The main problems of speech development in preschool children

Problems of speech development of a preschooler

Speech development problems

There can be a great variety of reasons why a child may develop various speech disorders, ranging from the pathology that arose in his mother during pregnancy and complications during childbirth, and ending with the influence of viral diseases and traumatic brain injuries suffered at an early age.
All these factors will not necessarily lead to a delay in the child’s speech development, but the presence of one or more of them should force parents to more closely monitor the appearance of new words in the child’s speech, the peculiarities of pronunciation of sounds, and devote more time to classes and exercises aimed at speech development. The timely development of speech depends not only on the physical condition of the child, but also on his mental development. When there is a lag in general mental development, speech function most often suffers in children. And insufficient speech development, in turn, affects mental development, slowing it down even more. That is why it is so important to promptly notice violations in the development of a child’s speech and, if in doubt, seek advice from a speech therapist. Many parents believe that there is no need to sound the alarm before the child’s 5th birthday, and all problems will disappear by themselves by this age. Some disorders, primarily physiological tongue-tiedness, indeed completely cease to bother the child and his parents, but significant delays in speech function can be corrected only by combining home exercises and a special correction program offered by a speech pathologist, and at 5 years old this will be much more difficult than at 3 or 4. Four main problems of speech development can be identified: First of all, this is the problem of articulation of individual sounds
.

For the speech of a 3-year-old child, replacing some sounds with similar sounds. Among the sounds that are difficult for preschoolers are hissing sounds - “Ch”, “Shch”, “Zh” and “Sh”; whistling ones - “Z”, “S” and “C” and sonorous ones - “R” and “L”. Until the age of five, such changes are acceptable, but if even after reaching this age your baby cannot pronounce all sounds clearly, then you need to contact a speech therapist. In most cases, such a speech disorder occurs due to insufficient mobility of the tongue. Violation of sound pronunciation is treated with the help of a special complex of articulatory gymnastics. Exercises that strengthen the muscles of the speech apparatus must be performed daily. Similar exercises can be performed at an earlier age at home - invite the baby to click his tongue like a horse, then pretend to be a clock, swinging his tongue from side to side, then stick it out and lick his lips like a cat, etc. Those sounds that are most difficult for the baby can be practiced speaking in isolation, and then select special poems and tongue twisters that will help the child practice his pronunciation in speech. Another serious speech problem is general
speech
, it is characterized by a poor vocabulary, the use of incorrect grammatical forms in speech, and a lack of coherence of speech. Preschoolers with a similar speech problem often experience difficulty if they are asked to describe a picture or retell a well-known fairy tale; they confuse prepositions and endings. Typically, general underdevelopment of speech is accompanied by problems with the pronunciation of sounds. Also, such children have less developed phonemic hearing; it is more difficult for them to isolate individual sounds from a word. This speech disorder can have several causes. Perhaps the delay in speech development is influenced by disruption of the areas of the brain that respond to speech. To overcome such disorders, speech therapists suggest using finger exercises and various tasks and exercises that train fine motor skills of the hands.

But underdevelopment of speech can also develop due to the fact that parents, trying to provide the child with the best toys, monitoring his diet and compliance with sanitary and hygienic standards, missed the importance of communication. In other words, if you talk little to your baby, if a communicative environment of stimulating communication is not created for him, his speech may remain poor for a long time without practice. In addition to special speech therapy programs, speech underdevelopment can be prevented by basic attention to the child: ask the baby about his news or mood, ask him to talk about his favorite fairy tale or cartoon characters, and while walking, discuss everything you see around him. Underdevelopment of speech can be provoked not only by very busy, but also by overly caring parents, who in every possible way strive to predict any desire or request of their child, thereby depriving him of the need to formulate his own desires and opinions. Logoneurosis or stuttering

– one of the speech problems that are diagnosed at an early age and require specialized correction by a speech pathologist.
It is impossible to solve the problem of stuttering on your own, so if you notice that your child is stuttering, immediately go to a specialist. Logoneurosis can be diagnosed as early as 3 years of age, sometimes a little earlier. With early consultation with a doctor, stable remission of this speech disorder can be achieved. The causes of stuttering in children are still not fully understood; the prevailing myth that its appearance is provoked by severe fear is not supported by scientific theories, since many children at different ages experience stressful situations, but only some begin to stutter after this. When deep disturbances occur in the areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for the development of speech, one of the most serious speech problems may occur - alalia or delayed speech development
. If at three years old the child’s vocabulary is limited to 5-10 words or he has not started speaking at all, then you cannot delay visiting a speech therapist. With early intervention, this speech disorder can be successfully overcome. Parents can reinforce classes with a speech pathologist with regular developmental and educational games. It is extremely important to overcome all speech problems a child has before going to school, because uncorrected disorders can not only negatively affect academic performance in general, but also lead to the development of dysgraphia and dyslexia in a first-grader.

Features of speech development in preschool age.

Preschool age is a period of active acquisition by a child of spoken language, the formation and development of all aspects of speech - phonetic, lexical, grammatical. Full command of the native language in preschool childhood is a necessary condition for solving the problems of mental, aesthetic and moral education of children in the most sensitive period of development. The sooner learning the native language begins, the more freely the child will use it in the future.

At preschool age, children's social circle expands. By becoming more independent, children go beyond narrow family ties and begin to communicate with a wider range of people, especially peers. Expanding the circle of communication requires the child to fully master the means of communication, the main one of which is speech. The increasingly complex activities of the child also place high demands on speech development.

The development of speech goes in several directions: its practical use in communication with other people is improved, at the same time speech becomes the basis for the restructuring of mental processes, a tool of thinking. This determines the relevance of this topic.

Children's speech development is one of the main components of their readiness for schooling. Studying the level of language acquisition allows us to obtain data not only about the speech abilities of children, but also about their holistic mental development. In order to understand the essence of speech readiness for school learning, we must clearly understand what is included in the content of oral speech abilities and which components are the most important for learning speech.

Speech development is considered as the development of skills to understand and use language: the development of phonemic hearing and sound analysis, vocabulary, awareness of the composition of words, the formation of grammatical categories, the development of communication skills, abilities and skills of coherent speech. Language acquisition is an important condition for mental development, since the content of historical experience acquired by a child in ontogenesis is generalized and reflected in speech form and, above all, in the meanings of words [4].

Timely development of vocabulary is one of the important factors in preparing for school education. Children who do not have sufficient vocabulary experience great difficulties in learning, not finding suitable words to express their thoughts. Teachers note that students with a rich vocabulary solve arithmetic problems better, master reading and grammar more easily, and are more active in mental work in class.

Features of the development of children's vocabulary have been studied quite fully in physiology, psychology, and psycholinguistics.

