Speech development:
goal, objectives, typical mistakes in the development of children's speech and overcoming them.
I was prompted to write this article by chance - on one of the popular “mom’s” sites I came across gross errors in explaining to parents the methods of speech development for preschoolers. And I realized that I definitely need to write an article for parents about the basics of speech development methods. It is necessary for mothers and fathers, grandparents to know what speech development in preschool children actually is.
,
why
does any family need this and what are
the effective ways of
speech games and activities with preschool children.
Who doesn’t write now about the development of children’s speech! It is very difficult for the average reader – a non-specialist – to understand all this confusion. For some reason, it is believed that it is enough to read articles on the Internet or books and retell them in order to declare oneself an “expert/consultant/specialist/trainer in the development of speech in preschool children” and begin teaching other adults how to develop the speech of children. But the theory and methodology of children’s speech development is a very deep, complex and versatile science that requires knowledge of psychological, psycholinguistic, physiological, and methodological foundations. And in order to advise and teach someone about the development of children’s speech, you need to know its basics and understand the system and patterns of a child’s speech development, as well as engage in daily practice of the speech development of many, very different kids. In this article, I will try, as a specialist and candidate of pedagogical sciences in this field, in simple, accessible language to “sort out” the confusion that exists on the Internet regarding the development of speech in children. I hope that as a result of reading this article, you will be able to correctly and effectively develop the speech of your children and will not make mistakes. You will also be able to navigate the literature and articles on children’s speech development.
What you will learn about in the article is not only my personal opinion, it is also the results of numerous scientific studies, as well as the results of my personal long-term work on the development of speech in children from a variety of families and social strata.
You will learn from this article:
Part 1 - “Hit the bull’s eye,” or about the main goal of developing the speech of children under seven years old and why all this is needed,
Part 2 - “Measure twice, cut once” or why you need to know the norms of children’s speech development,
Part 3 - “Wherever you go, you will find”, or the main directions of speech development and tasks,
Part 4 - “It’s hit or miss,” or effective and ineffective ways to develop children’s speech.
Speech development: how to and how not to develop speech in preschoolers
Part 1. Why do you need to develop speech and what is speech development? Or we determine the goal of speech development and “hit the bull’s eye”
Speech development: typical mistakes in understanding the goal.
To do anything effectively, we need to have a very precise idea of the desired goal of our actions. Then we will be able to “hit the bull’s eye” and achieve it. What will happen as a result of our actions? What will the child or his speech be like?
If there is no precise understanding of the goal, then our actions will be very similar to shooting sparrows from cannons, and the goal will be difficult and almost impossible to achieve. The selection of ways to achieve it, that is, the selection of effective speech development techniques and the ability to distinguish them from ineffective ones, also depends on understanding the goal.
Therefore, at the beginning, let's look at the purpose of developing the speech of children in preschool age and the typical mistakes that are encountered in this very important issue.
What is speech development? Opinion 1 and error 1.
The most common mistake in speech development, which I encounter every day in my practice of communicating with parents and teachers, with my friends, is understanding speech development too narrowly - as the work of a speech therapist to identify impaired sounds in children. It is believed that if a child pronounces all sounds, then his speech is well developed and there is no need to develop anything, which is not at all true! Once I even heard from the teacher’s lips (I went with a friend to pick up her child in kindergarten and accidentally heard the teacher’s remark): “You know! It turns out that we also need to develop children’s speech, but we are not a speech therapy group.” This was said by the teacher of the senior group of a kindergarten in a large city (!!!), which showed me that even many teachers do not understand the purpose of their own work on the development of children’s speech and do not know why it is necessary. This means they have no results in this direction.
Let's separate these two concepts and these two lines - speech correction and speech development.
Line 1. Speech correction.
A speech therapist deals with speech correction, i.e. correction of speech disorders in children and adults. That is, a speech therapist conducts classes with children whose speech is already impaired and helps the child correct speech disorders. Moreover, speech disorders concern not only sounds, but also speech breathing, intonation, tempo and timbre of speech, as well as grammar, vocabulary, coherent speech, that is, all aspects of speech development. If a child does not have speech disorders, then he does not need speech therapy classes, but he does need speech development classes (see line 2).
