How adults should develop a child's speech. Little speaker

Ekaterina Rakitina

Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Klinikum, Germany

Reading time: 9 minutes

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Article last updated: 03/28/2019

The article discusses the features and gives recommendations for the development of speech in children under one year old by month. Speech is the interaction of the respiratory system, vocal apparatus and nervous system, and its development can be compared to the development of sensory or motor skills. A child without deviations in anatomical development, but who by chance finds himself without communication, will never speak. It is wrong to think that only by hearing our speech, the child will speak on his own. It is necessary to develop the correct speech of a baby from birth, without waiting until he grows up.

What influences speech development

The development of speaking skills is directly related to the skin, vision and hearing. It is from them that impulses are sent to the central nervous system (CNS) with information about the world that surrounds the baby: sensory sensations from touching the skin, the mother’s voice and visual perception of objects. And this is the impetus for the baby to become motivated to communicate, and the more information there is, the more actively the child wants to speak.

By activating fine motor skills of the hands, parents promote the active development of speech, because speech centers are located on the palms. By stimulating the skin, we send a signal to the brain and activate the cells responsible for speech development. This is how, by massaging the baby’s fingers and palms, we contribute to the formation of the child’s speech and thinking.

The ability to speak in children can be divided into conditional periods. While the baby is in the mother’s tummy, all his needs are satisfied at a physiological level, but at birth everything changes immediately. Now he himself must somehow signal his needs, which are also prerequisites for the ability to speak.

Speech development up to one year by month

For clarity and your convenience, we have presented the speech up to a year in the form of a table:

*On a mobile device there is horizontal scrolling at the bottom of the table

Child speech development by months to one year
Age, months	Speech development up to one year by month
1 month	The baby begins to understand when he is addressed and looks at the speaker with interest.
2 months	The cry develops intonation, and the baby's facial expressions actively develop. By the intonation of the cry you can determine what the baby wants
3 months	The beginning of the “humming”. The child pronounces vowel sounds with pleasure and begins to try the consonants “g”, “k”, “n”. When communicating, the baby looks at the “interlocutor”
4 months	First laugh
5 months	The baby tries to pronounce sounds “in a chant”, intonation appears in the voice
6 months	At this age, the child begins to speak the first syllables and speech begins to develop. It is important to communicate with your baby as often as possible, talk, sing songs, tell fairy tales, and have a “dialogue” with him.
7 months	The baby actively uses his voice to attract attention, observes the mother’s reaction to the sounds he makes.
8 months	The first babble and the first unconscious words - the baby begins to pronounce repeated sounds and syllables, such as “ma-ma-...”, “ba-ba-...”, “bu-bu-...”
9 months	Active babbling and the appearance of non-verbal communication with gestures, the beginning of play behavior
10 months	The appearance of the first conscious words - “mom”, “dad”, “baba”, “na”...
11 months	Expanding vocabulary. At this age, it is important to show how to pronounce sounds correctly - with the help of play gymnastics for the tongue, lips, and cheeks. The time has come for toys that develop the speech apparatus - whistles, harmonicas, pipes. It is necessary to show and explain to the child what this or that word means.
12 months	At one year old, the baby already understands what is said to him and can fulfill simple requests. He has already mastered several dozen words (of which he can pronounce 8-12 words and understands up to 50 words) and, with the help of facial expressions and gestures, can conduct a “dialogue” with you. At this age, try to talk more with your baby so that he pronounces himself or repeats simple words after you

All of these stages follow each other, but, taking into account the individual characteristics of the child and the intensity of communication with adult family members, they can shift in time. If the mother talks little to the baby and does not conduct a dialogue with him, it is naive to expect early speech development from him.

Stages of speech development

Let's take a closer look at each of the stages of child speech development from birth to one year.

Is your baby over 10 months old?

Yes!No

Scream period

The first two weeks of life are unconditioned reflexes to such stimuli as hunger, temperature discomfort, pain. And when he receives what he is looking for, the baby calms down. In addition to hearing the baby’s cry – his voice, parents spontaneously form a stereotype – attracting attention with his voice.

In the third week of life, with the progressive formation of the oral cavity and tongue (the process of sucking), he begins to pronounce individual simple vowel sounds, not so clearly, but quite understandably. At the same time, the baby develops hearing and vision. He is activated by hearing his mother's voice and can fix his gaze on stationary objects. And the more often he hears his mother’s voice, the calmer he becomes, he latently feels protected. But the cry is still present, it can be expressed as a form of communication and develop simultaneously with the ability to speak.

The scream continues until about the beginning of the third month, only it changes, and a sensitive mother will be able to hear intonations: joy, pleasure, pain, anger, etc.

The screaming phase can last even until the baby can already pronounce individual simple words. This is a kind of communication.

What is needed during this period? The peculiarities of this phase are that parents, and mother first of all, must create the necessary conditions for the formation of hearing and vision: it is necessary that the sound of rattles, stationary, bright and colorful objects surround the child as often as possible. It is necessary to develop tactile sensations by placing small toys with different textures in the baby’s palm.

