in normal children born in relatively normal conditions. If there are serious birth traumas or specific diagnoses of the child himself – this is a field for specialists, and an article read on the Internet probably won’t help.

For other children, however, and especially for parents who love them, the information given here can be helpful and produce the desired result.

Causes of the problem and general rules of speech development for the baby from birth

Many teachers who have a solid experience of working in speech therapy groups for preschool children confirm the statistics and research data that the children of the 70-80s of last century could do in a year and a half, now the majority cannot do even after the age of two.

This is especially noticeable in the area of speech development. If we consider the causes related to abnormalities in the development of the foetus, genetic preconditions, obstetric conditions and the complexity of the birth itself, which nowadays account for up to half of the cases, consultation with a speech therapist is not the only necessity. This specialist teaches speaking sounds, making oral sentences, and exercises to improve diction. In addition to it will need counseling and examination:

1. defectologist;

2. neurologist;

3. child psychologist.

The second half of the causes associated with delayed speech in children is blamed on the adults themselves. Here is a widespread omission of parents, denoted by such a term from modern educators as “pedagogical neglect. It arises from the lack of communication between parents and their child. Which in turn is related to the “epidemic” of dependence on ubiquitous “gadgets” by everyone and everything. For this reason, even before the birth of a child, parents should memorize and practice a number of simple rules after the birth:

1. Limiting the time spent near any screen. Do not let your baby watch TV, watch cartoons on the computer or “communicate” with the phone. Of course, there will be contact with them when visiting guests or in public places, but that should be enough for the child. This limitation corresponds to ages 0 to 3. Read more in this story.

2. When music or songs are played, or a fairy tale is on audio mode, adults should avoid talking. For a child there should be no background sound, the sound should be something alone.

3. Talk a lot and clearly in your child’s presence. It is easiest to pronounce all the household actions that are performed by an adult. However, if there is irritation or fatigue, it is better not to do this, the effect may be the opposite of what was intended.

4. It is necessary to read books aloud to the child.

5. During all the activities that an adult does with the baby – bathing, dressing, feeding, massaging, etc., should actively perform nursery rhymes and songs, as well as nursery rhymes.

6. When talking to a child, eye contact is very important, which must be present with emotional stimulation, in order to attract the child’s attention to the face of the speaker. Rhymes and nursery rhymes are great for this purpose. Many speech therapists also recommend that women use bright lipstick before lessons on the development of speech with the baby.

7. Actively use games for the development of fine motor skills.

8. Support and full approval of a variety of outdoor games. The activity of the child’s brain directly depends on the active participation of gross motor skills, which takes place when children are physically active.

By the end of the first year of life, a child should have about 10-15 words in his or her vocabulary – this is the average rate of “vocabulary” for most children.

5 tips from speech therapists when working on speech development with children under 2 years old

Tips are generally advisory in nature, they are easy to apply in everyday life, and their benefits have been tested by many years of expert experience:

1. The Poet of the East mode, – In the ancient expanses of the Great Steppe, the akyn poets were popular among the nomads, who sang about everything they came across. In communicating with a child, this practice always justifies itself. The adult needs to sound out all their actions and name all the objects that are involved in what the adult is doing. For example, when getting ready to wash a baby, you should comment on all of your actions, “take off your pants, take off the beacon, get in the tub, sit on your hands, dip in the water, etc.p.”.

2. We should avoid baby-sitting whenever possible.It is important for a child to have an example of clear, expressive, and correctly pronounced speech.

3. At the initial stage of the development of speech, complex words that denote objects or creatures can be replaced by the sounds they make – car – it’s bi-bee, cat – meow, horse – ygo-go. This makes it easier for the child to master speech, but by the age of one and a half, two years at most, they should be replaced by full-fledged words.

4. When reading aloud, poetry is best for babies, Children’s authors like Chukovsky, Marshak, or Agniya Barto, or simple children’s stories. Reading serious works that parents themselves enjoy is best postponed until an older age.

5. When using nursery rhymes or nursery rhymes in speech classes, For greater efficiency, it is worth combining them with imitative and finger games. This helps develop spatial coordination, which in turn stimulates the development of active processes in the child’s brain.

How many words should be in a child’s spoken “arsenal” by 2 years of age?

If we take the authoritative opinion of L.Vygotsky, the master of national psychology.s. voiced in his work “Thinking and Speech,” then by the age of a year and a half, a maximum of 1 year and 7 months, the child should already begin to speak in sentences.

However, as of today, this is not realistic and you don’t have to be scared. This observation of the scientist once again confirms the disappointing fact that humanity is gradually regressing. However, now for something else, so, today the norm is from 200 to 300 words by the age of 2 years. In this case, the child should speak in phrases consisting of at least two words.

