When children start talking first. When does the child start to speak? What to do if it does not fit into certain deadlines

The child begins to communicate from birth with the help of a cry - putting emotions into it. So he attracts attention to himself, expresses his requirements. You need to start teaching him to speak from this age, then it will be too late.

Reflex voice responses - the first words

In the first months of life, pre-speech reactions are reflexive. They appear in normally developing children at the same time, and do not depend on learning.

  • humming;
  • flute;
  • babbling.

Humming appears by 1.5 months. It even occurs in children who are deaf from birth. First, the child pronounces u-uu, a-aa, by 2 - 3 months agu, boo, zy, agu. At this age, you need to help him pronounce sounds. Talking to him, responding to his call.

After the flute, the child begins to babble. Pronounces the frequently repeated syllables ba-ba, mother, yes-yes-yes, accompanying speech with rhythmic movements. During this period, freedom of action is very important for the child.

After conducting many experiments, scientists have proven that those children who can move freely begin to talk earlier, it is better.

At the age of 8.5 - 9 months, modulated babbling appears. Mom and dad are beginning to call their parents. The child repeats syllables with different intonations and if you ask him who it is he confidently calls mom, dad,

Congenital reactions include onomatopoeia in children 2 to 7 months of age. Buzzing, babbling, and flute is a game. If you start talking with the baby, he tries to repeat the sounds after adults. This game brings him pleasure.

It's important to know! The kid hums and babbles when he is in a comfortable environment. He is warm, dry and full. He is especially interested in repeating sounds after adults. But in order for him to begin to develop correct articulation, the child needs to see the facial expressions of the speaking adult. Mom needs to look at him while talking to him. In addition, the room should be quiet.

In a baby in a noisy environment, all vocal reactions develop with a great delay.

Developing lucid speech

Many parents are interested in how many words a baby should know at a certain age. When he must speak so that others can understand him. Basically, this is all individual and depends on various factors - physiological and psychological characteristics, upbringing. But in general, the difference in normally developing children is relatively small.

In 1 year

The kid pronounces the first words, which he repeats after adults. Girls start talking a couple of months earlier than boys.... The vocabulary is about 10 words (this includes your own variants of the names of various objects, for example, car - beep-beep, clock - tick-tock, walk - top-top). First, children pronounce words in the nominative case (mom, dad) and onomatopoeic (woof bi-bi, co-co).

At a year and a half, they are already trying to speak in two-word sentences. Learn the imperative mood of the verbs (give, go).

By the age of 2

Begin to use plural forms. The vocabulary consists of 300 words. At 1.5 - 2 years, the first period of questions "What is this?" Begins. Thus, the baby learns the world around him, forms his vocabulary.

At 3 years old

The child begins to speak in sentences, uses words in different cases. Knows how many items (many or one). Often pronounces words incorrectly, or comes up with a new form himself. Very often, boys use feminine past tense verbs in relation to themselves. It goes away with age.

At 4 years old

The child should already be talking in full sentences. Doesn't use onomatopoeia or defective words. Can retell a fairy tale or everyday story. He speaks so that not only his mother understands him. Usually at this age, children do not correctly pronounce -л-, -р-. To the question "How much?" answer by calling the number while showing on the fingers. More often they answer incorrectly.

It's important to know! In order for the baby to start talking correctly, on time and know as many words as is necessary by age, you need to deal with him.

Start with the birth of your baby. It is necessary to talk to him, and he must see the face of the speaker. When a baby begins to speak, the audience is of great importance to him, he can talk to himself, but he becomes silent very quickly. If an adult speaks to him, the baby will begin to echo him. Do not forget this is a game for the child.

Why do children start talking late?

In children, the cause of delayed speech development (RAD) can be:

  • lack of formation of the sensory sphere;
  • wrong upbringing.

If a child has RRR associated with imperfection of the sensorimotor sphere (diseases, birth trauma), then correction is very difficult... In this case, only specialists (neurologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, speech therapist) can help.

When raising their baby, parents very often make mistakes that lead to RRP.