And be sure to talk! Pronounce sounds that your baby can repeat more often.

child roaming

Repeating simple vowel sounds from 2 to 6 months, the baby hums. But consonants are also added to the vowel sounds: x, g, k. Moreover, the child is able to combine them into simple syllables: gu, agu, ku, etc. The most interesting thing is that children of different nations combine them the same way, regardless of the language of their parents.

A child's babbling most often occurs unconsciously: looking at a toy, bathing, touching any objects, but at the same time one can already observe that his “speech” is a reaction to the voice or address of his mother or father. These are the first manifestations of a conscious desire to communicate. The baby can look into the eyes and wait for a response with facial expressions.

What should parents do in the second phase of developing speaking skills? TALK! But only in the child’s language, pronouncing simple, already familiar syllables. Such verbal communication can be recognized without difficulty. When there is a pause in mom or dad's voice, he tries to answer you with the same sounds. He seems to be trying out words and sounds, trying to catch the intonation.

An excellent way to promote the formation of the speech apparatus is to massage your fingers. This is important for the development of fine motor skills and the ability to use both hands in the future.

A new period begins in the development of the child’s speech: “words-phrases”.

At the age of 15-18 months, a new period begins in the development of the child’s speech: “words-phrases”. He already knows a certain number of words, but still does not know how to combine them to form a whole sentence.

So it turns out that each word takes on a complex meaning, indicating a specific desire, request, demand or complaint. The baby says “phebe” with a special intonation, and only a caring mother understands perfectly well that these two syllables mean “Mommy, give me bread!”

Vocabulary expands

If by the age of one and a half years a child knows 15–20 words, then by the age of two his vocabulary expands to approximately 50–60 words.

During this same period, he begins to put words into the first short sentences: “Mom has left,” “Let’s go for a walk,” “This is Masha’s doll.” Masha, in this case, is the name of the doll’s owner, who calls her that way.

All children at this age talk about themselves in the third person, since the awareness of their own “I” has not yet been formed: “Baby”, “He”, “Sasha”, that is, as others call them.

Communication difficulties

It happens that an 18-20 month old child suddenly has outbursts of anger and hysterics when he utters words that are incomprehensible to adults. These fits of rage have an explanation: the baby wants to convey something to you, but he can’t, he doesn’t have enough words.

In 1.5-2 year old children, there is a large gap between what the baby already understands and what he is able to express through speech. Often this gap becomes even wider because children do not want to talk. They are simply silent until a certain moment.

Parents usually say about such children: “He understands everything, but cannot say anything,” and this is true. The baby’s verbal capabilities are still very limited, but if necessary, he will always find other means to make adults understand him.

How to develop speech?

With a two-year-old child, you need to conduct classes on the development of active speech. Of course, this should happen in a playful way.

• show your baby various objects, clearly pronouncing their names;
• show simple actions, naming them - this is how the baby learns new verbs;
• show illustrations depicting different objects and actions;
• Teach short poems and folk nursery rhymes with your child, retell them together;
• Kids love tongue twisters very much. Learn the most interesting and accessible ones and practice with your baby;
• play educational games-tasks: find, bring, hide.

Do not forget that when pronouncing a name word, you need to pronounce it slowly, expressively, with pauses, appropriate gestures, repeatedly.

Your task is to ensure that your child correctly and, preferably, quickly perceives the speech of others.

For the full development of speech, it is not enough to talk with the baby about what he sees at the moment. You need to encourage him to remember what he saw recently. For example: “Do you remember that dog we saw on a walk?” or “What berries did we pick in the garden?”

Set an example of correct speech

Improve your child’s passive speech: enrich your personal vocabulary, use all parts of speech, speak correctly, pronounce every sound in words clearly.

Expanding the use of speech means being able to correctly pose a question and answer it correctly, being able to convey in words your impressions and emotions.

To cultivate cultural speech skills in a child means speaking slowly, quietly, without gesticulating or over-articulating.

Vocal apparatus training

Sometimes it is very difficult for a baby to reproduce individual sounds. He looks closely at how you do it, tries, but it doesn’t work right away (especially when it comes to hard-to-pronounce sounds).

• Encourage your child to read poetry and talk more often;
• show objects whose names contain “r”, “sh”, “zh” and other hard-to-pronounce sounds;
• listen together to children's CDs and video CDs with recordings of poems and songs performed by professional actors and singers;
• An important aspect in the formation of speech is the ability to distinguish sounds, which does not appear immediately, going through several stages of formation. For example, two-year-old children do not distinguish between the words “poppy” and “tank.” In general, they distinguish all similar-sounding sounds poorly: b-n, b-p, m-n, s-z.

Finger games

Many experts believe that the development of children’s speech skills is greatly influenced by the development of their hands, and especially their fingers.

There are a lot of such games - with funny songs, poems, instrumental music. For example, here is a game that not only promotes the development of fine motor skills, but also teaches the baby to count:

The small house has five floors (we stroke and massage all the fingers in turn)
A family of hedgehogs lives below,
On the second floor there is a family of rabbits;
On the third - a family of smart squirrels.
A tit bird settled on the fourth,
In fifth place is the owl, a very important bird.
Well, it’s time for us to go back down:
On the 5th - an owl, on the 4th - a tit,
Squirrels on the 3rd, bunnies on the 2nd,
On the first day of the year, we go to visit them.

