What determines when a child begins to speak? When does a child begin to speak his first words?

The first means of communication between a child and his parents is the baby's crying. In this way he tries to convey his demands to his parents. It is precisely because most parents do not understand the needs of the baby well that they wait for their child to make the first sounds that can be heard. So at what age do children start talking and what does your child’s long silence mean? When is it necessary to contact a specialist, and in what cases are worries unfounded?

How speech is formed in children

Parents often have a question: “When do children start speaking their first words?” In the first year of his life, the baby adapts to the environment, develops and grows rapidly. During this important period of a child’s life, parents must create the best conditions for the child’s development and help him in every possible way to cope with the difficulties and obstacles that arise. In the first year of his life, the baby does many things: he rapidly gains weight, he develops teeth, he digests food, he begins to climb, walk and run. During this miracle year, a child from a baby who needed all kinds of help grows into a full-fledged person who is capable of doing almost everything that a person does.

Speech development is a very important moment in the development of a baby. This is an indicator of the proper development of the central nervous system and brain.

If delays occur in speech development, this can be both a pathological and temporary phenomenon.

Your baby should make his first sound immediately after he comes into this world. At the moment of their publication, he uses his palate and tongue. To scream, the child opens his mouth wide and screams loudly, connecting the muscles on his stomach to this process. Therefore, a long cry from your child can lead to the formation of an umbilical hernia. Your child's first intelligible sounds are “u” and “a”. Afterwards, the baby includes notes of a plaintive, angry or offended character in his crying. Thus, the child develops emotions. The active development of speech is facilitated by abundant communication with the baby and his interaction with others.

When the baby is one month old, he begins to recognize his mother's voice and blows bubbles. This is another way to attract parental attention. During this period of a child’s life, the sounds “agu” and “gu” appear. These are the first children's words.

Passive vocabulary

Many parents wonder how to properly teach their child to speak. A child’s speech is mastered by copying and imitation. He starts repeating everything:

sounds;
lip movement;
facial expressions

During this period of children's life, the mother must take care to replenish her child's passive vocabulary. Many will ask what this means. To do this, you need to point to a certain object and say what it is called and what sound it can make. Visually, the child remembers and connects these concepts. They are deposited in his memory.

Such a passive vocabulary can begin to be formed in a child around the age of 6 months when he consciously looks at objects and begins to study them with his fingers. At this age, he is already trying to express his thoughts, mood and attitude towards the world around him.

In order for your child’s speech to quickly move from passive to active, you need to:

play games with him that develop according to his age;
praise him as emotionally as possible for any success achieved;
talk to him more often and more.

It is unknown exactly how many times the same word needs to be repeated for a child to remember it. But every time you give him an object, say what it is. You need to comment on everything that you and your child do. Words must be spoken correctly and not distorted. You should not imitate your baby in this regard.

Games that develop

During play, children acquire information much easier than in a simple conversational form. You can come up with games like:

repeating syllables after the child;
where are mom and dad?
singing songs to your child;
explore new objects with your fingers.

At the age of 3 months, the baby begins to be interested in the toys that surround him. It is worth letting the child take all objects and any shape: rustling, made of fabric, completely smooth, square, round.

The faster your baby develops finger motor skills, the faster his speech apparatus will develop. That is why at this age it is extremely important for a child to be given the opportunity to explore toys made from various materials.

When children start talking

When do children start saying "mama"? Children consciously begin to speak two-syllable words (mom, dad, uncle, woman) around the age one year. The formation of children's speech can be divided into the following stages:

humming (agu - gu);
baby talk (na-na-na-na, yes, yes);
two-syllable meaningful words such as dad, mom, give, baba.

IN First year In childhood life, the child’s vocabulary is significantly filled and he tries to explain his desires to the maximum, accompanying this with a demonstration of the object.

If a child shouts “give me” in a demanding form and at the same time points to an object, be sure to give what he wants and specify the correct name of this object.

Significant changes occur in children's speech third year old life. By this period he had already:

uses different parts of speech in conversation;
learned to compose whole sentences from words;
sees the difference between singular and plural;
understands the meaning of the questions: “who is this?”, “why?” and many others.