There are two aspects to the development of the vocabulary of preschool children: the quantitative growth of vocabulary and its qualitative development, i.e. mastery of the meanings of words. Preschool age is a period of rapid vocabulary enrichment. Its growth depends on living conditions and upbringing, therefore, in the literature, data on the number of words of preschoolers of the same age vary greatly. The first meaningful words appear in children by the end of the first year of life. In modern domestic methodology, 10-12 words per year are considered the norm. The development of speech understanding greatly outpaces active vocabulary. After one and a half years, the active vocabulary is enriched at a rapid pace, and by the end of the second year of life it is 300-400 words, and by three years it can reach 1,500 words. A huge leap in the development of vocabulary occurs not only and not so much due to mastering the methods of forming words from the speech of adults, but rather due to mastering the methods of forming words. The development of vocabulary is carried out through words denoting objects in the immediate environment, actions with them, as well as their individual characteristics. In subsequent years, the number of words used also increases rapidly, but the rate of this growth slows down somewhat. The third year of life is the period of greatest increase in active vocabulary. By 4 years the number of words reaches 1900, at 5 years - up to 2000-2500, and at 6-7 years - up to 3500-4000 words.

Individual differences in vocabulary are also observed during these age periods. According to D.B. Elkonin, the differences in the vocabulary “are greater than in any other area of ​​mental development” [7].

The number of nouns and verbs increases especially quickly, while the number of adjectives used grows more slowly. This is explained, firstly, by the conditions of upbringing (adults pay little attention to children’s familiarity with the signs and qualities of objects), and secondly, by the nature of the adjective as the most abstract part of speech.

The first words are very peculiar; they are characterized by polysemanticism. These first words, in essence, are not yet words. A real word is born as a designation for an object and is associated directly with a gesture that points to an object.

After 4-5 years, children who speak speech attribute a new word not to one, but to many objects. Having learned ready-made words from adults and operating with them, the child is not yet aware of all the semantic content that they express. Children can learn the objective relevance of a word, but the system of abstractions and generalizations behind it cannot.

Children do not immediately learn figurative meanings of words. First, the basic meaning is learned. The meanings of children's words are dynamic. L.S. Vygotsky drew attention to the fact that the same word, while identically related to objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, “means” different things for a child of different ages and different levels of development. For a child aged 3-5 years, the central place is occupied by the process of mastering the clear subject-matter of words and their specific meanings, and at 5-6 years old - a system of so-called everyday concepts, but in which emotional-figurative, visual connections are still dominant.

Thus, in its concretely related form, the meaning of a word arises before the concept and is a prerequisite for its formation. The concept denoted by the word, being a generalized image of reality, grows, expands, deepens as the child develops, as the scope of his activity expands and becomes more diverse, and the circle of people and objects with which he comes into contact increases. During its development, the child’s speech ceases to be dependent on the sensory situation [2].

Mastering the grammatical structure of speech has a huge impact on the overall development of the child, providing him with a transition to learning the language at school. The formation of the grammatical structure of speech involves the formation of the morphological side of speech (changing words by gender, number, case), methods of word formation and syntax (mastering different types of phrases and sentences). Without mastering grammar, verbal communication is impossible.

Mastering grammatical structure is very difficult for children, since grammatical categories are characterized by abstractness and abstraction. In addition, the grammatical structure of the Russian language is distinguished by the presence of a large number of unproductive forms and exceptions to grammatical norms and rules.

The process of a child’s assimilation of grammatical structure is complex; it is associated with analytics - the synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex. The patterns of mastering the grammatical aspect of speech were revealed by the famous linguist A.N. Gvozdev. According to the study, a child masters the grammatical system of his native language by the age of three in all its most typical manifestations. The child’s assimilation of the grammatical structure of speech occurs in the form of assimilation of grammatical categories, which are characterized by the presence of knowledge. The time and sequence of mastering individual categories depend on the nature of their purposes. Children have difficulty mastering those forms whose specific meaning is not connected by the logic of the child’s thought, that is, what is not clear in meaning [5].

Mastering the methods of word formation is one of the aspects of children’s speech development. Preschoolers use mainly the morphological method of word formation, which is based on a combination of morphemes of different meanings. To form words, a child must master word-formation models, lexical meanings of word stems, and the meaning of significant parts of a word. In the psychological and psycholinguistic literature, word formation is compared with children's word creation, which indicates the active acquisition of grammatical structure by children. By the end of preschool age, children's word formation approaches the normative one, and therefore the intensity of word creation decreases.

At preschool age, there are all the prerequisites for successful mastery of the sound side of the Russian language. These include the corresponding development of the cerebral cortex as a whole, phonemic perception of speech and the speech motor apparatus. Such characteristics of a preschool child as high plasticity of the nervous system, increased imitation, special sensitivity to the sound side of language, and children’s love of speech sounds also contribute to mastering the sound composition of speech.

According to most scientists, preschool age is the most favorable for the final formation of all sounds of the native language. Imperfections in pronunciation in older preschool age are atypical: with proper work, children by this time can master the pronunciation of all sounds. Sound pronunciation is improving, but some children have not yet fully formed sounds that are difficult to articulate (hissing and r). The process of formation of these sounds, even with targeted systematic training, is slower, since the skill of incorrect pronunciation becomes more durable. However, by older preschool age, children develop the ability to self-control, awareness of the imperfections of their speech and, accordingly, the need to acquire knowledge and the need for training. Therefore, educational activities become more serious.

Psychologists emphasize that in coherent speech the close connection between the speech and mental education of children is clearly evident. A child learns to think by learning to speak, but he also improves speech by learning to think [6].

The development of coherent speech occurs gradually along with the development of thinking and is associated with the complication of children's activities and forms of communication with people around them.

In preschool age, speech is separated from direct practical experience. The main feature of this age is the emergence of the planning function of speech. In the role-playing game that guides the activities of preschoolers, new types of speech also arise: speech instructing the participants in the game, speech-message telling an adult about impressions received outside of contact with him. Speech of both types takes the form of a monologue, contextual.

The transition from situational speech to contextual, according to D.B. Elkonin, occurs by 4-5 years. At the same time, elements of coherent monologue speech appear already at 2-3 years. The transition to contextual speech is closely connected with the development of the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the native language, with the development of the ability to voluntarily use the means of the native language. As the grammatical structure of speech becomes more complex, utterances become more detailed and coherent.

In early preschool age, speech is associated with the direct experience of children, which is reflected in the forms of speech. It is characterized by incomplete, vaguely personal sentences, often consisting of one predicate; names of objects are replaced by pronouns. Along with monologue speech, dialogic speech continues to develop. In the future, both of these forms coexist and are used depending on the conditions of communication.

Children 4-5 years old actively engage in conversation, can participate in a group conversation, retell fairy tales and short stories, and independently tell stories using toys and pictures. However, their coherent speech is still imperfect. They do not know how to correctly formulate questions, supplement and correct the answers of their comrades. Their stories in most cases copy the example of an adult and contain a violation of logic; sentences within a story are often connected only formally (more, then).

In middle preschool age, some changes occur in the understanding and comprehension of the text, which is associated with the expansion of the child’s life and literary experience. Children correctly evaluate the actions of the characters. In the fifth year, a reaction to the word appears, interest in it, the desire to repeatedly reproduce it, play with it, and comprehend it [1].

In a 4-5 year old child, the mechanism for forming a holistic image of the semantic content of the perceived text begins to fully function.

The ability to perceive a literary work, to realize, along with the content, the features of artistic expression, does not arise spontaneously; it is formed gradually throughout preschool age.

Preschoolers’ awareness of speech, the formation of ideas about a word, the assimilation of its semantics, the identification of linguistic means of expressiveness and figurative speech contribute to the acquisition of their native language in kindergarten and thereby solve the problem of preparing a child for school in terms of his speech development.

