Why Is My Child Still Speaking Poorly Or Not Speaking At All?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

With what requests do parents most often come to me as a neuropsychologist?

Often this is a query "why is my child still speaking poorly or not speaking at all?"

At first, many moms and dads believe that the development of speech is simply a little delayed, but then by the age of 3 years the child begins to sound the alarm. And they can be perfectly understood, because speech and its development is a pronounced marker of how the child's brain develops, as well as higher mental functions.

It is clear when the baby has a history of any disorders of the central nervous system (hypoxia, traumatic brain injury, hematomas, etc.). But how can I answer the parents' question "why does my child not speak?" If the child's health is all right?

At the very beginning of my practice, I found it very difficult to answer such a question. I just took and examined the child.

At the reception, a boy, 3 years old, Kolya (names have been changed for confidentiality purposes). The kid is well oriented in place and space, he is very smart, large and fine motor skills are well developed, he is mobile, but there is no hyperactivity, he is open for communication with me. But only except for the word "BBC" can not utter anything.

Or another boy Stepa, 3 years old. A very lively boy, curious, also quick-witted, he really wants to communicate, but apart from sign language he cannot express anything. Why doesn't he speak?

Of course, many doctors will say that there are no absolutely healthy people, there are under-examined ones. Of course, for speech to be delayed in its development, most likely, during intrauterine development or during childbirth, or even when … there were some factors that adversely affected the development of centers in the child's head, since he is silent. But who will find them now, who can explain..? And it is important for a child to start talking now, because he himself suffers from the fact that he wants to say so much, but does not work …

As I said earlier, in such cases, I just take the baby for neurodiagnostics, and then for neurocorrection - developmental classes have not prevented anyone yet.

I love neuropsychology because it helps not so much quantitatively as qualitatively look at the development of a child.

And during classes, I notice that Kolya, in those moments when I raised my voice, telling with enthusiasm a fairy tale or story, instead of interest, a fright was read in his eyes. Anxiety was observed before tasks, where sharp movements of the arms and legs were required. And he constantly buried bright toys in a special sandbox, preferring to play only with toy cars. Guesses gradually began to visit me. I talked with his mother about any serious stressful situations during the period when Kolya was still very young.

To be honest, many parents feel resistance or "withdraw into themselves" after such questions, but it is very important to know in order to help their child. It turned out that when Kolya was only 1 year old, his parents were going through a difficult crisis, and tension was constantly reigning at home. The child constantly heard his mother screaming and crying, saw his father slamming the door. Mom was in despair, at some moments she broke down on the baby too.

Boy Styopa also suffered the divorce of his parents in infancy. Fortunately, the mother was able to cope with her feelings, she did not experience them with the child. Parents quietly parted. But since my mother needed to live somehow, she had to earn money, Stepa had to be at 1, 3 months old. go to the kindergarten. And although the kindergarten itself was private, he was not lucky with the teacher. Against the background of a calm and balanced mother, the noisy and irritable teacher seemed just a monster.

In the language of the patterns of development of the child's nervous system, one can put it this way: a fragile and immature brain lived through a huge stream of completely "non-childish" emotions. Emotions and feelings, if they are negative (fear, anxiety, sadness, anger), severely drain the child's resources. Therefore, at a certain moment there is not enough strength for the development of the necessary centers of the cerebral cortex (in our case, the centers responsible for the development of speech). Therefore, now the child of both mothers speaks badly.

And in the language of the subtleties of the development of a child's soul, I would put it this way: at this time (from birth to 1, 5 years), children form a basic trust or distrust of the world around them. And if at this time the world constantly "gives" him a number of negative experiences, if mom herself is in constant anxiety, then how can you trust this world? And if I don't trust him, why should I talk to him?

The boys underwent a course of neuropsychological correction, and my mothers and I were in constant dialogue, discussing how now, with their behavior and emotions, they can "brighten" or help their boys forget the very stress that so strongly influenced their development. After all, no one is immune from divorce and difficult life circumstances. Every mom has a right to her feelings. But when a mother is able to understand everything and has a desire to help her child, they will definitely succeed.

After the course of neurocorrection, we no longer saw Stepa, but I was already glad that by the end of the class he began to gradually pronounce the words.

We met with Kolya exactly one year later. I was so pleased to see him and … to hear! At the end of our course, he only started to speak a few new words. But a year later, I already heard whole sentences.

This indicates that the emotions and feelings that our children experience can directly influence development on an organic level. Physical activity, proper nutrition, regimen and walks - all this is the key to the full development of the child's body. But do not discount the factor of the accompanying emotional background in which the child grows up.

Of course, no one is immune from mistakes, as parents, we will not always be able to "spread straw". But if our eyes and heart remain open, if, in addition to our routine adult concerns, we are still able to see the wounds of a child's soul, we can change a lot in the fate of our children!

Personally, I believe that almost any child who, for his age, still speaks poorly or does not speak at all, is capable of developing speech, if you help him in this in time!