I could tell from the age of eighteen months that my daughter was having difficulty in learning to speak. She just couldn’t make the right sounds. As her speech developed it was incomprehensible to all but me. She’s four now and is still having lessons with a speech therapist but she has come such a long way and her speech has greatly improved.

Here are some things I learnt about just how infants develop their language skills:

The first thing to be aware of is that children develop language ability at different rates so if your child seems a little slow, there may be nothing amiss at all (just because our child had a problem doesn’t mean yours will too!). Also, particular sounds may not be age appropriate for your child such as the tough ones like l, s, f and v sounds. This is not to say all children will have difficulty with these sounds. A friend’s child was stringing together sentences better than I do now and he was just three!
It’s very important to catch any problems early because the longer you leave it, the harder it will be for your child to correct their language.
Hearing is especially important. If your child is not hearing the sounds properly they won’t be able to repeat them. The first task on the agenda if you suspect a problem is to arrange a hearing test. You might notice something is wrong if your child doesn’t turn around to a sound. My girl just didn’t like too many sounds and particular music although a hearing test didn’t find anything wrong.

Story telling is a great way for your child to learn new words and sounds. Talk to them slowly, pronounce words clearly and make sure they can see how you move your lips and mouth for each word. Watching television from an early age is not helpful as the sounds and words they hear come with too much background noise and music. They also don’t get to see how words are pronounced naturally particularly the cartoons.
Learning and singing songs and rhymes is another way to hone their language skills. It also helps to achieve rhythm and melody in their voices. As they get older it’s much easier to explain to them how to pronounce sounds correctly and what they are doing wrong. For me this breakthrough came when my girl turned four.
If you use child-care make sure that the carers have strong language skills. Your child is going to be spending a lot of time with them and this is where much of their vocabulary is developed. If you don’t like the way they speak look for a different centre.