Speech therapists conduct classes with the youngest children of early age with delayed speech development or mental retardation, as well as with older children - 3-7 years old, and even with schoolchildren, teenagers and adults. But the methods of teaching 2-year-olds and 5-year-olds or schoolchildren are different.
Line 2. Speech development and prevention of speech disorders.
With normal speech development, the child does not require speech therapy classes. But developing his speech is very necessary and important! This means that he needs classes and games not for speech correction, but for speech development. A lot can be done from the first days of a baby’s life to prevent him from developing speech disorders in the future. And so that he speaks freely, beautifully, accurately, expressively, correctly and without mistakes. This is the development of speech.
I specifically wrote it in simple everyday language without terms, so that the difference would be clear.
What is “speech development”? Opinion 2 and error 2.
Very often, the concept of “speech development” is narrowed in modern families, and in many centers of preparation for school and preschool education, only to prepare children for learning to read and write, or is considered even more narrowly - only as learning to read. That is, in this case, teachers and parents believe that the development of speech in preschoolers is teaching children to read and children’s good knowledge of letters. But quick reading and knowledge of such concepts as “word”, “syllable”, “hard consonant”, “soft consonant”, “vowel”, “sentence” is only a small, very narrow part of the holistic system of speech development in preschool age. And it cannot be “torn out” from this system. More on this below.
A case from my practice. Many years ago I held a parent meeting for my new group of kids. The children in my group at that time were three years old, some were four. The first thing parents asked me at the meeting was how quickly I could teach their children to read, and at what speed they would read by the end of the school year. They thought that since I was working on speech development, this meant that the main thing for me in teaching three-year-old children was reading. Then I asked one of the mothers: “Irina, when you got your prestigious job, did you go through a competitive interview?” “Of course,” Anechka’s mother answered. “Did you have your reading speed checked when applying for this job?” Anya’s mother laughed: “Of course not.” Then I asked those mothers and fathers who had their reading speed tested when applying for a job to raise their hands. Haven't checked with anyone :). I asked what was being tested, and what tests did they need to pass? It turned out that absolutely everyone, when applying for a job, was tested for their ability to navigate new situations, as well as in typical and non-standard situations, think independently, prove their opinion correctly, conduct a discussion, analyze information, not get lost in life situations, general level of development, ability cooperate with people and other life skills. “This is what is laid down in preschool childhood, and this is what I will teach your children,” I said then. – “And have your own thoughts, and express them accurately and clearly for your interlocutor, conduct a discussion, clearly formulate questions and answers to them, defend your opinion, navigate different life situations of verbal communication. And this is the development of speech in babies!” So what will be the most important thing in children’s lives – reading speed or these vital skills of verbal communication with people, the ability to express oneself, one’s thoughts and feelings, to feel one’s individuality? Every parent answers this question for himself. (Note: I do not deny reading, but I believe that it should not be an end in itself and the most important thing in teaching children)
At this meeting we resolved this issue in favor of vital communication skills. And we did it brilliantly! These children not only spoke well by the end of preschool age, they became my co-authors of many speech games and activities that you are now reading on the site. And we also wrote two very real books, published by the Karapuz publishing house in the series “Development of Speech and Verbal Communication” on interesting expressions of the Russian language (counting crows, scratching with your tongue, and others). Games with these children and the stories and tasks they invented formed the basis of my online course “Topsy-Turvy: Topsy-Turvy Speech Problems for the Development of Children’s Thinking, Creativity and Speech.”
What is “speech development”? Opinion 3 and error 3.
Another very common mistake that I encounter in letters from readers of the site is equating the development of speech with its appearance in a child. From this point of view, it turns out like this: as soon as the baby speaks, as soon as his first words appear, there is nothing left to develop, no development of speech is needed, because the child speaks, which means speech is there and developed! This is wrong. The first words are just the first stage in speech development. All the most interesting things await you ahead. And writing fairy tales and riddles, and getting to know poetry and other genres of children's literature and the ability to distinguish them from each other, and logical speech problems, and games with sounds, syllables, sentences, and retellings, and much more.