During such a period, you need to tell poems, fairy tales, and sing songs with your baby. Important ask clarifying questions like “where were you with grandma”, “what were you doing in the park”. Such questions will force the child to use his vocabulary more actively. He will want to express his impressions and emotions.

The child is silent for a long time

A child may not speak for a long time for several reasons:

there may be a disease that is mental in nature;
heredity may have an effect;
this may be a consequence of birth trauma;
physiology in the structure of the speech apparatus;
insufficient communication with your child.

There is no need to worry in advance if your child understands everything and correctly fulfills all your requests, but is still silent. Boys mostly have this feature. Your child is sure to be fully functional speaks at 3-4 years old.

If silence is hereditary, then specialist intervention is desirable. In case of birth injuries and mental illnesses, medical intervention is simply necessary.

Defects in children's speech

At what age should you start sounding the alarm about a child’s silence? Approximately by age 7 In childhood, your child must be able to speak enough to start school freely. Unfortunately, there are parents who do not pay due attention to the development of children's speech. In this case, the child will not be able to fully master the school curriculum and will feel inferior among his classmates.

The alarm should begin to be raised in the following situations:

your baby distorts words beyond recognition;
the child continues to shorten words even after the age of three;
the child cannot speak in sentences by the age of three;
at two years old the child does not speak;
at 9 months the child does not consciously understand the question: “where is mommy?”;
The child does not pronounce vowel sounds.

The alarm should also be raised in the following situations:

the child speaks nasally;
does not look into the eyes;
the child does not have enough air to say the phrase;
behaves inappropriately;
speech is unlike ours, and strange sounds are made;
squelching sounds appear during a conversation;
keeps food in the mouth and cannot chew it;
the tip of the tongue is protruding and the mouth is slightly open;
At three years of age, saliva production is active.

Such manifestations may indicate neurological abnormality in the development of your child. While the child is only three years old, immediately contact a neurologist or psychiatrist. Such defects do not go away on their own.

What is necessary for your baby to speak on time?

It is difficult to say exactly at what time children begin to speak; it largely depends on the individual characteristics of the child’s development, his communication with mom, dad and others.

All parents, without exception, wait for the moment when the child begins to say mom and dad. Many people think that children's speech begins to develop on the day the baby pronounces the first word. In fact, for this to happen, we need long-term preparation of the articulation organs, their coordinated work, the ability to switch, mobility of the lower jaw, lips, tongue, and soft palate. It is impossible to pronounce exactly those sounds that make up the first words if the child does not know how to distinguish them from phonemes that sound similar, for example, words such as cat-whale, slide-crust and others.

More precisely, human speech is formed during the prenatal period, when the organs of hearing, articulation and brain structures are formed. These processes are influenced by heredity, illnesses suffered by the mother, the presence or absence of bad habits, and the lifestyle of the baby’s parents. The course of labor and the state of health of the baby are important factors in his successful debut as a speaking and thinking person.

We will tell you at what age children begin to speak their first sounds, what this depends on, at what age children begin to speak in sentences, and how to help them go through each stage of speech development in a timely manner.

Speech in the first weeks and months of life

Immediately after birth, intensive development of brain structures begins, and new connections between neurons are established. At the same time, the organs of hearing and articulation develop, and physical and phonemic hearing is formed. Without proper hearing, children cannot master speech, since distortion or absence of sound signals entering the brain makes it impossible to develop speech skills.

In the first weeks and months of life, it is the speech of others that stimulates the initial stage of speech development. The baby listens to the speech of loved ones, he calms down for a while when he hears his mother’s voice, the impulsive movements of his arms and legs stop for a while. After some more time, he begins to turn his head towards the source of the sound.

Not all mothers and fathers talk to newborns and infants in the first months of life. They think this is unnecessary, because the baby doesn’t understand anything yet. Such one-sided “conversations” between parents and children, which accompany their bathing and waking, develop auditory concentration and the desire to respond. Attentive parents may notice how the child tries to move his lips, as if he wants to say something. It’s even better if parents often call the baby by name, show him toys, call the child, not moving much away from the crib.