To understand if this child has reached, specifically, the established science of modern standards, you should carefully observe his speech and vocabulary. Only their mother can do it better than anyone else. Often, only a child of this age can understand what she is saying. Armed with a notebook and equipped with patience, you should write down all the words that will be heard from the baby during the week, all that will come to mind. Perhaps most of the words will be two-syllable and many of them will be words of substitute meaning, such as dog – woof-woof, and there will not be many phrases, for example “Daddy, give”, “Mommy, yum-yum”. To conduct a “linguistic analysis,” the number of.

Even if the number of words is below the norm, there should be no panic and you should continue to study. There are already many examples of children who can speak at the age of three without any developmental difficulties or handicaps.

Now a brief introduction,What to do categorically not, so as not to cause psychological and emotional harm to the child:

1. To make comparisons with other children of acquaintances, relatives, or neighbors who are the same age but speak better. Every baby is unique and distinct in his or her development, and it follows his or her own “personal” timetable.

2. If there are signs of delayed speech development not to take this problem into account. Counting on the fact that “everything will pass by itself” and postponing visits to specialists.

3. Focus all of your attention on this one problem. Often, mothers begin to despair when their child at age 2 has not yet begun to speak, and all their thoughts are occupied by only that.

If you summarize these recommendations, the conclusion is simple – do not go to extremes and continue to work on the problem sensibly and commensurate with the situation. The following is a story about some exercises with breathing and articulation and a little more detail will be disclosed techniques for the development of fine motor skills for children of this age. All of the above should have a positive impact on the development of speech in the baby.

Articulation exercises and breathing exercises.

Articulation training is aimed at teaching the child correct and clear pronunciation of sounds, which contributes to the development of correct pronunciation skills of the words themselves in the future.

All training should be done in a playful way, demonstrating and explaining to the child how to perform them.The baby should like this activity and the session should be organized in a fun way.

1. “Fence.”. Teeth tightly closed so that the tongue stays behind them as a “fence. When it’s done, you have to smile as big as possible.

2. “Pendulum.”. With the open mouth to move the language as a pendulum from one side to the other, touching them with the corners of your mouth.

3. “Piglet.”. Lips stretched into a tube and start moving them in a circle, up and down, right and left.

4. “The Jolly Hamster. Pretend to be a hamster, sucking air into our mouths and puffing up our cheeks. Blowing the right and left cheek alternately. Then in reverse order – retract the cheeks harder, then inflate again and deflate with the palms.

5. “Duckling.”. Pulling our lips forward with a tube and breathing through them.

6. “Open and close the mouth.”. Hold the position with the mouth open for a few seconds, then close it.

7. “Nimble Tongue.”. We practice reaching with our tongue to the chin, the tip of the nose, and the cheeks.

Some exercises for the development of fine motor skills.

The area of the cerebral cortex responsible for speech function is located in close proximity to the area responsible for finger movements and fine motor skills in general. Stimulation of this zone allows impulses to be transmitted to the speech centers, on which the development of speech depends. Here are some exercises designed for this purpose:

1. Finding objects. Small toys and other small objects are placed in a deep container filled with any groats or pulses – peas, rice, beans, etc.p. The kid’s task is to dip his hands into the dishes to “get” all the objects out of them.

2. Modeling activity.Plasticine, artistic clay, or simple dough are excellent “exercisers” for developing flexibility and mobility of the fingers.

3. Finger exercises. Well known and known to many generations of Soroka – Crow with her babies, Goat horned, going after the little guys and of course Ladushki, extremely effective for the all-round development of the child, including the development of speech.

4. Applique and all kinds of drawingHave a beneficial effect on the movement of the child’s fingers and hands.

In addition to the above list, you can add here: mosaics, games with shoelaces, buttoning and unbuttoning buttons, playing with beads, cereals, and other activities. The main principle should be the novelty of activity for the baby. If all the games and activities will be repeated from day to day, it will not contribute to the development of speech.

The main point – to let the child’s speech development on its own should not be allowed. Her entire sensitive period of development takes place between 0 and 3 years of age, which is not a lot of time. But to put pressure on the child and worry unnecessarily about him, too, is not necessary. The key to successful speech development will be regular exercise, the parents’ study of the relevant literature and timely referral to a speech therapist.

The article is based on the books: Vygotsky L.s. “Thinking and Speech,” Andrei Kurpatov “Happy Child,” Elena Yanushko “Help Your Baby Talk,” O.a. Novikovskaya’s “Baby Learns to Talk,” E. There is an expression “No panic, no panic” by Ershova! My Child Doesn’t Speak” and materials of the work of teachers and educational practices of the staff of Solnyshko Children’s Home of RK.