Other ways to develop fine motor skills are finger painting and sculpting. Such activities develop the child’s imagination, creativity and artistic ways of self-expression.

A positive attitude is the main condition for training

And one more important condition: maintain a good mood during games and activities with your baby. Praise the baby even for the most insignificant successes, never force him to do something that he does not like and is not interested in.

And don’t compare him with other children, because every child begins to speak at a different time. Some people start making sentences by the age of 18 months¸ and there are silent people who persist until 3 years, and then suddenly start telling whole stories!

Just study, increase your baby’s vocabulary - this is important in any case.

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The article will tell you how to develop a child’s speech skills at different age stages, give examples and specific practical methods for mastering speech, and give recommendations on developing correct pronunciation in a child

The task of parents is to create an environment favorable for the development of the child, to facilitate the development of the potential inherent in him, to guide and, if necessary, help his child at each stage of his development.

Mastering speech is an important step in the development of a baby. Parents always look forward to their first words. Firstly, because it greatly facilitates the process of interpreting the child’s desires and needs, and secondly, it indicates that the child is developing normally and is gradually joining the adult world.

Mom is working with her child

It should be remembered that there are no examples in medical practice of a healthy child in society not speaking. Sooner or later this moment will come, regardless of whether the child is given additional training or not.

However, children whose speech development has been given due attention begin to speak faster, construct sentences more correctly, do not distort words too much, have a richer vocabulary, which means that in the future they are unlikely to face the need to catch up when preparing for school and will be able to highlight additional time to develop other intellectual abilities.

How to properly develop a child’s speech: a reminder

In order to make it easier for a child to learn new words and apply them correctly in practice, you need to adhere to the following principles:

1. Start from the beginning
This means from the very birth of the child, or even while pregnant. Don’t be afraid that you have already missed something, we are not talking about special classes, the main thing is simple communication, eye contact. There is hardly a mother who has not spoken to her baby since the day he was born, and many start even long before that

mom with baby

2. Develop the habit of commenting on everything what you do and see
It will not be difficult for people who are sociable by nature or due to duty to find a constant subject of conversation with a child; those who are more silent will have to develop these skills a little.

3. Play with your intonation
At first, the child is only able to understand the difference in your intonation, so change it more often to attract the child’s attention to your speech

5. Speak slowly, repeating several times
Obviously, with rapid slurred speech, the child simply will not understand the meaning of the words and in the future may pronounce them incorrectly

baby bouncing

6. Simplify words and sentences, but do not get carried away by modifying words and “lisping”
At first, it will be difficult for a child to master complex terms and long words, so the technique of shortening and simplifying speech can be effective. For example, instead of the word “dog” you can say “woof-woof”, or when explaining to a child why you can’t touch the socket, you shouldn’t talk about the essence of electricity and the voltage in the network, you can simply say “you can’t, it will hurt” (or “bo-bo "). But there’s no need to deliberately distort words, especially after a year, like “what the hell is this cute little girl smacking here?”

7. Enrich your speech with the child gradually, adding new words, clarifications and additions
For example, at first you can say “Masha is holding a bear,” then add “Masha is holding a big fluffy bear. Teddy bear loves honey"

8. Eliminate background when communicating
Many background sounds (for example, TV) can confuse the child and prevent him from fully concentrating on you and what you are saying to the baby.

9. Pay attention to fine motor skills of the hands
It has been proven that the development of nerve endings on the fingers and palms of the hands is directly related to the development of speech. Therefore, it is so important to stimulate the child’s versatile tactile sensations (hand massage, finger games, fingering small objects, touching surfaces that feel different to the touch)

How to develop a child’s speech in the first year of life?

mother plays with baby

In a manner of communication familiar to the adult world, i.e. With the help of words, the child will begin to speak only in the second year of life. Speech, however, consists of two components: reproduction and understanding (perception).

IMPORTANT: Children begin to understand the meaning of words much earlier than they learn to pronounce them.

In other words, during the first year the child forms the so-called passive baggage of words. And in the second year, as a rule, it transfers it to active status, i.e. begins to use these words in his speech.

It is very important to help your baby learn as many words as possible, while establishing certain connections and associations of words with real objects or actions.

mother communicates with baby

Considering that a child develops very rapidly in the first year, let us consider the main stages of a child’s speech development in the first twelve months.

• 0-3 months
  The child communicates by crying or screaming, and understands the intonation of your voice well

• 3-6 months
  The period of "roaring". It is at this age that a baby in a good mood can delight with the sounds of “agu” and is able to pronounce many vowels and some consonants. An important feature is the ability to enter into dialogue with the child, speak with pauses, giving the child the opportunity to respond. You can encourage your baby by repeating the sounds he makes.

IMPORTANT: Until about 4-5 months, children do not understand the meaning of words, but interpret your speech by intonation.

