Da Da Tha

I started speaking when I was one. I spoke on my first birthday and after that there was no stopping. I never stopped even when I was asked/ordered to. Chatterbox is one nick name that I can relate to, anyday. I absolutely LOVE babies who have just learn to speak. They are soooo cute.
The sad part is, I have a cousin who is past 2 years and he still can't talk. Mom and I had been wondering for long and infact we were scared if he would ever speak. So we met this speech therapist at NIHH( National Institute of Hearing Handicapped) to find out what the problem could be because there wasn't a single person in my family who hadn't spoken by 2. What she said is what forced me to make this post.
She told me she treats more children who can't speak due to environmental factors than children who can't speak because they can't hear.
Thousands of children whose parents can afford a lavish day care center don't talk. It is right for a woman to work. A man has every right to work hard to satisfy his family. But its also their duty to see that their children are brought up right. They ought to live up to the result of the only purpose I(/they/we all) see to marriage. Living in day care centers probably prepares the babies to lead an independent life. But at the end of the day, if they can't talk, are they still leading a happy life? A kid learns to speak by listening to everyone else. Now if the parents are themselves busy and the kid sulks in one corner of a creche watching POGO on a muted TV because the old lady who looks after him can't stand the noise Barney makes... What can I say? This is exactly whats happening with all the nuclear dollar racing families around. Their children have become technically dumb.
And again, once the kids get back home, moma and dada have to watch tv and the kid should not get addicted to the idiot box, therefore the poor things are locked in a room to do something productive. They are neither talked to nor allowed to learn themselves by listening to their only other source of language. All the locking-up business can probably make the kid a great artist or a great craftsman but what use are all those if the child can't explain in words what he has drawn or made.
The parents of this generation need to realise that there is lot more to bringing up the kid right than bringing up the right kid. Its for their kids that they work so hard and earn so much. Their motives are definitely right. Only the way they chose to realise it, proved to be wrong. Instead of sending them to creches, the kids can be sent to pre primary schools, where they atleast get to mingle with other kids. Lots of problems are possibly overlooked for convenience sake. No mommy would want to send her baby to a school 5 kms away when there is a DC Centre 3 blocks away. But these minor mistakes are finally seen when the kid does not start talking.
Again parents tend to believe that by treating the children at speech therapy centres they can be cured(yeah right cure them??).

And what exactly happens at such places?

The children are given more attention and made to listen to more of their own parents. All they do is play a recording of their parents' voice of some basic words like come, go, take, drop and run (dogs lead a better life don't you think? They get a bone atleast). They could have done this at home and spared themselves and the kids of some pain.
Goes to say every child WILL speak but they only need the motivation. A muted surrounding won't work. Talk more to them. Let them feel their existence. Let them be encouraged.
If you want your kids to live a successful life, prepare them for a talking tomorrow...



PS: Taggy boy will come soon. And you better comment. You'll be tagged otherwise.
Hehe...you'll be tagged even otherwise.