This is the age at which a child begins to speak vowels and consonants. Up to 3 months, the child pronounces the following sounds:

vowels – A, U, E;
consonants – M, K, X, P, B, G.

These phonemes still sound unclear and are pronounced involuntarily. These skills mark the first stage of speech development – humming. In addition, the cry of a 1–3 month old baby is quite expressive. By intonation, the mother can determine whether the baby is bored, wants to eat, or it’s time to change wet diapers, that is, he has begun to master intonation.

From humming to babbling

At the beginning of the fourth month, the baby begins to look for an adult, smiles, and begins to intensively move his arms and legs (revitalization complex). He begins to emit drawn-out and melodious combinations of sounds - he cooes, saying a-a, a-gu, a-ga. Some sounds are simply impossible to reproduce; such phonemes do not exist in the Russian language.

After another 2–3 months, the turn of babbling comes. At first these are individual syllables pa, ka, na, ma, which a little later become similar to the peculiar words pa-pa-pa, ka-ka-ka, na-na-na. Most often, babbling appears when the baby is full, has slept and is in a good mood. This is not yet a speech, but preparation for it, a kind of preparatory exercise.

Although he does not speak yet, he understands a lot - he turns his head when he is shown a familiar toy, a bird, a cat. Children 6-7 months old fulfill simple requests - give a pen, play palms, and this is also a step towards speech development.

How to stimulate babbling

From 6 months, children are able to move in space - sit and crawl. Their perception improves, they can repeat sounds after adults. This skill can be developed - as soon as the child pronounces the syllables, the parents repeat them after him. This technique develops hearing, articulation organs, speech exhalation, and encourages the baby to pronounce these syllables again and again. Such mini-lessons are carried out with a cheerful, well-fed and healthy baby. If he is cold, hungry, or unwell, verbal games with his parents will not do any good.

It’s good if the child sees the face of the one who is talking to him, then he will be able to repeat the movements of his mother or father’s lips. In order for sounds to be heard clearly, you need to ensure complete silence - turn off the music, mute the sound of the TV.

You can play “hide and seek” by covering the baby’s face with a diaper and saying “peek-a-boo.” Showing adults objects of the environment develops passive vocabulary well. In this case, you need to clearly name them, accompanied by a pointing gesture. Soon the child will find them with his eyes, reacting to the adult’s question “Where is the watch?”, “Where is the cat?”, “Where is the car?”

The video below provides specific tips for parents of a one-year-old baby:

When do the first words and phrases appear?

It is impossible to name the exact date at which children begin to speak their first words. They can appear at 8–9 months and at 1 year 2 months. And all this is the norm. According to the observations of parents and teachers, girls usually start talking earlier than boys, although there are exceptions. At the turn between the first and second years, the baby’s vocabulary contains from 2 to 20 words. Usually this:

simplified words (ma-ma, pa-pa, la-la, ki-sa, am-am);
onomatopoeia (beep, peek-a-boo, peep-peep).

It is at this age that the child speaks to his mother. Why do children pronounce words in their native language? Because the adults around him single out from the baby’s babbling syllables and sound combinations that are inherent specifically in their language system, and repeat only them. Therefore, the period of babbling is important for the development of children's speech.

At one and a half years or a little later, the baby begins to combine words into sentences, as long as they consist of two words. The words in them are not consistent, an example of the following phrase: “Give me a doll” (give me a doll), “Papa is not there” (dad is not at home). But this is the age when attentive mothers notice that their baby begins to speak in sentences.

How to stimulate the pronunciation of words at 1 year old

By the age of 1, speech is not yet the most important means of communication for children. It is necessary to teach the baby to use speech. To do this, you do not need to immediately give the toy that the baby wants to take. First you need to say the name of the toy (you can simplify it): “Should I give you a la-la?” Let the baby try to repeat “la-la”, “beep-beep”. When presenting the desired item, you can emphasize: “This is lala, na.”

