Speech - 2 to 3 years
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During the third year, the structure of sentences will become more complicated and your child will start to fit whole phrases together. She'll begin to understand and use negatives, not just a simple “no” and “not”.
She will also start to phrase words so that they make a question and not just put “why” in front and, for the first time, she will begin to fully appreciate the relationship between one object and another. She'll start to use adjectives - big, small, fat, thin - and then comparative adjectives - bigger, smaller, fatter, thinner. She'll understand and start to use words that imply spatial relationships - this, here, that, there, and will learn the relationship between “I” and “my”, “you” and “yours”. She'll also learn how to use phrases with conjunctions such as “and”, “then” and “but”.
Having conversations
In her third year your child becomes a natural chatterer so take advantage of this tendency to show her how conversations are carried on; the to and fro pattern of verbal exchanges, how to make subjects interesting with questions and how to move on through various points of interest in any subject.
One of the best ways of involving your child in a conversation is to ask her what she likes or what she is doing or how things work. Having asked her the question you have to show real and sincere interest in her response for her to learn that conversation is worthwhile. Similarly, when she approaches you with a question or an appeal for help or just a request that you come and see something that is exciting, you have to show a genuine interest in what she is doing and saying. In this way you can contribute to what she is thinking, understanding and learning. If you respond to her running commentary of things that she is doing with a series of absent-minded “mms” she'll not only get little in return that she can learn from, but she will quickly learn that you are not interested so she'll stop referring to you.
Helping language and speech expand
You can help her by giving descriptions or instructions that are more detailed than you would normally give. For instance, if she is having difficulty getting her sweater over her head, you can say something like “Oh dear, the opening in your jumper is too small for your head.” In this rather elaborate way of saying “I'll help you” you're introducing her to at least three new ideas and three new words. If she can't lift something and you can, you can point out that you can lift it because you are stronger than she is and the object is heavy.
Talk about colours, shapes and textures whenever possible. “You are going to have the red apple. I'll have the green one.” “Look at the pretty blue flower with the long stem. Let's smell the flower.” “Our car has four wheels. This truck has lots of wheels, let's try to count them. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.”
You can also help her out with conversation. If you ask her what she has been doing in the garden and she can't quite get the words together, you could point her in the right direction by saying: “What did you make in the sand-pit? … How did you get down from the top of the climbing frame? … Where did you go on your tricycle?” You can prompt her responses by “What happened next?”
One of the favourite things that all my children enjoyed in a conversation was for me to leave a blank that they could fill in with the word that they knew. So in reference to getting down from the top of the climbing frame I could prompt them with “Oh, you mean you slid down the___”, and my children would gleefully contribute “slide”. Or in discussing what they had done in the sand-pit that afternoon I would say “Oh, you made sand pies with your___” and my children would shout “bucket”.
Lisping
This is another common speech defect in children who are just learning to talk. It occurs, to start with, because the child simply has not mastered all the sounds needed and so she substitutes a similar sound that she can make. This can become a habit, however, or the child may be copying another child with a lisp. Neither of these is anything to worry about and usually stops without treatment.
Lisping may, however, indicate a more serious underlying problem: it may be due to a degree of deafness, to a cleft palate, or to a faulty action of the tongue. Although these possibilities should have been excluded at your child's regular developmental check-ups, if you are at all worried about persistent lisping, consult your doctor so that speech therapy can be started if necessary.
New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard
Posted 30.06.2010
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