Some suggestions and misunderstandings about children’s delayed language development

Children\’s language development is a concern for many parents of young children. In my consultations, parents often ask about their children’s delayed speech and are worried about their children’s delayed language development. To rule out whether the child is really slow to develop or has developmental disabilities, and to worry about the child speaking late, first we need to see whether the child\’s language development is really relatively slow. Regarding the milestones of children\’s language development, I have translated a table and updated part of the content: When we look at children\’s language development, we must not only observe how many words the child has, but also observe how the child recognizes other meanings and understands other people\’s languages. Following instructions and expressing emotions, needs, etc. to others through body language. If the child really worries us in this regard, it is recommended to take the child to professional childcare or see a specialist for evaluation and necessary intervention. After ruling out developmental disorders, let\’s look at other reasons that may be affecting the relatively backward language development. During consultations, I sometimes ask parents to provide me with videos of their interactions with their children. From the videos of interactions between parents and their children, some problems can be seen. You must know the function of speech. When we talk about language, we are not just talking. Language is actually more important. It serves as a bridge for mutual understanding in communication. In daily parent-child interaction, if we do not pay attention to using language to interact with our children, or the verbal interaction will be very poor. For example, if it is just a simple inquiry about eating, drinking, and eating, and monotonous talking to the child about playing, without richer and more vivid dialogue interactions, the child\’s language development will also be slower due to the lack of rich language interaction. In addition to playing an important role in communication and interaction, language expression can also allow others to understand our needs more clearly. If the family members are more sensitive to the baby\’s needs, often the child only needs to squeal twice or point a finger, and the family will understand \”Oh, the baby wants this\”, and then immediately meet the child\’s needs. From the child\’s point of view, he will think that this is enough for me, and he will not have the opportunity to learn to express his needs through language. Therefore, when we interact with children on a daily basis, we can consciously pay attention to whether we are more quiet or lack interesting language, or whether we have richer and more vivid language interactions. How to enhance language interaction during interaction. Many mothers may feel that they really don’t know how to have more language interaction with their children during interaction. Let’s take a look at the little tips I’ve prepared for you: Following interests is first of all the same as communication between us adults. Adults often talk about topics that both people are interested in, or one party pays attention to topics that the other party is interested in. Spread from topics of interest. The same goes for our interactions with children. We can first pay attention to what the child is interested in and talk to the child about the items he is interested in. For example, \”This car is so beautiful.\” \”The car is coming, beep beep beep, oops, it\’s about to hit, what should I do?\” At this time, we can also make some exaggerated and fun effects, and then we observe the child\’s reaction. have a lookIs he attracted to us and is it interesting? Guided games In addition, we can also follow the children\’s points of interest, try to enrich the content of the game, and guide the children to explore more ways to play. For example, when a child is pushing a car, we can try to use a small prop to make a tunnel and say to the baby, \”The car is driving through the tunnel.\” Or if it is a toy with sound and light effects, we can press different buttons. , tell the baby that if you listen to this sound, the kitten is meowing. Or you can use another toy to interact and talk to the baby, \”Hello, are you a little monkey?\”. Through such expansion and guidance, children\’s games can be made more interesting and more communication can be generated. We can use mother\’s language appropriately. What is mother\’s language? It means that when we face young children, we slow down our speaking speed, raise our intonation, and may also use exaggerated facial expressions. Mommy’s language does not mean that only mothers can use it. Any caregiver can use it when interacting with their children. In this way, the children are more likely to be attracted to their parents, and then share the same attention with their parents. It is important to know that joint attention (both parties\’ attention is on the same thing) is very important in children\’s learning. The more frequently infants and caregivers experience joint attention, the longer children maintain attention spans, understand more language, produce meaningful body language and spoken words earlier, and expand their vocabulary. will be bigger. Following the child\’s interests, expanding the child\’s exploration, and using mother\’s language can strengthen the joint attention of parents and children. Parents and children will also have more interactions and exchanges due to joint attention. Another thing to note about scaffolding is to build language scaffolding for children based on their zone of proximal development. While enriching the language environment, we can consciously repeat some simple words to let the children associate them with actual objects. After the children can express these simple words, we can slowly expand new words and adjust the scaffolding step by step. , to help children learn. It is not enough to rely on a lot of descriptive language in interaction. Many of our speech therapists or some guides will recommend that parents should play the role of \”narrators\” during their children\’s games, and be responsible for the objects and behaviors their children take. All are named and explained. The logic of this suggestion is very simple: since we need to give children language input during interaction, why don’t we talk more and describe the color, shape, and function of the toys the children play next to them, and then describe what the children are doing? You can have a very rich language input. There is nothing wrong with this suggestion, but many people ignore a basic premise: interaction, joint attention, and the same frequency. So when I decode parent-child interaction videos, I will see a situation like this: the children are playing there, and the parents act as \”narrators\” next to them, constantly naming the things the children take and what they do, but the children seem to His parents\’ language was like background sound, and he didn\’t react much. Many parents will also complain: \”I keep talking and talking, and my mouth is dry, but I feel that the child has not made obvious language progress. Although he seems to understand everything, heStill don’t say it. After a long time, I felt very frustrated and tired, and I didn’t want to talk about it.” So, what we want to point out here is that interaction, joint attention and the same frequency are the basis. We first need to have joint attention with our children. , follow the child\’s points of interest, observe the child\’s reaction, and add appropriate descriptive language on the basis of establishing communication between the two parties. Only such input will be more meaningful. I have also written in previous articles about watching TV or using point-to-point reading. Whether pens can promote children\’s language development is actually the same. Mechanical and unilateral input to children without interaction and communication may not actually promote children\’s language development. Whether we directly give children language input or speak Use picture books, reading pens, TV videos and other tools to increase the vocabulary and sentences that children can hear. The most important thing is to have good interaction and the same frequency with the children. Only by doing other things on this basis can we have better results. .The documentary about baby development, The Magical World of Babies, BBC Chinese [Full 3 episodes, 1080P ultra-clear version] To put it more directly: parents should put themselves into the role of playmates during this process, rather than \”explaining\” In the role of \”educator\” or \”educator\”. Only when children find it fun and interesting and are willing to interact with their parents can their language expression have a long-term foundation. In addition, by the way, I would like to mention: As for our parent-child interaction video coding and clinical observation It seems that in many second-child families, the second child is more likely to lag behind in expressive language. Part of the reason is that when raising the second child, the caregiver no longer pays as much attention to early education and interaction as the first child, and the mentality is relatively more Relaxation, but at the same time the interaction enthusiasm and quality of companionship with the second child are not enough, and the overall passivity increases. In this case, many second children appear to be very \”good\” and can play alone for a long time, but their expressive language is often slower . We often hear a saying: the eldest child is raised according to the book, and the second child is raised like a pig. When raising the second child, it is actually a good thing to relax and not be tense, but we still have to be careful not to go from one extreme to the other. extreme.