The most common:

  • lack of motivation;
  • persistent learning;
  • an excess of emotions;
  • lack of freedom of movement.

RRD can be observed not only in children with whom the parents did not study. Very often, overprotectiveness is the cause. When parents, anticipating the desires of their baby, immediately serve him the required thing, he just has to point his finger. In this case, the child has no motivation to develop speech. Why talk if it's enough to show and cry.

Very often, parents, teaching their child, demand to repeat the word. But if the baby does not want to, he begins to be silent, capricious, adults are angry with him, shout, or demand to pronounce the word correctly.

Thus, the child cannot be helped, he will develop a dislike for colloquial speech. Besides, forcing the child to repeat any word is useless. Children learn better while playing.

A mistake in excessive emotionality arises when the child said a word, the parents were delighted, laughed. When he said it again, he did not understand the meaning of the word, did not connect the name and the subject. For him, it's just a set of letters that caused positive emotions in him and his parents. Children remember only those words, the meaning of which they understand.

Oddly enough, but the lack of freedom of movement plays a significant role for the ZRR. Motor and speech activity are closely related, and this is due to the physiology of the brain. It has been noticed that children who are more mobile begin to talk faster. The development of fine motor skills contributes not only to the formation of speech skills, but also to learning to read and write.

The experiment was carried out with children 1 - 1.3 years old. Created two groups. In the first group, they constantly showed the same book, repeating the word “Book” 500 times. In another group, this book was acted upon. They said "Give a book", "Take a book." In the second case, the word "Book" was used 300 times.

Then, in the first group, various books and toys were laid out, placing the book that was shown between them. Then the experimenters asked the children to give them a book. The children did the right thing right away, giving exactly the book that they were shown. But when they were asked to give another book, the guys got lost, they were given various toys. In the second group, the children, after being asked to give more books, began to submit other books.

Output: By manipulating various objects, children not only remember the name better, but begin to generalize concepts.

How to help your baby talk

If the baby speaks badly or incorrectly, first you need to find out the reason why this happened. It is advisable to consult a speech therapist. If there is a suspicion of a disease, you should seek help from a neurologist.

For a child to start talking, you need to constantly deal with him. Only classes should be in the form of a game. In no case should he be forced to "Say that, say that." Everything should take place in the form of free dialogue.

Also, if the child points to an object, you do not need to immediately serve him. You must immediately name the object, wait for the child's response - even if he does not name it correctly, or comes up with his own name.

For the development of speech, games that develop fine motor skills (mosaic) are very useful. With children under 3 years old, it must be played under the supervision of adults. to avoid small parts being swallowed or pushed into your ears or nose.

In order for the child to speak, you need to answer all his questions "What is this?", "Why". Talk to him often, and so that the baby is not a passive listener. For example, when picking up a child from kindergarten, you need to ask what he did, what he ate. At first, you will need to prompt him, but over time he himself will begin to tell what he ate, what he played, who was put in a corner.

The life of a baby is amazing because everything in it happens for the first time. Steps, smiles and, of course, words - these are exactly what adults are waiting for with special impatience. After all, the ability to speak will facilitate the upbringing process, make the desires of the crumbs understandable to others, and enable the child to feel the joy of verbal communication. What time do children start talking? It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to this question, but some general trends can be identified.

Speaking about the development of speech, it is worth mentioning the emergence of communication skills. As a rule, newborns show weak reactions to external auditory stimuli. Many mothers are still in the hospital trying to establish contact with babies, turn to them with requests (for example: “Don't cry!”, “Let's go to bed!”), Talk about the environment, sing lullabies.

Numerous studies claim that even a fetus in the womb hears and understands the emotional coloring of sounds. He reacts to a raised tone with an increase in heartbeat, and from a calm voice and melodic singing he calms down and even falls asleep. So after birth, the baby perfectly hears the sounds of the world around him, however, it is almost impossible to get a response from him.

