Delayed speech development in children 2-3 years old. How to treat speech delay in a child

Delay speech development(ZRR) is a diagnosis that is given to a child under 3 years of age based on examinations by pediatricians:

• neurologist;
• neuropsychiatrist;
• speech therapist;
• otolaryngologist (ENT);
• speech pathologist;
• psychologist.

Often, delayed speech development (SDD) in early childhood is accompanied by mental retardation (MDD). In this case, the mark “ZPRD” – delayed psycho-speech development – ​​may appear on the baby’s medical record.

Delayed speech, mental or their joint development is a medical and pedagogical problem, and only appropriately qualified specialists can diagnose it. Therefore, you can safely ignore the attempts of neighbors, casual acquaintances and even caring relatives to classify your not particularly talkative baby as an outsider. But it is possible and even necessary to know when individual characteristics in a child’s speech behavior should really alert attentive parents.

Signs of delayed speech development in a child under three years old

Sign 1: Anomalies at the pre-speech stage

Deviations at the preparatory stage of speech development between the ages of birth and one year can manifest themselves in different ways:

• Absent or present in small doses, humming and babbling according to age;
• The child does not intonate;
• The sounds produced are of the same type, there are few of them.

As a rule, during routine examinations, your local pediatrician asks how the baby masters the world of sounds and, in particular, human speech. But if for some reason these issues are not discussed with you, and you begin to worry because of the silence of the baby, who, apart from crying in the same key, does not say anything in a month or six months, do not hesitate to discuss the problem with the doctor.

Sign 2: After a year, the child does not respond to speech addressed to him

If a baby, having left the period of infancy, does not respond to his name, does not reach out to adults who call him in their arms (including mom and dad), does not point with his finger at familiar objects when adults call them, there is every reason to consult a pediatrician, and then with narrow specialists. Do not confuse this with childish shyness and basic ignorance of some concepts. But if the baby ignores any calls to itself, and does not have hearing problems, do not put off visiting the doctor.

At the age of 1.5-2 years, a child should already confidently perform certain sequences of actions by ear: bring a toy from another room, put a book on a shelf, etc.

Sign 3: A child aged 1.5-2 years does not want to repeat words and phrases after an adult

Echolalia is a natural stage of language acquisition early stage. The baby, like an echo, reproduces the combination of sounds he heard, as if trying out what it is like to speak, to pronounce new words. This is a kind of test of phonemic hearing and the readiness of the articulatory apparatus. Such a check in advance school age(up to 3 years) is the norm.

If the baby does not even try to imitate your speech (while we are not talking about the purity of sounds), you should be wary and monitor the baby more closely.

Sign 4: A child at 2 years old does not have independent words

Of course, many parents listen with some envy to how funny, but already quite meaningful, other people’s children, who are barely one year old, chatter. Yes, this happens, but still these are more advanced workers. It is normal if the baby says his words later. But if a couple of candles have already been blown out on the birthday cake, and the words have not appeared in the active vocabulary, it’s time to react. Until the age of three, do not expect grammatically correct use of words and, especially, detailed, full-fledged sentences. This is the stage of development of phrasal speech, and the baby should already be able to call relatives in words, ask for help or comment on what he sees. That is, babbling words like “lyalya” and “kaka” are considered and give reason to wait to see how the accumulated passive will manifest itself lexicon in the coming months.

If a child is 2 years old or more, and he expresses his emotions and desires only with gestures and facial expressions, professional advice is needed.

Sign 5: Phrasal speech is not formed by age three

Simple phrases can appear as early as one and a half years, but most often their time occurs in the period from 30 to 36 months of a child’s life. That is, just in time for the end of pre-preschool age and entry into the preschool phase, during which vocabulary will grow rapidly, speech will acquire grammatical correctness, become richer and phonetically clearer. Important: at three years old, a child can use simple phrases consisting of 2-5 words, but these should be phrases of his own composition, and not exclusively reproducing memorized lines from parents or favorite cartoon characters. The child must understand speech and use words correctly in accordance with their lexical meaning.

If your child is already three years old and does not use phrases in his speech, it is time to make an appointment with a specialist. You can start with a speech therapist, who, if necessary, will refer you to a neurologist or other doctor.

