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Child Language Development

A child’s language development concerns parents even from the first months of life.

Parents can provide their child with rich language stimulation through play and everyday interaction.

A child’s language development follows certain stages.

Stages of Language Development

During infancy, the baby begins to produce their first sounds and respond to auditory stimuli. They interact with familiar people through eye contact and smiling.

• At the age of 12 months, the child uses their first words, such as “mama” and “dada”, imitates various sounds and understands simple instructions.
• At the age of 18 months, the child begins to name objects in their environment, while by the age of 2 they combine two words together and understand more complex instructions.
• At the age of 3, the child uses three words together, plurals, articles and pronouns, while also understanding simple stories and concepts.
• A 4-year-old child uses more complex grammatical and syntactic structures, and their speech becomes more intelligible.

How can parents support language development?

Parents can contribute to and support their child’s language development by interacting with them both verbally and non-verbally.

During infancy, they can help develop the child’s communication by maintaining good eye contact and responding to every attempt at interaction. They can sing to the child and imitate their laughter, sounds and facial expressions.

We encourage the child to imitate clapping, waving and pointing.

It is important for parents to name familiar people and objects and to describe to the child the activities and actions they are performing. For example, during bath time: “I’m washing your hair”, “I’m washing your hands”, “Here is the towel!”, “I’m drying you with the towel”.

The first sounds a child usually imitates are animal sounds.

Therefore, we can show children animals and make the corresponding sounds, as well as show them various objects associated with a sound, e.g. car “beep-beep”, telephone “ring-ring”, drum “ta-ta”, the baby is sleeping, we stay quiet “shhhhhh”.

There are words that are easy for a child to imitate, such as the word “gone”. We can show the child an object, hide it and say “gone”.

Other first words we can use for the child to imitate include: “come”, “look”, “again”, “there it is”, “bye”, “there”, “yes”, “no”.

We use short sentences when speaking to the child so that they can retain the auditory information, as well as simple and correct grammatical structures so that it is easier for them to imitate us. We speak slowly and clearly and avoid “baby talk”.

The Importance of Understanding

A basic prerequisite for a child to speak is understanding.

Initially, we encourage comprehension and vocabulary enrichment by category, e.g. animals, clothes, foods, tools, means of transport.

One example is to show two animals and ask the child to choose the one we name, identify it and make its sound.

At first, it is important to use real objects or miniatures and then move on to pictures.

It is also essential for the child to learn the functional use of objects, e.g. cup – I drink water.

We strengthen the understanding of instructions and concepts through experiential learning. For example, we have various building blocks and, while showing them to the child, we say: “take the big block”, “put it on the table”, “put it inside the box”.

Supporting Expression

When the child speaks, we try to expand their expression.

If they say “water”, we repeat “I want water”. If they say “ball”, we say “a big ball”. If they say “daddy is eating”, we enrich the sentence by saying “daddy is eating an apple”, thereby providing the child with the correct language model.

Through symbolic play, we give the child the opportunity to develop comprehension, expression and interaction with an adult.

For example, when playing with a farm set, we create a story in which the animals make sounds, talk, eat, drink water and go for a walk.

The Value of Reading Books

It is important to establish a daily book-reading routine.

We read stories to children, describe the pictures, ask them to point to objects in the pictures and answer simple questions such as:

• Who?
• When?
• What are they doing?
• Where?
• Why?

We discuss emotions and what will happen next in the story.

With older children, we expand their vocabulary, describe objects, retell stories and discuss everyday activities.

When should we consult a specialist?

When significant deviations from language milestones are observed in a child, referral to a specialist is necessary.

When an infant does not respond to auditory stimuli, does not interact, or between the ages of 12-18 months has not developed any speech at all or appears not to understand, it is important to carry out an initial hearing assessment.

Parents may consult a speech and language therapist when the child’s language development is significantly delayed compared with peers and there is concern about the progress of speech and language development.