When do children start saying their first words?

A baby has appeared in your house. He causes delight and emotion. I want to see his smile as soon as possible, to hear the long-awaited "asu". How many steps in development will a little man go through before he speaks or takes the first step? We will consider one of the stages in the formation of the baby's speech: when children begin to hum.

The very first sound made by a child is a scream. With his help, he makes it clear to the outside world that he is hungry, sick or does not like something. After two weeks, the newborn responds to the mother's voice. He stops crying as soon as people start talking to him. At the end of the second month, the baby's cry changes. The sound of the vowels "a" and "u" clearly emerges. A little later, they are joined by "s" and a pair of consonants - "g" and "m". This is the first stage of when children start to hum. It is called hooking. A staccato consonant, softened by a vowel, and gives the pronunciation of the familiar "gu", "gy", which, as the child grows up, turn into "agu" and "agy".

I must say that parents play a big role in the speech development of the baby. Communication for a 3-month-old baby is just as important as for an adult. He reacts to the cooing mother with a smile, movements of hands and feet, and even "echoes" with her. Conversely, infants who are hardly spoken to have a later development of speech.

When do children start to hum? The second stage is called the "pipe". The set of sounds that the child utters during this period is expanding. At 4 months, he voices more and more consonants and vowels. There are "i", "e", combinations of "boom", "ma", "pf", "pl", which by the beginning of the 5th month smoothly flow into more prolonged and melodic cascades of sounds, for example, "til". It has been established that already at this age the baby can imitate adults. If you try to communicate with him in "his" language, you will find that he repeats after you with pleasure, as if answering.

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Of course, when children start to hum, the transition from one sound to another does not happen immediately. The child performs multiple repetitions of vowels and consonants, as if studying their pronunciation. In general, this process itself occurs spontaneously. Its heyday falls on 4-6 months of the baby's life. At first it is only a reaction to the presence of adults, and then, which is a very important moment in the development of speech, and independent action. For example, if a baby is awake and in a good mood, then it is not necessary for someone to stay nearby so that he "talks". An interesting fact is that children of different nationalities, despite the peculiarities of the language environment, pronounce the first sounds almost the same. And only after six months, such "communication", gradually turning into babbling, acquires the characteristic sound of their native language.

Many parents are interested in the time frame. They often wonder: "At what time do children start making sounds and when do they finish, switching to babbling?" Each case is strictly individual. Therefore, you should not sound the alarm if your friends already have a crumb, and your child (2 months) does not hum. It is possible to name only approximate age limits of this period in the development of children – from two to three to six to seven months.

How does speech development happen and at what time do children start talking?

The first thing to say, speech is a form of communication, communication with other people. Therefore, it is important to understand that in addition to reproducing words (expressive speech), there must also be their understanding and response to them (impressive speech).

Before children begin to speak consciously, they have to go through the path of pre-speech development. First, boys and girls learn to listen to the sounds, the voice of their parents, to make separate guttural sounds in response to an appeal to them. By 2-3 months, there is a buzz: now the baby likes to pronounce "agu-agu" and other lingering vowel sounds — both in a calm state and against the background of bright emotions.

Then, after 5-6 months, separate syllables appear in the child's arsenal, and then chains of these syllables: "ma-ma-ma", "ba-ba-ba", "pa-pa-pa". But do not think that at this age children are already beginning to say "mom" and "dad". While these are just sounds, and not an appeal to a specific person, they are only signs of the formation of babbling speech. By the age of 9 months, the child makes more and more new sounds, emotionally colors them, changes intonation. In parallel with this, it can be noticed that the child is beginning to understand the speech addressed to him better and better: now, to the question "Where is Dad?" he turns in the right direction, and to the request "Give me a ball" he holds out the necessary object.

Closer to the year, the child has gestures that he uses in certain cases: nods his head in agreement, shakes it from side to side in denial, waves his hand when meeting and parting. So boys and girls develop nonverbal communication, which is also part of speech development. And soon the child begins to speak the first words: syllables are arranged in simple babbling words, such as "mom", "dad", "boom", "give". An important indicator is that each word is matched in one specific subject or person (i.e. the child says "mom" only to the mother and no one else).

After a year, there comes a period of expanding the vocabulary of crumbs: every day parents can hear new words and sounds from the baby, sometimes understandable only to him. Often a child speaks only the beginning of a word, skips or replaces some parts of it. Boys and girls at this age are able to fulfill simple adult requests, respond to them with gestures or, as parents like to say, "in their own language."