When a child begins to speak agu, this is not the beginning of conscious speech, but just humming. The period when such sounds are first pronounced is individual for everyone. Most often this happens in 2-3 months. Some children are already developing individual intonations, others take them from the speech of the surrounding adults. Some sounds babies pull, while others speak briefly and abruptly. And there is no limit to the joy of many parents, because such a series of indistinct vowels is already beginning to resemble a monologue.

At 6-10 months, it’s time to pronounce the repeating syllables ma-ma, ha-ha, dya-dia clearly. The period when children will say their first words consciously is already very close, but for now there is a process of repetition and active pronunciation training. However, it is precisely this period that is recognized as that cherished time when the mother begins to speak.

The first words - when can you hear them?

Age Speech and sound skills
0-1.5 months Scream (sometimes with a predominance of the sounds "ya" and "la").
1.5-5 months Shouting, as well as humming and gurgling - pronunciation of quiet, slightly melodious sounds, syllables with different intonations. Most often “gu”, “agu”, “va”.
5-6 months Children's babble - adding to the already mastered sounds of new intonations, as well as the syllables "ma", "ba", "pa". Unconscious combination of syllables into simple words "mom", "dad", "uncle".
6-10 months Clear pronunciation of syllables, their repetition 2-3 times. Adding sounds “to”, “and”, “e” and others.
10-12 months Pronunciation of simple words such as "mom", "dad", "give", "na".
1-1.5 years Mastering 5 - 10 simple words, building simple sentences from a noun with a verb or an adjective, using prepositions.
1.5-3 years Writing sentences, as well as the ability to ask simple questions to others and independently give simple answers.
3-4 years Developed, emotionally rich speech with complex sentences.

At what age does a child start to speak? The answer to this question is always individual. According to the Great Medical Encyclopedia, the central link of the entire speech apparatus is the cerebral cortex, primarily its left hemisphere.

That is, each person will consciously say the first words only when his brain reaches a sufficient level of development. According to doctors, this will happen no earlier than 10-12 months. The first words will already make sense, but for now they will turn out to be monosyllabic (give, na) or will consist of repetitive sounds (mom, dad, lala). After a year, the baby begins to understand the simple requests and instructions of the elders (take, sit down, get up), but he still has to explain every new word or phenomenon.

Up to two years old, children already accumulate a small vocabulary. Phrases and phrases are becoming easier to understand, scraps of vocabulary constructions turn into meaningful phrases. By the way, some preschoolers get very angry if adults do not understand their monologues, and because of this they may be deliberately silent. But when mom or dad finally understands their request or the story of joy there is no limit.

As a rule, by the age of four, babies' speech becomes varied, emotionally intense and rich in complex sentences. They have a good p sound, there are no problems with hissing, all pronounced phrases are easily given to the speaker himself and understandable to the listener.

The child still does not say why it happens and what to do

There are many reasons why children start talking late. For example, at 4 years old, the vocabulary of a boy or girl can be very poor, and at 3 it can be completely limited to a few understandable phrases. You should not be discouraged because of this - all people have individual rates of development, but in such a situation it is worth showing the child to the doctor.

The reason for this silence can be various diseases - for example, autism or dyslalia (defects in the pronunciation of some sounds, because of which the child may be embarrassed to speak at all). But most often the reason lies in the peculiarities of physiology, upbringing and personal qualities.

