A two-year-old baby does not speak: we are looking for reasons and developing speech. If a child at two years old does not speak: reasons and methods for teaching babies to talk A 2-year-old child says everything

You can often hear conversations like this: “My Andryusha is very smart, he understands everything, but he only speaks with the strength of 10 words. My friend’s daughter already quotes “Moidodyr,” but she and my son are the same age. Tell me, what are the norms for speech development at this age? How to teach a child to talk?

Such questions very often worry parents, especially if their baby has already crossed the 2-year mark. What is the reason for the excitement? Why are moms and dads not so concerned if we are talking about the age of 1 or 3 years? The fact is that 2 years of age is the time for the active formation of speech; now is the most important period for starting to establish relationships with peers through communication.

The most active development of a child’s speech occurs at two years of age - he leaves behind baby babble, moving on to full-fledged words and sentences. During this period, it is very important to help the baby and work with him as much as possible.

Average standards

Age 2-3 years is the time for an active leap in speech development (see also:). Children who have not been trained in speech development lag behind their peers, because speech is one of the important indicators of the level of development. Having the opportunity to talk, a child can express his protest or agreement, reflect his knowledge and skills, and simply express his opinion.

According to average statistics, the vocabulary of a 2-year-old child should be about 200-300 words. At this age, the child should be able to pronounce sentences of 2-3 words.

These norms are not always typical for modern children of the third year of life. Seeing that the baby is lagging behind speech standards, there is no need to panic. Children experience the world in different ways, and the older the child becomes, the more obvious the difference between peers is - this applies to general development and speech skills in particular.

When should you worry that your baby is different from other children? Before answering this question, let's consider the main important conditions that contribute to the formation of speech skills.

Conditions for speech development

In order for learning to pronounce words to progress by leaps and bounds, the following factors must be taken into account:

The child should not have diseases or injuries of the brain, or disorders in the structure of the organs of articulation, since standard classes are designed for good vision and hearing.
The child must need communication and not have mental disorders.
Confidence is needed that the child is able to understand speech.
- In the pictures he can point to a specific object that the adult names.
- Focuses on words that indicate actions (digging, stroking, sweeping, rocking a doll, washing) and movement options (flying, jumping, running, crawling).
- Understands requests and is able to perform complex tasks: take a teddy bear and put it in a basket.
Active gestures and facial expressions indicate the progressive development of the baby. If a child can use gestures to depict the answer to your question, for example: “What should you wear on your feet before going outside?” – the child brings or shows his shoes, then this method of communication is very good, since this is a preparatory stage for the main speech. Those. the child understands everything and actively uses gestures to express his wishes and needs.
The child knows how to express his emotions and also knows how to sympathize with others. If someone is crying or sad, the baby can come and comfort him by hugging or petting him.
Children actively use voice variations to express their thoughts, especially when first trying to speak. Intonation is a very accessible way to express meaning and emotions at the same time.

Thus, adults should pay attention not to how many words their child can speak at 2 years old, but to how actively he participates in the conversation, using facial expressions, gestures and intonation, and how he reacts to requests and questions addressed to him . If you notice that a baby at the turn of the third year of life does not know how to express his emotions and desires in the above ways or speaks only a language known to him, then it is time to seek advice from a psychologist, speech therapist or neurologist.

If, at the age of about 3 years or a little less, the child cannot express his emotions or continues to babble in his own language, it is necessary to visit a specialist for consultation

Principles for developing correct speech

It will be easier to develop active speech in a 2-3 year old child if favorable conditions are created for this:

Create reasons for contact with adults (“ask dad where the book is”, “call grandma to dinner”, “say thank you to mom”).
Give your child a chance to speak. If during a conversation a mother or another adult interrupts the baby’s beginning of a conversation and tries to say for him what he was trying to express, then in such a situation the child most likely will not want to talk.
Praise your child for learning to replace onomatopoeia with words (for example, not “kva-kva,” but “frog”; not “kar-kar,” but “crow”).
Adults must ensure that their speech is correct. Active use of various parts of speech (verbs, adjectives, nouns), as well as pronouns, prepositions and adverbs will contribute to the correct formation of vocabulary and the construction of future speech.
Adults should only use complete and clear words, which the child should repeat. You should not repeat after your child his distorted words.
Do articulation exercises every day to teach your baby to control his lips, tongue and teeth (we recommend reading: (we recommend reading:)). (Exercises for this can be found below).
Perform tasks to develop breathing (they can be found below). Often, confused and irregular breathing prevents the child from speaking.
Expand your vocabulary and practice using words you already know using objects and toys around you. Include the following tasks in your games: you describe an object or toy, and the child must find it by color, size and location; ask to name the characteristics of objects, teach to generalize and compare objects.
Reading aloud is very important for expanding children's vocabulary. When reading fairy tales, pay attention to the characteristics of the characters (cowardly hare, clumsy hippopotamus, cunning fox). Correct construction of sentences in fiction contributes to the acquisition of Russian grammar.