Sign 6: The child is not interested in being understood

It’s time for attentive parents to be wary and make an appointment with a specialist if:

• The child speaks incomprehensibly and does not try to repeat it better;
• He avoids verbal contact with peers and adults;
• Prefers to solve his problems on his own without asking for help.

Probably, the problem lies in your excessive desire to please your baby, anticipating his desires even before they form a clear image in the child’s brain. Then, using pedagogical methods, the problem can be solved independently. But if change does not come, do not put off solving the problem until a vague “later”. The older the baby, the more difficult it is to correct some forms of mental retardation.

If a child over two years old stubbornly and actively speaks his “gibberish language”, without at all taking into account that he is not understood, there is cause for alarm.

Sign 7: After 3 years, the child’s speech remains slurred and incomprehensible

Although we have highlighted the age of infancy and pre-preschool childhood for consideration, we would like to draw the attention of parents to how important it is to correctly teach a child to speak at the age of three. Often, having become accustomed to guessing in the “sound mess” the true words that the child meant but, due to the imperfection of the speech apparatus, were not pronounced, parents continue to perceive the obscure “children’s” language as a given. But what was acceptable up to three years later becomes an alarm bell.

Sign 8: The child has organic (biological) grounds for developmental disorders

Health complications in the perinatal period or infancy are related to the causes rather than to the signs of RRD or PHRD. But we deliberately mention this factor in this aspect in order to draw the attention of parents to conditions (in history or in the active phase) that require more careful attention to the development of speech in early childhood:

• Intrauterine hypoxia and/or intrauterine infections;
• Trauma during childbirth (including asphyxia);
• Traumatic brain injury;
• Hypotrophy;
• Hearing loss;
• Pathologies of the central nervous system;
• Pathologies of the oral area (short frenulum, cleft palate, adenoid growths);
• Post-vaccination complications.

Moms and dads, be attentive to your children, devote time to them, show sincere interest in their development and success, and then the child’s life will be brighter, his education will be more fruitful, and your parenting will be happier! Well, we, the Eureka Research Institute, are always ready to support you with competent advice, interesting developmental techniques or a kind word.

Delayed speech development in children (DSD) is a complex disease in which speech development lags significantly behind accepted age norms. Despite the fact that each child is individual, by the age of 3-4 years he should speak clearly and coherently. ZRD is noted when the child’s intellectual development corresponds to his age, but speech is significantly behind. This disease is effectively treated in children under 7 years of age. How to recognize it in time?

Norms for the development of children's speech

Each child has his own temperament, his own heredity. Its development is influenced by many factors. The given standards are relative: if the baby’s speech development deviates by several months, you should not worry. You also need to take into account that boys usually start speaking 5 months later than girls. You need to rely on the given data to find out whether the baby’s speech corresponds to his age.

The child should be able to:

• by the age of one year, pronounce at least 10 words that are understandable to himself and close people (in this case, the child must know the names of simple objects and actions known to him);
• by 2 years old speaks in short sentences (2-3 words), his vocabulary increases to 100 words;
• at 2.5 years old correctly (or almost correctly) pronounce about 300 words, know and say your name, use adjectives, ask simple questions;
• by the age of 3, compose a short story from several sentences, use all parts of speech correctly (the child’s words must be understandable to strangers), his vocabulary increases to 1000 words;
• at the 4th year of life, construct sentences of more than 4 words, correctly pronounce almost all sounds, change intonation, answer questions.

A specialist should be contacted if, by the age of 3-4 years, the child pronounces words incomprehensibly even for parents, does not understand adult speech, speaks too quickly or slowly, often uses phrases from cartoons, and is not able to compose a sentence of 3 words. If, along with these signs, there is increased salivation, difficulty chewing and swallowing, you should immediately visit a doctor. Early treatment for mental retardation gives the child every chance to be no different from his peers by the time he starts school.

Causes of the problem

Experts divide all causes of delayed speech development in a child into 2 groups. Physiological factors include those related to the baby’s health. Treatment of RRD caused by such problems is always more difficult and requires the help of different specialists. Social reasons include those reasons that depend on the child’s environment and the characteristics of his upbringing.

