We help children aged 4-5 years develop speech

By the age of five, a child’s speech gradually becomes varied. Vocabulary increases. Children separate objects and describe them correctly. Speech therapists say that ideally by this time the baby is able to speak clearly. Therefore, if there is a delay and speech defects, it is time to contact specialists so that they can conduct an examination and prescribe appropriate treatment. But this does not cancel independent activities with the child. Keep in mind: at 4–5 years old it is much easier to correct mistakes than at school age.

Features of speech development

Let's look at how children develop during these years:

lexicon;
grammatical structure;
coherence of speech.

At 4–5 years old, a child’s vocabulary expands to 3000. He already expresses his thoughts better. Since many neologisms appear, the baby makes mistakes in word formation. But, the correct use is gradually learned. Children are observed to be attracted to rhyme. Therefore, exercises with memorizing small poems will come in handy. Adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, collective nouns, etc. appear.

Mostly simple common sentences are used. At the same time, the child uses common and complex words in speech. This is also accompanied by grammatical errors. At 4 years old, a child’s speech is characterized by liveliness, mobility, but also instability.

Coherent monologue speech is being mastered.

In order for development to be correct, adults must monitor the language. They need to speak meaningfully, calmly and slowly. After all, they are role models for children.

The level of speech development of each child is different, with its own characteristics. But there are general signs that are considered normal for children 4–5 years old.

Let's go to the speech therapist

A child cannot cope with all these speech difficulties on his own. If you do not address them now, this can result in various types of speech retardation, such as delayed speech, psycho-speech development, and general speech underdevelopment. This, in turn, will lead to problems with learning at school. Therefore, timely assistance from a speech therapist for such disorders is mandatory.

A specialist will help the baby not only correct problems with sound production (lisp, lisp, burr), as many people think. A good speech therapist can do much more. The following aspects are within his competence:

formation of correct speech;
development of speech structure and vocabulary;
development of attention, thinking, memory;
mastering the basics of grammar.

In addition, classes with a speech therapist (if he is an experienced speech pathologist) can help with the following problems:

stuttering;
dysarthria;
underdevelopment of speech with mental retardation;
alalia;
rhinolalia;
dyslexia;
dysgraphia, etc.

Select your speech therapist carefully. If he says that it will take a year of lessons 4 times a week to set the sound (the usual norm is 2 times), he does not give the child homework (they must be required), he constantly insists on classes to consolidate the sound (parents should do this on their own ), does not allow you to attend classes and at the same time demands a lot of money for your services - feel free to refuse such a “specialist” and look for another.

What should children know and be able to do at 5–6 years old?

At this age, children are already able to:

give your first and last name;
parents' names;
address;
know how to navigate in space;
distinguish the time of day;
they know the seasons, what comes after what;
geometric figures;
names of objects and living beings, describe them;
know how to be polite.

In terms of skills, children are able to:

anwser the questions;
describe mood and well-being;
use words correctly in a sentence;
form the plural;
use the imperative mood;
ask questions, participate in conversation;
retell and compose stories;
use the count to five correctly;
coordinate case, number, gender;
describe objects and determine direction.

If there is a delay in speech development, then it’s time to sound the alarm. Undergo a speech therapy examination and, if necessary, begin treatment. The examination includes checking:

sound pronunciations;
sound-syllable structure of the word;
states of phonetic perception;
state of phonemic synthesis analysis;
vocabulary and grammatical structure of impressive, expressive and coherent speech.

After the examination is carried out, a diagnostic card is drawn up, where the features are described in detail and, if any, speech delay is recorded. At the end, the speech therapist concludes whether treatment is necessary or not and makes recommendations to parents.

Due to incorrect pronunciation of sounds at school, the child will face additional difficulties. This will extend beyond just the classroom. He will also have problems communicating with peers.

We teach in the game

After analyzing the above norms, parents can understand which areas of their child’s speech need to be developed first: those with which there are problems. To correct each individual area, you can select appropriate games for speech development. First of all, to expand your vocabulary. Here are some examples of such games.

