Common Myths about Speech and Language Development
With the explosion of social media and easy access to the internet at our fingertips, parents have the ability to look up developmental milestones for their toddlers, compare their child to their friend’s child, and even purchase materials that will supposedly help their child’s development at a moment’s notice. This should be a good thing, right? Not always.
Even I find myself totally overwhelmed with my children and wondering if there is something I should be working on with them that I haven’t been. Or I wonder if there is something they are behind in. I frequent mom’s social media (IG/facebook groups/youtube) and here are some trends and misconceptions I’m seeing pop up recently.
1) Children should have a lexicon of words by 12 months-
This is false. First words start EMERGING around 12 months. That means your child may have 10 real, consistent words by 12 months. Or they may have one. Or they may still be babbling and using jargon. All of these are normal. Parents are being shown children who are potentially outliers (maybe there IS that one 12 month old who says 100 words and is combining words!) but that is an unusual case. I will say, my now 3 year old was speaking probably 10 real words by his first birthday and didn’t really have that language “explosion” until his second birthday. Then it was paragraphs haha!
2) Just buy____ and it will help your child with _____.
There is no miracle product that you NEED to purchase to help your child crawl/babble/learn how to read. The most important thing you can give your child is your time and love. Most recently I’m seeing pillows for a crib so your baby doesn’t develop a flat head. This seems unsafe and expensive! My second son spent 8 weeks in a Doc Band helmet (so he did have a flat head for a time!) and I was more comfortable with that over risking an unsafe crib situation.
3) Bilingualism delays a child’s speech and language development.
If your family speaks another language, it is such a benefit for your child to become bilingual. Exposure to more than one language will increase your child’s cognition and help them stay connected to their culture! Initially as a toddler the child may appear to have less words in one language, but overall they are ahead (may just be receptively at first) when assessed in both languages. (source https://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Articles/Bilingualism-in-Young-Children--Separating-Fact-fr.aspx)
4) Children should be reading before they enter kindergarten
This is another big one I’m seeing recently online. There are some great IG pages that have some interesting videos about how simple it is to teach a toddler to read. Many preschoolers are excited about reading, and some are even ready to start learning some letter names and sounds. A few are even able to decode simple words. However, not all kids are!
Consider how stringent kindergarten standards have become. In my parent’s generation, kindergarteners were not taught to read. This means children didn’t start to work on reading until at least 6 years old. Now, by the end of kindergarten, children are expected to be able to read and write in simple sentences. And many parents feel pressure to teach their children even earlier than that! We want to foster that love of reading in our kids, not tear it down by adding to the pressure. Academic readiness is great, but we must keep in mind development and what is age appropriate. Social skills and play teach a child life lessons that are potentially even more valuable than drills for a skill that will be developed more naturally later on.
These are some big trends I’m seeing in the parent social media world. Are you noticing these as well?
-Brittany
