Why is the child late in speaking?

Many young parents hope that their babies can grow up and develop quickly after giving birth, especially for their children's physical development. Parents and friends are very concerned. Some children are born late in speaking, and they always don't speak anything. When they are happy, they will speak with "hmm" and "ahh", but can't say a complete word. This makes parents very anxious. So why do children speak late?

Are children smarter if they start talking later?

Ms. Chen's son has fair and tender skin, big eyes, and is a cute and well-behaved baby. But there is one thing that has always worried his family, that is, he is almost two years old, but he still can't speak. When he is happy, he just makes "hmm" sounds and cannot utter a complete word. Seeing that many children of his age or even a few months younger than him can already speak fluently, his family became very anxious.

Some parents also believe that children who speak late are "late bloomers" and that the later a child speaks, the smarter he or she is. In fact, this is untrue and this view is incorrect. Experts say that babies start babbling when they are around one year old.

If a child cannot speak by the age of two or three and is unable to say a few simple words and sentences, it is medically known as speech delay. There are many reasons for speech delay. Usually there are three aspects that affect children's speech: physiological reasons, psychological reasons and family reasons.

From a physiological point of view, if a child has problems with his hearing or abnormal pronunciation organs, he will not be able to pronounce normally. For example, if a child has abnormalities such as a short frenulum, cleft lip, or cleft palate, there will be abnormal airflow and difficulty in vocal coordination, which will affect pronunciation. If a child has hearing impairment, it will also affect language development. If a child has autism or intellectual disability, he or she may not be able to speak.

However, most children's refusal to speak is caused by their family environment. Some parents often say things that their children cannot say, and over time, the children get used to hearing them and become unwilling to speak. There are also a very small number of parents who force their children to speak or make fun of their children's incorrect pronunciation, inadvertently hurting the children's self-esteem, and as a result, they become unwilling to speak.

In addition, if a child has been raised listening to dialects since birth and the adults around him do not speak standard Mandarin, the child may have inaccurate pronunciation when learning Mandarin.

The problem of late speaking is actually very common. In life, many children often have this phenomenon. As long as it is not a physical problem of the child, parents do not need to worry. Take some time every day to patiently teach the child to speak and teach the child a few simple words, which can help with speaking.