Literary reading “with expression” pursues several goals at once: it entertains the child, promotes emotional development (he empathizes with some characters, gets angry with others), enriches vocabulary, demonstrates beautiful correct speech

Exercises

We studied a large volume of didactic manuals and identified the need for an integrated approach to the development of pronunciation skills in two-year-old children. The best option would be to use finger gymnastics, articulation exercises, visualization and game moments. A selection of developmental activities and techniques that will help in working on children's speech skills is presented below. Do them every day to teach your child to speak as quickly as possible.

Breathing exercises and articulation gymnastics

The purpose of such exercises is to train articulatory organs and correct pronunciation of sounds:

Flying snowflake

Cut out a small snowflake from thin paper. Place a snowflake on the baby's palm. The child’s task is to blow the snowflake off his hand.

Butterfly flutters

Take thin paper (napkin or candy wrapper) and cut out a small butterfly. Tie a string to the butterfly. The baby holds a string and blows on the butterfly, making it flutter.

Fence (articulation gymnastics)

“We close our teeth evenly
And we get a fence,
Now let's part our lips -
Let's count our teeth"

Baby elephant trunk (articulation gymnastics)

“I imitate an elephant
I pull my lips with my trunk...
Even if I'm tired
I won’t stop pulling them.
I'll keep it like this for a long time,
Strengthen your lips"

Fun boat

We fill the bathtub or tray with water and place a light boat (made of paper or cork) on the surface. The child must set the boat in motion with his breath.

Launching a light home-made boat will become a real game for a child, which is also associated with articulatory gymnastics for breathing training

Motor skills games

Games to develop gross motor skills

Movement exercises accompanied by poetic rhythm are an excellent means for developing the “speaking” process. The more actively the child moves, the better speech skills develop.

“We're going in circles, look
And we walk together: one, two, three.
We jump along the path, often changing legs.
Let's gallop, gallop: hop, hop, hop,
And then, like the storks stood up, there was silence.”

Active games with poems

Short outdoor games are very loved by children of the third year of life, and if they are accompanied by rhymes, they become extremely useful for the development of children's speech. Choose fun games with funny poems, then children will probably like them, which means they will be very useful and effective. Examples of games: “Bear the Bear in the Forest”, “Geese-Geese”.

Speech therapy and rhythmic games with self-massage

The parent or teacher performs the massage using movements that the child must repeat and thus perform self-massage.

“The little frogs stood up, stretched and smiled at each other.
The backs are arched, the backs are reeds
They stomped their feet, clapped their hands,
Let's knock on the arms a little with our palms,
And then, and then we'll beat the breast a little.
Clap-clap here and there and a little on the sides,
Palms are already clapping on our legs.
We stroked the palms and arms and legs.
The little frogs will say: Kwa! It's fun to jump, friends.”

Rhythmic active games with obligatory pronunciation of phrases and movements are an excellent option for speech development (more details in the article:). They can be used for children of any age, just very young ones will need more help

Games with onomatopoeia

The purpose of onomatopoeic activities is to help form and repeat individual sounds, words and phrases.

"Poultry yard"

Our ducks in the morning - “Quack-quack-quack!”, “Quack-quack-quack!”,
Our geese by the pond - “Ga-ha-ha!”, “Ga-ha-ha!”,
Our little girls at the top - “Goo-gu-gu!”, “Goo-gu-gu!”
Our chickens through the window - “Ko-ko-ko!”, “Ko-ko-ko!”,
And our Petya the Cockerel early in the morning
He will sing to us “Ku-ka-re-ku!”

Let's take training of vowel sounds:
- a-a-a (the baby is crying, they are singing at the opera, we are rocking a toddler);
- o-o-o (surprise, admiration);
- oo-oo-oo (the plane is flying);
- and-and-and (the horse neighs).

Make sure that all sounds are pronounced while exhaling. Correct your child if they make mistakes. Proper breathing when pronouncing words ensures that individual sounds and words are not “swallowed.”

Finger games

The most popular and favorite activity for all children - in addition to its entertainment function, it helps develop speech motor skills, prepares fingers for writing and improves brain function.

"On the meadow." (The fingers of both hands are spread wide.) Little hares (we bend our thumbs), little bear cubs (we bend our index fingers), little badgers (we bend our middle fingers), little frogs (we bend our ring fingers) and a raccoon (we clench our hands into fists) came to the meadow. Come to the green meadow, my friend! (We open our palms and “call” the baby with all our fingers).

