How Can We Help Children Develop Their Communication Skills?

If a child is slower in acquiring communication skills, this does not necessarily mean that they have some communication problems. Generally, some children are slower or begin do develop their communication skills later, catching up over a certain period of time.

In fact, there are many examples in history of such children who began to speak late, but were so gifted that they become successful people, like Albert Einstein (who began to speak at age 4) or Lucian Blaga (who began to speak at age 5).

However, in such cases, parents should not expect things to work out for themselves. They must be informed and try different techniques to make the language learning as effective as possible. Late language emergence proves to be a problem with significant occurrence, since about 10% of preschoolers (i.e. under the age of 6) suffer from a form of this problem. However, this does not represent a real development problem, because some of them manage to catch up once they enter into the community or through the repeated efforts of their parents to communicate with them.

Anyway, if you notice such delay in acquiring verbal language, it would be better to contact a specialist as it may be a symptom of a neurological problem.

It is known that books are among the best tools to develop the vocabulary; therefore, many cases of late language emergence in children can be explained by the fact that parents do not read to them. Reading with and to children helps develop their brain and creates new neural connections.

Communication must become an interactive activity for a child, through which information is not only transmitted, but also received. That is why children should be treated as equal partners in the communication context. Exaggerated language corrections will give rise to communication fears and will make them more reluctant to express themselves.

Completing statements may be a technique appreciated by children that can be used by parents to convince them to express themselves. Any inventive and interested parent will dedicate 10 minutes a day to play such a game with their child. In this way, children will notice and learn how to fully express their thoughts and parents will get to know their children better.

In conclusion, if a child does not start to speak until late this does not necessarily mean that the situation is serious, but it must be treated seriously in order to facilitate language learning. Language is a skill that can be acquired within a determined period; so, if this chance is lost, it cannot be fully recuperated throughout life.