Contents
When the child does not speak …
If a child does not speak at all at 3 years old, we can worry, especially if he has not formed an emotional relationship strong and communicative with those around him when he was little. In particular, children who were not spoken to when they were babies, often speak in a metallic voice, without tone. Must go consult a speech therapist or psychologist. But if he is in the relationship and happy, but just not talkative, better to see an ENT to make sure there is no hearing problem, for example.
Try this!
We can consider a speech therapy where the game is in the first place. Everything that can be said in the game can be replayed afterwards, because everything that is expressed in the game takes on a meaning.
The expert’s opinion: Maria Bedos, speech therapist
Speech delay or language delay?
>>> In the case of speech delay, it is the code which is reached: the words are distorted according to the position of the sounds in the word, the sentence (what is called the phonetic facilitations). For example, the child cannot say the “r” in “bar”, but says it very well in “train”.
>>> The language delay is a more complicated phenomenon, it is a disturbance of representation in time, space, which therefore affects syntax, grammar. Generally, this makes the child suffer more, beyond the teasing of speech disorders, because he is a little lost in the world, he has fewer points of reference than other children of the same age. These rehabilitations are great classics of the speech therapist’s work.
Shrink tip
When your child is playing with his toy cars, sit at his height, sitting on the floor and play with him. Take the opportunity to talk about the color of its trucks, the speed, road safety, the next road trip you are going to make. When he plays doctor, be patient and take the opportunity to state the different parts of your body to be treated. Prepare meals together of plasticine talking about what he prefers to eat. Play with the doll’s house, the farm and its animals, the circus… Always start with what he loves. Encourage him to be interested in words, to specify his vocabulary, to develop from what he knows.