• 6-9 months
  Babbling phase. After six months of age, many parents are able to catch the words “ba-ba”, “pa-pa”, “ma-ma” in the chaotic babble. At the very beginning, it is just a set of syllables alternating in different sequences. At this stage, you can actively teach your child words by naming the objects around him.

child with blocks

• 9-12 months
  By the end of the first year, the child speaks his first words. Some children are able to pronounce up to 10 words. But everything is individual, and depends, among other things, on the child’s temperament. If you are not talkative by nature, it is unlikely that your child will start chatting incessantly.

Special mention should be made of methods of early child development. The desire of parents to raise a capable child, smarter and more successful than themselves, is quite natural. But with the best intentions, it is important not to achieve the opposite result. The life of a child of the first year is connected, first of all, with the emotional side. Therefore, the priority should be live sensory communication, and not mechanical memorization of words from cards, which are recommended to be shown to the child from the first days of life.

child looking at pictures

A number of methods really demonstrate good results: children know a lot of words, begin to read and write earlier than they speak. But they often have problems with communication, emotions, social and personal life in the future. Therefore, you need to approach everything wisely and focus primarily on the desire and interest of the child.

The main techniques for developing speech in children of the first year are:

• sound imitation of a child
• commenting on what is happening
• songs, nursery rhymes, finger games
• development of fine motor skills

Songs, rhymes and nursery rhymes for speech development in children 2 - 3 years old

These are perhaps the most effective, generation-tested ways of communicating with young children.

Basic principles:

• simple rhyme
• repetition of sounds or words
• small size
• accompaniment with gestures/actions

Rhyming poems can be told, or they can be sung using various melodies.

The main purpose of nursery rhymes, finger games, rhymes:

• emotional contact with the child
• development of his speech skills
• finger massage
• study of body parts
• assistance in establishing a routine

For example, by repeating the same rhyme before bedtime, you can develop in your child the expectation of a funny rhyme and the understanding that it is time for him to sleep.

IMPORTANT: Young children need consistency and order as this develops a sense of stability and security.

You can come up with or choose from the many available nursery rhymes, one for different occasions:

• morning hygiene procedures

rhyme for washing

• changing baby's clothes

rhyme when changing clothes

• preparation for swimming

bath rhyme

• before gymnastics

rhyme for gymnastics

• finger massage

poem for finger massage

• before bedtime

bedtime poems

The classic nursery rhymes “okay”, “cockerel-comb”, “horned goat”, “white-sided magpie” and many others will also delight the baby and be useful.

The peak development of speech is usually observed in children in the second or third year of life. As a rule, at the age of about one year, the child begins to walk, and a breakthrough in physical development is replaced by a language breakthrough. Parents can certainly encourage their child to develop speech using the following techniques:

• Reading fairy tales together and discussing them

reading a fairy tale

• Linking pictures with real objects
  When showing your child this or that picture in a book, try to find its analogue in the real world and point out the similarities to the child

• Clarification and correct repetition words spoken by the child
  If a child points to an object and pronounces it not quite correctly, you should not point out the mistake, you need to agree and repeat it correctly. For example, a child said: “flank”, you should answer: “yes, it’s a car”

• Offer a choice
  When offering something to your child, expand his vocabulary by providing an alternative. For example: “Do you want an apple or a pear?”, “Will you drink from a mug or a glass?”

• Word games
  When playing with your baby, always accompany your activity with words.

mother and son game

• Voicing what the child is doing and feeling
  Try to say everything your child does in simple, uncomplicated sentences, including describing his feelings, for example, if he is in pain, or hot, or cold.

• Commenting on your actions

• Calling by name, eye contact
  Address the child by name more often, and do not forget to look into the baby’s eyes so that he understands that the address is addressed to him

• Using Gestures
  At first, gestures are an indispensable thing for mutual understanding and teaching a child words, so duplicate all words and actions with appropriate gestures. Soon the child will begin to associate them with words

• Muscle training
  To train the muscles of the speech apparatus, you can buy your child a whistle, pipe, harmonica, and a little later start doing articulatory gymnastics with your child

• Reading by role
  If you regularly tell your child the same rhyme or nursery rhyme, he will quickly learn its words, so over time you can read the rhyme, breaking the lines into roles, as if answering each other. A good example for this is the dialogue "Geese-geese, ha-ha-ha"

mother and daughter communication

• Detailed definition of object properties
  It is important not only to name the object, but also to tell a little about it. For example, when showing a book to a child, you should also demonstrate that the book can be leafed through, opened and closed.

• Answer with addition
  When a child begins to ask questions: “what is this?”, “what is that?”, it will be easier for him to remember the name and meaning of a word if he gives a short description of the object from words that he already knows. For example: “this is a truck, it transports large objects” or “this is a kettle, they brew hot tea in it”

• Expression of misunderstanding a child who knows, but is too lazy to say the words out loud
  You can deliberately not immediately fulfill a child’s whim if he knows how, but does not voice the request, but only points with his hand. Alternatively, you can offer your child a deliberately incorrect object, as if you didn’t understand it, and only give him what he wants the third time

IMPORTANT: Children at this age learn a new word almost every day. You can keep a so-called “Word of the Day” journal and record a new word spoken by your child every day. This will allow you to monitor your baby’s speech development.

child with mother in nature

In any activity, the main thing is to practice a lot, so communicate with your child always and everywhere: at home, walking in the park, on the way to the clinic, shopping in the store.
But you should not force communication on your baby when he is tired, wants to sleep or eat, and speech development should also not look like a strictly timed activity. It is important to learn to speak while playing, during the child’s daily rituals, or while walking, when the child is actively seeking communication.