Physiological causes of FGR:

• hearing impairment;
• vision problems;
• poor development of articulation organs: tongue, lips, soft palate;
• brain damage;
• injuries or serious illnesses during the neonatal period;
• diseases caused by intrauterine injuries;
• problems during the mother's pregnancy, her use of alcohol;
• premature or difficult labor;
• some congenital diseases: Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, hyperactivity, autism;
• heredity.

Social factors:

• insufficient attention given to the child when he has no one to talk to;
• slurred speech of parents and surrounding people;
• excessive parental care, leading to deprivation of motivation to speak;
• frequent emotional stress;
• constant TV operation, presence of extraneous sounds surrounding the child;
• family communication in several languages.

Why should you see a doctor?

If the necessary treatment for speech delay is not started at the latest by age 7, the child will be noticeably behind his peers at school age. Such a child will only have to attend a specialized school. Parents will need to monitor the child's condition at all times. Increased mental or physical stress, illness (even mild ones), vaccinations can lead to a deterioration in his health and cause sleep disturbances, headache, nosebleeds, hysteria, memory loss, aggression.

Treatment of disorders in speech development is carried out not only by speech therapists. This specialist deals only with producing sounds for children 4-5 years old. What to do if the child is more younger age speaks with obvious speech impediments? Under no circumstances should diagnosis and treatment be delayed.

After finding out the reasons for the delay in speech development, a specialist can begin to eliminate the problem. Defectologists, psychologists, neuropathologists, psychiatrists, and proofreaders work with 3-year-old children. If a child has a congenital neurological disease, a neurologist can begin treatment as early as one year of age. Speech therapists teach children 4-5 years old to speak clearly and competently.

Treatment methods

Parents are always interested in: at what age should a child be treated? According to doctors, treatment should begin as soon as the first suspicion of pathology appears. All specialists involved in speech development can already work with children 3-4 years old. There are several treatment methods for FGR.

The medicinal method involves the child taking certain medications. All medications are prescribed by a pediatric neurologist after a thorough examination. Such drugs activate the activity of speech zones and “feed” the neurons of the brain. Under no circumstances should you give your child any medications on your own; they should only be prescribed by a doctor.

Physiotherapy includes magnetic therapy and electroreflexotherapy. These procedures allow you to restore the functioning of certain areas of the brain that are responsible for vocabulary, mental abilities, and diction. They can be used from 2 years of age. Contraindications are epilepsy, convulsive syndrome, mental disorders.

Drug therapy and physical therapy must be accompanied by the work of a corrective teacher, otherwise they will be ineffective. Specialists work with children from 3 years old and help correct developmental defects, prevent the possible occurrence of speech inhibition, and teach them to cope with difficulties during the treatment process. An individual plan of therapeutic sessions in the form of a game is developed for each child.

How can doctors help?

Treatment will be more successful if parents help specialists. The child spends most of his time with them, so regular activities with mom and dad will have a huge positive effect. To determine what kind of work parents need to do with their child every day, they should consult with a specialist.

The following exercises bring good results.

1. Finger games. The development of manual motor skills improves the functioning of the articulatory apparatus. From 2-3 years old, it is useful for a child to collect puzzles, construction sets, play with cubes, mosaics, lacing, inserts, sculpt from plasticine, paint with finger paints, string beads on a fishing line.
2. Outdoor games. For the development of speech, games aimed at the ability to navigate in space, move deftly, and change the speed and direction of movement are useful. It’s good if all the child’s actions are accompanied by words.
3. Musical games. They perfectly develop attention, teach you to concentrate, and catch changes in timbre and rhythm. You can guess the voices of animals, various musical instruments, and with older children, the names of melodies.
4. Development of visual attention. To improve speech, games with colorful objects are indispensable, geometric shapes, special cards.
5. Massage. It is necessary if mental retardation is caused by deviations in the child’s psychophysical development. It is better to entrust professional massage to a specialist, and parents can do general strengthening movements.