Games with various objects and materials

Use a variety of toys and round objects that you can roll in your palms. Special massage balls and balls of thread are perfect for this purpose.

“Egg” (roll a walnut or any ball between your palms)

A little bird brought an egg,
We'll play with the egg,
We'll roll an egg
We'll ride it, we won't eat it, we'll give it to the bird.

"Twist the pencil"(the pencil should be ribbed). Rolling a pencil back and forth on the table to prevent the pencil from rolling away. First with one hand, then with the other.

Dr. Komarovsky reminds: when playing speech games with children, do not forget about their social development. Children must be able to communicate and play with other people, find compromises, and lose.

Such activities will be useful even at an older age, so feel free to play them with children 4 and 5 years old. Video lessons will help you gain experience, which present activities for developing correct speech in children from 2 to 5 years old; they will quickly help teach your child to speak.

To help your child speak, you can use educational cartoons aimed at developing the ability to communicate with each other. Using our recommendations, you will teach your child to talk and communicate with peers.

Speech is necessary for a child to live a full life. It is important to begin developing it from infancy, helping the baby learn the diversity of his native language.

What to think about in advance

The full development of a child will not happen without mastering speech. The baby’s intelligence, memory, ability for self-development, tendency to self-learning, and conscious decision-making depend on this.

If the child is already two years old and he says almost nothing - this is a parental oversight.
It is a mistake to think that he will “talk.” Speech cannot be left to chance. A child will learn to speak if he is taught. His parents and relatives can do this even without the help of a specialist.

The process of learning to speak should begin before the baby is born. From the second third of the gestational period, the baby responds to sound. When they talk to a child, sing songs, read aloud, tell how glad they are for his appearance - this is the process of learning to speak.

We highlight 4 stages of training:

1st age period: from birth to six months

3 age period: 1-1.5 years

During this period, the baby first tries to pronounce substitute words, then learns the correct form. It's helpful to name everything you see without giving in to the temptation to lisp.

Simple phrases will help here. Be sure to pin new words for your child, gradually expanding the vocabulary.

For example: cube - red cube - square cube - cube lies - cube falls on the floor and knocks. It is best to conduct training in a playful way.

4 age period: 1.5-3 years

If the baby stubbornly refuses to talk, this may be an indicator of problems with speech and development. The vocabulary (active and passive) here reaches 200 units.

However, the child distorts these words, has a lisp, and rearranges sounds in words.

The reason is the inability to use the speech apparatus.

To minimize this it is important

Start developing your child’s fine motor skills through games and hide the pacifier away

do not use a pacifier, which creates difficulties with articulation;
Reading to your baby improves his pronunciation;
develop fine motor skills. Puzzles, mosaics, fastening buttons, drawing, holding a pen and spoon will help with this. Allow the baby to paint with flour, pour water, unscrew the caps, and sculpt from dough.
Tongue twisters in an interesting, humorous form help children understand their native language. They help eliminate most speech defects. It is good to accompany learning with pictures and discuss the meaning of what is being said.

10 ways to teach your child to speak by age 2

Replays. Each time, name your own actions, objects at home and on the street.
Repeat after the child. Turn repetition of syllables and vowels into a game.
Develop fine motor skills. To play, use various objects - round, rough, soft, rustling, smooth. Often a child willingly plays not with an expensive toy, but with jars, lids, scraps, boxes, and buttons strung on a thread.
Avoid explaining with gestures when the child crosses the “one year old” threshold. Teach your child simple words: give, na, thank you.
Actively use onomatopoeia animals.
Chat with talking children peers of the baby and older children.
Sing songs! By deliberately confusing words, provoke children to correct you.
Rhythmic and simple poems are great learning. Suddenly “forget” phrases- the children will continue them.
Listen to your baby's questions attentively. This encourages him to talk a lot. Assent and ask again in surprise.
In order for a child to play actively, you should not replace balls, cubes, cars, pyramids with electronic toys.

8 useful tips for establishing emotional contact with your child

For successful learning, it is necessary that the child does not get bored. Here you need to remember these rules:

Smile, sing, speak with varying intonations, clearly and correctly.
When telling your child about everything, pause for his answer.
Purposefully tell your child about various objects.
Teach your child to read whole words. First, show cards with them, then read together, use interactive guides to help.
Complete the baby's words.
Choose several different objects, united by one characteristic - color, shape, size. Show them and explain what they have in common, gradually expanding the comments.
Recite poems and sing songs, repeating them many times. Give the baby the opportunity to finish the lines himself.
Use special poem-games: okay-okay, geese-geese, etc. Don't forget counting rhymes and jokes.

