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A child speaks badly at 5 years old: what to do, how to teach
Speech is formed in a child from birth. By the age of 5, a preschooler should express his thoughts coherently and consistently. But there is a delay in speech development: a child at the age of 5 does not speak or communicates with gestures. Let’s figure out why this is happening and how to deal with it.
Why does the child speak badly or not at all?
Speech is formed with the first sounds of the baby, turns into babbling, syllables, words. In the first year, the vocabulary is small, a leap in development is observed from 1 to 3 years old, when the child accompanies every action with words. By the age of 5, the child speaks clearly, his vocabulary is at least 3000 words.
The child does not speak at the age of 5 because he lacks the attention of adults
It is possible to determine the delay in speech development from 2 months. During this period, the baby should respond to sounds, turn, gag and walk. As you get older, the lag is more noticeable. Perhaps there is no cause for concern, since the hereditary factor plays a large role. If the child has not started talking by the age of 3, then you should see a doctor.
The reasons for the developmental delay are different:
- prematurity or intrauterine malformations;
- birth trauma, intrauterine starvation of the fetus;
- intrauterine intoxication;
- hearing problems;
- lack of attention and stress.
The reason may be a general developmental delay after a serious illness and taking certain medications.
A child may not speak for a long time if he does not understand his parents. This happens in bilingual families. The kid is simply confused in the names of objects, so it is better to use one language for communication up to 3 years old.
What to do and how to teach a child to speak
If you suspect a child has a lag in speech development, urgently contact a pediatrician, speech therapist, ENT and neurologist. A comprehensive examination will allow you to draw objective conclusions, develop a treatment plan. In severe cases, drug treatment is required, physiotherapy to stimulate the brain.
Parents will help the child if they perform special massage and speech therapy exercises, develop fine motor skills of the hands.
The massage is carried out with a soft brush or a terry mitten, each movement is accompanied by the sound “mmm” and others. Exercise is useful for the facial muscles, the child learns to pronounce sounds: y, o, a, s, and, e, y, i. In the future, you need to imitate the sounds of animals and birds.
Contact a defectologist who will develop an individual set of exercises taking into account the development of your baby.
Pay attention to the formation of speech from infancy, so as not to miss the first signs. Don’t worry, speech delay is not a sentence. Long and hard work is sure to bear fruit.