Question
A two-year-old and four-month-old boy, although his comprehension ability is normal, has not started speaking yet, and has not even used basic greetings like ‘Dad’ or ‘Mom’. How should parents guide their child in learning to speak?
Answer
Typically, toddlers will say their first meaningful word around 12 months old, marking the beginning of their understanding of word meanings. Before that, they practice pronunciation through babbling, muttering, and humming, gradually learning to control their sounds. Parents and caregivers should focus on interaction with the child in daily life, fostering their language comprehension skills, and linking the pronunciation of words with their meanings, which is the mastery of semantics. Through such interactions, toddlers can learn the grammatical rules of sentences. While toddlers may be more sensitive to the tone of speech than to individual words, their comprehension and expression abilities usually develop simultaneously around the age of one and a half.