- Lack of Movement and Outdoor Play: Insufficient physical activity, such as walking, climbing stairs, and balancing on logs, is a common mistake. Movement is crucial for a child's brain development at this stage.
- Prolonged Use of Diapers: Wearing diapers for extended periods can interfere with the natural discomfort response mechanism. From infancy, children feel discomfort from external irritants, which triggers a signal to the brain, leading to a cry for help.
Diapers quickly eliminate discomfort, and the child's brain loses the practice of recognizing it. The brain regions responsible for this discomfort recognition also contribute to speech development. While this doesn't mean avoiding diapers altogether, it is recommended that children use them moderately from 1 to 2 years old. The risk arises only with prolonged (more than 2-3 years) and intensive (continuous) use.
- Excessive Screen Time (Phones, Tablets, TVs): Many children with delayed speech development are negatively impacted by excessive screen time. While occasional TV cartoons are acceptable, they shouldn’t be on all day as background noise. Children must listen to their surroundings (car noises, dog barking, etc.) for proper development. Movement and exploring the environment are vital at this age. Excessive screen time deprives children of physical activity and sensory experiences.
- Fast, indistinct speech of an adult.
Firstly, in this situation, the imitation mechanism comes into play again, and children unconsciously adopt a certain sloppiness in communication.
Secondly, the child needs help in mastering the syllable-sound structure of words. If the child cannot understand what is heard, they will never be able to reproduce it fully.
Thirdly, fast and inexpressive speech causes words to lose their endings. Thus, the grammatical structure of speech suffers, specifically the agreement of words in a sentence.