How Does Speech Ability Develop in Babies?
After birth, babies spend most of their time listening to their mother’s voice and recording all kinds of language-related information. In fact, babies can use many communication ways such as different crying tones, laughing and babbling for different requests long before they say their first words. The first communication with your baby starts long before he/she understands or uses language. Your baby responds to your voice by kicking or babbling during feeding or changing. He tells you his positive feelings by smiling and the negative ones by crying. Even while producing his first meaningful words, he accompanies them with hand signals so that the other person can understand them. Parents, on the other hand, resolve these reactions in a short time and respond to them, thus enriching the communication. Therefore, they begin to acquire the language from the moment they are born. The first cry at birth is considered a harbinger of speech. He will communicate by crying to say that he is hungry, sleepy or wet. He gradually learns that no adult can remain indifferent to this sound and that he can achieve different things by changing the tone and intensity of crying. In time, he discovers that he can make other sounds besides crying, and starts playing with sounds.
These voice games are manifested by murmurs like ‘agu’ and changes in tone of voice when they are 3 months old. When parents respond to these sounds, babies enjoy these responses. Studies have shown that a 1-week-old baby can distinguish the mother’s voice from other female voices and prefer it to other voices. Gradually, they begin to distinguish the changes in the adult’s tone of voice (angry, joyful. Parents love their babies, while being aware of talking to them, they support their babies’ language and speech development. In fact, babies born with the ability to make a wide variety of sounds gradually begin to imitate only the sounds used in their environment, they do not use other sounds that adults are unresponsive to. If the child’s murmurs are not reinforced in early childhood, the baby reduces playing with sounds.Therefore, the mother’s lack of communication with her child due to depression etc. only meeting the physical needs such as feeding and taking diapers delays the development of communication skills in the child.
When Do Children Start Talking? Do Boys Talk Late?
Crying, laughing and making meaningless sounds are babies’ first attempts to speak. Towards the end of their first year, they make meaningful speech-like sounds. The first meaningful words begin to be produced after the 12th month. There may be individual differences at this point: some babies constantly struggle to make meaningful sounds, while others wait until they are ready for it. After the 18th month, the process of learning new words of babies accelerates and great changes can be seen even in a week. If an 18-month-old baby does not say any words suitable for his purpose (like saying “dad” to call his father), child psychiatry support can be sought for speech development. Girls can speak a few months early, but language development should not be overlooked because the father of boys also spoke late. Language development affects the child’s cognitive and intelligence development.
How Does Our Child’s Language Development Happen? Which Words and Sounds Can Be Made at What Age?
0-3 months: The baby only makes crying sounds at first, but gradually starts making sounds without crying. As the baby learns to make non-crying sounds, he also learns to respond to the speech of others. He first responds to people’s speech with facial expressions and body movements. Later, when spoken to, he begins to respond in soft voices.
3-6 months: “talking” begins. Responds to the adult’s caring and warm tone by making noises and smiling. Now they express different feelings by making different sounds. Tries to imitate the sounds and speech of adults.
6–9 months: Produces syllable repetitions such as “bagu, baba, bada” in meaningless sounds. The child can take turns (moving and making sounds) with an adult. He reacts when he hears his mother’s voice even though he can’t see her face. He shouts for attention. She reacts by crying or making loud noises when someone does something she doesn’t want. He smiles and makes noise when he sees someone familiar. Imitation skills have increased.
9–11 months: Baby can now make intonations similar to those in adult speech. He repeats syllables such as “ba ba ba, ma ma ma” and uses gestures and facial expressions. He understands when it is said ‘no-no’. First, an explicit form of will emerges. He looks at something and then at the adult; It gives information about what it sees by pointing or making a sound. Makes a sound to communicate with the adult, initiates communication. He especially likes to imitate movements combined with sound. Responds to your name! looks in that direction. This is not developed in babies with communication problems such as autism.
12 months: imitates speech sounds. Says at least one word like daddy mama.
12–15 months: Baby now enjoys “conversation”. Communicates with bumpy voices and keeps the conversation going. From this stage on, he uses consistent sounds and gestures for greetings and goodbyes. Imitates words with sounds close to them (e.g., “buu” for “water”). “What is this?” can answer the question with a word or a sound close to a word. Voice stresses become more and more mature and develop.
15–18 months: The child can now say 4 – 6 words. These are usually nouns, words of opposition, and words like “hello”, “bye bye”. Adds sound to gestures such as showing, giving, or waving when unable to say the word. He often tries to sing the songs he hears. He is now a successful impersonator. They repeat words that adults often use or in conversations, like “echoes”. Recognizes and shows family members. Complies with simple commands such as ‘goodbye/ take away’.
18 months-2 years: The child can now say 25 words. These include names of things and people, the words “hello”, “bye bye”, at least two words that indicate action, more words about wanting and refusing. He imitates two-word sentences, although he does not use them himself. His speech is generally understandable for adults who know him well.
2–3 years: At this age, children gain more vocabulary. They have at least 50 words at 2.5 years old and about 300 words from 3 years old. At this age, they learn to connect words to use them in two-word sentences. By the end of the year, they can form as many three-word sentences. He now begins to learn grammar rules (eg, plurals, pronouns). It is sung to itself while playing, and its speech is quite intelligible. Talks about events in the past, executes simple two-step commands
3–4 years old: As this year progresses, the child uses 3-word sentences more often. Can describe recent experiences in detail. Can say first and last name when asked. It can answer many questions, including questions about what things around us do.
5 years old: Can answer why and how questions. Can tell a simple story.