After reviewing different aspects that can help develop children's language, the time has come to see what should we avoid to help stimulate language.
First, it is important that parents take a comprehensive and patient attitude in language stimulation. We must try not to set goals that are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.
Sometimes, when the child does not pronounce a sound well or does not say a word well, the parents become impatient or angry. These behaviors before the child are harmful, since some defects that may be due to genetic causes get worse due to the pressure the child is subjected to.
On other occasions, something that is only a passing and normal phase in the evolutionary development of the child can be considered as tremendously horrible. For example, in the development of oral language, at ages between two and four, children go through a stage in which the child begins to repeat a sound several times, a part of a word or a whole word, begin to use muffins ...
In principle, this evolutionary episode is identified, in advance, as stuttering; but it cannot be considered as such when it occurs at such early ages. Only if it continues over time, would it be considered a disorder to treat speech therapist.
Thus, it is not convenient to demand or press to the child to achieve things that he is not yet ready to do or to change things that are part of a normal evolutionary development. In these cases we must be affectionate with the child, causing tension to decrease, as well as difficulty or fear (both in children and their parents).
We also have to avoid getting ahead by guessing what is going to be said; giving him time to finish what he wants to tell us will help him not generate feelings of linguistic incompetence.
Whenever we can we will avoid using closed questions; that is to say, we will not ask you questions in which you have to answer only "yes" or "no", since in this way we do not facilitate your vocabulary to be extended or that you have the opportunity to correct your mistakes. We can use these types of questions, but always as a last resort or in certain situations.
Correcting directly is an aggressive way to correct language, since we are cutting off what we want to say spontaneously with a "so it is not said" or a "you say it wrong". Remember that it is much better to use indirect correction.
When talking about voice disorders in children, they were given guidelines for avoid misuse or excessive abuse of the sounding device. While it is almost impossible to make a child not scream, if you can control a little in what situations it can be done.
It should also be avoided correct more than one thing at a time within the same statement. For example, if the child tells us that "vo ugá co cough" ("I'm going to play with the car"), and we want him to say the word "car" well, we will focus only on that word. Otherwise, we would drive the child crazy with so many words to correct at the same time; Better one at a time and in due time.
Very important is the not correct the child using destructive language of the type "you always do it wrong" (where we emphasize the negative behavior and ignore what he does well), silent treatment (refusing to talk or looking at the child for having done wrong), "do it again like this and you will find out ..."
These types of threats produce a feeling of fear or rejection, feeling unable to compensate. In young children it is where it has the most effect, since they are taken at face value. Older people, meanwhile, know that nothing really will happen to them.
Regarding the use of the pacifier, bottle or if our son sucks his finger, we must avoid extending its use beyond two years of age, since they are elements that if used in a prolonged and abusive way, hinder the correct development of the organs that are responsible for speech.
In the same way, The feeding of children must be in accordance with their age, since chewing is part of the exercise of the muscles involved in speech. Continuing with elements that do not help to enhance them can lead to subsequent repercussions in the realization of the necessary movements to make the sounds.
All these things give us an idea about the importance of knowing how to properly stimulate and support our children in the acquisition and development of language, without leaving everything to luck or destiny, especially if we suspect that there may be problems.
The lack of attention and support during this process causes language problems, with the subsequent effects on their integration and adaptation to the world, in which speaking well is an important and decisive quality.
For all these reasons, although many times they feel the opposite, parents are the ones who can help develop children's language, since they are with whom they spend most of their time.