By the time they enter school, children should have formed an attitude towards speech as a linguistic reality, an elementary awareness of the structure of speech, in particular an awareness of its verbal composition, and an initial understanding of the word as a linguistic unit. This is important both for preparing for literacy and for learning the native language in primary school [3].

Bibliography

1. Volodina, V. On the agreement of a noun with a numeral in the speech of children 5-6 years old [Text] / V. Volodina // Preschool education. - 2002. - No. 8. - P. 52.
2. Vygotsky, L.S. Pedagogical psychology [Text] / L.S. Vygotsky - M.: Pedagogika, 1991. - 311 p.
3. Zhinkin, N.I. Speech as a conductor of information [Text] / N.I. Zhinkin - M.: Education, 1982. -198 p.
4. Leontiev, A.N.. Speech activity [Text] / A.N. Leontiev // Reader on psychology: Textbook .- M.: Education.- 1997.-405 p.
5. Novotvortseva, N.V. Development of children's speech [Text] / N.V. Novotvortseva - Yaroslavl: Academy of Development, 1996. –240 p.
6. Ushakova, T.N. Children's speech - its origins and first steps in development [Text] / T.N. Ushakova // Psychological Journal. - 1999. - N3.- P.59-69.
7. Chukovsky, K.I. From two to five [Text]/K.I. Chukovsky. – M., 1966. – 245 p.

Speech development in children from one to three years of age.

The first words usually appear around the year (for example, ma (mother), da (give), aw (dog), etc. At about a year and eight months, the first phrases appear in the baby’s speech (da pi (give me a drink), dai ati (give me the ball), lalya bai (the doll is sleeping), etc. By the age of two, the first sentences of three to four words appear. A three-year-old child is able to communicate in complex sentences (“Mom went to the store, and dad is at home.”) By the age of three the child correctly pronounces most of the sounds of the Russian language.Many children by this age do not have the sounds [Ш, Ж,Ч, ШЧ, Л, Р, Р'(Рь)].

Of course, each child has his own individual pace of development, much depends on character, temperament, heredity, and conditions of upbringing.

Also, the reason why the sounds [Ш, Ж, Ш, Ш, Л, Л'(Ль), Р, Р'(Рь)] do not appear in the speech of a three-year-old child] may be a short hyoid ligament (“frenulum”). Correct pronunciation of these sounds requires sufficient elevation of the tongue. If a short frenulum “prevents” the tongue from rising to the palate, the child will not be able to pronounce sounds correctly.

When to contact a speech therapist.

If your child is about two and a half to three years old and he is silent, or says only a few words, or there is a missing phrase, this is a reason to consult with specialists (speech therapist, psychologist, neurologist). In such cases, a neurologist or speech therapist diagnoses SRD (speech development delay).

If the baby starts to stutter. The sooner you contact a speech therapist and neurologist with this problem, the greater the chance that stuttering will not take hold or worsen.

You should be concerned before two and a half years if:

a 1.5-2 year old child does not understand simple instructions (for example, show a cat in a book, bring a ball);

a two-year-old child is noticeably different from his peers, his games are monotonous, stereotypical, or the child does not show interest in toys at all; the baby cannot cope with simple tasks (for example, assembling simple “inserts”, stringing very large beads on a thick wooden “needle”), i.e. there is a noticeable significant lag in the child’s overall development. In these cases, it is necessary to show the child to a child psychologist, speech therapist, neurologist, or otolaryngologist immediately.

You need to be especially careful about the timing of speech and general development if pregnancy or childbirth was accompanied by complications. Negative factors during pregnancy and childbirth can cause delayed speech and mental development.

A child is seen by a speech therapist.

During the examination, the speech therapist will evaluate the child’s understanding of speech, the structure of the articulation apparatus (the condition of the hyoid ligament, tongue, lips, etc.), the state of visual and auditory perception, and the compliance of the child’s general development with the age norm. Often children and the speech therapist need several sessions for the child to get used to the specialist and “open up”. Then the speech therapist will have a complete and accurate picture of your child’s speech condition and level of development.

Survey results.

If speech understanding corresponds to the age norm (the child shows most of the objects that he is asked about; understands the speech therapist’s questions well), there are no serious disturbances in the structure and functioning of the articulatory apparatus, general development corresponds to the age norm - this is a “favorable” variant of SRD (speech development delay) . Most likely, your silent child will begin to speak when he deems it necessary and by the age of 3.5 years he will practically catch up with other children in speech development. The speech therapist will show you techniques that can be used to activate your child’s speech at home.

If the examination reveals a decrease in general development (the child knows and can do much less than he “should” for his age), speech understanding is significantly below the age norm, help must be provided to the child immediately. You need to undergo an examination (prescribed by a neurologist) to rule out hearing loss (do an audiogram). Timely treatment, systematic sessions with a speech therapist, speech pathologist, home exercises with parents will help develop the child’s speech and other mental functions (attention, memory, visual and auditory perception, logical thinking), and prevent further lag.

Advice for parents.

A child’s speech develops in two situations: when he hears someone else’s speech (comprehends it) and when he speaks himself. That is, the more you talk to your child, talk with interest about the world around him, answer his questions and ask them yourself, read children’s books to him, encourage him to talk about what he sees, the better your baby’s speech will be developed. Usually a child is interested in talking about what he sees at the moment. At the same time, it is important not to overload the child with information that is difficult for him, and not to force him to answer your questions if he is tired or simply does not want to talk right now.

It will take a long time for a child to learn to correctly coordinate words in a sentence. The grammatical system of the Russian language is complex - there are many exceptions to the general rules. For example, the baby already correctly uses the endings of the instrumental case of nouns -om, -em (throw a stone, a ball). By analogy, he forms other words (eat with a spoon, wipe with a rag). This is a normal process for a child to acquire the grammatical system of the Russian language. An adult's help consists in correcting such errors - repeating the correct (normative) form of the word (it is better to say it several times or give several similar examples). Such “amendments” should be as tactful and friendly as possible.

Speech development is closely related to the development of fine motor skills. Therefore, laying out mosaics, stringing beads, modeling, drawing, designing, and finger gymnastics are a significant contribution to the development of a child’s speech and intelligence.

Rules for conducting classes.

Any activities with the baby are carried out only in a playful way, if the child wants to play with you.

The duration of the lesson for preschool children (depending on temperament and age) is from 8 to 25 minutes, for children 6-7 years old - 15-30 minutes.

Be sure to praise your child even for the smallest and “insignificant” successes.

Guides for self-study by parents and children.

1. Batyaeva S.V., Savostyanova S.V. Album on speech development for the little ones.
2. Novikovskaya O. A. Speech therapy grammar for children 2-4 years old.
3. Polyakova M. A. How to teach a child to speak correctly.
4. The Tale of the Merry Tongue. Articulation gymnastics for the little ones.

Speech development in children 3-5 years old.

At this age, there is an active expansion of the vocabulary (the number of words that the child knows). His speech becomes more and more correct and detailed. The child uses complex sentences (“The cat ran away because it was scared of the big dog”). A five-year-old child can talk coherently about a recent event or retell a familiar fairy tale.