Make it a rule to talk to your child everywhere

Talk to your child a lot and everywhere - at home, on a walk, performing hygienic actions.
Introduce your child to a variety of sounds.
Allow your baby to play with small objects: beans, peas, beads, coins (under control, of course). They can be sorted, rearranged, poured using cups, jars, trays, spoons, scoops. Play with sand.
Read fairy tales, short stories, poems, sing songs.
Conduct re-enactments. For this, not only toys and homemade products will be useful, but also everyday items and products.
Ask your child to talk more, carefully correcting his speech.
Encourage him to name an object when the baby reaches out to it, demands it and, without trying to name it, hums. Offer him something nearby. If he refuses, explain that you did not understand him.
Encourage your baby to communicate with other children - organize small holidays and group activities.

How to conduct speech development classes with your baby

These rules apply to virtually any child.

Get on the same level as the baby so that there is visual contact; in general, babies should be taken on your lap.
Classes should be conducted daily, no more than a quarter of an hour.
Preschoolers need play-based learning.
Massage your baby's face and do articulation exercises with him every day. Exercises on sound pronunciation and tongue twisters should be distributed over days.
With children under one and a half years old, speak loudly, opening your mouth wide in an exaggerated manner. With older guys - in a normal voice, clearly pronouncing sounds.
Don't forget the verbs. Also accumulate attributes of objects.
While reading books, discuss their characters.
From the age of two, children’s favorite game becomes “what is this?” It's especially fun to play outside.

Let's sum it up

Talk to your baby before he is born. The development of a child’s speech is directly related to fine motor skills, frequency and quality of communication with elders and peers.

Allow your child to play with small objects that interest him under your control, explain to him your actions, read books and discuss them.

Listen to music, sing, joke, play, encourage any speech activity of the baby and you will be convinced that teaching a child to speak at 2 years old is a real goal.

How to teach a child to imitate the facial expressions of an adult by training the facial muscles, watch the video tutorial.

In contact with

Parents are incredibly happy when, instead of an infant’s cooing, the baby says his first “ba”, “ma”, “pa”. It seems that a little more and he will begin to connect words. But this doesn't always happen. Should I worry if a child of 2 years old does not speak, but only points with his finger at objects of interest to him, hums, makes unintelligible sounds or is completely silent? When to sound the alarm, and when should you wait a little and the baby will start talking without outside help? How many words do children master by this time?

How should a child’s speech develop?

From the moment of birth to one year, the preparatory stage of speech development begins. In order for a child to speak well soon, the following elements are necessary:

emotional closeness with parents for the possibility of copying and imitation;
sensory perception of the world;
physical activity.

The initial manifestation of speech is considered to be a reflexive cry of a baby. Already by 2-4 months he tries to coo, and later to walk. These sounds don't make any sense. It’s interesting that children who have been deaf since birth can also walk. This speaks to a person’s natural ability to master speech.

From 5 months, the baby already hears and distinguishes sounds, follows the movements of the mother’s lips and instinctively echoes them. Repeated reproduction of a specific movement reinforces a specific motor skill.

By 7-9 months, the child learns to combine sounds, and each time they become more interesting and complex. You can hear babbling, a drawn-out chanting of syllables, which indicates the age-related development of speech. This is how the relationship between the speech apparatus and hearing is formed, which contributes to the development of the voice. If there are serious pathologies leading to speech disorders (autism, sensorineural hearing loss), fading of babbling is observed.

By the year the preparatory stage is completed. The child already speaks 5-12 words. He has mastered vowels well and knows consonants. He still uses gestures to communicate with adults, but can compare words with specific objects. For example, when he sees a dog, he says “ava” or, when he sees a cat, he hurriedly babbles “kit-kit”, etc.

Some one and a half year old children have a vocabulary of about 50 words. Here you need to teach the little one to compare his words with his actions. He must learn to accurately understand and fulfill basic requests: “go”, “take”, “carry”, etc. It is important to constantly encourage him to pronounce one-word sentences, for example, “give”, “let’s go”, “take”, and a little later While playing with toys or leafing through a picture book, make up simple sentences in conversation: “the dog is eating,” “the bird is singing,” “the car is driving.”

What should a 2 year old child be able to say? By this point, he should already be able to speak in simple sentences. At this time, he learns soft sounds (“n, t, ts, l, m”) and is able to communicate with loved ones, skipping prepositions and individual syllables: “table - tol”, “porridge - sha”, “let’s go - dem” and etc.

Even if the words vaguely resemble the correct ones, this indicates normal speech development.

From 3 to 7 years, speech communication develops. The child actively learns language through games and exploring the world around him. Adults need to talk to their baby often, even if they are tired at work and don’t feel like talking at all. The baby absorbs information and asks questions. They need to be answered competently, explained, pronouncing the words correctly.