What is speech development? Opinion 4 and error 4.
Some people believe that the method of speech development is simply tongue twisters, counting rhymes, riddles, and simple proverbs. You need to use them with children in any order and more often, and everything will be fine.
Or there is an opinion that speech development is simply a child’s memorization and naming of different objects from pictures (memorizing and naming the names of cities, trees, flowers, animals, countries, body parts, birds, fish, etc.). And we need to make sure that the baby remembers more words - the names of objects, so his speech will be developed. This is wrong. Developed speech is much more than simply naming objects.
I encounter this error all the time on different sites on the Internet. For example, on one of the sites for mothers, the author wrote that for early childhood there is a developed method for speech development, everything is clear, there are well-planned Doman classes, but “for preschool age there is no method for speech development, it needs to be created.” This phrase brought a sincere smile to my face, and I laughed heartily and for a long time. After all, entire teams of talented scientists and practitioners for many decades in our country have created and are creating methods for the development of speech in children! Students learn this technique for several semesters, and it is considered one of the most difficult. And the method of speech development is not a mountain of chaotically selected rhymes, poems or tongue twisters and games - but these are specific stages of solving specific problems in their system. Well-founded, proven steps! Since each pure tongue twister or tongue twister or other technique does not exist on its own, but “fits” into the system of speech development, and fits not just like that, but into a specific direction and at a specific stage of children’s education. It is then that they will really “work” most effectively on the development of children’s speech. Otherwise, we use only 10-20% of their potential.
What happens when this error occurs? We get the so-called “learned helplessness” in the development of a child’s speech. It manifests itself in the fact that the child perfectly and quickly completes tasks that he was taught and which were often repeated. But he does not speak as a means of communication and knowledge in life and is lost in any unfamiliar situation. But mastery of speech as a means of communication is the main thing! As one mother, a reader of my site and a graduate of my course for parents, said: “I was proud that my daughter knew the names of all the capitals of the world, but she could not meet other children in the yard or talk to them, tell a fairy tale. And only now I realized that this was not the main thing!” I’ll say right away that after this mother changed her position in communicating with her child, there was a sharp impetus in the development of the baby’s speech. Now the girl already uses phraseological units in her speech and actively composes stories and fairy tales with her mother. And if this had not happened, she would have remained at the level of memorized words.
A case from my practice. Sasha is 4 years old. When monitoring speech development, I pay attention to the fact that the baby has a very low level of speech development and great difficulties with speech. He cannot retell “from the pictures and with my help even “Turnip”, several groups of sounds are disrupted, the boy gets confused in colors and shapes, cannot describe where the object is, cannot describe the toy even with my help, cannot continue the phrase, he finds words with difficulty, coordinates words with each other in sentences with errors, and has many grammatical errors in his speech. But to my amazement, he answers very accurately from the pictures and tells me all the prepositions (in, on, under, for, before, from under, because of). I ask Sasha’s mom what’s the matter and how does he know prepositions so well, because... I can't understand the reason. It turns out that for a whole year, every day, the mother memorized with her child pictures depicting various prepositions (a ball on the table, under the table, at the table, in front of the table, jumped out from behind the table, etc.). And in the end, Sasha remembered them all and knows how to reproduce and name them. It took a lot of time to do this activity - repeating pictures - daily speech exercises that the child dislikes in the evenings for a year!!! Did this give impetus to the development of Sasha’s speech? No. During this year of “training” the child only on knowledge of prepositions, very important other aspects of speech development were missed. “Training a child” to solve one problem never leads to good results in speech development. All prepositions could be learned very quickly and interestingly for the child with Sasha in exciting and fun speech games (you will find their detailed description in a series of my articles about games with prepositions). Were the mother’s heroic daily efforts to develop her son’s speech effective? No. But you could play speech games with joy and enthusiasm with your child and achieve better results instead of the painful repetition of the same pictures day after day!
Let’s now see how to avoid mistakes and develop children’s speech easily and joyfully without unnecessary “heroism.” And we will finally determine our true goal, what we will try for and what we want to get.
