Spend Some Quality Time With Children

I was surprised to know that one my friend’s 3-year-old daughter is unable to talk. She still struggles to talk. She watches television and plays with her friends of nearby houses, but unable to talk unlike her peers. Her parents are too busy to spend time with her and I feel it’s because of that she hasn’t learnt learnt speaking yet.

My mom proudly tells her relatives and friends that I spoke my first words in the month of nine and my brother in the month of 11. By the time I was one-and-a-half-year-old, I was able to speak nearly 300 words, including adjectives and was able to link words together. My dad fondly remembers how I recited a famous poem of Kuvempu in front of him and got his applause at the age of two-and-a-half-years.

My parents keep telling that girls pick up words more easily and learning to speak was twice as difficult for boys than girls.

But these days, children hardly say their first word even at their age of three! Babies learn from their parents. They recognise and respond to the faces of parents. But parents are so engrossed in their work these days that they hardly find time to spend with their children. While parents are busy to meet the financial pressures, children crave for the love of parents. They don’t need any expensive toys or big houses, but they need parents and parents’ love.

We were lucky enough to have born in the days when our parents gave us all the time and attention. We all sat down together to have our breakfast, sometimes lunch, and dinner.

Elders say that between 0 and 5 years of age, children’s communication develops rapidly. It is considered to be the golden period in the life of child to develop communication skills. This phase also helps a child to improve if there is an early intervention if he/she is struggling to speak. Chatting with the child, playing word games, pointing things out and having fun together every day will help the child to start communication.

By spending some quality time with babies we will not only help them learn to speak quickly but also will relive our childhood again. How many of us will get to go back to our childhood? So let us become children with our children :)