Any activity requires a systematic approach, so you need to pay attention to it every day. During the treatment process, specialist supervision is required. A 3-year-old child must be shown to a defectologist once a week. A 4-year-old child will need to meet with specialists twice a week. To enhance the effect of treatment, follow these simple rules when communicating with your child:

• do not talk about his problem in front of the baby, do not be shy about his speech;
• make your child want to imitate an adult in speech and emotions;
• voice all the actions that you or your child perform, do not be afraid of repeating the same words;
• use simple sentences (3-4 words) when communicating with your baby;
• read fairy tales and poems that are understandable to your child;
• limit or completely eliminate television viewing;
• sing songs with your baby every day for at least 5 minutes;
• develop your baby’s respiratory system: teach him to play the pipe, harmonica, and blow soap bubbles;
• do not force the baby to study, do it in the form of a game;
• massage children's hands and fingers with a special massager; for this you can use spruce or pine cones;
• if the child is tired, postpone classes until a time more favorable for him;
• Always encourage the improvement of your baby’s speech development.

The most “advanced” treatment methods may be ineffective if the child develops in an unfavorable environment. To stimulate his speech development, additional methods are needed, for example, dolphin therapy, hippotherapy. Even the child’s communication with a pet can enhance the effect of treatment. The main thing is to remember: the sooner speech correction begins, the faster and easier the result will be achieved.

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Ekaterina Mikhailovna Pashkina

Chief physician of the Central Clinical Hospital of Omsk

Reading time: 5 minutes

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Article last updated: 05/17/2019

From birth, during the process of development, the child constantly makes some sounds. Typically, by age 2, most children are using simple phrases and by age 4, they are speaking fluently. Each child develops differently, but if the deviation from the norm is too large, then we are already talking about developmental delays.

When should you see a doctor?

When a 4-year-old child masters his native language at a slow pace, this may be an indicator of delayed speech development. According to statistics, this problem occurs 4 times more often in boys than in girls.

By the age of 4, a child should be able to pronounce complete sentences, even if some sounds sound incorrect. Children 4 years old, whose speech development is delayed, speak, but worse than their peers. They usually have a small vocabulary, speak in short phrases, rarely use adjectives, and rarely ask questions. Most often their speech is limited to “ma”, “pa”, “dai”. In severe cases there are no words at all, only isolated sounds.

If a child has a delay in speech development, this can negatively affect the formation of the psyche. He has problems communicating with peers and adults. All this leads to incorrect emotional development.

You should see a doctor if your child is 4 years old:

• pronounces incomprehensible words;
• poorly understands what adults say;
• speaks too quickly or too slowly;
• cannot compose phrases on his own, so he uses those he hears from cartoons or TV shows;
• cannot independently compose a sentence of several words.

Immediate consultation with a pediatrician is required in cases where the baby has problems with chewing and swallowing food, as well as increased salivation.

To make an accurate diagnosis, it is necessary to show the baby to three specialized specialists - a speech therapist, a neurologist and a psychologist. A neurologist may refer you for a brain scan. Sometimes a delay in speech development is associated with hearing problems, which are caused by diseases such as otitis media, adenoiditis, and hearing loss. Therefore, it is recommended that the child also be examined by an otolaryngologist. But first of all, it is necessary to take the baby to the pediatrician so that he can analyze the problem that has arisen and issue referrals to all the necessary specialists.

Peculiarities of manifestation of delayed speech development in children 4 years old

To understand how speech problems manifest themselves in a 4-year-old child, you should know the main stages and norms of speech development in young children:

Stage 1. Birth. The baby's first speech reaction to this world is the cry of a newborn, by the volume and sound of which the pediatrician can draw conclusions about the state of his health.

Stage 2. From birth to one year of age. During this period, the children's speech apparatus is prepared for speaking. It is divided into the following periods:

• 1.5-2 months - “humming”;
• from 5-6 months - babbling;
• from 8-9 months - babbling of the first words;
• from 9-12 months - the appearance of the first words.

Girls usually begin to pronounce words earlier than boys. In a year, children have about 10 active words (mom, dad, uncle and others) and about 200 passive words (the meaning of which he knows, but cannot pronounce them).

3. stage. "Lexical explosion". Begins after reaching 1.5 years. During this period, words from the passive vocabulary move into the active one. For some children, this period begins a little later - from 2 years.

4. Stage. 2-2.5 years. During this period, children begin to be able to construct sentences consisting of 3-4 words.

5. stage. 3-4 years. At this time, the formation of coherent speech occurs. The child begins to actively use adverbs, adjectives and pronouns; the vocabulary is about 500 words.

