Hearing your child speak is something that young parents look forward to. However, there are individual differences in how early or late babies speak. Nowadays, some children only start to talk after the age of two, and some babies even keep their mouths shut, refusing to open their mouths no matter how much they are teased. Chinese folklore has a saying that “the nobleman is late in speaking”, and many parents are in an expectant mood, hoping that their child will really fulfill this saying, thinking that maybe the child is just a little late in speaking and will be smart and rich in the future! In fact, the saying “your child is late in speaking” is not based on science, but is just a good wish of adults for their children. In recent years, more and more parents have come to consult with us about their children’s speech problems. In fact, there are many reasons why children are late in speaking, which can be broadly divided into two categories: developmental factors and disease factors. Some children experience a temporary, transient lag in language development, which we call developmental delay in speech. Most of these children can understand what adults say, respond appropriately for their age, and carry out instructions well, but they speak less or later, their vocabulary is not as good as that of their peers, and their language skills lag behind their comprehension. This is often due to the complex and varied language environment in the home; adults taking too much care of the child, resulting in the child seemingly not having the need to express themselves verbally; premature exposure of the child to electronic products, such as cell phones, iPads, game consoles, televisions, etc., where the child does not have responsive behavior with the family but only communicates with a cold screen, etc. In recent years we also found that the timing of adding complementary foods to some babies is significantly delayed, the baby’s chewing and swallowing ability is affected, some children to 1.5 years old still do not want to chew some tough food, eat hard rice also have difficulties, or eat gulping type, not after chewing, stirring. This condition affects the development of the child’s mouth muscles to some extent, which also leads to a delay in speech. Some of the common disease factors that affect children with speech delay include: hearing impairment; intellectual disability; neuromuscular lesions of the articulatory organs; autism, etc. Children with these disorders should be seen in the hospital as soon as possible, and once diagnosed should be treated early to possibly regain some or even most of their ability to speak. Once diagnosed, early rehabilitation can help the child regain some hearing ability and lay a good foundation for future speech and language skills. The number of children with autism seems to be on the rise, perhaps because early screening for autism is now being carried out in China. Although the cause of autism is not clear, this group of children lacks active language of a communicative nature, and their language development trajectory is becoming more recognized and understood. For children who have normal hearing but just don’t speak, or if they do speak, they don’t know what they are saying, more like they are talking to themselves, or they ignore what they like and act like they can’t hear what they don’t like, parents are advised to take their children for help and evaluation in a timely manner. With timely, targeted, long-term training and treatment under professional guidance and direction, these children can acquire speech and language skills. In conclusion, it is true that some children’s “late speech” is normal and does not require special treatment, but this is a minority of cases. 1-2 years old is a critical period for children’s language development, so if a child is late in speaking, parents should pay close attention to it and have their child’s language development properly evaluated by a medical professional. If parents take a chance and just wait, they may delay the best time and cause regret.