What actually is the method of speech development and the development of speech in children?
The methodology for developing children's speech answers the questions: 1) what to teach in the development of children's speech, 2) how to teach and 3) why and why to teach this way.
Moreover, the answers to these questions and recommendations in the methodology for developing children’s speech are also not taken “from the head,” but are determined from the practice of developing children’s speech and from experimental work with children. How does this happen? To test a certain method of speech development, the authors take several groups of children (the groups should be approximately the same in terms of the children’s development level). Further work is carried out with these groups of children on speech development, but they are taught in different ways in order to choose the most effective one. Next, the researchers look at the difference in the results obtained in children. Then the results are rechecked with other groups of children. And based on a comparison of the data obtained, a conclusion is made about which method of speech development in working with children is more effective and gives the best results. And it is this method that is recommended for everyone to use - both teachers and parents. This is how the theory and methodology of children’s speech development was created and is being created. And I, as a researcher of children’s speech, when developing my own methods of developing children’s speech and game-based communicative situations for speech classes with children, do the same thing - I make sure to check all the speech development techniques when working with children before recommending them to other people - teachers and parents.
The goal of speech development for children in preschool age
What exactly is the development of speech in preschool children? Speech development has as its goal
help the child master competent, beautiful, expressive oral speech in his native language, learn to accurately, vividly, figuratively convey HIS thoughts, feelings, impressions in speech (note - your own, i.e. do not memorize and repeat like a parrot what is said to an adult, but compose your opinion about the event and express it in speech, prove it, discuss it with others).
That is, a child’s well-developed oral speech should be: a) correct (that is, without errors), b) “good” in quality, that is, beautiful, imaginative, accurate, rich, expressive.
This is our goal for the development of speech in children in preschool age.
Nowadays there are more and more children who are considered geniuses in the family. They know huge passages from encyclopedias by heart. But any creative or problematic situation baffles them. They also don’t have beautiful creative expressive speech. That is, they do not have the base, the basis for the development of abilities and speech development.
A case from my practice. Vanya was developed very intensively in the family, since he was the only son and grandson in a family of professors. Vanya’s speech was also developed, but in a special way: they read excerpts from encyclopedias to the child and forced the boy to retell them. This was a daily task - Vanya’s lesson with her parents “on speech development”. The child retold this story, indeed, at the highest level for his age - of course, daily training in the family was producing results! The family believed that a good retelling was the main thing Vanya needed to succeed in school. But the child had obvious problems with verbal communication and creativity, as well as with initiative and curiosity. They were not encouraged in the family. One day I asked Vanya (he was 6 years old at that time): “Will your wooden boat float in the water?” And he answers me: “Grandfather hasn’t read about this to me yet. When he reads it, I’ll tell you what he said.” And there is no attempt by the child to even try to reason, generalize or practically test his version - to launch the boat into the water and draw his own conclusion about its “buoyancy” and its reasons. Such children cannot write a fairy tale, meet a peer in the yard, or come to an agreement with the children. Is their speech well developed? Can they express themselves? No. Alas, they only repeat other people’s memorized thoughts. The goal was not achieved, although the adults in the family invested a lot of effort, but, alas, in the wrong direction! Vanya is currently studying at school - he is an average student, without outstanding success and without the desire for knowledge. After all, what is important in school is not retelling, but the child’s ability to highlight the main thing in educational material, generalize, draw an independent conclusion, analyze, compare, and not repeat after an adult. The parents are disappointed and offended by Vanyushka. But I won’t envy Vanya - after all, the family themselves “drove” him into this “dead end” of development.
This is interesting:
When the method of speech development was just being created in Russia, it set an even more interesting and even higher-level task - to educate a child not just in correct expressive speech, but in an
individual speech style!
Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol and other writers have an individual style of speech - we will never confuse the authors with each other, feeling their author's style. You can read more about this in the article “E.I. Tikheyev on the development of speech style in children" (the article was written almost 100 years ago, but what deep and very modern thoughts are in it! And how I want to go to these heights!).