6. Stage. From 4 years old. Vocabulary - 1000-1500. The child already knows how to answer questions, change intonation, and compose sentences of at least 4 words.

Normally, deviations from these development indicators can be 2-3 months in girls and 4-5 months in boys.

Causes of delayed speech development in children 4 years old

If a 4-year-old child is diagnosed with speech development delay, then treatment must begin immediately. However, before this it is necessary to identify the reasons for its occurrence.

Factors that provoke a delay in a child’s speech development can be:

• Illnesses of the mother during pregnancy, injuries, poisoning and infection.
• Fetal hypoxia, that is, its oxygen starvation in the womb.
• Difficult birth that happened prematurely or happened too quickly, birth with the umbilical cord entwined around the neck.
• Injuries during childbirth (especially the upper spine)
• Exposure to serious illness or injury in early childhood.
• Hereditary diseases that can lead to disruption of the structure of the brain.
• Poor psychological climate in the family, problems in education (excessive guardianship or, on the contrary, indifferent attitude, cruel treatment).
• Severe psychological trauma.
• Maternal alcohol use during pregnancy.

Problems with speech development can be caused by the following diseases:

1. Congenital anomalies of the central nervous system.
2. acute or chronic cerebral ischemia resulting from oxygen deprivation.
3. Epilepsy.
4. Hydrocephalus (water on the brain).
5. High intracranial pressure.
6. A brain tumor.

If your baby has any indications that may contribute to the emergence of problems with speech development, it is worth starting to work intensively with him from a very early age so that these problems can be avoided.

Sometimes children don't want to start talking when they don't see the point in it. Why strain and learn to pronounce words correctly, when parents already predict all desires without developing his personal activity, or easily understand what he needs by gestures and indistinct sounds?

Relatives simply rarely talk to some children and they do not develop in this regard. You need to talk to small children all the time, comment on your every action, explain the events that are happening around them.

When a baby is in an overly informative environment, where he constantly receives large amounts of information that is difficult for him to assimilate due to his age, he stops perceiving it, listening to the sounds around him and trying to reproduce them, and as a result, he lags behind in development.

One of physical reasons the appearance of problems with spoken speech - poorly developed organs of articulation (palate, lips and tongue).

Methods for treating speech delay at 4 years of age

Treatment of any speech problems is a very complex process, but it can lead to results if you approach this issue in a timely and thorough manner. If this problem is not addressed in a timely manner, the child will have to be sent to a special school at the age of 7.

Sometimes doctors prescribe medication treatment. Medicines are prescribed only after a comprehensive examination and are taken strictly according to the prescribed doses and under the constant supervision of a pediatric neurologist. These medications activate the activity of speech zones. Under no circumstances should you give your child medications on your own. Typically, Pantogam, Nootropil, Encephabol, Neuromultivin, Cortexin, Cogitum, Lectitin are prescribed as medications.

If the baby has no contraindications, then physical therapy is prescribed to restore the functioning of specific areas of the brain, namely:

• magnetic therapy;
• massage;
• electroreflexotherapy.

Drug treatment and physical therapy must be accompanied by the work of an experienced specialist who develops an individual lesson plan for each little patient and conducts them in a playful way.

The role of parents in the treatment of speech development problems

If a child is developmentally delayed, his parents first of all need to pay attention to the atmosphere that reigns at home. Perhaps quarrels often occur in the family, shouting and swearing are heard. The baby perceives all this. Perhaps parents hinder the child’s development by often being dissatisfied with him, putting pressure on him, constantly pulling him back, and not believing in his abilities. In this case, it is worth reconsidering your attitude towards the baby and other family members, and try to help him together.

Parents should pay a lot of attention to a child with speech problems, often communicate and study with him, and believe that he will succeed.

The following activities have a positive effect on speech development:

1. Finger games that develop fine motor skills hands They include collecting puzzles, construction sets (Lego, for example), cubes, modeling from plasticine (or dough), drawing with a pencil or finger paints.
2. Outdoor games. Physical development the child is inextricably linked with the mental. You can play ball with your baby, run races with him (of course, giving in). It would be useful to conduct daily exercises, dance lessons, etc.
3. Musical games. They have a positive effect on the development of attention. The child concentrates and tries to keep the rhythm. Guess the species together with your child musical instruments by the sounds they make, animals by their voices, etc.
4. Games to develop visual attention and memory. The process uses cards with images of animals or various objects, geometric shapes.
5. Massage. A restorative massage for a child can be given by mom or dad. It is recommended to entrust professional massage to a children's massage therapist.