How to Determine If There Is a Problem

At each stage of speech formation, it is necessary to monitor the baby’s behavioral factor.

What should cause concern to caring parents:

the baby does not react to noises and sounds, and does not turn to the mother’s voice;
the child does not roar at 4 months, does not show joyful excitement when his parents appear;
from 9 to 12 months he does not babble, the baby has low speech activity;
by the age of one year he does not fulfill the simplest verbal requests (for example, he is not able to show given objects in pictures);
at 1.5 years old, the child does not pronounce easy words and does not respond to his name.
the child is unable or reluctant to speak monosyllabic words at 2 years of age;
The three-year-old toddler cannot write monosyllabic sentences, knows less than 30 words, and pronounces them incorrectly and indistinctly.

Any alarming sign is a serious reason to visit a doctor. This will make it possible to quickly identify the disorder and begin adequate treatment.

Causes of late speech development

If a child speaks poorly at more than 2 years old, the reason may lie in neurological pathologies. The sooner the mother consults a doctor, the better for the child.

The reasons for speech delay may be:

damage to the central nervous system during fetal development or in the postpartum period;
gestosis and threat of miscarriage during pregnancy;
chronic diseases, bad habits of the mother;
prolonged or too rapid labor;
taking medications contraindicated during pregnancy;
oxygen starvation of the fetus;
premature birth;
birth traumatic brain injury of a child (for example, birth hematoma on the head);
previous infectious diseases of the infant;
taking antibiotics that negatively affect the development of the baby.

Some of the physiological reasons why a child does not want to talk include:

Pathologies of the hearing organs have a negative impact on the intellectual development of the child. Children with hearing loss or no hearing at all cannot speak normally. Such disorders can be either congenital or acquired. If at 3 years old the baby does not speak, despite the fact that his speech previously met age standards, it is necessary to consult an otolaryngologist.
Underdevelopment of the speech apparatus, in which sounds are difficult to pronounce due to poor development of the jaw and facial muscles. This problem develops with early breast refusal, shortened hyoid frenulum. The disorder is indicated by excessive salivation, an invariably open mouth, and gagging, which is provoked by solid food.
Genetic predisposition is sometimes the main cause of speech delay, even if the child has no visible physical abnormalities.
Viral diseases that affect the fetus while still in the womb interfere with language acquisition.

Some parents are faced with the fact that they cannot teach their child to speak clearly at 2 years old. The reason for this may be pathological development of the brain, leading to autism. Outwardly, it manifests itself in the difficulties of communication between the baby and other people, a limited range of interests, and behavioral stereotyping. Such a child can remain silent for a long time and resist any violation of his regime.

A child may not speak for other reasons:

If parents do not raise their child, do not stimulate his speech activity, or, conversely, overprotect him and voice all his desires for him. Then the child’s need for communication naturally disappears.
Severe stress, worries, worries against the backdrop of an unstable family situation. When parents quarrel in the presence of a child, they can cause a persistent reluctance in him to talk.

What can parents do?

You can teach a child to speak well by creating favorable living conditions:

TV and computer turned off;
attention of loved ones.

It is necessary to create the maximum number of situations when the baby will need to voice his desires. If he, as before, hums and only points his finger at the desired object, adults need to “not understand” what he wants and push him to pronounce the cherished words.

Common techniques

There are several methods to teach your baby to speak.

The simplest one is “say the word.” For example, “say cat” (dog, mother, woman).
Cognition of objects, in which the mother brings the child to the object, expressively describes it and clearly pronounces its name. Here the child already understands what subject we are talking about and learns about the world around him. For example, you can roll the car, mom says “the car is moving,” the car is standing,” etc.

Developing fine motor skills

Finger games are great for fine motor skills. They need to devote 10-15 minutes daily, but no more. There is no need to try to teach your baby everything at once; 2-3 games are enough. They can then be replaced with new ones.

The most famous game that all children like is “magpie-white-sided”. Mom recites a poem, pinching the baby’s fingers. You can offer a counting game, where each finger is bent, listing relatives. Kids explore the world by touch, so you can create a real finger theater, sew interesting bright animals and play with them.

Development of the speech apparatus with exercises

It is necessary to train the speech apparatus from a very early age. This way the baby will learn to quickly master new words. For this:

exercises are done regularly, since new sounds need to be consolidated gradually;
do not offer the child more than 2-3 exercises at a time;
classes should not last longer than 10 minutes;
completed exercises must be repeated periodically to consolidate;
Gymnastics should be carried out in a playful way so that monotonous movements seem interesting and entertaining to the baby.

Exercises you can do are:

“Show me the fence.” At the same time, the child closes his teeth and smiles widely;
“opened and closed the gate”, when the baby must open and close his mouth for a few seconds;
“we draw.” At the same time, the baby tries to draw with his tongue on his lips, teeth and palate.