Normally, by the age of five, children master the correct pronunciation of all sounds. It is believed that if by the age of five a child has not learned to correctly pronounce certain sounds, these sounds themselves, spontaneously, will no longer appear in speech. The help of a speech therapist is needed. If a child pronounces a large number of sounds incorrectly, classes in making sounds can begin at the age of four and a half.

When to contact a speech therapist.

If your four year old is the only one who understands you;

if the words in a sentence are often inconsistent (he fell, red jacket);

if the baby constantly rearranges syllables in words or “loses” them (for example, sakomat (scooter), aasin (orange), mitsanet (policeman);

if he cannot talk coherently (three to four sentences) about what he recently saw (for example, a trip to the zoo).

Parents whose children started speaking late should be especially attentive. Often the speech of such children develops with a delay. In the future, this may lead to problems with academic performance in the Russian language, and not only.

In this case, only a speech therapist can make an accurate diagnosis and develop a plan for corrective work.

Most kindergartens have speech therapist teachers. They identify children whose speech development is below the age norm. If a child has not only incorrect pronunciation of sounds, but also underdevelopment of other components of speech, a visit to a speech therapy group is recommended.

Guides for self-study of parents with children.

1. Volodina V. S. Album on speech development.
2. Kosinova E. M. Lexical notebook No. 1 (2, 3, 4).
3. Kosinova E. M. Grammar notebook No. 1 (2, 3, 4).
4. Novikovskaya O. A. Speech therapy grammar for children 4-6 years old
5. Polyakova M. A. How to teach a child to speak correctly.

Speech development in children aged 5-7 years.

At this age, the identification of missing or incorrectly pronounced sounds, the consolidation of their correct pronunciation and clear distinction, and preparation for school (prevention of school failure) come to the fore.

To successfully study at school, a child needs to know and be able to do a lot.

Below are approximate criteria for readiness for school (in terms of speech development).

By the start of school, a child “must”:

have a large vocabulary, be able to retell a short text, talk about an event, freely express your thoughts, prove your point of view;

formulate your speech grammatically correctly (correctly coordinate words in a sentence, accurately use prepositions);

pronounce correctly and distinguish all sounds well;

possess some skills in language analysis and synthesis (be able to divide words into syllables, highlight the first and last sound in a word (in small words, name all the sounds in order);

knowledge of letters and ability to read syllables is desirable.

Most of the mistakes a child makes in oral speech - inaccurate pronunciation of complex words (waterman - plumber), incorrect coordination of words in a sentence (thinking about airplanes, five balls), substitutions of sounds (drying - suska, hand - luka) will lead to similar errors in writing. Underdevelopment of coherent speech (the ability to accurately and consistently talk about an event) can lead to difficulties in writing summaries, retellings, and oral responses.

The state of phonemic perception is very important - the ability to “hear” sounds in a word, correctly determine the sequence of sounds and syllables. Underdevelopment of phonemic perception leads to numerous, persistent errors when writing, because in order for a child to write a word correctly, he must “in his mind” decompose the word into sounds, and then reproduce them accurately, in the correct sequence on paper. Teaching a child to read promotes the development of phonemic awareness.

When to contact a speech therapist.

If your child is already five years old, but he pronounces or replaces some sounds incorrectly;

if you observe the above problems in your child.

I would recommend that every parent take their child to a speech therapist a year before school, even if your child pronounces all the sounds correctly.

The purpose of a speech therapy examination before school is to identify a predisposition to reading and writing disorders (multiple specific errors) so-called. called dysgraphia and dyslexia, i.e., in fact, to school failure.

It is possible to identify such a predisposition of children to dysgraphia and dyslexia in preschool age with a high probability.

If you carry out timely work aimed at developing the processes responsible for the development of reading and writing processes, you can prevent or significantly reduce the likelihood of school problems.

The importance of the timeliness of this work is explained by the fact that correcting this situation at school turns out to be much more difficult than preventing it in preschool age. The same applies to sound production.

Based on my practice, up to eighty percent of children in the preparatory group of kindergarten need the help of a speech therapist. If your garden has a speech therapist, help will be provided free of charge. You will only need to do your homework (consolidate the material you have covered) and monitor the correct pronunciation of the given sounds. Children's clinics also have speech therapists.

Guides for self-study by parents and children.

Glinka G. I will speak, read, write, correctly (I recommend it to all children to prepare for school, regardless of the presence of speech therapy problems).

Novikovskaya O. A. Speech therapy grammar for children 6-8 years old.

Polyakova M. A. How to properly teach a child to read and write.

Zhukova N. S. Primer.

Polyakova M. A. Self-instruction manual on speech therapy.

Article:

In the concept of “speech ontogenesis” by A.A. Leontyev, the process of formation of speech activity is divided into a number of successive periods:

• Stage 1 - preparatory (from birth to one year);
• 2nd stage - pre-preschool (from one year to 3 years);
• 3rd stage - preschool (from 3 to 7 years);
• Stage 4 - school (from 7 to 17 years old).

The first stage of speech formation covers the first three years of a child’s life. The development of children's speech up to three years of age, in turn (in accordance with the traditional approach accepted in psychology) is divided into three main stages:

• pre-speech stage (first year of life), in which periods of humming and babbling are distinguished;
• stage of primary language acquisition (pre-grammatical) - the second year of life;
• the stage of mastering grammar is the third year of life.

A.A. Leontyev points out that the time frame of these stages is extremely variable (especially closer to three years); In addition, acceleration occurs in the development of children's speech—a shift in age characteristics to earlier age stages of ontogenesis.

A child begins language acquisition by mastering the sound form of expression of a linguistic sign. Mastering the articulation of speech sounds is a very difficult task, and although a child begins to “practice” pronouncing sounds from the age of one and a half to two months, it takes him three to four years to master speech pronunciation skills.

At the age of 10-12 months, the child uses all nouns (which are practically the only part of speech represented in the child’s “grammar”) in the nominative case in the singular. Attempts to connect two words into a phrase (Mom, give me!) appear later (at about one and a half years). Then the imperative mood of verbs is learned (Go, go! Give, give!). It is traditionally believed that when plural forms are introduced, grammar acquisition begins.

Depending on individual differences in the pace of psychophysical and cognitive development, all children progress differently in their language development.

The “suspension” of phonetic development during this period of “speech ontogenesis” (for a period of 3-4 months) is associated with a significant increase in the number of words in the active vocabulary and, most importantly, with the appearance of the first real generalizations.

A child’s assimilation of the sequence of sounds in a word is the result of the development of a system of conditioned connections. The child imitatively borrows certain sound combinations (pronunciation options) from the speech of the people around him. At the same time, mastering language as an integral system of signs, the child masters sounds immediately as phonemes. For example, the phoneme [P] can be pronounced by a child in different ways - in a normative version, in a grazing manner, or in a burr. But in the Russian language, these differences are not significant for communication, because they do not lead to the formation of words with different meanings or different forms of words.

Despite the fact that the child does not yet pay attention to the various variants of pronunciation of phonemes, he quickly grasps the essential features of the sounds of his language. According to a number of studies, phonemic hearing is formed at a very early age. First, the child learns to separate the sounds of the surrounding world (the creaking of a door, the sound of rain, the meowing of a cat) from the sounds of speech addressed to him. The child actively searches for sound designations of elements of the surrounding world, catching them from the lips of adults. However, he uses the phonetic means of the language borrowed from adults “in his own way.” It can be assumed that children use their “strictly ordered system” in this case.