  • If it is very difficult to teach a baby to speak, maybe the reason is that the people around do not speak or are simply silent a lot. Of course, where does the language skills come from if the youngest member of the family has no one to learn them from?
  • The solution is very simple - spend more time in active communication with the little one, more often contact him with requests and suggestions: “Smell the flower”, “Let's play”, “Let's go to eat”. Help him remember more words by watching educational cartoons with him, reading books aloud, playing games in which you need to pronounce and repeat the names of objects, actions, describe pictures.
  • In fact, if a child does not try to speak in sentences for a long time, it is often the parents themselves or other people who are raising the child who are to blame. By the way, Dr. Komarovsky recommends starting active conversations from three months of pregnancy!
  • The reasons why a child is late in speech skills can be physiological and hereditary. In this case, in addition to the above tips, Doman's cards are very helpful. This method allows you to train your memory, develop imaginative thinking, and turn learning into an interesting and exciting game.
  • Thanks to the methodology of the American physiotherapist Glen Doman, the time when the child should start talking will come much earlier.
  • How to teach a child to speak at 2 years old if he is just silent? This happens very often, because even many adults are more inclined to accumulate information in themselves, they do not like to share thoughts and impressions. How can you help a child with this character without harming his developing personality?
  • First of all, as far as possible, you need to provide him with maximum communication. It can be not only adults, but also peers. Walking in the yard, on the playground, developmental and educational mass events are very useful. Much depends on the environment and atmosphere - do not let the little person shut himself up, but also do not try to forcefully accustom him to too noisy companies, let him take a break and take a break.
  • Another reason why a healthy and active baby does not start talking is complexes, neuroses, various psychological difficulties. As your offspring gets older, support and approval is very important to him.


If you start scolding the baby, criticizing, accusing that the spoken phrase came out very badly - most likely, he will speak clearly for the first time and without fear he will start very late. Fear generates a quiet pronunciation, a series of short, abrupt sentences. In this case, a future schoolchild or student in ten years will be tormented by another question - how to learn to speak loudly?

To prevent this from happening, elders must remember the rules for themselves.:

  1. We talk calmly in the family, we do not criticize, we do not blame.
  2. We teach and educate the child patiently, with love, with respect for the little person.

For children to learn to speak on time and become full-fledged personalities, it is very important to give them enough attention, play and read together, spend more time in the family circle, in a friendly atmosphere. And yet, at what age do children begin to actively practice verbal communication? There is no single rule. But with an effort, you can achieve success much earlier.

The time when the child begins to speak the first syllables and words does not depend at all on heredity. To develop the crumbs' speech apparatus, parents must independently make an effort to this. There are many special recommendations that come to help young parents in teaching babies to speak skills. Experts answer the question of what time the child begins to speak the first words, on average, at 14-18 months.

Talking on a toy mobile phone will help toddlers develop their own speech, and the time when a child starts talking most often depends on such conversations.

The same norms do not exist at what time a child begins to speak. Therefore, it cannot be said with certainty that a child will begin to speak strictly at one or two years old. To more or less assess the situation, we offer a list of norms from a medical point of view, at what time the child begins to speak the first words and sounds.

  1. At 1-2 months, babies can cry and be capricious, while choosing a different intonation.
  2. In the second or third month, the baby begins to gurgle, this suggests that the baby will soon begin to babble.
  3. At the age of 5-6 months, babies begin to pronounce the syllables "ba", "pa", "ma".
  4. At 10-12 months you can hear the long-awaited words of the child: "ma-ma", "ba-ba", "give."
  5. In the future, the baby begins to actively explore the world, listen to the conversations of adults, so it's time to pronounce intelligible sentences.

What can parents do to get the child to speak the first words as soon as possible?

Communication and attention are very important in teaching your toddler how to talk. It depends on what time the child begins to speak and which words will be the first and more meaningful for him. It is important from a month and a half to give the baby more of your attention, to show care and love. So the baby will feel that he is not indifferent to you and will rather begin to adapt to the environment and try to talk.

Children say! My daughter (6 years old) is very fond of looking at a book with dinosaurs. And somehow he doesn't want to braid, I persuaded and braided her a French braid. I say:
- Look how beautiful it turned out.
She touched it and grunted displeasedly:
- Well, yes, just like an ankylosaurus thorn.

At what time the child begins to speak, there are no clear restrictions, but if the baby is silent until three years old or pronounces only unconscious syllables, you should consult with a pediatric specialist and speech therapist.

Attention! A child's speech problem can be caused by disorders of the nervous system or general retardation in physical development. An experienced doctor will help you notice the signs.

What time the child starts to speak will depend on your communication with him. Any actions with a crumb must be voiced.

