Speech is one of the most important forms of human activity, and its disturbances have consequences in both social and cognitive functioning. It develops by leaps and bounds. At the beginning it is a cry, scream, whining, an attempt to communicate with the environment. About the second month we may observe babbling, that is sounds similar to ‘goo, goo, au, a’ and the like. Then the fourth till sixth month we can observe full babbling development. From the sixth to the ninth month gurgling and about the first year we can hear the first words like “mom and dad”. Around the age of two, the first two-word sentences should appear, i.e. “granny da”, “mommy no” and so on.
Unfortunately, proper speech development is not treated seriously enough. There are many ‘consultants’ who say: ‘There is still time, he is only two, it’s still early’, ‘It’s a boy and boys start to talk later’ or ‘ in our family it is normal, we start to talk when we are about four’. Meanwhile, a two-year-old should speak in simple sentences, using about two hundred and seventy words. If it is not doing it, we should consult a speech therapist. It is also worth performing an Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms Test (ASD test) to figure out if this possible delayed speech is not a sign of autism traits.
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PhD Anna Romaniuk, microbiologist, immunologist, psycho-dietician