According to the observations of the American researcher of children's speech E. Velten, the child uses his principle of contrasting voiceless and voiced consonants: at the beginning of a word only voiced consonants are pronounced, and at the end only voiceless ones. This means that for a child at this stage of development there are only two classes of consonant phonemes. The reason is not that the child does not know how to pronounce, say, the sound [D] - he knows how to pronounce it, but believes that this sound can only appear at the beginning of a word. Later, this “system of rules” is corrected, and the child “brings” it to the adult language system. When it comes to the phonetic side of speech, it is clear that a child does not even need to be able to pronounce a sound in order to adequately perceive its differential features. This is illustrated by the following example of a dialogue between an adult and a child: - What is your name, girl?

• Raspberries. (i.e. - Marina).
• Raspberries?
• No, Malina.
• Well, I say - Raspberry!
• Raspberry, Raspberry/
• Oh, so your name is Marina?
• Yes, Malina!

From the above example it is clear that a child who cannot pronounce the sound [P] adequately differentiates it from the oppositional sound. Therefore, he rejects adult imitation of his pronunciation, although he himself cannot yet express this difference in his pronunciation. Based on the above, we can conclude that first the child masters the purely external (i.e., sound) structure of the sign , which subsequently, in the process of operating with signs, leads the child to its correct functional use. In general, we can talk about the formation of the articulatory apparatus only when the child reaches five or six years of age.

After one and a half years, children’s active vocabulary grows; the first sentences appear, consisting of whole words and amorphous root words. For example:

• Papa, di ("Papa, go").
• Ma, yes myasi (“Mom, give me the ball”).

Pedagogical observations show that children do not immediately master the correct reproduction of language signs: some language phenomena are acquired earlier, others later. The simpler a word is in sound and structure, the easier it is for a child to remember. During this period, a combination of the following factors plays a particularly important role:

a) imitation (reproduction) of the speech of others;

b) the formation of a complex system of functional (psychophysiological) mechanisms that ensure the implementation of speech;

c) the conditions in which the child is raised (psychological situation in the family, attentive attitude towards the child, a full-fledged speech environment, sufficient communication with adults).

Analyzing the quantitative indicators of the growth of children's vocabulary during this period, we can cite the following data from pedagogical observations and psychological and pedagogical research: at one and a half years, the volume of children's vocabulary is 30-50 words, by the end of the second year - 80-100 words, by three years - approximately 300-400 words (57, 130, 193, etc.).

A characteristic indicator of the active speech development of children at this stage is also their gradual assimilation of grammatical categories. During this period, we can distinguish a separate substage of “physiological agrammatism,” when the child uses sentences in communication without the appropriate grammatical design of their constituent words and phrases: Mama, dai kuka (“Mom, gimme a doll”); Vanya no tina (“Vanya doesn’t have a car”). With normal speech development, this period lasts from several months to six months.

In the pre-preschool period of speech development, children exhibit a variety of phonetic disorders: they skip many sounds of their native language (do not pronounce them at all), rearrange them, and replace them with simpler ones in articulation. These speech defects (defined by the concept of “physiological dyslalia”) are explained by age-related imperfections of the articulatory apparatus, as well as an insufficient level of development of phonemic perception (perception and differentiation of phonemes).

At the same time, characteristic of this period is the children’s fairly confident reproduction of the intonation-rhythmic, melodic contours of words, for example: kasyanav (cosmonaut), piyamidkya (pyramid), itaya (guitar), kameika (bench), etc.

N. S. Zhukova notes that a qualitative leap in the development of a child’s speech occurs from the moment he becomes able to correctly construct simple sentences and change words by cases, numbers, persons and tenses. By the end of the preschool period, children communicate with each other and others using the structure of a simple common sentence, while using the simplest grammatical categories of speech.

Parents and educators should be informed that the most favorable and intensive period in the development of a child’s speech falls in the first 3 years of life. It is during this period that all functions of the central nervous system, ensuring the formation of a system of conditioned reflex connections that underlie the gradually developing speech and language skills, are most easily amenable to targeted pedagogical influence. If development conditions at this time are unfavorable, then the formation of speech activity may be delayed or even proceed in a “distorted” form. Many parents evaluate their child’s speech development only by the degree of correct sound pronunciation. This approach is erroneous, since an indicator of the development of children's speech is the timely development in the child of the ability to use his vocabulary in verbal communication with others, in different sentence structures. By the age of 2.5-3 years, children use three- to four-word sentences using various grammatical forms (go - go - let's go - don't go; doll - doll - doll).

Psychophysiological bases of speech development.

Based on data from anthropology, neurolinguistics, and studies of children’s speech, V.V. Ivanov determines the following sequence of formation of speech zones of the brain, common to phylogenesis and ontogenesis:

• right hemisphere zones responsible for sign semiotics and words of sound language;
• posterior zones of the left hemisphere, responsible for the verbal naming of individual objects;
• anterior zones of the left hemisphere, ensuring the construction of complex syntactic structures.

Accordingly, the stages of development of homo sapiens communication and the child’s sign activity are as follows:

1) sign language;

2) sound monosyllabic designations of objects;

3) connecting words into sentences.

An examination of children at the end of the first and beginning of the second year of life showed that the motor analyzer plays an important role in the development of speech; The influence of the motor function of the fingers on the state of brain activity is noted. There is a high correlation between the development of fine movements of the fingers and the development of speech. Speech occurs through the interaction of three areas of the cortex. One of them, Broca's center , is located in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere. It transmits the code to the neighboring part of the brain that controls the muscles of the face, lower jaw, tongue, palate and larynx, and thereby activates the speech apparatus. Damage to the Bok center causes a form of aphasia (complete or partial loss of speech), in which sounds are articulated slowly and with difficulty.

The second area, Wernicke's center , is located in the temporal lobe of the brain and provides speech understanding. Damage to Wernicke's center leads to another form of aphasia - speech, while remaining fluent, becomes meaningless. An arcuate bundle of nerve fibers apparently transmits auditory impulses from Wernicke's center to Broca's center, which makes it possible to repeat a heard word out loud.

The third area, adjacent to Wernicke's center, is called the angular gyrus and occupies a key position at the junction of those parts of the cerebral cortex that control vision, hearing and touch, that is, they receive information from the outside world. The angular gyrus is connected to them by bundles of nerve fibers and plays the role of a kind of switchboard, ensuring interactions between different types of signals coming from outside. For example, it allows the brain to associate the visual signal caused by the sight of a cup with the auditory signal that occurs when the hand touches the cup.

The crucial importance of such associations for language becomes especially clear when we observe how young children learn the names of objects. Receiving an answer to the question “what is this?”, the child associates the visual image of the object with the sound of the word and thus perceives the name, automatically fixing the auditory code of this association in memory. This process of association and memory represents the first step and the foundation of the basics of language acquisition.

There are such interconnected aspects of speech activity as perception, recognition of verbal signals, central semantic processing of the perceived message and processes that stimulate speech utterance.