The vocabulary of an adult communicating with a baby should contain both full and abbreviated words: “kar-kar”, “ding-ding”, “knock-knock”, “tick-tock”. These substitutes for full words are temporary and are needed only because they are easier for the child to pronounce.

In order for children to establish a connection between a word and an action, you need to ask him to perform some action: give or take a toy, show a familiar object, wave a hand. Also verbalize all the actions that he performs with toys. For the same purpose, they play with 2–4 familiar toys and ask the baby, for example, to take a ball, throw it or catch it. Adults carry out all actions emotionally, clearly pronouncing both words-objects and words-actions.

The development of a baby’s speech directly depends on whether it develops spontaneously, or whether parents take direct part in its development. This determines at what age children begin to speak sounds/words/sentences. Positive conditions for the formation of children's speech:

There is no need to force speech development with frequent exercises that are not appropriate for the baby’s age - there is a high risk of speech negativism, stuttering and nervous tics, since the capabilities of the child’s brain are not limitless.
There is no need to lisp, faking your speech as a child’s speech, and often use diminutive suffixes - the only thing worse than this can be a complete disregard for communication.
Delicately correct speech mistakes made by your child, never make him laugh, but show him an example of the correct pronunciation of a given speech utterance. For example, I see houses, yes, you see houses.
Protect your baby from communicating with people with speech defects (burr, stutter), and especially with illiterate speaking adults (put - lie, mouth - mouth, beautiful cat - beautiful cat), this so “infects” and “invades” children’s speech that Such imitations are eradicated with great difficulty.
When reading children's works, watching cartoons with your child, always explain unfamiliar words, the actions of the characters, and pay attention to vivid turns of speech.

It is very useful to record and listen to the baby’s speech every month - humming, babbling, first phrases, reading poetry. Such an archive will one day become an excellent gift for an older child and your grandchildren.

Today we answered the question of when should a child start speaking and at what months do the first sounds appear. If you suspect a delay in speech development in your baby, consult us. We will dispel anxiety, and if it is objective, we will tell you how to talk or simply teach your child to speak. We know more than a dozen examples of how parents sit and wait for their child to speak at 3, 4 and even 5 years old, although the development of big problems is already clearly visible. Ask us, we've been doing this all our lives!

Speech is an important attribute that distinguishes a person from an animal. Thanks to words, people have learned to interact and understand each other better. Without speech it is almost impossible to integrate into society. The question of when a child will begin to speak his first words worries all parents without exception. Even a slight deviation from the norm can indirectly indicate a defect in the development of the baby.

Each child's body has its own characteristics, and his speech apparatus is formed depending on the ability to perceive various information, on the specifics of thought processes and on mental health. Therefore, it is not so easy to answer the question at what age a child begins to speak, since a special “speech calendar” simply does not exist.

Stages of speech formation in a child

In speech therapy there is such a concept as active and passive vocabulary. A passive increase in the vocabulary arsenal implies that the baby understands those around him better and better, but at the same time remains silent. With the active accumulation of vocabulary, children intensively master sounds and put them into words and phrases. Passive speech, as a rule, develops very quickly, and if the baby does not speak or speaks very little, but at the same time perfectly understands the requirements and comments, there should be no reason for concern.

So, there are several age periods of speech development, each of which has its own characteristics. It should be noted that such a division is conditional.

First six months of life

Booming – This is the name given to the very first conscious sounds uttered by an infant. Similar sounds begin to be heard from a baby’s crib at the age of one month. Nevertheless, the baby still uses screaming and crying to express dissatisfaction. The hum is formed due to the random arrangement of organs such as lips, tongue and nasopharynx. The mechanism for the occurrence of humming is the same in all babies.

Starting from the age of two months, they try to talk to the baby as much as possible. It is a mistake to believe that the baby is not aware of anything. There is a gradual getting used to the sound of speech of loved ones, and a little later a passive vocabulary will begin to accumulate. Until the baby reaches four months, the humming persists, and individual sounds heard from the parents may appear.

