The most basic way of communication between people is speech. Babies establish non-verbal communication with parents and people around them by crying, facial expressions or body movements from the day they are born. Children who start their language development journey by saying their first words between 12 and 18 months, increase their verbal communication with their environment by learning new words over time and then forming new sentences, and take important steps towards becoming an individual in society. By the age of 5, our children become able to use approximately 2000 words in their mother tongue.
Children develop their abilities by first imitating what is happening around them and then adopting the situation they imitate. For this reason, instead of talking baby talk with our children, proper language rules should be followed in our mother tongue. At every age, having conversations with our children will contribute to their language development. Especially after one year of age, ensuring that our children are in an age-appropriate social environment and increasing their communication with other children of the same age will both increase language development and strengthen their place in society. Environments such as daycare and kindergarten can contribute greatly to language development.
The most important element in language development in children is hearing. Under normal conditions, hearing is complete in babies from the day they are born. All children are evaluated in terms of hearing with newborn screening programs. Hearing functions of all our children with speech delay should be re-evaluated.
The use of a second language in the same household or not speaking the language used according to its rules can cause speech delay in children. Apart from this, intellectual disabilities, autism, genetic predisposition, epilepsy, brain damage and the inadequacy of the environment where the child grows up may be underlying causes of speech delays. In the environments where our children are located, especially in the first 3 years, the use of devices such as television, phone and tablet that negatively affect their brain development also contributes to language development delays.
Speech delays are seen more frequently in boys than in girls. First words begin to be spoken between 12-18 months and the number of words spoken after the age of 2 increases rapidly. A child at 2.5 years of age can speak 300-400 words and form 2-3 word sentences. At the age of 4, speech that everyone can understand with 6-8 words emerges. If our children's speech level is behind their age-appropriate levels, they should definitely consult child neurology and child psychiatry physicians.