Both hemispheres of the brain take part in speech activity, but different parts of the cortex play different roles in this process. The process of perception and recognition of auditory verbal signals is carried out with the leading participation of the secondary cortical fields of the auditory analyzer, mainly the left (dominant) hemisphere of the brain. Here, sound analysis and synthesis of speech signals is carried out, and recognition of the phonemic composition of speech is ensured. Non-phonemic parameters of sounds, such as duration, volume, timbre, melody, etc., are analyzed mainly in the right hemisphere of the brain. Thus, the speech-hearing analyzer is located in the temporal lobes of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

The grammaticalization of a child’s speech indicates the driving factor in speech development—complicated interaction with the environment, posing new communicative tasks that require new adequate means of indicating them. The main linguistic structures are formed in the active activity of the child in pre-speech acts, in which the baby reflects the basic real relations of reality.

Electroencephalographic data indicate that with the expansion of the signal meaning of a word, the child’s pattern of electrical activity in the brain changes significantly when verbal signals are presented: the processes of spatial synchronization of biopotentials in the associative parts of the cortex—frontal and inferior parietal—intensify, especially in the left hemisphere.

The speech function in childhood is particularly plastic. In a child who has already learned to speak, damage to the speech area of ​​the left hemisphere leads to complete aphasia. However, after about a year, speech is restored. At the same time, its center moves to the corresponding zone of the right hemisphere. Such a transfer of speech dominance from the left hemisphere to the right is possible only until the age of 10. After this, the ability to form a speech center in either hemisphere is lost.

There are two possible reasons for this: first, the development of the basic neural networks necessary for the development of speech (and later for learning a second language) apparently no longer occurs after 10 years; secondly, the corresponding areas of the hemisphere non-dominant in relation to speech by this age are already beginning to perform other functions, in particular orientation in space, awareness of the size of the body and its position in the environment.

However, the plasticity of the brain, which ensures the restoration of speech in childhood, is not given without reason. In patients whose right hemisphere, as a result of damage to the left, has taken over, in addition to the indicated non-speech functions, also speech functions, general mental and speech abilities are lower than in healthy people.

Thus, gradually in the child’s life experience various levels of generalization of objects and actions in words are formed, as a result of which the reflection of reality becomes broad and complex. However, under unfavorable conditions, the generalizing function of a word may undergo reverse development and be lost. The word as a “signal of signals,” therefore, is in constant development and cannot be considered as something unchangeable, given once and for all. The dynamics of the development of the signal meaning of a word are greatly influenced by the living conditions and upbringing of the child, in other words, a close interaction of biological and social factors is revealed.

Formation of the lexical structure of speech.

At the beginning of the second year of life, the child’s vocabulary is still small - its volume ranges from 10 to 50 words, but he is already trying to actively use these words in verbal communication. The first 50 children's words usually represent things that the child can influence. However, the child is surrounded by many more objects that can act on their own, and even more that simply exist in the world around him. Therefore, words such as: spoon, chair, doll are much more often found in a child’s active vocabulary than, for example, the word cloud.

At the age of 1 year 10 months to 2 years, the volume of a child’s active vocabulary increases significantly and reaches 300 words. According to special linguistic studies, nouns make up 60-65% of all words in the speech of children of this age, verbs - 20-25%, other parts of speech - 10-15%, and there are almost no conjunctions in speech. The dictionary is expanding very quickly, new words appear every day (106, 113, 190, etc.).

At the age of 2 years, children have a period of asking “what is this?” They want to know the name of the boy running past, the dog barking somewhere in the distance. If adults cannot satisfy the child’s interest, then children themselves sometimes come up with a name for this or that object. This is an indicator and at the same time a consequence of the development in young children of higher degrees of generalization of perceived objects and phenomena of the surrounding world.

During the first half of the second year of life, the child learns a large number of names of objects and actions, but all of them still relate to individual objects and do not yet receive a general meaning. At the age of about 3 years, when the child has already mastered some elementary types of practical activities, the vocabulary expands very quickly, reaching a thousand words. At the same time, the “passive dictionary” contains an additional approximately two to three hundred words that the child understands, although he does not use it in his speech. A sharp increase in vocabulary in the second and third years of a child’s life can be due to a number of reasons that make it easier for the child to master the general structure of the language:

• firstly, the presence of one or another “accent model” when learning new words. According to the leading method of learning new words, all children can be divided into two groups, which was first noticed by I. A. Sikorsky (1899). “Some take “adult” words and reduce them to one, usually the first syllable. Others do not reduce the word, but build it according to the correct accent-syllabic model - and often precisely and only according to this model, without reproducing articulations (examples: [nanAna] “medicine”; [tititI] “bricks”, etc.)” ;
• secondly, the child’s desire to reproduce the general appearance of the word, often to the detriment of the accurate reproduction of its sound-syllable structure. Moreover, within a given sound complex, individual articulations may vary;
• thirdly, the unification of the sound appearance of a word, the likening of all its consonants according to the place of formation, which leads to a kind of “harmony of consonants”. For example: [children] “boots”, [bamAm] “banana”, etc.

The assimilation of new words occurs by assimilation of their ready-made phonetic model. For example: [deeyeyEya], originally "dear", is used both for "battery" and "tree".

Mastering the meaning of a word.

L. S. Vygotsky established general patterns of a child’s consistent acquisition of the meaning of a word as a linguistic sign. According to his concept, the child’s assimilation of the meaning of a word proceeds in the direction from the formation of subject-related reference to the formation of the “actual meaning” of the word through the assimilation of its generalizing function, i.e. the function of isolating and generalizing the essential features of an object, then - categorical meaning (assimilating the word as a sign, denoting an entire subject category and relating the designated subject to this category).

The “main path” for a child to assimilate the meaning of a word involves a gradual transition from the “syncretistic” (determined by the child’s practical activities), “concrete” meaning of the word as a sign-designation, the name of an object, to its abstract, “conceptual” meaning, including the display of a multidimensional system of connections and relations of the designated object with other objects of the surrounding reality. The child’s object-practical and play activities, along with the practice of verbal communication with adults, act as the most important and determining factor in the formation of the “original” meaning of a word (“proto-meaning”).

The objective attribution of a word as the “original form of existence” of its meaning is usually acquired by the child quite easily and in a relatively short time (sometimes even during “spontaneous” speech development); mastering the actual meaning of a word, as a rule, is impossible without the guiding pedagogical influence of adults. The assimilation of words with an abstract, abstract meaning (not directly determined by the substantive and practical activities of children) presupposes targeted learning.

During the period of early and early preschool age, the word in the child’s vocabulary is still “constant” and “monomorphic” in its meaning, but in middle and senior preschool age, the first and only meaning of the word (as a rule, the most specific) is supplemented by one or two more meanings.

The decisive role here is played by a significant expansion of the scope of cognitive activity and its transfer to a higher level in connection with the beginning of “systemic education” (in preschool institutions or in the family). Each new meaning of an already acquired word (as a sound sign) is formed according to the same “universal” scheme (from establishing the objective attribution of a sound complex to the formation of its general, categorical and, finally, “conceptual” meaning), only in a shorter time.

At first, the child masters the word (as a semantic unit) unconsciously and cannot give its interpretation at first, although he is already able to isolate this word from the stream of speech and relate it to one or another object. At the same time, by designating an object or action, the child assigns it to a certain class of objects or actions and thereby creates an image of the object.