The mother carries out all the exercises together with the baby, even when he has mastered them well.

Games and cartoons

Correct educational cartoons help a child learn to master speech due to the fact that colorful characters pronounce every word correctly and clearly. Kids quickly remember sayings and try to pronounce them in everyday life, imitating their favorite characters.

There is a lot of educational material on the Internet that will teach the baby not only to speak, but also to understand the world around him.

Experts advise not to panic if a child does not speak at 2 years old. Difficulty with speech may be hidden in insufficient communication between parents and the child. In kindergarten, children quickly make up for lost moments and adapt to a new society where they have to communicate with words rather than gestures.

A two-year-old child, whose speech develops in accordance with age norms, uses it as a means of communication. If a child does not speak for 2 years, most parents justifiably begin to worry, compare their child with their peers, and turn to specialists for diagnosis and speech correction.

What should a child say at two years old?

Imperfections in the pronunciation side of a child’s speech at this age are a natural phenomenon. He still pronounces most sounds incorrectly, misses sounds when pronouncing words and individual syllables when pronouncing polysyllabic words, and softens consonants. The voice of some children is still quiet and weak, they pronounce even simple words indistinctly, and this is also a variant of the norm. Two-year-olds have a small vocabulary, they use words denoting well-known objects and toys, and can still use lightweight words like “bye-bye” instead of “sleep”, “yum-yum” instead of “eat”.

However, a child is already able to speak at 2 years old in short phrases of 2-4 words, and can ask a question, for example, “What is this?” A two-year-old child with speech development within normal limits, on his own initiative, addresses peers and familiar adults, using the active vocabulary that is available to him. And not so little is available to him - at the border between the second and third years, the vocabulary is at least 50-100 words, and by 2.5 years this number triples.

If you work with the baby purposefully, telling him the signs of objects and actions that children and adults perform, then the active dictionary contains not only nouns, but also adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

Despite a fairly capacious vocabulary, the words in a sentence are often inconsistent and phrases are constructed incorrectly. The inability to form correct grammatical forms is the norm at this age. For example, if a child at 2 years old says this: at home - at home, after washing, a beautiful jacket - a beautiful jacket, a rug - a rug, then this is normal.

The baby not only asks questions himself, he is able to answer simple questions from an adult, that is, he distinguishes interrogative intonation. In addition, he can follow simple verbal instructions consisting of 2-3 steps: “first take the spoon, and then take it to the table.” Since the organs of articulation are not strong enough to clearly pronounce sounds, 2-year-old children still pronounce the sounds incorrectly: s, s, z, z, ts, sh, zh, h, sch, l, r.

Possible causes of speech delay

If a child is 2 years old and cannot speak, relying on the advice of friends, you cannot expect a sudden jump in speech activity. “With us, too, he was silent and silent, and then he started talking!” “His dad also didn’t speak for a long time, and nothing, everything is fine...” Even if the speech delay is due to a genetic predisposition, it is worth contacting a specialist for a preliminary assessment of the norm and pathology. Up to 3 years, correction of speech disorders does not require large time and material costs; after this period, correcting something is much more difficult.

You should pay special attention to a speech delay of 2 years if the following factors were present:

birth injury;
asphyxia during childbirth;
neuroinfections, frequent colds, flu suffered in early childhood;
traumatic brain injury in a child;
discrepancy with the mother's Rh factor;
the child has received little attention and there is a lack of communication.

A speech delay of 2 years can occur in overprotected children, when they have no reason to use speech, as well as in children growing up in families with low-speaking parents.

If a child at 2 years old does not speak due to a poor speech environment, the delay in speech development can be compensated independently in a short time. If speech underdevelopment was caused by functional disorders of the central nervous system, speech correction together with parents should be carried out by specialists - a neuropathologist, a neuropsychiatrist, a speech therapist, a speech pathologist.

How to determine delayed speech development at 2 years

If parents have a suspicion that their child’s speech does not correspond to the norm for this age, it is better to entrust the assessment of the child’s speech to a specialist. First of all, you need to consult a pediatric neurologist, then visit a speech therapist and speech pathologist.

Reasons for contacting a specialist:

the child does not address adults and, if necessary, limits himself to gestures or facial expressions;
he speaks one language that he understands, and he does not care that he is not understood;
the baby’s speech lags behind several periods of speech development, for example, there are only babbling words and onomatopoeia;
a child cannot fulfill an adult’s request if it is not accompanied by gestures;
the baby has not developed fine motor skills, he is awkward, takes small objects with several fingers, not two;
there was speech and then it disappeared;
The child names different objects with one babbling word.