Alas, in the modern situation there is no time for this task, because... Usually children do not “mature” to this level. We are already talking about the fact that almost every child has a disorder in speech development! But a huge number of these violations simply could not have happened if the child had been properly treated and communicated in the family and in the kindergarten!
So, with the goal and typical mistakes in determining the goal of speech development, as well as with what the methodology for speech development is, we have decided. The goal is high, interesting, very necessary for all of us in life, and the main thing for us is to start moving forward - to go towards it in small steps.
Now let's talk about indicative indicators of speech development - or about “norms” and monitoring of child development.
§ 2. Methodological principles of speech development
The process of forming children's speech should be built taking into account not only general didactic, but also methodological principles of teaching. Methodological principles are understood as general starting points, guided by which the teacher chooses teaching tools. These are principles of learning derived from the patterns of children’s acquisition of language and speech. They reflect the specifics of teaching native speech, complement the system of general didactic principles and interact with such of them as accessibility, clarity, systematicity, consistency, awareness and activity, individualization of learning, etc. Methodological principles also act in conjunction with each other (). The problem of the principles of teaching the native language has been little developed. Methodists approach it from different positions and in this regard name different principles (See: Fedorenko teaching the Russian language. - M., 1973; Korotkova teaching speech in kindergarten. - Rostov-on-Don, 1975.)
In relation to preschoolers, based on an analysis of research on the problems of speech development of children and the experience of kindergartens, we will highlight the following methodological principles of speech development and teaching their native language.
The principle of the relationship between sensory, mental and speech development of children. It is based on the understanding of speech as a verbal and mental activity, the formation and development of which is closely related to knowledge of the surrounding world. Speech is based on sensory representations, which form the basis of thinking, and develops in unity with thinking. Therefore, work on speech development cannot be separated from work aimed at developing sensory and mental processes. It is necessary to enrich the consciousness of children with ideas and concepts about the world around them; it is necessary to develop their speech on the basis of the development of the content side of thinking. The formation of speech is carried out in a certain sequence, taking into account the peculiarities of thinking: from concrete meanings to more abstract ones; from simple structures to more complex ones. The assimilation of speech material occurs in the context of solving mental problems, and not through simple reproduction. Following this principle obliges the teacher to widely use visual teaching aids and use methods and techniques that would contribute to the development of all cognitive processes.
The principle of a communicative activity approach to speech development. This principle is based on the understanding of speech as an activity involving the use of language for communication. It follows from the goal of developing the speech of children in kindergarten - the development of speech as a means of communication and cognition - and indicates the practical orientation of the process of teaching their native language.
This principle is one of the main ones, since it determines the strategy of all work on speech development. Its implementation involves the development of speech in children as a means of communication both in the process of communication (communication) and in various types of activities. Specially organized classes should also be conducted taking this principle into account. This means that the main directions of work with children, and the selection of language material, and all methodological tools should contribute to the development of communicative and speech skills. The communicative approach changes teaching methods, highlighting the formation of speech utterances.
The principle of development of linguistic flair (“sense of language”). Linguistic flair is an unconscious mastery of the laws of language. In the process of repeated perception of speech and the use of similar forms in his own statements, the child forms analogies at a subconscious level, and then he learns patterns. Children begin to use the forms of language more and more freely in relation to new material, to combine elements of language in accordance with its laws, although they are not aware of them (See Zhuikov for mastering grammar in the primary grades. - M., 1968. - P. 284.)
Here the ability to remember how words and phrases are traditionally used is manifested. And not only remember, but also use them in constantly changing situations of verbal communication. This ability should be developed. For example, according to the opinion, spontaneously emerging orientation in the sound form of language should be supported. Otherwise, “having fulfilled to a minimal extent its function necessary for mastering the grammatical structure, it collapses and stops developing.” The child gradually loses his special linguistic “giftedness”. It is necessary to encourage in every possible way various exercises in the form of playful manipulation of words, which at first glance seem meaningless, but have deep meaning for the child himself. In them, the child has the opportunity to develop his perception of linguistic reality. The development of a “sense of language” is associated with the formation of linguistic generalizations.