In structural linguistics, words with a predominant visual component (dog, rose, teapot) and an abstract component (thoughts, country, animal, furniture, work) are distinguished.

For a child of early and early preschool age, the visual component predominates in all words (Factory is where the big pipe is. Bank is where dad works, etc.).

One of the problems for a child in mastering the meaning of a word is its polysemy - the ability of a lexical sign to designate several different objects at the same time. From the above it follows that the child has difficulty identifying words with an abstract component (laughter, joy, kindness). It is almost impossible for a child to learn their meaning based on a comparison of the options for their use in the context of speech. It is no less difficult for a child to master the comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs, since for this it is necessary to have some “mental” standards of comparison stored in memory. The child has certain mental limitations, due both to the level of his general and cognitive development, and to the lack of appropriate experience. Therefore, despite progress in language development, the word for a three-year-old child continues to remain concrete.

If an adult can give a fairly comprehensive definition of any word (A dog is a domestic animal that belongs to the class of mammals, lives with a person and helps him...), then the child’s “definition” will be very specific and situational (A dog is in our home, lives in the village.) Young children also have difficulty mastering the metaphorical and generally figurative meanings of words, asking “incongruous” questions (Who is the clock behind? Where is the movie going? Etc.). Some children believe that any machine gun (even one with soda water) should shoot, since it is called that, and you can go anywhere with any machine, even a washing machine. In a similar way, children revise texts, replacing abstract and unfamiliar words with more concrete and understandable words, although they may not exist in the language.

Patterns of mastering syntax.

According to the American psycholinguist S. Ervin-Tripp, a small child very skillfully pretends that he knows the rules of adult language. So, first he speaks in words that have the communicative power of sentences, for example: Mom! can have several meanings, which are determined only by non-speech context: Mom, give it; And here comes mom; I'm hungry, etc.

Then, in mastering syntax, the period of two-part sentences begins. Two-part sentences are used in various semantic functions - to name a place (“Baba kesya” - “Grandma’s chair”, Goose here); for a request (More poppy seeds - “More milk”, Give chasy - “Give me a watch”); to describe the situation (Papa bye-bye. Auntie is there); for negation (Nemoko - “Not wet”). The stage of two-word utterances (“proto-sentences”) in the speech of young children is the defining stage in mastering the syntax of speech.

The next stage in the formation of the syntactic side of speech is the appearance of developed syntactic forms that can perform a variety of functions in the child’s speech utterances: semantic association of objects displayed in speech (I see a cup and a glass.), attribution (This is a “going out” hat.), indications of accessory (These are Vova’s socks.), location of the object (Jumper on the chair.), displays of relationships like: “subject-object” (Katya throws the ball, etc.).

Starting from the age of three, “hierarchical constructions” appear in children’s speech. In one phrase, the child begins to speak from the predicate group, and then immediately changes it to the subject-predicate group (I want this... Sasha wants this; He’s building a house. Misha is building a house.). These phrases are not simply “mechanical” chains of several words. This is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that the child often expands such verb groups to a whole complete sentence. (Standed up... The cat stood up... The cat stood up on the table.) L.V. Shcherba introduced into applied linguistics the concept of “negative linguistic material” as a speech utterance that is not understood or understood with difficulty, and therefore does not achieve its goal. In his opinion, the child initially produces negative language material, but quickly enough “learns” to ask for something correctly, since his incomprehensible requests are not fulfilled.

Typical grammatical errors in children's speech.

In the speech of children of early and preschool age, there are errors that are so common that they can be considered as a kind of one of the patterns of language development of a normally developing child.

When using verbs, the most common mistake children make is constructing verb forms based on the model of one that is most accessible to understanding (and, as a rule, has already been mastered by the child). For example, Russian children at a certain age incorrectly use some verb forms (I get up, I lick, I chew). But such forms are not the “invention” of the child: he, recognizing in the words that adults speak, some models of the grammatical form of words (grabbing, breaking, falling asleep), takes them as a model, since it is easier for him to use one standard form of the verb than several. Often such imitation occurs according to the model of the just heard form of the verb.

- Sasha, get up, I’ve been waking you up for a long time.

“No, I’ll still sleep,” the three-year-old boy says in response.

Among the typical errors in children's speech, it should be noted the use of the past tense of verbs only in the feminine gender (ending in [-a]) instead of the masculine: I drank; I went. Boys use this form because they hear it from mothers, grandmothers and other female persons. Another reason for errors is that open syllables (ending in vowels) are easier to pronounce than closed syllables (ending in consonants).

Quite often, young children make mistakes in the use of case endings of nouns.

“Let’s take all the chairs and make a train,” one child suggests to the other. “No, you can’t,” he objects, “there aren’t enough chairs here.”

The formation of the instrumental case can occur erroneously due to (“copied” from other inflection options) adding the ending -om to the root of the noun, regardless of the gender of the noun (needle, spoon, cat, etc.).

Often in children's speech there are errors in the use of the gender of nouns (horse, people, cows instead of bull; cat instead of cat, etc.).

Children often mistakenly form the comparative degree of adjectives (good - bad, tall - shorter) following the example of generally accepted forms (stronger, funnier, longer). The same applies to the formation of the comparative degree of “denominative” adjectives, for example: But our forest is still pine-tree-rich (that is, there are more pine trees in it).

Errors in language acquisition are a completely natural phenomenon for the normally occurring ontogenesis of speech activity. At the same time, errors “typical” of language development cannot be ignored; it is necessary to correct the child by making adjustments to his speech. If an adult does not pay attention to them, the child’s speech may remain grammatically incorrect for a long time. Some teachers believe that children should not repeat words and phrases they mistakenly pronounce as “ridiculous absurdities,” especially in the presence of the children themselves. Some children are proud that they managed to make adults laugh, and begin to deliberately speak incorrectly. All cases of incorrect speech behavior in children should be the subject of the closest attention of teachers.

Speech of adults addressed to a child as the most important factor in the formation of speech activity in ontogenesis.

The role of parents in a child’s successful language acquisition is quite significant. If the speech environment and language environment do not fully meet the needs of the child’s necessary speech practice, he will not be able to acquire the language to a sufficient extent.

Pedagogical observations show that many parents ignore this most important factor in speech development; in particular, adults rarely correct children’s grammatical errors. The opposite approach is more often used by parents with high socioeconomic status. But in most cases they correct children when their statements in meaning do not correspond to the reality reflected in the speech. Reacting only to the content of the child’s statements, parents rarely correct grammatical errors in his speech.

In foreign psycholinguistic literature, this problem—inattention to grammatical errors in children’s speech—has been called the problem of “negative data.”

Another “negative” feature of communication between adults and children is that adults speak to them differently than when communicating with each other. So, when asking about age (How old are we?) or about the child’s name (What are our names?), an adult uses diminutive suffixes or addresses the child using the “unifying” pronoun “we” (this is what a doctor sometimes does when addressing a patient) . When talking to a child, an adult can squat down in front of him and speak in an unnaturally high-pitched voice, as if not in his own voice. Psycholinguists call this kind of language “parental” or “nanny” language. In speech addressed to a child, there are also some peculiarities of syntax. In particular, the phrases used by parents are quite short and have a simple structure. An adult, addressing a child, is more likely to use simple words of a conversational style of speech (The dog wants to drink some water) than vocabulary of a bookish, and especially scientific, style.