You should not ignore such symptoms. A much more productive tactic is to start classes with a specialist or get recommendations from him for independent training. There is a fundamentally incorrect opinion that you need to go to a speech therapist when the child is 4.5–5 years old. This is partly correct only for the correction of phonetic underdevelopment of speech, when by the age of five individual sounds can appear independently and do not have to be corrected. If a child does not speak at 2 years of age, the disorder has a different development mechanism, and completely different correction techniques are used here.

How to stimulate the speech development of a two-year-old baby

In order for the baby’s active speech to develop, you need to create communication situations for him, not prevent his desires, but give him the opportunity to express a request, try to get him to talk. It is important to satisfy his interest in objects, actions and accumulation of impressions. You can play hide and seek with toys, offering to call the hidden rooster, cat, or bunny. When buying a new toy, you need to look at it, name the parts, show how they play with it, naming their actions.

The video shows what to do if a child speaks poorly at two years old, what games to play with children to teach them to communicate:

It is very useful to talk during a walk about what new and attractive things the child sees around him. It is important not only to show and name objects, but also to talk about their purpose. “Scissors cut paper”, “There is soap in the soap dish.” Pay attention to the shape and size of objects, their color.

Read more often to your child fairy tales, poems, and jokes that are understandable to him, accompanying the reading by showing bright and colorful illustrations, chat with him on any occasion. Let the child finish the endings of the lines and repeat the phrases of the heroes of fairy tales. Constant attention to the speech of a two-year-old child will help overcome speech delays, if any.

Now you know what to do when your baby barely speaks at the age of two. If you have any questions, ask our children's speech therapist.

Ekaterina Morozova

Reading time: 11 minutes

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The baby is almost 3 years old, but you can’t get him to talk? This problem occurs quite often today. Mothers are nervous, panicking and don’t know where to “run”. What to do? First of all, breathe out and calm down; there is no need for unnecessary emotions in this matter.

Let's look into the issue together with experts...

Speech test for a 2-3 year old child - speech norms for this age

Is a child’s silence just a characteristic of him or is it still time to run to the doctor?

First of all, you need to figure out What exactly should a child be able to do by this age?

So, by the age of 2-3 years the baby

He accompanies (pronounces) actions (his own and those of others) with appropriate sounds and words. For example, “chukh-chukh”, “bi-bi”, etc.
He pronounces almost all sounds correctly. Perhaps, with the exception of the most difficult ones - “r”, “l” and hissing-whistles.
Able to name actions, objects and qualities.
Tells mom and dad fairy tales, various stories and reads mini-poems.
Repeats words or entire phrases after parents.
With the exception of the participle participle, he uses all parts of speech in conversation.
The vocabulary is already quite large - about 1300 words.
Able to name almost every object from a picture consisting of an average of 15 objects.
Asks about unfamiliar objects.
Puts words into sentences.
Feels the melody, its rhythm.

If you sigh and put a minus sign on at least half of the points, it makes sense to consult your pediatrician (for starters).

Reasons why a child of 2-3 years old does not yet speak

There are many reasons for a child’s silence. We can conditionally divide them into “medical” and “all others”.

Medical reasons:

Alalia. This disorder is a gross underdevelopment of speech or even its absence due to damage to specific centers of the brain. In this case, the diagnosis is carried out by a neurologist.
Dysarthria. This disorder is the result of a malfunction in the central nervous system. Manifestations include unclear speech, underdevelopment of fine motor skills and limited mobility of the speech organs. Most often, this disease accompanies cerebral palsy, and the diagnosis is made by a speech therapist and only after long-term observation of the child.
Dislalia. This term is used when there is a violation of the pronunciation of sounds, either one or several. It is usually corrected with the help of a speech therapist from the age of 4.
Stuttering. The most well-known disorder, coinciding with a period of active mental development and appearing after the fright of a child or problems in the family. This “defect” is corrected together with a neurologist.
Hearing damage. Unfortunately, with this feature, the baby perceives the speech of those around him very poorly, and if he is deaf, he completely distorts words/sounds.
Heredity. Of course, the fact of heredity is a factor, but if by the age of 3 the child has still learned to put words at least into simple sentences, then you have a reason for concern - you should contact a specialist.

Other reasons:

Changes in a tiny life. For example, a new place of residence, adaptation to a kindergarten or new family members. While the baby gets used to new circumstances, speech development slows down.
No need for speech. Sometimes it happens. For example, if a child has absolutely no one to communicate with, if they communicate with him extremely rarely, or when his parents do everything for him.
Bilingual children. Such babies often begin to speak later, because mom and dad speak different languages, and it is difficult for the little ones to master both at once.
The kid is just taking his time. This is such an individual feature.

We turn to specialists for help - what kind of examination is needed?

