Although they may not necessarily admit it, most intending parents do not like the possibility of their children being born with disabilities or whatever health issue their toddlers suffer from. Parents derive enormous joy from seeing their children healthy and growing up well.
One particular issue that causes great concern to parents of toddlers is the challenge of slow, incoherent, or speech delays in their toddlers.
This can be tiresome for parents and even for the kid. Although in many cases, the issue gets normal or at least gets better as the child ages, in some cases, this may not happen.
Parents can already communicate with their babies long before they utter a word. From their cries to their smiles, their reactions to parents enable parents to comprehend their needs.
Parents facing the problem of delayed speech in their toddlers should learn how children communicate and what to do when there are troubles with delays in speech development. This article seeks to provide parents with some information on what delayed speech in their toddlers implies, the ways to remedy the problem, and other useful information.
Delays in Speech
As stated above, speech delays can occasionally be temporary. A child with speech delays may improve on their own as they grow older or with little help from outside sources. Parents must encourage their children to “talk” to them with motions or tones and for them to create time for playing with their kids and other activities like reading and talking with their infant or toddler.
In some situations, the child will need additional assistance from a trained expert or a speech and language therapist to help them improve their language skills and learn how to communicate.
Sometimes delays may be an indication of a more serious problem, problems that have to do with their motor and cognitive abilities, or other behavioral abnormalities that will lead to bigger problems if left untreated. The two most important stages of speech development for toddlers are as follows.
In their formative years (one to two years)
At this early stage, babies are expected to have developed some basic cognitive speech abilities. They should have learned the ability to know where a sound is coming from. When called by their parents, they should be able to react to their name.
Other basic cognitive abilities like waving goodbye to their parents should also develop at this stage.
They should be able to look in the direction where you point something.
By 2 years of age
This next stage is important for speech development in toddlers. It is expected that toddlers of this age should be able to point to many body parts and familiar items and point to some images in books.
They should have mastered the ability to follow one-step commands and two-word sentences or even say a few three-word sentences like “I love food” etc.
At this stage, their speech should be coherent and easy to understand by others (or adults) at least half the time.