Playing and learning to speak: role-playing games for children

Options for playing with a child are limited only by the parents' imagination. At the same time, the child often independently suggests what he wants to do, distributes roles and organizes the game.
Your mission is to fill the game with detailed dialogues so that the game is not only exciting, but also useful for the development of the baby’s speech. It can be:

• Hide and seek
  The classic game of “peek-a-boo” with infants can gradually change. You can hide behind anything, attracting the child with the words “where is mom?”, “find mom.” As the child grows up, he will begin to enjoy hiding on his own, and you, with appropriate verbal accompaniment, will look for him.

• Role-playing games
  At first these can be very simple games. For example, you can play with a toy phone, a child can call mom, dad, brother, sister, say “Hello,” find out “how are you?” and vice versa. Then you can role-play fairy tales, come up with stories yourself, using household items and toys

mother plays with daughter

• "Guess"
  There are many variations of games. You can ask your child: “guess what I’m doing?” and show some action: combing your hair, pouring tea into cups. Or ask: “guess who I am?” and depict a bunny or a bear cub. You can show soft animals and ask: “guess who it is?”, “what does he like to eat”, “where does he live?” If the child cannot answer, you should give a detailed answer yourself, and after a while repeat the questions to the child

• Active games
  Nursery rhymes and songs can be used in active play with your child, encouraging him to repeat the corresponding actions along with the words. This, in parallel with speech skills, will develop both the child’s physical and musical abilities. Examples:

nursery rhyme with movements 1 nursery rhyme with movements 2

Why does a child speak poorly: reasons

According to average indicators, a child speaks 10-15 words by 18 months, 30-50 words by two years, hundreds of words by three years, and a thousand by four years.

The main concerns that parents have are related to the fact that the child:

• doesn't talk much
• says wrong

As a rule, children do not immediately master correct speech, including abbreviating words, omitting sounds, confusing words, and constructing sentences incorrectly. This is quite normal, since the baby first of all learns to speak simple, easy-to-remember words, and often pronounces not the name of the object, but the sound with which it is associated. For example, not a car, but “beep”, not a fall, but “bang”.

the child doesn't want to talk

In addition, it is considered natural to summarize many objects and actions in one word. For example, the word “mom” will sound from the child’s mouth, and when he wants to be held, and when he wants to eat, and when he needs something from his mother. Gradually the child will begin to add the necessary clarification. The word “car” or “beep” can refer to a bicycle, a bus, or anything that moves.

However, it is important not to miss the moment if problems arise in the child’s speech development:

• limited vocabulary
• stuttering
• lisp
• loss of letters

If a 2.5-3 year old child knows less than 30-50 words, distorts words, has a lisp or stutters, you should visit a doctor. By promptly correcting speech development, which peaks before the age of three, you can avoid serious problems in the future.

child is working with a speech therapist

The main reasons why a child does not speak or speaks incorrectly:

• He is understood without words
  The baby is simply lazy to say words, because he gets along just fine without them. In this case, you need to be cunning that you don’t understand what the child wants and force him to say it
• Have hearing problems
  Perhaps wax plugs have formed or there are other obstacles to normal hearing
• Fast pace of speech
  The baby is in too much of a hurry when pronouncing words, which leads to loss of letters or stuttering. This usually goes away by age 4
• Imitating the wrong sounds
  The child imitates the sounds and words that he hears from the people around him. You should watch your speech, the correct pronunciation of words and the construction of phrases

IMPORTANT: When assessing a child’s speech development, focus not on pronunciation, but on the child’s ability to use his vocabulary in different forms of sentences.

By the age of 3 years, a child should be able to compose sentences of 3-4 words, using various forms of verbs, declensions, persons, and cases. If this is not the case, you should consult a pediatrician who will refer the child to an ENT specialist or speech therapist if necessary.

Working on correct pronunciation: exercises, articulation gymnastics in pictures

In order for your child to quickly master the correct pronunciation of words, and you do not have to contact a speech therapist, there is so-called articulation gymnastics.
Regular exercises with a child who constantly confuses and mispronounces sounds will lay the foundation for correct and beautiful speech in the future.
It is better to train the muscles of the tongue, palate, lips, larynx and cheeks in front of a mirror.