Delayed speech development is a very dangerous thing that can lead to other unpleasant consequences. To avoid this, you need to give the child maximum attention from birth, even if at that time he has no prerequisites for problems in the future. If you regularly work with your baby, taking into account his individual characteristics, then it will develop in accordance with average statistical standards. If a child is diagnosed with delayed speech development at the age of 4, in no case should treatment be delayed and everything should be left to chance, so as not to ruin the child’s whole life.

Read further:

The diagnosis of speech development delay is made in children under 4 years of age. It means the sad fact that the child’s speech is formed at a slower pace compared to the norm. The baby does not speak at 2-3 years old, or speaks, but his active vocabulary is very poor and differs from the lively speech of his peers.
It is always difficult for parents to admit that something is wrong with their child. It is even more difficult to determine the delay in speech development, because by the age of 2-3 years, children are just beginning to talk, and until recently, cute babbling and syllabic communication were quite common!

How speech development delay manifests itself

Attentive parents will be able to understand that the formation of coherent speech in their child is delayed by the following signs:

• The child has a small vocabulary. There are only 2-3 dozen words, many of which are not yet real words, but are rather stable sounds or syllables (“ba” - grandmother, “kup” - swim).
• The passive vocabulary is also small. The child cannot show the named objects and does not know the names of parts of his body and household items. Cannot fulfill simple requests (bring, take away).
• Speech consists only of listing objects and any actions. The words are not linked into sentences.
• The pronunciation is slurred and meaningful words so little that only relatives or sometimes only the mother can understand the baby.

As a rule, at the age of 3, children are already quite actively constructing sentences from several words, know the names of various objects well, and willingly talk about various topics. They play games with interest, fulfill simple requests and, joyfully recognizing familiar lines of rhymes or fairy tales, finish them after adults.

If a child has signs of mental retardation, it is necessary to show him to a specialist. The sooner treatment begins, the faster problems will be overcome. You should not listen to opinions that before the age of 4-5 years it is too early to contact a speech therapist. Perhaps not all specialists undertake the treatment of two-year-olds, but you can definitely find one. For example, in our center classes are conducted with very young children - from one and a half years old.

Causes of ZRR

The formation of speech in children can be inhibited by reasons of both physiological and psychological nature.

We list the main ones:

• Hearing impairment. A child who is hard of hearing cannot produce speech.
• Physiological structural features or underdevelopment of the articulatory apparatus.
• Features of maturation of the nervous system. Children born after a difficult pregnancy or difficult childbirth, who have suffered traumatic brain injury (TBI), and who are often ill often have neurological problems that affect the formation of connections between the hemispheres of the brain and, therefore, delay the formation of speech.
• Psychological reasons - stress, deprivation, unfavorable home environment or excessive pressure on the child, parental demands to speak.
• Social factors. These include the lack of speech-stimulating factors at home - insufficient communication with the child, and sometimes even the opposite situation, when the baby simply “has no need” to say anything, all his desires are anticipated by overprotective parents.
• Not least of all is heredity. If one of your relatives speaks later than normal, this means that your child is at risk. Unfortunately, ZRR is intensifying from generation to generation.

Finding the reason that inhibits the processes of speech formation is very difficult. That is why it is important to contact specialists who can examine the child and prescribe the correct corrective measures.

What to do if a child speaks poorly?

First, take the situation for granted. Don't be offended by facts. The faster help is provided, the higher the child’s chances of catching up with his peers at school.
Secondly, get tested. The child must be examined:

• speech pathologist;
• neurologist;
• psychologist.

What will help with delayed speech development

Corrective action is selected for each child individually, depending on the reasons for the delay and its degree.

As a rule, almost everyone is prescribed medications stimulating brain functions - nootropics. However, taking medication alone will not magically make speech appear. Moreover, I would like to warn parents against self-medicating their child, because “Vasya took Kogiutm at his neighbor’s and it helped him.”