To make the baby start talking faster, experts advise:

  • regularly conduct fine motor skills (from six months, games with small objects, cereals and pasta are permissible) only under your careful supervision. Give your child a finger massage more often;
  • read fairy tales and entertaining rhymes: they speed up the period when the baby begins to speak. This should be done during the game or. For such activities, it is better to use special children's literature with nursery rhymes and funny songs;
  • include positive children's music. You can include adult songs with a fun rhythm. This will distract the baby from the whim, and he will begin to listen to the melodies reaching him;
  • to acquaint the baby with the sounds that animals make. After a month and a half, you can ask the crumbs how the dog says, and he will easily give the correct answer;
  • from six months, the baby begins to make conscious sounds. It is important at this moment that their pronunciation is correct, so parents should correct the baby;

The time when the child starts to speak depends entirely on the efforts of the parents to help the child with this.

From eight months, the baby begins to speak the first words consciously, trying to ask the parents for something.

Note to moms! Do not worry if the child does not say the word "mom" a year. For many crumbs, the first word may be "give" or "baba". If the baby begins to speak words, parents should respond to them and fulfill the request of the crumbs. This will help your baby understand what his pronunciation means faster.

At 1.5-2 years old, parents may notice that the baby began to speak in phrases and sentences. At this age, he does it quite consciously. However, an absolutely healthy child can speak fully even at the age of three. This is not considered a deviation from the norm.

The video will come to the rescue and tell you what time the child starts talking, how to develop him for these purposes.

The kid does not speak well or does not speak at all - what to do

There are many reasons why a child starts talking late or does not speak, while his peers are already actively "chatting". A slight delay in speech that fits into the norm is not considered a pathology. There are a number of factors that directly affect the age at which the child begins to speak the first words:


Children say! I take a persimmon out of the fridge on a saucer. The fruit is so overripe that a crack has gone from the top to the sepal and a little light juice has accumulated on the saucer. Taya carefully examines this still life and says:
- And the persimmon has described itself ...

Analyzing the polls that were conducted with the parents of babies, we can note the statistics of the first words of the child. Of all the babies whose parents were interviewed, 44% of mothers answered that the first word of the child was “mom”, 20% of parents answered that it was “dad”, 10% - “baba”, “aunt”, “grandfather”; 7% of adults marked the first word of their crumbs "give", and the remaining parents named other pronunciation options.

Panic-causing situations

A child by the age of four may not utter words at all, but only actively babble and simply imitate the sounds of the environment. This situation causes concern for parents, therefore at this age it is important to consult with specialists who can prescribe special exercises for the tongue for a small patient.

If the baby does not have developmental retardation, but he has not yet begun to speak, this is often associated with hereditary factors, mother's stresses during pregnancy, and nervous breakdowns in the first months after childbirth.

The main incentive for a child to start speaking the first words earlier is considered to be his direct communication with parents, the manifestation of love, care and attention on their part.

It should be understood that this does not happen spontaneously. The first conscious words and sentences are preceded by several so-called preparatory stages at once.

Stages of speech development

Already from the very first days after birth, the baby shows initial vocal reactions, namely crying and screaming. Of course, they are still very far from our usual speech, but these are important processes that make it possible to develop respiratory, articulatory and vocal apparatus. Already after 2 weeks, the baby begins to respond to the voices of the speakers, to listen when they are talking to him. And from 2-3 months, children have a characteristic humming (sounds like "aha", "aha", "gkh" and others). Up to six months, babies continue to "play" with sounds in this way, and by the age of 7-8 months they have the ability to imitate the sounds pronounced by adults ("ma-ma-ma", "cha-cha-cha", "pa -pa-pa ", etc.). This means that the moment when the child starts to speak is not far off.

What determines when a child speaks?

It should be understood that all children develop individually, and there is simply no single answer to the question of when a child will start talking. However, it has been noticed that sensible kids who prefer quiet games surrounded by toys begin to speak a little earlier. And fidgets seeking to explore the whole world around them, touch and taste everything, simply do not have time to learn and talk - their life is already full of vivid impressions.

On average, girls say their first words earlier, while boys have this moment a few weeks later. However, here everything is, again, relative.