Period from 6 to 12 months

From about the sixth month, babies begin to express their thoughts and desires. with help babble- a kind of children's language. The child tries to copy adult speech by changing intonation. Each time, pronouncing new sounds, the baby tries to remember them, repeating them several times.

At eight months, babbling undergoes changes. Now it is longer and more emotionally charged. Repeated repetition of syllables begins. When does a child begin to speak his first words? The first conscious word from a child can be heard between 8 and 12 months. As a rule, this is an appeal to loved ones. Children can also name the item they like. Parents are often delighted when they think that their baby has finally spoken his first words. But numerous observations show that repeated repetition of the word “mom” or “dad” does not carry any semantic load. In this way, the baby reproduces remembered syllables and trains his vocal cords.

Second year of life

In the second year of life The baby begins to actively expand his passive vocabulary. Simply put, without the ability to pronounce the names of objects, he nevertheless understands what his elders want to tell him. A one-year-old toddler is able to perform basic tasks, for example, giving a toy when asked by an adult. The baby begins to use a pointing gesture, accompanying it with a special demanding intonation. The child, pointing at some thing, expects the adult to pronounce its name. There is a realization that each object has its own name. New words are stored in memory. Active speech does not yet appear.

Two year old offspring is already able to explain himself in simple sentences. Passive vocabulary has been significantly expanded to 200–300 units. With so many familiar words, the child can easily compose simple sentences. Verbs and adverbs are used in speech. Each child learns to speak in his own way. Some people don’t have complex phrases in their speech for a long time, but they can easily pronounce complex sounds. Others are able to form sentences from words early on, but understanding their speech is accessible only to a limited circle of people. Both situations are considered acceptable.

Period from 3 to 5 years

The basic laws of the native language become clear to the child approximately 3–4 years old. At this age, children are already declining nouns by case and number. The vocabulary is enriched with question words and new parts of speech: adjectives, adverbs. Speech begins to be filled with complex and complex sentences. By the age of five, a child is able to tell a simple story or memorize a simple rhyme. Speech is actively used in games and in conversations with toys.

What does it mean about delayed speech development?

The main symptoms accompanying a delay in the development of the speech apparatus:

There is a direct connection between the development of centers in the brain and the formation of speech function. A child should have contact with adults from the first days of life, otherwise the formation of speech skills will be delayed for a long time, which in the future promises a serious deviation in development.

Why is there a delay in the development of the speech apparatus?

Having understood the issue a little, we can come to the conclusion: lack of speech at the age of one is not a death sentence. The fact that a child does not utter a single word for a long time should be alarmed only when he is three years old, and then with good reason. It must be said that it is not only health problems that affect a child’s speech. Long silence is often explained by a delay in the development of the nervous system, oxygen starvation while in the womb. In reality, there are a lot of negative factors that inhibit speech development . The main reasons why children lag behind their peers in speech development:

What time does the baby say his first word? largely depends on the parents. The child needs help.

Knowing when a child begins to speak, parents will not miss important details in the development of their child. If at 12 months it is not important how many words children pronounce, then closer to three years the baby’s speech should be intelligible. If you are worried about your child and have noticed any deviations in the development of the speech apparatus, you should go see a doctor. The specialist will examine the child and make a conclusion whether there are any speech defects.

Almost all young parents are interested in the question of what time young children begin to speak. They can’t wait to hear the long-awaited words: “mom” and “dad”.

And sometimes it seems to parents that a delay in speech development results from a mental delay, although the baby cheerfully and cheerfully explores the surrounding space, sits up on time and begins to crawl, but is just in no hurry to speak.

There is no need to grab the child in your arms and run to a consultation with defectologists. There is no specific framework - at this time the baby must say this, but at this time that - does not exist. To the question of when a child should start speaking, only an approximate answer can be given.

If by the age of 1.5 years the baby consciously pronounces several words and can even compose a short phrase, then there is no need to worry, even if his peers are already reading poetry. Children develop individually.

The influence of temperament on speech development

The age at which a child begins to speak depends on his character and temperament. It is in vain that parents think that character is formed with age - it is laid in the prenatal period.

