Debina Bonnerjee recently discussed her decision to send her elder daughter Lianna to a speech therapist due to concerns about her late talking. Despite being realistic, Debina noticed that Lianna wasn't speaking in sentences and only used a few basic words. She acknowledged that many had reached out to her about the issue, and as a concerned mother, she decided to seek professional help to support Lianna's speech development. Taking to her vlog, Debinna shared in detail how it went.
Every child has a different milestone. Some talk in 14 months, some talk in 11 months. My mother said that I started to talk when I was 14 months old. That's what my mother said. So, it's not necessary that my children also start talking in 14 months. At the same time, you don't have to be complacent thinking that it will happen.
You guys were also writing to me for a long time. As a mom, no matter how realistic I am, I would also keep thinking that Lianna wasn’t talking much. Beyond saying ‘mama’, ‘papa’, bye-bye’, she wasn't saying sentences.
When the youngest girl in Lianna's class started speaking the whole sentence, when she came home and seeing my father, she spoke full sentences, I felt that I needed to consult a doctor. And it is important.It is very, very important that you do a consultation. I went to a baby speech therapist. So, they took a session with Lianna.
I did not record those sessions because they were extremely personal and I really wanted to give the whole situation the seriousness that it deserved. Amazingly, those long sessions didn't go on for long. I did some 10 sessions and after that I saw a stark difference in Lianna.
There are many different things in different children. So, on the first day of our session, she said that Lianna thinks beyond her age. Lianna is an extremely sharp girl. We open our mouths and she understands. And her processing power is so fast. She thinks so fast. She understands everything so fast that her vocabulary is not able to take the speed of her brain. That's why her words would get jumbled up. The cause of Lianna’s anger was also for the reason that her brain would process so fast, but she wouldn’t be able to express it through words.
Another reason for why her speech didn’t develop could be Lianna never drank mother's milk. When a child drinks mother's milk, the muscles inside the mouth develop very well. So this is another benefit of mother's milk which I didn't know. So the sucking process from the breast develops the muscles very well, which didn't happen during Lianna. When you drink from the bottle, the flow of milk is very fast, it comes very easily. That's why it is said that if you are breastfeeding your baby, don't introduce bottles early on.
Debinna showed what they would used to do during Lianna’s therapy sessions. He shared, “We used to solve a lot of puzzles in the class. For example, there is a board which has a lot of fruits, vegetables, and cars. So they used to flip all the puzzles and you had to pick them up and put them in the board.”
Lianna is now talking a lot and she's talking great. So, I thought to make a video, that always when we get scared, that our child is doing this or that, we can take it in two ways. One is try to be patient and one thing is, if that thing is bothering you a lot, you should definitely seek the help of an expert. Then you will get the solution to the worry in your mind.
Puzzle solving is a very good way for development of speech. And another thing is, in our body, the work of right brain and left brain is different. The righty people, their left brain works, which is the site for logic, reasoning. And the one on the left, their right side of the brain works, which is about creativity. The doctor also said that let the child use both hands. So, with both hands, the development of both sides of the brain will happen. And which is extremely good. We often tell the child, don't eat with your left hand, eat with your right hand. Don't do it with your left hand, do it with your right hand. Eventually, the child will do what suits him.