When a child starts to speak also depends on the attitude towards him in the family. If you constantly indulge all his desires, think for him a few steps ahead, there will simply be no incentive to talk - he will get everything he wants anyway. Tense relationships between family members and the oppressive environment in the home also negatively affect becoming unsociable and withdrawn.

On average, a baby should develop basic vocabulary by 15-18 months. But if at the age of 2-3 years the baby babbles and can hardly pronounce only a few words, it is better to consult a doctor who will help to identify the cause of such a delay. Maybe he has something that prevents him from speaking, or a weak hearing.

How can I help my child start talking?

Of course, the moment, the proposals, is still far away. But you can bring this time closer if you help the baby to master. What needs to be done for this?

Be patient - and very soon in the life of your family will come that amazing moment when the child begins to speak. Komarovsky, as well as many other honored pediatricians of our country, do not get tired of repeating that the main thing is to allow the baby to develop and not put pressure on him. Even if the crumb does not speak at a time when all peers are already learning to put words into whole phrases, most likely, at this time he simply develops other areas of thinking and activity, and therefore there is no reason for concern!

Speech is one of the abilities that distinguishes a person from the animal world. By the degree of speech development, the development of the brain as a whole is judged.

Let's find out: that is, when the sounds and their combinations pronounced by the child can be designated as the beginning of speech. A newborn baby screams - he informs us that he is hungry, sick, and not comfortable. But this is exactly what a dog does when you don't feed it or close it up in an unfamiliar room.

So how long does it take for children to start talking?

The average norms adopted by pediatric specialists for assessing the development of a child's speech are as follows:

Articulation of syllables appears at the age of seven months(ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba, etc.). Around twelve - the child begins to pronounce the first short words (often consisting of one syllable).

After about six months, a year, you will be able to hear sentences consisting of two or three simple words from the lips of your son or daughter.

During the second year of life, speech will improve. AND by the age of three, the baby will already be able to talk in simple phrases.

Four complex sentences.

But it is no secret that there are “silent people” who stubbornly refuse to speak even at three years old, although they are all right with their hearing, vocal apparatus and intellect.

Why it happens? What prevents a baby from starting to pronounce words, is it really only loving parents who understand their baby perfectly?

Let's try to figure out how a child starts to speak

Man is a social being, he learns by imitating others, so the first thing, of course, the child must hear speech and be involved in this process. This is a well-known fact. But it also happens that they constantly talk to a baby, but he is silent and does not even try to say anything. Many will now be surprised (for ourselves, the pronunciation of words is easy for us, we perform this action already on the machine), and your child simply does not know how to do this, his speech apparatus does not receive the desired signal from the brain. When the child begins to speak, but only when the motor speech area begins to form in his head.

Therefore, it is necessary to form and develop this center. How to do it?

If you carefully examine the map of the brain, you will notice that the area of ​​interest to us is very close to the area responsible for movement, being, in fact, part of it. This means that the speed of mastering speech depends on how well developed the child's motor skills are.

Scientists have conducted research in this area, and revealed a clear dependence of the speed of mastering speech on the motor activity of children, specifically on the development of their hands and fingers (the ability to perform fine movements).

At five months old, the little man begins to oppose the other fingers of the thumb. Grabbing an object is now done not with the palm, but only with the fingers. After two months, the baby pronounces the first syllables.

At eight, nine months, he takes small objects with two fingers, and by the year the first words appear.

During all the first years of life, a new, improved finger movement first appears, followed by progress in speech. It never happens to turn around.

What to do if a child starts to speak late or does not speak at all

Instead of asking everyone when a child starts talking, do it. Massage your fingers, sculpt from plasticine, draw, play finger games, exercise on simulators, sort out the croup, lace up your shoes, make beads. Teach your child to show on their fingers how old they are. Be aware that there is a test carried out on young children, according to the results of which you can immediately confidently say whether the child is already speaking or not. The testing teacher asks the child in turn (imitating him) to show one, two and three fingers. If the movements are clear, then the child is speaking.

Love and develop your children.