Examples of exercises:

articulation gymnastics 1 rhyme for articulation 2

rhyme for articulation 3

How to develop speech in school-age children: tips, recommendations

At this age, speech further improves, the child learns to think logically and express his thoughts consistently, learns to describe, compose, explain, argue, argue and convince. To do this, the child still needs to enrich his vocabulary, learn to analyze, and express his thoughts beautifully. It should be noted that this is also the period of development of written language.

communication with parents

The main ways to develop speech at school age can be:

• writing a story by answering questions
  for example, for a story about an animal, you can prepare the following questions for your child: who? what colour? what does it look like? where does he live? what does it eat? what is the purpose?
• compiling a story based on a series of pictures or photos
• essay based on one picture
• Reading books
• broadening the child’s horizons, attending various events, staying in nature
• revealing the creative side of the child
• versatile communication

communication with peers

Currently, there are a huge number of clubs, sections and special groups for child development, preparation for school, language learning and others. If possible, you can certainly send your child to experienced specialists. However, this does not exclude the need for parents to participate in the development of their child. A child can achieve truly great success if he is surrounded by the attention and warmth of those closest to him. Daily positive emotional communication with your child is the key to developing not only correct and beautiful speech in a child, but also a strong, cohesive family.

Video: Speech development of a child up to one year old

Video: Speech development in children 1-3 years old

Video: Speech development in a 3-4 year old child

Video: Speech development of a child 5-7 years old

A small child does not need to be specially taught the language; he hears the family’s speech and begins to imitate. In the modern world, unfortunately, parents often do not devote enough time to their children, leaving them to themselves or to electronic games. This can negatively affect what and how the child says. Mastering coherent, literate speech requires effort and time, and preschoolers’ speech is best developed through daily conversations, reading and games with parents.

What factors influence speech development?

There are two main factors influencing the development of a child’s speech:

Biological factor. The likelihood that a child may have difficulties or impaired speech development is much higher if problems arose before birth: developmental delays, hypoxia, or an infectious disease suffered by the mother during pregnancy. Diseases that the child himself suffered in the first years of life can also affect speech. In this case, the development of speech abilities will be effective with the well-coordinated work of parents, a neurologist, and a speech therapist; communication with a preschool teacher will be useful.

Socio-psychological factor. The second very important aspect for the development of speech in a preschooler is the environment at home, communication with parents and peers. As a rule, parents practically do not talk to children who have delayed speech development. The more a child interacts with other people, conducts a dialogue, learns to choose the right words, and tries to understand speech addressed to him, the sooner and more fully he will master speaking skills.

Improving speech skills is an important process for a child in preschool age. To understand how well your child is developed, you can do a little testing yourself. Ask him to tell a story that happened to him today, retell it, or make up a fairy tale. Pay attention to whether the sentences are related to each other, whether the words in cases and word forms are used correctly.

Typical speech development problems in preschoolers

The following speech problems are typical for many preschoolers: Situational speech.

Monosyllabic sentences depending on the child’s demands (for example, “give me the doll”, “I’m thirsty”) are the norm for a 2-3 year old child. But then children gradually increase their vocabulary. Often this happens so intensely that by the age of 5, preschoolers are already able to talk with adults almost as equals. If a child over 4 years old is not able to compose a detailed, literate sentence, this is a reason to turn to specialists. Poor speech, small vocabulary.

By the age of 5, a child has a vocabulary of 2500–3000 words; by the age of 7, the vocabulary expands by another 500 words. At this age, children easily construct phrases and maintain conversations with adults, including on abstract topics. Inability to competently build a dialogue.

The question must be formulated simply and clearly - this assumes that the answer will be appropriate, short or detailed. If a preschooler has difficulty formulating questions and answers, it will be difficult for him to communicate. Difficulty constructing a monologue.

You also need to learn how to conduct a monologue on a given topic and retell the text. Average preschoolers under 4 years old do not really need these skills - they are not so in demand in their everyday life. But for children 5–7 years old, the ability to coherently tell a story and retell a fairy tale is necessary, otherwise they may have difficulties with their studies at school. The ability to explain one’s point of view, justify the conclusions drawn, give reasons in favor of one’s statement is a complex but important skill for a future student; the absence of this skill in the elementary grades can provoke the first complexes and affect the child’s academic performance.
Poor diction, speech therapy problems. Most often they are diagnosed in a preschool institution. But if the child is a “home child”, and no one takes care of his diction, by the time the mandatory school socialization begins, difficulties may begin with learning to read, with mastering the rules of the Russian language, with the development of communication skills.

How to develop a preschooler's speech?

When are specialists needed? A speech therapist will help solve a lisp, burr and other similar problems with sound pronunciation. Stuttering is treated with the participation of a neurologist, since the problem does not lie in the speech apparatus. Some structural features of the oral cavity may require consultation with a dentist or orthodontist. A psychologist will help the child cope with excessive shyness, haste, etc. characterological features.

The two most important rules for developing correct and beautiful speech in a child are regularity of classes and an integrated approach with the involvement of specialists.

But no specialist will solve the problem if parents do not take part in the development of their child’s speech. How can you help your baby?

• Don't be lazy to repeat. If you notice that a child is pronouncing a word incorrectly, pronounce the word correctly several times, do it slowly and clearly. It is important not to criticize, but to help - the child must understand that you want to help him, then he will be happy to join in the lessons.
• Learn to hear. It is important that a preschooler not only develop speech functions, but also learn to hear, understand the meaning of what was said or heard, and be able to answer questions. To do this, you need to communicate with your son or daughter as much as possible, read aloud, and then retell, learn poems and funny songs. Joint activities with parents will not only benefit the child’s speech development, but will also strengthen family relationships.