Firstly, Vasya took the medicine that the doctor prescribed to him based on the examinations performed. And secondly, Vasya was probably prescribed something else - correction of mental retardation is always carried out together with the maximum involvement of correctional teachers and parents in the process.

Exclusive medical treatment will not bring results. Appointments always come as a package, including the active work of a defectologist and often a neuropsychologist. In order to “launch” the processes of speech formation, it is necessary to develop memory, attention, and stimulate fine motor skills. Also great attention is given didactic games to improve concentration, expand passive and active vocabulary.

Improvements are observed only with regular exercise. In addition, parents should create a favorable speech environment by following the recommendations of a speech pathologist for working with their child at home.

The sooner you take the right measures, the faster and easier the result will be achieved. Therefore, experts strongly recommend not to wait until the child speaks “on his own” or reaches a certain age (4-5 years). After all, such an expectation can lead to the appearance of related problems, for example, with the psyche.

Contact a specialist and get examined. Only you are responsible for your child's future!

In this article:

When starting a conversation about delayed speech development in children at 3 years old, it is necessary to note that each child is individual. Therefore, it is not worth raising a panic and ringing all the bells if you have discovered some inhibitions in the development of speech in your child. You are not the only family on earth whose children begin to utter their first conscious words by the age of 4. It's just as individual as with crawling. Some happily conquer kilometers of rooms on all fours and get back on their feet by the age of one year. Others don’t like crawling at all - they can sit for up to 12 months, or can walk along the wall at eight months. Try to take the speech delay just as calmly, but take appropriate measures. The first thing you should do is visit your local doctor for examination and consultation.

According to psychologists, a child’s cognitive process depends on his speech. Speech therapists are also not happy with this diagnosis, so they immediately react to the slightest complaints and often deal with the problem quite quickly. So you can entrust your child to specialists and take a short and simple course with him that will help him catch up with his peers. Together with speech, the horizons and worldview expand, logical thinking improves and character is formed. Since all this is closely interconnected, the child will quickly master speech without serious deviations, and within a few weeks you will forget that there was such a problem in your family.

What could be the causes of delayed speech development?

First of all, pay attention to your communication with your baby. Perhaps his speech delay is due to the fact that you have little contact with your child.

Lack of demand for speech occurs in some cases:

Also, the silent state is sometimes prolonged for genetic reasons - due to sluggish maturation of speech nerve cells. The child may be hard of hearing and that is why he or she may not talk to you. Or, in the worst case - which is rare, but, alas, it happens - the cause may be brain damage.

Norms of speech development in children under 3 years of age

Deviation from the proposed standards by 1-2 months (ahead or lag) will also be the norm. If your child lags behind in several indicators at once or lacks any skills at all, then you should contact a specialist, select educational games and exercises, and work with your child regularly.

How to determine the norm of speech development in a child?

Let's look at the norms of development from birth by month to make it easier to determine whether there are deviations and at what stage they appeared.

Until one and a half years old, a child develops and strengthens what he has learned over the year. He tends to name with one syllable a whole series of unrelated objects that begin with this syllable: “ka” - porridge, pencil, Katya (doll), cat (maybe “ko”). “Bam” - fell, knocked, rang, bathtub for bathing (because I decided so). The child does not realize the commonality between objects. If he knows what a magazine or notebook is, and distinguishes a pen from a pencil, then this moment It is impossible to explain to him that this is all an office.

If after one and a half years the child’s speech does not become more coherent, then this is the first signal to go for a test. If there are no changes by the age of three, then it is better to make an appointment with a psychologist, speech therapist and local pediatrician for a general examination and testing.

By the second year, children recognize animals and objects, voice them as best they can, and modernize sounds into more complex phrases: “Misha,” “kitty,” “mu-kA” (cow), “no-no” (horse). It becomes easier to understand the child's requirements. He knows how to find the essence and express it in one word: “yum”, “kup”, “tul” (chair), “dai” (pointing to an object), “pi”, “a-a-a”. At this time, children of the same age may speak differently. Each child has his own upbringing and so does his family.
– accordingly, everyone’s environment and familiar objects are different. Children at the age of 2 learn the world that is close to them. But the interesting fact is that, communicating with each other in syllables, they accept and understand each other, exchanging toys and laughing at their own word forms.