The principle of forming elementary awareness of language phenomena. This principle is based on the fact that the basis of speech acquisition is not only imitation, imitation of adults, but also an unconscious generalization of language phenomena. A kind of internal system of rules of speech behavior is formed, which allows the child not only to repeat, but also to create new statements. Since the task of learning is the formation of communication skills, and any communication presupposes the ability to create new statements, then the basis of language learning should be the formation of linguistic generalizations and creative speech ability.
Simple mechanical repetition and accumulation of individual linguistic forms is not enough for their assimilation. Researchers of children's speech believe that it is necessary to organize the process of the child's cognition of linguistic reality itself. The center of training should be the formation of awareness of the phenomena of language (). identifies three methods of awareness, which are often mixed: free speech, isolation, and actual awareness. In preschool age, voluntary speech is first formed, and then its components are isolated. Awareness is an indicator of the degree of development of speech skills.
The principle of interconnection of work on various aspects of speech, the development of speech as a holistic formation. The implementation of this principle consists in constructing work in such a way that all levels of the language are mastered in their close interrelation. Mastering vocabulary, forming a grammatical system, developing speech perception and pronunciation skills, dialogic and monologue speech are separate, isolated for didactic purposes, but interconnected parts of one whole - the process of mastering the language system. In the process of developing one of the aspects of speech, others simultaneously develop. Working on vocabulary, grammar, and phonetics is not an end in itself; it is aimed at developing coherent speech. The teacher’s focus should be on working on a coherent statement that summarizes all the child’s achievements in language acquisition.
The principle of enriching the motivation of speech activity. The quality of speech and, ultimately, the measure of learning success depend on the motive, as the most important component in the structure of speech activity. Therefore, enriching the motives of children’s speech activity in the learning process is of great importance. In everyday communication, motives are determined by the child’s natural needs for impressions, active activity, recognition and support. During classes, the naturalness of communication often disappears, the natural communicativeness of speech is removed: the teacher invites the child to answer a question, retell a fairy tale, or repeat something. At the same time, it is not always taken into account whether he has a need to do this. Psychologists note that positive speech motivation increases the effectiveness of classes. Important tasks are the teacher’s creation of positive motivation for every action of the child in the learning process, as well as the organization of situations that create the need for communication. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the age characteristics of children, use a variety of techniques that are interesting for the child, stimulating their speech activity and promoting the development of creative speech skills.
The principle of ensuring active speech practice. This principle finds its expression in the fact that language is acquired in the process of its use and speech practice. Speech activity is one of the main conditions for the timely speech development of a child. Repeated use of linguistic means in changing conditions allows you to develop strong and flexible speech skills and master generalizations. Speech activity is not only speaking, but also listening and perceiving speech. Therefore, it is important to accustom children to actively perceive and understand the teacher’s speech. During classes, various factors should be used to ensure the speech activity of all children: an emotionally positive background; subject-subject communication; individually targeted techniques: extensive use of visual material, gaming techniques; change of activities; tasks related to personal experience, etc.
Following this principle obliges us to create conditions for extensive speech practice for all children in the classroom and in various types of activities.
Part 2. Who came up with the standards for children’s speech development and why you need to know them.
Speech development is a process that a child goes through a number of stages. And there are indicative indicators of a child’s speech development at each age period. All standards for children’s speech development that exist in our country are the result of serious, long-term and in-depth scientific research into child development.
Of course, all children are very individual! But a lag in development of 2-3 periods is already an alarm signal that requires contacting specialists. And if help is provided to the child on time, then everything will be fine. But if you ignore the delay in the development of your child’s speech, then there may be problems at school - great difficulties in writing and in learning in general. The development of speech is closely related to the development of thinking, with communication with peers, so it is very important that the child does not experience problems. And if there are problems, so that they are resolved in a timely manner.
I’ll tell you a little about the approximate indicators in the development of speech in children. You will find a detailed description of them in the article on the development of young children.
A little about the baby’s vocabulary and approximate indicators in his development.