Useful exercises for preschooler speech development

We offer you several simple exercises that will help develop speech skills and facilitate the formation of communication skills.

"A Tale from a Picture"

This exercise is aimed at improving coherent speech. You will need a picture that the child likes. You can draw it together and then write a story based on it. Don't turn the game into a boring lesson, let your child gain knowledge in a fun way. Ask open-ended questions, push the preschooler to answer, help construct a sentence if the task causes difficulties. Praise your child for the result, he tried really hard!

“Describe the object”

The exercise will help in developing imagination and forming correct, beautiful speech. Ask your child to describe any object, relying on all his senses - sight, smell, touch, taste. For example, lemon. Determine what shape it is? What colour? Smooth or rough? What smells? What does it taste like? Ask additional questions: in what fairy tale could the child see him? Why do they use lemon at home (drink tea with it, bake lemon pie)? The more “questions and answers” ​​you can play with, the more words you will pick up for your preschooler’s vocabulary.

"Find a suitable adjective"

It will teach the child to understand how objects are similar, to look for differences, thanks to it, the grammatical backbone of speech is formed, which in the future will help to assimilate information well. You can play it from the age of 3. Show your preschooler several objects that differ in size. He must not only determine which is larger and which is smaller, but also name various suitable adjectives, for example “giant”, “tiny”, “big”, “tiny”. Try to use more different topics so that the development of speech abilities is varied.

Reading for speech development

Read to your child – and with your child! And not only children's poems and fairy tales: try offering him a short excerpt of a poem by Pushkin or Yesenin about nature, ask him to comment on what and how he understood, if necessary, explain all incomprehensible phrases and expressions. The simpler you can explain, the more words your preschooler will understand.
Rely on the search for books on your child’s favorite topics or characters that he will be interested in reading or listening to.

Pay attention to lullabies and nursery rhymes. This is a storehouse of interesting words, word forms that we rarely hear in everyday life (“house”, “wattle fence”, “beauty”, etc.). Nursery rhymes also help you remember the order of actions.

Repeated sound combinations, words, phrases, onomatopoeia develop phonemic hearing and logical thinking, help the child remember words, thus enriching the preschooler’s vocabulary. Under the influence of such games with sounds, the child masters sound literacy quickly and comfortably. Instead of monosyllabic sentences, he learns to use more complex ones.

Beautiful, developed speech is very important for learning at school. First grade is often accompanied by stress associated with a change in the usual lifestyle, a new team, and existing communication problems may worsen. The task of parents is to prepare the child morally, to set up a positive perception of school and the educational process, and also to choose the right school program that will be interesting and exciting for children. Parents who care about the psychological state of the child, which can affect speech development, as well as his adaptation and self-esteem, can pay attention to. It takes into account the individual characteristics of each student and allows him to develop at the pace that is most comfortable for him. At the same time, the absence of grades in the first grade stimulates the learning process, because the child is not afraid to make a mistake by speaking incorrectly. This educational system makes it possible to avoid stress in the first grade and helps to reveal the speech potential of each child.

Olga Fateeva

Any mom I am sensitive to everything that concerns the health and development of my baby. And, needing guidelines for “correctness,” he often becomes hostage to statistical norms. This applies to teeth, height, weight, motor activity and, of course, speech. A child who does not fit into the tablets causes increased anxiety in the mother and, as a result, torture in the form of active activities, examinations, increased nutrition, strict regime - everything that is enough strength and financial resources.

How to develop a child's speech?

Norms of speech development for children

Let's get acquainted with the standperformance standardsspeech development for children aged one to three:

• At 1.5 years old - pronounce a simple phrase of the action-object link (give me a cup, give me a ball). Omissions and incomplete pronunciation of an object or action are allowed.
• At 2 years old - pronounce a sentence of three or four words. It is highly desirable to use different endings, plurals, prepositions, etc. It is this skill that is the criterion for assessing the level of speech development, and not the number of words in the child’s luggage.
• After 2 years – understand speech accurately and fulfill requests. Without missing words, construct phrases using all members of the sentence (adjectives, verbs, prepositions, adverbs, pronouns). It is allowed if the child does not pronounce certain sounds, as a rule, these are hissing sounds, R and L.

As we see, the “norms” are very different from reality. Of the children I meet on the playgrounds, only one child manages to meet the “Norm.” Let's try to figure it out step by step...

What is speech and how is itis being formed?

The mechanism of speech consists of two parts - understanding the speech of an adult and the child’s own speech. Both mechanisms are formed gradually with different progress; as a rule, by the age of three the child speaks tolerably. The first steps to mastering speech lie through gestures. Even in infancy, children stretch their hands to the desired object. Next, he consciously uses a pointing gesture, a negative gesture (shaking his head), a request gesture “give” (squeezing his palm), etc. Many children are in no hurry to switch from sign to oral speech. Don't rush your child, this is a very important stage. Sign language is an integral part of spoken language. Continue to respond to the gestures by speaking out loud the child's request and your actions, thus voicing the full dialogue. Also, to learn any skills, a child needs to show attention and curiosity. This is called voluntary attention, that is, attention consciously switched from object to object. This is what underlies all learning.