At the turn of 2-3 years, the child already understands how to put a word in the past or future tense, but often confuses the gender. He can call himself by a third name: “Lena, yes, it will be” “Misha asked his mother” - and at the same time correctly show his demands.

By the third year of life, the child begins to speak coherently and measuredly. Some children may begin to read syllables. There is an awareness of the importance of intonation, comprehension of the combination of several words into one category. For example: oak, birch, spruce are trees. A dress, a shirt, knee socks are clothes. In addition to acquired and studied meaningful words, made-up words slip through, which the baby is still comfortable with.

At three years old, a child must know 1,500 words or more. If the child’s speech lags behind the norm, the prerequisites for reading remain passive. It is impossible to teach a child to write or think logically, because he cannot form his thoughts into words, even “to himself.”

In case of such manifestations, by contacting a speech therapist and psychologist, you can prevent developmental delays by identifying the true problem of the baby’s silence.

By removing the obstacle to speech as quickly as possible, doctors eliminate the problem completely, without a trace. But the longer the problem remains in your family, the deeper it is rooted in the psyche, and in literally six months it will be much more difficult to cope with it.

What should you pay attention to in the speech development of a three-year-old child?

Pay attention to your child's speech development during the first year of life. If for eight months your baby only “moos” and occasionally “booms,” this is not an indication that he is very calm, but a signal that you need to go to the doctors. After the ninth month, everything that the child has learned begins to be consolidated and complicated. If your baby has remained silent all this time, then he will have nothing to reinforce.

If your baby turns around when called and emotionally expresses his desires, then this is normal.
development. If at the same time he becomes more and more silent, it is worth contacting a speech therapist. After a year of life, children are able to show in a picture an object and an animal that their parents name, recognize familiar faces in photographs, show individual parts of the body and try to repeat at least the first syllable of the entire word.

At two years old, the baby not only enters into conversation with adults, modeling the conversation using short phrases and nods, pointing a finger in the right direction. He can also fulfill an adult’s request to give him something, bring him a ball, show him a new doll, give him something to drink from a mug.

By the age of three simple words simple sentences are formed like “let’s go for a walk”, “I need to eat”, “I want to go there”. Children begin to greet first, enter into dialogue, tell their news: “They bought me a dress,” “The boy gave me a toy.” The interest of adults encourages the development of thought, forming increasingly complex sentences.

Diagnosis, assistance and treatment of speech delay in a 3-year-old child

Usually, a delay in speech development is not noticed immediately, but when there is a serious inhibition, noticeable not only to others, but also to the parents themselves - who can reassure themselves for a long time, they say, this happens in children, all children are different, etc. We repeat: you shouldn’t faint, but There is no need to relax. Expecting that the problem will go away by itself and your child will suddenly speak in clear and intelligible speech will be wrong and harmful. You should approach the problem without panic, but carefully. Show your child to the doctor and tell him that you have noticed some deviations in speech development. After the local pediatrician you will be referred to necessary consultations specialists who help children with similar problems quickly catch up with their peers.

Before prescribing treatment, it is necessary to identify the essence of the problem. And, as is already known, speech delay can occur for various reasons. And treatment for each cause should be carried out purely individually.

If the issue is a lack of attention or, conversely, excessive care of the only child, then a psychologist gets down to business, necessarily working with both the child and his relatives. Special attention will be paid to the child’s emotions and the stages of their occurrence - this way the psychologist will find the root of the problem and improve the child’s internal state. After awakening the desire to learn, a speech therapist is involved in working with the child.

If a child does not speak due to a neuralgic diagnosis, then special medications will help, the use of which promotes the regeneration of brain cells. In the process of taking the pills, the baby begins to change before our eyes: he reaches out for communication, tries to find new things on his own, with his parents and friends. It is also possible to put the child into a hypnotic therapeutic sleep or treatment using micropolarization. This may sound scary for loving parents, but in fact the procedure is completely painless. The device, which affects the child’s brain activity, emits a minimal number of electrical impulses, which are tens of times weaker than the current during the electrophoresis procedure.

If the speech problem is due to the fact that the baby cannot hear sounds, based on the child’s testimony, they may be sent to a school where they teach how to live in a world without sounds.