There are thoughtful kids. They play for a long time in the corner, turn to objects, and quietly babble something. They start talking earlier.

Bullies and fidgets are actively exploring the surrounding space, trying everything by taste and touch. They have no time to communicate. It is easier for them to reach out and grab an object they like, needed at the moment, than to try to ask, and their vocabulary is limited to exclamations and screams that express indignation or joy.

Two-syllable words appear in their vocabulary late, around the age of 2; if you hear anything from them in a year, it will only be “bang”, “bang”, and something like that.

Boys are more restless by nature - girls are calmer. Therefore, most girls master the art of communication earlier.

Children respond to adults with their first conscious cooing sounds. The more adults pay attention to the baby, the sooner he will speak.

But here’s the paradox: this will happen if there is not too much attention.

The most precious word

For many children - almost 40% - the first word is “mother”. When does a child begin to consciously say “mom”?

Only after all stages of speech development have passed: babbling, cooing, imitation of adults. The first “mom” is often obtained unconsciously, and is made up of combinations of sounds.

Children can pronounce the word itself from 6-7 months, but purposefully call their mother only by the age of one year.

More often, children consciously pronounce words that mean a conscious action, for example, “give.”

You may not believe it, but your child can be helped by his mother telling him.

To do this you should:

When communicating, constantly voice your actions: mom left, mom is doing, mom is dressing...
Educational games, such as hide and seek, help learning. You need to hide behind your palms and ask: “Who is this? Mother? »
The more you communicate with your child, the more books you read to him, the sooner he will learn to express his thoughts in words.
Children begin to speak earlier when they are forced to do so, without trying to guess their wishes.

How to help your child start talking early? Talk to him and try to force him to express his desires through speech.

It’s not enough just to learn to speak – you need to learn to speak correctly

A one-year-old baby already understands actions, knows how to find toys, and fulfill the requests of adults. When a child begins to consciously say “mom” and “dad”, identify the speech of the rest of the family, recognize animals and imitate the sounds they make, it’s time to teach him to speak in sentences.

At this time, you need to carefully analyze how you communicate with the baby, and maybe change the manner of communication.

First of all, you need to stop babying. The baby unconsciously pronounces words the way his parents address him, and it is much more difficult to re-teach him later. Accustomed to the fact that those around him constantly distorted words, he will not understand what they want from him, will withdraw, and may stop talking completely.

When a child begins to speak in sentences, you need to try to compose clear phrases of several words when communicating with him, without complicating the figures of speech.

You can already start memorizing poems - let the baby first say only the last word, then a whole line from his favorite poem.

Some theorists advise limiting children's communication with those relatives who burr, stutter, and so on. What should parents who have similar shortcomings do? Should I give my baby to clearly speaking adults while speech is developing? Of course not!

Parents will have to monitor their articulation more carefully, and then their speech irregularities will be less noticeable. As soon as the baby reaches the age of 3 years, he will need to be taken to classes with a speech therapist, where he will study together with his parents.

Exercises for homework in a playful way will help the child cope with difficult sounds, and sometimes correct speech defects in parents.

It happens that burr is caused by a pathology of the speech apparatus: a short frenulum or a malocclusion. At an early age, all this can be successfully corrected.

SOS – medical assistance required

Why do children sometimes start talking late?

Speech delay depends on many factors, and some of them are explained by health conditions:

If the baby’s every wish is predicted before he even has time to express it, then he has no need for articulate speech;
Hereditary factor. The parents themselves started talking late. Before you start worrying about why your baby is silent, you should ask your own parents if they have encountered similar problems?
In the family, adults are silent and exchange rare phrases. Most likely, their heir will speak late;
The baby makes incomprehensible sounds and cannot pronounce simple short words. He may have hearing problems;
The baby was already pronouncing individual syllables, but then he suffered from some illness and fell silent;
Speech delay can be caused by injuries of various types, including birth injuries;
The child was scared. He flinches from loud noises, often cries, is afraid of being left in the dark, and turns away when spoken to.