What slows down a child’s speech development?

Many parents underestimate the degree of influence of the environment and unknowingly inhibit the development of new skills, including speech. Bad habits:

• TV and other derivatives. It is an indisputable fact that screen speech slows down speech development. Speech is often distorted, fast, not addressed to the child, and does not require a response or action from him. In addition, watching TV trains involuntary attention (forced). The child is unable to tear himself away from endless bright pictures and loud sounds. This also applies to so-called educational cartoons. Remember, all screen viewing has only two directions: to spoil the eyesight of children and to free parents from communicating with their children.
• Continuously playing music. The words in the songs sound drawn-out or too fast, the child does not understand them, does not see the articulation. Children's songs are no exception. The best performance is on behalf of the parents, in which case choose a slow pace, understandable words. Music without words is acceptable, but in doses and quietly.
• Educational applications and computer games are extremely harmful. In addition to the powerful factor of speech inhibition, they also deprive the child of his creative imagination by offering stereotyped situations with ready-made solutions. Children should know about the wealth of choice of behavior in a given situation. It is parents who introduce options for behavior in life situations if: a toy is taken away, a toy falls and hits, how to share a toy, how to ask for a drink, etc.
• Speech toys will not teach your children anything. The pronunciation leaves much to be desired, there is no articulation, the phrase is spoken into the air. Children should play with real three-dimensional and understandable characters (doll, dog, cat, etc.). At some point, the toy in his hands will say “meow” or “av av” - this will be your victory. Why voice what he already says?!... It is “manual” games that have a positive effect on the development of thinking and speech. With live toys you can play out what happens to your baby during the day. Talk, dress, feed, fall asleep with a doll or a tractor. You can love them! However, remember - an excess of toys can cause satiety in a child, as a result of dulling of curiosity and loss of interest in everything new.

Pay due attention to your communication with your child. Do not allow yourself to communicate “looking at the TV” or from your height. Try to be at the same level face to face. Find the strength to answer Mom 101. Put yourself in his shoes. Surely you are annoyed when loved ones do not react to your words, pretending that nothing happened. Or they talk to you, but act constrained, answer inappropriately, and hardly look at you. Do an experiment. Place an adult at the kitchen table, take the baby by the hand and come as close to his feet as possible. Lower yourself so that your eyes are at the same level and look through the eyes of a child at an adult. It is you - the Mom who cooks, and the baby who wants to say something. Can you see a lot? Interesting? Do you want to talk in this situation? Is it comfortable to talk with your head up? You call Mom, but she doesn’t even look at you...

Organize a place for games. It is ideal to play on different sides of the children's table, located opposite each other. This way the baby will see the articulation and eventually try to repeat it. Watch your own speech, it should be clear, not fast. During communication, maintain silence, preferably from birth. In silence, the child can concentrate on the adult’s speech, as well as hear and evaluate the quality of his own.

Teach your child to play with a doll or car. Act out daily activities: feeding, visiting, hide and seek, with dialogues between toys. This way the baby will learn to spend time on his own, playing out his favorite scenes and trying to voice them.

Ask obviously wrong questions provoking a reaction of denial. Let’s say: “Does the cat have a tail? Does mom have a tail? The dog says “meow?” Regardless of the answer, pronounce a detailed refutation - “No, the dog does not say “meow”, it says “av-av.” When constructing a question, use words whose meaning is well known to the child.

Fingers in mouth is a bad habit, however, this is a necessary study of the speech organs. Tongue, gums, teeth. Let your child explore them. Encourage the desire to drink from a cup and eat with a spoon. The tongue makes various movements, which prepares it for pronunciation. Practice exhaling through your mouth; it is at the exit that we make sounds. Blow on a candle, on something hot, on cotton wool, on foam. Pay attention to fine motor skills and find something you like. Massage your fingers.

Speech will develop slowly if the child is “squeezed” physically. The head looks down, the arms are pressed tightly to the body, tense, constrained postures prevail. Fearfulness to touch another child or adult. For the speech organs to work, the muscles of the face and body must be relaxed. Be physically accessible at all times. The child does not separate physical and verbal contact. By helping to overcome the barrier of physical contact, you will bring speech communication closer. To do this, hug your child more often, try not to refuse the desire to be held in your arms or fool around together. Give a feeling of security; if the baby asks to leave the object, do not insist. Try to relax your child's muscles through outdoor games. For example, falling on your back or tummy from a low springboard or your arms on the sofa. Never physically push your child away, even if he hurt you. Your task is to liberate, relax, and make sure that the baby’s movements and posture are trusting, free, and full of confidence in your support.

Give your child a voice. Ask more often - can I put on your socks and change your diaper? Which T-shirt do you want to wear, this one or that one? If you ask your child for his opinion, follow his answer. This will support his desire to express his desires more fully.

And the most important thing- speech can develop only in communication with a real, living interlocutor. It’s interesting that for a child “not spoiled” by cartoons, a toy can replace it.

Your baby may still be small, but he has a lot to tell you. It’s so nice when people listen to you :)