Just today I received a comment on my website: “Ha ha ha. 200-300 words by 2-3 years!” (subtext is unreal!) But this is the modern minimum - the standard for speech development. The reader laughs at these numbers, because... Indeed, many children do not speak at all now at 2-2.5 years old. And she thinks it's normal! But these numbers are not random! This is the minimum, not the maximum! Let's see what the maximum is and what children at 2-3 years old can really do.
To do this, let's go back to our story. 1965 This is 49 years ago. This year, the book “Development and Education of the Child from Birth to Three Years” was published, edited by the remarkable scientist - classic, researcher of early child development N.M. Shchelovanova. I quote from this book:
“In the third year of life, the child’s speech continues to develop rapidly. His vocabulary is growing every day. Over the course of a year, it increases 3-4 times, reaching 1300-1500 words (my note - let’s compare these figures for the number of words in a child’s dictionary by the age of three!). The child, as if on the fly, catches and repeats not only new words, but now entire turns of speech, and easily remembers poems, songs, fairy tales, although he does not understand everything that he grasps so quickly... As has been said more than once , the level of speech development depends on upbringing. The main means of developing the speech of a 2-3 year old child, as well as a younger one, is his communication with adults and the speech of adults.” This was written when I and many of you – my dear readers – were not yet in this world. Pay attention to the number - 1300-1500 words!!! Not 300, but five times more!!!
When I read these old lines about two-year-old children, I involuntarily compare the two-year-olds of 1965 and modern, even non-speaking children. And this despite the fact that we are all intensively engaged in “early development” from the cradle, buying expensive toys, taking them to centers from almost six months and paying quite a lot of money for it. But children lag behind their peers in previous years in speech development! And they lag behind in basic indicators! And after all, speech - all specialists know this - is a mirror of the child’s overall development, which reflects all his achievements and problems. Why is this “mirror” showing us such sad results now? Maybe we lost something very important or missed it in the race for the unimportant and set other goals for speech development?
Yes! This is true!
And when this important thing is revived again, speech problems go away! When we start:
- correctly use lullabies, nursery rhymes, pesters, roll calls from the cradle,
- listen and look closely at your baby and follow him, and not try to impose your ideas and ideas on him,
- conduct communication taking into account the form of communication with the child characteristic of a given age,
- when we, in the course of ordinary affairs, attract the child’s attention to the word and expression of his thoughts and feelings,
- when we try not to speak ourselves, but to create situations for the baby to actively speak -
then children change after us and there is a sharp leap in the development of children’s speech! How sometimes you want children to change on their own. This is unrealistic. When we, adults, change, our children and their speech change after us!
This has already been proven by many mothers with children who have completed my online course for parents “Development of language and communication abilities of children from birth to seven years.” The silent children not only began to speak in this course last fall, but now - a year later - they began to speak better than their peers! This result is not a “magic pill”, it is the spiritual work of parents, but the work is very grateful, joyful, creative and interesting! And yet, this is the result of these mothers and fathers’ understanding of the patterns of speech development. And when you understand not only “what and how to do,” but also “why and why exactly to do this,” then a creative spring awakens inside, everything becomes clear and understandable, fits into the system. And there is no need for extra “developmental” courses and toys. Since there is already an understanding of what a child really needs for development and what not.
You will find a small “cheat sheet” on the development of children’s speech in the course of everyday life in the article “20 ideas for developing children’s speech for busy mothers.” And if you want to learn this and find out all the details, welcome to my course. Sign up and receive information about recruiting a new group in the mailing list. I do not advertise the course, since the number of people willing to study on it is always greater than the number of places in the group of the course, which comes with my individual support for each participant and her baby.
Why is it so important to know the standards of speech development? Or about monitoring the speech development of children.
Are standards necessary and do we need to know them if all children have individual developmental characteristics? Yes need. Although very often I read online in mom’s forums that “there are old farts - they came up with standards, they fit everyone into one size fits all.” Of course, this is written by those who know nothing about standards - indicative indicators of the development of children. Or those who prefer not to solve the problems of their baby’s speech development, but to hide their head in the sand like an ostrich - this is not the best tactic. Any problem in the development of a child’s speech can be solved if it is solved and you contact specialists in a timely manner!