If, after comparing your baby’s speech “indicators” with the norm, you find cause for concern, then it’s time to visit the doctor.

Who should I go to?

First, go to the pediatrician. The doctor will examine the baby, analyze the situation and give referrals to other specialists.
To a speech therapist. He will conduct testing and determine the level of development and speech of the baby. Perhaps he will send you to a neuropsychiatrist to clarify the diagnosis.
To the lore. Its task is to check the relationship between speech delay and existing problems of the articulatory apparatus (in particular, a shortened hyoid frenulum, etc.). After an examination and audiogram, the doctor will draw conclusions and possibly refer you to another specialist.
To a neurologist. A qualified specialist, after a series of procedures, will quickly determine whether there are problems in his profile.
TO . If all other options have already “disappeared”, and the cause has not been found, then they are sent to this specialist (or to a psychiatrist). It is quite possible that everything is much simpler than the panicking mother thinks.
To an audiologist. This specialist will check to see if there are any hearing problems.

Into complex diagnostics usually includes examination and age testing (note - according to the Bailey scale, early speech development, Denver test), determination of facial motor skills, testing of speech understanding/production, as well as ECG and MRI, cardiogram, etc.

What can doctors prescribe?

Drug therapy. Typically, drugs in such a situation are prescribed by a psychiatrist or neurologist. For example, to nourish brain neurons or activate the activity of speech zones (note: cortex, lecithin, cogitum, neuromultivitis, etc.).
Procedures. To restore the full functioning of certain brain centers, magnetic therapy and electroreflexotherapy are used. True, the latter has a number of contraindications.
Alternative treatment. This includes hippotherapy and swimming with dolphins.
Pedagogical correction. A defectologist works here, who must correct negative trends in general development and prevent new deviations with the help of various rehabilitation measures and on an individual basis.
Speech therapy massage. A very effective procedure, during which specific points of the child’s earlobes and hands, cheeks and lips, as well as the tongue are affected. It is also possible to prescribe a massage according to Krause, Prikhodko or Dyakova.
And, of course, exercises that his parents will do at home with the baby.

Activities and games with a silent child - how to get a child to talk who does not speak at 2-3 years old?

Of course, you shouldn’t pin your hopes solely on specialists: the lion’s share of the work will fall on the shoulders of parents. And this work must be not daily, but hourly .

What “tools” do mom and dad have for dealing with the “silent one”?

We post pictures throughout the apartment at the baby’s eye level. These can be animals, cartoon characters, fruits and vegetables, etc. That is, we create a speech environment by increasing the number of places in the house that encourage the baby to speak. We tell the child about each picture SLOWLY (children read lips), ask about the details, and change the pictures weekly.
We do articulation gymnastics. Today there are a lot of guide books on this topic - choose yours. Gymnastics for the facial muscles is extremely important!
Development of fine motor skills. This moment is also important for the development of speech, because the center of the brain responsible for motor skills borders on the center that is responsible for speech. Examples of exercises include games with sifting and pouring, modeling, finger painting, searching for toys “drowned” in cereals, braiding, “finger theater” (including shadow theater on wallpaper), building with Lego, etc.
Read books! As much as possible, more often and with expression. The baby should be an active participant in your fairy tale or poem. When reading short poems, give your little one the opportunity to finish the phrase.
Dance with your child to children's songs, sing together. Games and music, as a rule, are the best helpers for your silent one.
Teach your baby to “make faces”. You can organize competitions at home for the best face. Let the baby stretch his lips, flick his tongue, stretch out his lips with a straw, etc. Great exercise!
If your child talks to you with gestures, gently correct the child and ask him to voice his desire in words.
Exercise for the tongue. We smear the baby's lips with jam or chocolate (the area should be wide!), and the baby should lick this sweetness until it is perfectly clean.

The best exercises for speech muscles - do it together with your mother!

Let's imitate animal voices! We place plush animals along the wall and get to know each of them. An important requirement - only in their “language”!
Let's learn to smile! The wider the smile, the more active the facial muscles, and the easier it is to say the letter “s”.
Take 4 musical toys, we “turn on” each one in turn so that the child remembers the sounds. Then we hide the toys in the box and turn on one at a time - the child must guess which instrument or toy sounded.
Guess who! The mother makes a sound that the child knows (meow, woof-woof, zhzhzh, crow, etc.), and the baby must guess whose “voice” it was.
Put toys to bed every night(and daytime naps won’t hurt the dolls either). Before going to bed, be sure to sing songs to the dolls.

Pay attention to whether your baby pronounces sounds correctly. Do not encourage the distortion of words and sounds - correct the child immediately, and do not baby yourself with the child.

The website warns: the information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. If your child has problems with speech, be sure to consult a doctor.