Speech delays in children can be one of the most worrisome concerns parent can have over their toddlers. Up to a certain age, speech and pronunciation lapses can turn out to be funny and cute but there comes a point when too much of it at an older age becomes an issue of concern.
Early speech development is essential to the development of effective communication with children and is quite necessary for his success at school. If you are not quite sure of the correct speech development a normal child should have, you can request speech testing in pre-schools where you send your toddlers to. Likewise, you can be guided by some general guidelines when it comes to identifying normal speech development. It helps to recognize the milestones you should see taking place depending on the age of a child.
A two-year old should be able to associate certain words with objects in his or her surroundings. So the first words you should be hearing are mom, dad, bed, car, ball and most easy to pronounce toy names. They should also be able to put two words together, usually a noun and a verb like daddy go or mommy sleep. You should be able to understand what your child is saying more than half of the time, even if toddlers have the tendency to switch letters at this age. A two year-old's vocabulary generally consists of about 150 to 200 simple words. They should also be able to respond to basic commands like pointing to certain parts of the face.
At age three, children graduate to using plurals and past tenses and can identify more body parts apart from the face. They should be able to say three word sentences and increase their vocabulary to about a thousand words. The way they speak should also be understood 90 percent of the time. A child should also be capable of identifying his or her gender, name and age.
At four years old, a child begins to know the name of familiar animals and can readily name objects in pictures and books. Colors should become familiar to them and they should be able to count up to ten. This is also where a child begins to participate in pretend play and relate well to other children of the same age. A year later, there should be remarkable developments especially as they enter a regular school. Adjectives and comparison should come easy to the five-year-old and their speech is generally grammatically correct by this time.
If at any point you notice some delay or lack in the speech development of your child, it helps much to consult with the experts so proper motivation or therapy can be implemented. There are late bloomers just as there are early starters, so it is best to seek professional assessment to give you peace of mind.
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