When Edwin joined our daycare at two and a half years, even
though he seemed alert and friendly, he was totally lacking in speech skills. He
even lacked the “babble” most one year olds have already developed.
We were somewhat confused because his mom was a high
communicator with us. We did find that his dad was unusually quiet and actually
never offered any information when he brought Edwin to day care unless we asked
and even then, his responses were very limited.
By the time Edwin was three, he had improved but at the same
time, was slow to socialize and was experiencing challenges in terms of
interaction with his peers and his teachers.
By the age of four we were concerned there were
developmental problems. Only then did his mom admit that she never really spoke
with him after work because she was too tired. Even though our last pickup time
is 7pm, she was almost always late, with the excuse that the traffic was
exceptionally heavy.
Only when we called in a psychotherapist to asses him did
the dad (who cared for him during the day before he joined us) admit he had
never spoken to him either.
Is this extreme? Probably! He was diagnosed as having signs
of Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of Autism. When parents do not realize how
intelligent their child is, their behavior unintentionally has serious effects
on their child’s development, maybe even in a critical way.
Another factor to consider is that a large majority of the
children who join a day care are cared for by a nanny or a relative. The vast
majority of these individuals are caring and skilled communicators; however
this is your child. Make sure you stress the importance of skilled
communication.
If your infant is not making skilled and frequent verbal
interaction with you between six and nine months, this could be a clue they are
not getting as much verbal stimulation as they need.
The other factor you need to be aware of is that if you
hired a nanny who speaks a different language that you believe is a benefit to
your child, then your nanny should only speak to your child in that language.
If their skills in your native language are heavily
accented, that fact can delay your child’s speech since they would then be
hearing two new languages instead of one. We have had many two year olds join
us with no language skills because of that confusion.
Children can easily learn as many as three languages at a
young age when each of the three adults involved only speak to them in one
language.
It is exciting for us and wonderful that the child
development experts are now in agreement that brain development is critical
from birth!
Having your child skilled enough to communicate with you at
a very young age is one of the most exciting facets in the parenting experience.
Enjoy!
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