Sometimes in the speech of adults you can hear phrases with a temporary inconsistency of grammatical forms, for example: Now mommy gives Vovochka a tomato (instead of giving), as well as “incorrect” use of proper names instead of pronouns (for example, a child says to himself: Vanya will give Olya a tomato.) . The absence of personal pronouns in the speech of children under two years of age is, as it were, recorded on the “periphery of the linguistic consciousness of adults,” and they simplify their speech when communicating with the child.

Speaking about vocabulary, we note that the words that adults use in conversations with children, in their semantics, are words of the everyday colloquial lexicon.

For example: see (instead of noticing), tell (instead of retelling), eat (instead of eating or eating), etc.

Often, adults, speaking to children, seem to turn to “semantic primitives.” In one case, they will speak less “specifically” (Look how beautiful the dog is.), in the other, on the contrary, they tend to use generic names (Wonderful, what a painted dish) instead of specific names (Look, what a beautiful red cup). In addition, adults more often talk to the child about what is happening in the immediate vicinity (There is a butterfly on a flower), rather than about objects and phenomena “remote” from the child, which also does not contribute to the accumulation of a vocabulary of words with abstract meaning.

The words that adults use to address children quite often contain diminutive suffixes (mushroom, chair, car, kitty, bird, etc.). They contain a pronounced emotional meaning and are classified by linguists as subjective and evaluative. The fact is that a child from two to four years old personifies objects and phenomena of the surrounding world in his play and speech. He seems to liken objects to himself, expressing a kind attitude towards them. And adults help him with this, using more often exactly those words that correspond to his level of development.

Another feature of the “parental” language is that adults speak to children more slowly, take more pauses and change the timbre of their voice. In addition, they place accent (stronger) logical stress on more words than in “adult” speech. Such exaggerated pronunciation is intended to emphasize the importance of what is being said and to draw the child’s attention to what the adult considers important. It is characteristic that this is often done by increasing the volume of speech, and not by using word order, which the preschool child has not yet mastered.

Some researchers believe that men (fathers, grandfathers and educators) do this in a less childish manner than women (mothers, grandmothers, teachers). At the same time, if a child offers an adult some topic for conversation, then mothers devote more time to it than fathers.

There is a difference between parents in approaches to the development of communication skills in a child. Thus, mothers, as a rule, are more attentive and understanding communicators, providing maximum comfortable communication for the child. But fathers often better prepare their children to communicate with unfamiliar adults. Parents thus seem to complement each other. And at the same time, without noticing it themselves, adults teach the child the language and rules of speech communication.

It is very important for specialists involved in the formation of the speech of children and adolescents (teachers, psychologists, etc.) to have a good knowledge of the general patterns of the formation of speech activity in ontogenesis, the study of which, along with general psychology and linguistics, is studied by developmental psycholinguistics. The main task of correctional speech therapy work is the formation of complex speech skills - the ability to adequately carry out speech activity in all its possible manifestations, in any situations of speech communication. When solving this main task of correctional work, the speech therapist relies on knowledge of the basic patterns, main stages and features of speech formation and language acquisition in human ontogenetic development.

MAGAZINE Preschooler.RF

Annotation:

Preschool age is the stage of active speech development. In the formation of a child’s speech, his environment plays an important role, namely, parents and teachers. The success of a preschooler in language acquisition largely depends on how they speak to him and how much attention they pay to verbal communication with the child.

Good speech is the most important condition for the comprehensive development of children. The richer and more correct a child’s speech, the easier it is for him to express his thoughts, the wider his opportunities for understanding the surrounding reality, the more meaningful and fulfilling his relationships with peers and adults are, the more active his mental development is.

Cultivating clear speech in preschoolers is a task of social significance and comes first in the work of preschool institutions.

Keywords:

speech development; preschool age; parents; coherent speech; language environment.

Preschool children are not able to independently master figurative, grammatically formatted speech. Only by imitating the spoken speech of adults can they master their native language. As A.N. wrote Radishchev “Nothing is so ordinary, nothing seems so simple as our speech, but in its very essence there is nothing so surprising, so wonderful, our speech . [1] Truly beautiful speech, rich in synonyms, can reveal a child’s potential and allow him to feel more confident in society. Normally developing children of preschool age strive to communicate with peers and adults and actively establish contacts through speech.

Why, then, is there a problem with mastering one’s native language? This is due, first of all, to the busyness of parents and lack of initiative in talking with a preschool child, as well as the large role of the use of gadgets in upbringing and teaching.

Human thinking and speech are interconnected. As Oxford professor F.M. wrote. Müller: “No one, I think, will be able to dispute the fact that thought without language is impossible . [2]

The “activity” on a tablet or phone is, in principle, harmless, and there is also the speech of a cartoon character or a game hero, but speech is not imitation of individual words or memorizing other people’s words, but speech is communication, when the child not only listens, but also answers , maintaining dialogue.

Therefore, by school age, the child’s speech becomes poor, monotonous - consisting of simple sentences with insufficient vocabulary, with the use of slang expressions, hesitations and without emotional overtones. There are cases where it is impossible to conduct a dialogue or even compose a story from a picture.

How can parents help their child master speech?

The family provides unique opportunities for the development of a child’s coherent speech. Parents and other family members are his most desirable interlocutors. These are people whose speech and speech behavior leave an indelible mark on the development of the child. Therefore, parents should introduce into the family the tradition of daily exchange of impressions about the day, not only the adult asks the child questions, but also the child asks the adult. [4] During conversations with a child, it is necessary to demonstrate a culture of dialogue behavior (listen carefully to the interlocutor, do not interrupt, ask questions, answer the questions posed). Adults show by example how to conduct a dialogue at the table, at a party, when talking on the phone, etc.

The most common techniques for developing speech are games at the everyday level. A mother’s story to her child about her actions: “I’m cooking, I’m going to do the laundry, I’m washing the dishes, let’s read, I’m getting dressed, etc.)”

Conversations that encourage answers - What are you doing? What are you dreaming about? Tell me what you see outside the window?

Reading fairy tales, singing lullabies, guessing riddles, tongue twisters. Remember your childhood, play role-playing games with your child: daughter-mother, veterinarian and baby elephant, to a restaurant, library, hairdresser. Prepare responsibly for the process, pay attention to detail. [3]

Unity in raising children ensures the development of correct behavior in children, accelerates the process of mastering skills, knowledge and abilities, and contributes to the growth of the authority of adults - parents and educators - in the eyes of the child.

Speech development is a complex process and specialist help alone is not enough, so it is necessary to teach children to communicate in a cultural language environment, expanding their horizons and knowledge about the world around them. And the interaction of educators with families will significantly increase the effectiveness of pedagogical influence on children, will allow them to overcome many difficulties and problems and achieve the desired result in the speech development of each child. Parents must realize the seriousness of this problem and help their children become happy and successful in their future lives.

Bibliography:

1. A. N. Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” 2013
2. Max Müller “The Science of Thought” 2015 496 pp.
3. OH. Bubnova “Development of speech” 2008 My world. Moscow 256 pp.
4. O.S. Ushakova “Speech development of children 5-7 years old” . Sphere 2013 272 pp.