Speech delay caused by general developmental delay is most often discovered by a pediatrician during a routine examination.

When does a child start talking? Children differ so much from each other that average data does not reflect the real picture. There are babies who already speak up to 15 words at 10–11 months, and there are cases when even at 2.5 years they remain stubbornly silent, despite normal mental development.

More than once, psychologists have tried to determine exactly how many words children of a certain age should know. However, all these attempts have so far led to nothing, because babies aged one to two years are too different from each other. Charlotte Bueller, PhD, child psychologist, calculated the minimum and maximum vocabulary for each age. It turned out that there are huge differences between these values. According to her calculations, a child's vocabulary ranges from 0 to 232 words per year and three months.

Speech development has two main directions: passive mastery of words (the child understands the meaning of words, but cannot reproduce them himself) and active. Passive speech is ahead of active speech in its development.

Approximate time frame for speech formation:

1-2 months - a buzz appears. Humming is long, quiet melodious sounds or syllables: “a-a-a-a”, “ga-a”, “gu-u-u”, “a-gu”.

Buzz pattern

2-3 months - the revelry continues. The child pronounces different syllables: gu, shi, bu, zy and others.

4 months - Laughter and squealing appear. The sounds are similar to: al-le-e-ly-agy.

5 months - the baby “sings”, changing the intonation of his voice.

6 months - As a rule, the child begins to understand the adult’s speech, reacts to intonation, and recognizes familiar voices. Babbling appears. Babbling is the singing of syllables like /ta-ta-ta/, /ba/, /ma/, etc. With the help of babbling, a child expresses his desires and demands or simply “plays” with the sounds of his voice.

Babble pattern

7–8 months- The baby understands many words. He says the syllables: ba-ba. yes-yes-yes and sounds sounds: p, b, m, g, k, e, a. He learns the names of those objects that an adult pronounces. Searches for objects with his eyes.

From 8 months, children begin to associate words not only with objects, but also with their own movements.

They can pronounce words consisting of two or three open syllables (la-la, ta-ta, ku-ka, etc.), imitate sounds (beep-beep, woof-woof, pee-pee, etc.). They know the names of some objects. They understand simple instructions: bring a toy, give me a pen. At this stage, their speech is rather “passive”.

For some children, the period of development of passive speech is very prolonged. A child can, up to 2 years old, understand everything that adults tell him and even follow their simple instructions well (give, sit, take), not utter a single word - either he is completely silent, or he explains himself to an adult using babbling speech.

It happens that children who are persistently silent until the age of 2, already at 3 years of age catch up and surpass in their development those who began to utter their first words at 9 months. Therefore, you should not worry if under 2 years of age the child’s active vocabulary contains only two or three words. If he understands speech addressed to him, if he listens to adults with interest and learns the names of many things, then his speech development is normal and sooner or later he will speak.

The baby’s first word does not necessarily have to be similar to an ordinary “adult” word. It is enough that it is a set of sounds that in the child’s speech denotes a specific object, person or phenomenon (for example, “mo” instead of “milk”, “yes” instead of “give”, “quack” instead of “duck”, “ko” instead of “cat”, etc.). In speech therapy, such half-words are considered full-fledged words.

Natalia Pyatibratova, speech therapist-defectologist, Montessori teacher

A person is not a computer. There are no strict standards for the number of words at a given period of its development, just as it is impossible to expect within a week when a baby will begin to walk or assemble a pyramid. In speech therapy, there is only an approximate number of words - the minimum that a mother can focus on. Thus, the first recognizable words may not appear until 1 year, and from one year to 1 year, 4 months is enough for the baby to use 3-4 words in speech. Many mothers, having heard about the high standard for the number of words (10-20 at 1 year old), get scared, not taking into account that babble related to an object or phenomenon is also a word. One way or another, this approach is quite narrow, since when assessing a baby’s speech, it is necessary to pay attention to the volume of understanding of the addressed speech, and to the baby’s emotionality and curiosity, and to speech activity, which can manifest itself in non-stop babbling, mooing, and vocalizations.