Although other animals can and do communicate, theirs is not speech as in humans, meaning that the touching and grunting or even the loud shouts of the great apes are not speech in the human sense.
Experts are generally agreed that humans developed the capacity to speak about 60,000 years ago, at first using a few words and in time developed the capacity to describe the abstract.
For children brought up in deprived environments, say those born in times of conflict and major social disruptions, their full potential including language development is delayed.
QUESTION: What causes delayed speech in toddlers? Is it some form of hereditary issue?
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Before embarking on the answer to your question, it might be worth our while to consider why the human infant is so helpless at birth. Other animals for example antelopes are up and running within a few hours of birth.
In contrast, the human baby will need many years of careful nurturing before independence. A number of thoughts now come to mind, and it is sufficient to state that part of the reason for this seemingly long delay in the independence of the human child is due to the fact that the baby is born prematurely.
The reason for this early birth is to be found in the fact that with evolution, humans assumed an upright posture. The compromise for this most desirable evolutionary event is that humans, unlike the other cousins (apes) have a very narrow birth canal, and so the baby must come out before full development!
Relative to other animals and in relation to other body parts, and with respect to energy consumption, the human brain is the most favoured organ and for a good reason. It is at the centre of all that we are including speech development.
Although other animals can and do communicate, theirs is not speech as in humans, meaning that the touching and grunting or even the loud shouts of the great apes are not speech in the human sense.
Experts are generally agreed that humans developed the capacity to speak about 60,000 years ago, at first using a few words and in time developed the capacity to describe the abstract. These are the steps that the toddler goes through as they develop speech, a process that matches not only the fact of the increasing connectivity in the brain, but also the increasing interaction with the environment.
There is for example a great deal of evidence that for humans, the first 1,000 days (about three years) are crucial to the human in terms of the achievement of human potential. To put it differently, if the baby is not well looked after during this crucial time, one loses any capacity to catch up in later years of life.
On the other hand, and equally importantly, for children brought up in deprived environments, say those born in times of conflict and major social disruptions, their full potential including language development is delayed.
As must be apparent to you now, the development of the toddler is dependent on many factors that include the genes they inherit from their parents but also on the social and biological environment they encounter during the early stages of life on earth.
Specific to your question, however, delays in speech development are sometimes the result of hearing impairment in the child and this must be the first conversation you might want to have with the doctor.
The other is Autistic Spectrum Disorder, which might be associated with other features such as the inability of the baby to respond in the expected manner say to a cuddle or even a smile.
This condition is more common than is appreciated by many parents. Early diagnosis is most important and improves outcomes.
To make life more complicated, it is also true that different children reach the ‘normal’ speech and other milestones at different times and some instances of delay are just that, delay, and children then spontaneously catch up.
By one year, the infant ought to be able to locate the direction of the origin of sounds and should be able to babble with intonation that seems as though a conversation is going on between the two of you.
Waving goodbye occurs in this first year as does the ability to point to what they want. Speech becomes more complex in the second year, and the toddler is able to name body parts and can follow simple commands and can engage in pretend play, such as they are cooking.
By this time, they should be able to learn one word a week and at the age of two, they ought to have a vocabulary of 50 to 100 words. They should also be able to string two-word sentences such as ‘mummy come’.
All this said, however, the important message is that in the event that you have any concern about any aspect of child development (including speech) get in touch with the expert because the earlier the diagnosis is made the better the prospects of correction.
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