At what time does the child start talking in sentences? First, he goes through the phase of phrasal speech, which appears about two years old. These are combinations of two or three simple words ("Mom, give" or "Ball boom"), as they grow up and increase the vocabulary, verbal turns become more complicated.

From two to three years old, the child is "busy" with the development of articulation, replenishing the "verbal piggy bank" with new phrases and expressions. This is the stage when the child begins to speak in simple sentences with a clear grammatical structure.

When children begin to speak — are there any norms of speech development?

Each child develops at his own pace, including his speech. The "norms" that once existed, that a child should know 10-50-100 words in a year, and 800-1000 words in two, are currently recognized as incorrect and are rarely used in practice. So there are simply no clear standards at what age children begin to speak words and how quickly their vocabulary should be replenished.

There are guidelines that can be used to assess the level of development of the baby. However, it should be understood that these are just guidelines, and it is necessary to evaluate the development as a whole. If the children start talking later, it does not mean that something is wrong with them.

How can I help a child to start talking?

It is important to understand one simple rule: speech begets speech. In other words, in order for the child to start saying the first word, and then the next ones, you need to talk to him.

All mammals on earth learn through imitation, it's the same with speech: the child tries to repeat what the parents do. That's how children start saying words. Therefore, the more speech the baby hears from the surrounding adults, the faster and better he will begin to speak.

You need to talk to the baby long before the child should start talking. This should be done in a targeted manner, i.e. it is to him that you should address. Even a three-month-old child needs to be told about what his mother is doing, what surrounds him. Words and sounds accumulate, their understanding appears, and only then they are reproduced.

Always react to any sounds and babble of the baby that he utters, imitate them: this way it becomes clear to the child that they are listening to him, they are in communication with him. After all, why do children start talking? Because they understand that words are a new level of communication, much more convenient than crying and gestures.

Speak to the child slowly, clearly, do not shorten or simplify the words. Color your speech with emotions, complement it with gestures — so it will be easier for the child to understand first, and then repeat what he has heard. Always remember: at what age a child begins to speak depends to a large extent on his parents.

Try to give up (or reduce as much as possible) the time spent in front of the TV or with gadgets: the speech that sounds in cartoons or programs is not perceived by little boys and girls the way we would like. For an immature nervous system, such a large number of stimuli that children receive from screens is too large: attention is not concentrated on words, but is dispersed between a bright picture and loud sounds.

Read children's books with your child. Moreover, it is not the text itself that is important; it is important to consider illustrations with the baby, comment on them, explain the plot in a clear and accessible language without complex sentences. Such classes bring closer the moment when the child begins to say "mom" and "dad", and then other words.

Expand your social circle. It's no secret that when a child goes to kindergarten, he starts talking faster. This is due to the fact that next to him is not only his mother, who already understands what the child needs by the look, but also others — children and caregivers. Therefore, we have to learn to express ourselves with words. Even if the child started talking late, in kindergarten he quickly reduces the gap from his peers.

How many children begin to speak if they speak two languages at home?

Since there are currently quite a lot of international families or families migrating to different countries, the issue of bilingualism is quite acute. Children growing up in a bilingual environment face some "mixing" of languages. If such a child starts talking late, this is not surprising, because he needs more time to adapt and understand when, how and what to say. However, by the age of five, as a rule, boys and girls from such families are fluent in two languages at once!

When should I start worrying and contact specialists?

Raising children involves daily supervision of them. Sometimes alarm signals can be detected even before the time when the child begins to speak words.

These are the so-called "red flags", having discovered which, you should immediately seek help.

• 6 months: no walking, no smiling in response to contact with the child;
• 12 months: there is no babbling, the baby does not try to imitate the sounds and gestures of adults, does not respond to his name;
• 18 months: there is no pointing gesture, the child has not started to speak at least three words, does not fulfill the simplest requests;
• 2 years: does not show objects at the request of adults, does not follow commands, does not speak at least 25 simple short words;
• 2.5 years: does not give answers in the form of nods or head shakes, does not pronounce simple phrases of 2-3 words (please note: the child has not yet begun to speak in structured sentences, these are phrases);
• 3 years: does not understand verbs, does not perform complex two-step commands, does not speak 200 words, repeats part of the question in response to a question (echolalia).

If you find at least one of the above-mentioned signs in your child, you should contact a pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist. But do not draw conclusions based on the stories of friends, at what time their child started talking. Do not assume that if a child has not started talking in a year, then something is wrong with him. Only a specialist can give a qualified conclusion about the speech development of the baby.