Adam is twenty months old and has had an interesting and
challenging language history.
At fifteen months he was clearly communicating about 15 to
20 words, and was really proud of his accomplishments. He was constantly
encouraged and applauded.
Unexpectedly at 17 to 18 months, he went completely silent.
At this time, we also noticed some personality changes. Earlier he was always
smiling, so much so that other parents commented on it. But at this point he
was almost “glum”.
We continued to encourage him to verbalize with little
immediate success. His parents were very much involved in getting him back on
track and thought that the fact that his sister had begun speaking for him
could be a factor.
We began breaking down the words into phonetic sounds. It
took about 10 days before we had measurable success. Now he is enunciating more
clearly than before and is working his way back to being successful at
communicating his basic needs. We are also seeing a smiling child return as he
gains back his confidence.
Do
1. Expect your son to speak at an early age. So much of our
focus as a society says boys are more physical and often trail behind the
female counterparts in language skills
2. Pay attention to any effort he makes in verbal communication
and help him enunciate phonetically.
Remove any obstacle that might be interfering with his
skills development. We see more boys than girls with blankies and bottles well
past their first birthday. Blankies should never be a source of comfort or
habit for your child and bottles should be replaced by a small cup after a
certain point. Not a “sip cup” either as for drinking purposes, children’s
tongue muscles need to develop for speech. Both of these habits could give him
the message “he does not need to verbalize”. They could possibly make it more
difficult to accomplish speech effectively.
When we have had boys join our daycare prior to their first
birthday, we have found that they are mostly on track with the girls, or maybe
even ahead of them by the age of two. In Adam’s case, his parents were the
perfect partners in getting him back on track.
Do Not
1. Label your son as so advanced or interested in physical
activities that he lacks the skills and interest to develop as an effective
communicator: he can do both!
2. Distort the words because someone wrote that young children
can enunciate words more readily if they have an “ie” at the end. We have found
that to be not true.
3.Suddenly introduce a new language just as he is mastering
his first one. We have had many situations where a parent decides to return to
work as her son is nearing age two. The parents decide it would be a great idea
to hire a nanny who speaks a different language to broaden his language skills.
Children can master two to three language at an early age. The most
successfully way to do that is from birth.
It often does not work as well and in fact may derail the
verbal development totally when it occurs at a critical development stage.
Usually when this challenge occurs he is actually being introduced to two new
languages since in most cases that nanny speaks English with an accent which
may sound like a thirst language to a new child. It is a huge advantage to have
broad language skills but evaluate when you are introducing them.
Treat your son as a highly skilled verbal communicator from
the beginning and that is what he will be!
Good luck!
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