“Tentative” – they are called that for a reason. They are like a guideline for us - a lighthouse on our journey through the sea of child development. And we need to notice this beacon and understand what it is signaling to us.
Why is it important and necessary to know them? To track the dynamics of your baby's development. So that if you suddenly have problems, you can immediately notice them, contact a specialist - a doctor or speech therapist, and not waste precious time. To not just watch, but to see your baby - what is constantly changing in him, what new things he is learning, what he needs help with, where he is especially strong, and where he is not yet succeeding and needs to be supported with additional games and exercises.
This is important to know:
When monitoring the development of a child’s speech, it is important not even how much he can now, but
the dynamics
in his development.
And it is important to see that the baby is learning new things, that all the time his development is moving forward
. But if there is no such movement, then there is reason to think. Two reasons may contribute to developmental delay:
A) either we – adults – have “behind” the child and are giving him old tasks that he has long outgrown. And it’s time to give him more complex tasks of verbal communication according to his age
For example, we understand the baby at a glance, we can immediately guess what he will need and what he wants. Why then does the child need to speak? She simply is not needed in his life! No speech! This is one of the reasons that a child’s speech does not appear on time - and a very common reason, which, fortunately, is easy to overcome and correct, and the baby will soon speak.
B) Or there are problems in the child’s development and it is worth consulting with specialists.
I will give examples of the importance of parents and teachers knowing development standards.
Example 1. Baby talk.
All children begin to babble, even the deaf! Moreover, they begin to babble at approximately the same time. And this applies to children of different nationalities and from different social classes. Surprisingly, this is a scientifically proven fact! One gets the impression that babbling appears and develops on its own, and the child babbles “for himself.” But what is important to know: in deaf children, babbling gradually fades away (by the way, babbling also fades away in another case - if the mother does not communicate with the baby, for example, if the baby is in the orphanage). In deaf babies, babbling does not become more complicated (there are certain stages of babbling complexity in the normal development of a child, which are described in the section “Baby development from birth to one year”).
Therefore if:
A) the child does not babble (and he, for example, is already 10 months old),
B) babbling has appeared, but does not become more complex, but remains at the same level,
B) babbling appeared and then began to fade
– then you need to immediately contact specialists.
Example 2. Child’s food and… speech development.
In the “standards”, that is, in the approximate indicators of child development, the approximate age is given when we begin to accustom the baby to solid food. It would seem, what difference does it make when to start giving your child solid food? It turns out that this is very important! I know friends who ignored solid food until they were 3 years old, and processed all their son’s food in a blender (there were no medical indications for this, the mother just wanted it that way - she thought it would be better for the baby’s digestion). The result is that the child has huge problems with articulation and speaks very poorly!
Let's look at why solid food is so important and how it affects speech.
If a baby after a year or even after 2 - 2.5 years eats only pureed food, then it will be difficult for him to start speaking well. Why? Because speaking requires the ability to control the muscles in the mouth and the ability to control breathing. And chewing solid food is not just about nourishing the body and eating, but also about developing the ability to coordinate muscle work. Food for the little ones is a kind of “articulation gymnastics”, which is “carried out” 3-4 times a day (the number of times the child chews solid food, the number of times he trains his muscles, that is, he did such “gymnastics”). Need to know this? Yes! And on time, start giving your child crackers, fruit, cookies, dried fruit. And also provide cocktail straws to drink juice from or play with them - blowing bubbles. This is also useful for muscle development.
That is why the norms for the development of a child’s speech are not just written words, they contain very deep factors and patterns of the child’s development. But these patterns and factors are not immediately visible at a glance if you look at the norms superficially! They still need to be seen and understood. I'm glad we got to take a deeper look today! I will continue to reveal some secrets of child development that are familiar to professionals. And if you want to know such secrets, write :-), I will tell you on the website and in my courses. And I already tell you a lot in the course I wrote about above. There is an idea to create a creative workshop - a workshop on communicating such secrets and jointly composing - inventing family speech leisure and activities. Therefore, I will be glad to know your wishes and interests. Write in the comments!