The adult names the object, and the child must put this word in the plural (wall - walls). In the course of such a game, you can also touch on polysemy (for example, a child, a chair or a seat can have a back, and a mug in the plural, only with a different emphasis - these are both geometric figures and sections for creative activities). At the same time, the child’s attention is promptly focused on the fact that not all words “multiply” equally (lion - lions, mouth - mouths). This develops the skill of using the plural and expands your vocabulary.
You can introduce your child to antonyms by offering to select opposite meanings for words (soft - hard, clean - dirty). At the same time, let him select words with new meanings (white snow - black night), and then replace them with pronouns (he is white, she is black). This way the preschooler will practice agreeing words and using pronouns.
After reading a story or poem, you can invite your child to come up with his own ending. It also develops thinking, imagination and coherent speech.
Playing with a ball allows you to develop various skills: enrich your vocabulary, master synonyms, antonyms, recognize objects by description, form new forms of words. For example, a child is thrown a ball, naming the object, and he returns the ball, calling the object affectionately. Or in response to a word it selects the opposite meaning. Or names an object, having heard its signs, names the color of the specified object. Parents' imagination can suggest other options for such games.
Animate and inanimate objects. The concept of them can be easily reinforced by playing with cards: the child must put animate objects in one group, inanimate ones in another, helping himself with questions: “This is a pear. She is alive? No. This is a cow. She is alive? Yes".
Using a similar exercise, you can introduce your baby to relative adjectives. One group of cards will contain objects, the other will contain the materials from which they are made. The child’s task is to correlate the two pictures, saying: the ball is made of rubber. It's rubber. The pencil is made of wood. It is wooden.

In order for a preschooler’s speech to become more expressive, offer him such a game (several children or a family should play). The child, on the instructions of the adult, must demonstrate to the other players different shades of a person’s mood (fun, surprise, sadness, anger, fatigue, despondency). In this case, the baby can use appropriate intonation, facial expressions, interjections (oh-oh, wow, wow, eh, ah, ah-ah). The rest of the players guess what exactly was shown.

Articulation games and exercises

Speech therapy help is sought when there are problems in producing sounds. However, no matter how fruitful the sessions with a specialist may be, most of the responsibility for speech development lies with the parents. After a speech delay has been identified through examination, the speech therapist directs treatment in the right direction and suggests exercises to include in classes.

Here are a few of them in game form. Children perform such exercises much more effectively.

Jam: The child is asked to imagine that he has eaten a lot of jam and it remains on his upper lip. “Jam” is licked with a wide tongue over the entire surface of the lip.
Spatula: The baby imagines that his tongue is a big shovel. It is pulled out and placed on the lower lip. The delay lasts up to 15 seconds.
Horse: the child imagines that he is a horse and stomps and clicks his tongue.
Needle: this time the tongue is presented in the form of a needle and pulled out narrow, holding it for up to 15 seconds.

Such simple tasks in the form of a game will make classes, and with them treatment, exciting and interesting.

Features of practicing hissing sounds

To teach a child to correctly pronounce hissing sounds, you must first introduce whistling sounds. If a child in the fourth year of life has learned to pronounce whistling sounds, then there should be no problems with hissing sounds. You can install them with a few simple exercises.

"Naughty tongue." The child sticks the tip of his tongue out of his mouth. Then he lightly slaps it with his fingers, while saying: “five-five-five.”
"Delicious jam." The lower lip is pulled down so that the teeth are visible. And the tip of the tongue licks the upper lip, as if it is very sweet there. At the same time, the lower jaw should remain motionless during the exercise.
“Hide the candy.” Mouth closed. Tighten your tongue and touch your left, then your right cheek. It's like there's candy hiding behind your cheek.

Repeat exercises at least 5 times.

Note! Producing the sounds of native speech is very important for children. It will help them not only make contact with their peers, but also better master the preschool and school curriculum. Parents have the power to help their children avoid difficulties in the future and put the sounds correctly in time.

Games, exercises and cartoons for speech development for children 4–5 years old

Games and activities for speech development help to better master the grammatical structure and coherence of speech. Here are some options.

Vocabulary is expanded thanks to this game: throwing a ball, an adult asks the child questions (What is long, round, prickly, tall), and he, returning the ball, answers.
The same is done during the game to develop the ability to form endearing nouns. The child is told a word and asked to form a diminutive from it.
They also offer to name colors, antonyms, and solve riddles.
All children at this age love cartoons. They have a separate role. There are special educational cartoons that teach the alphabet, counting, colors, etc. They are also beneficial for speech development.

Let's consider which cartoons are better to choose.

First of all, they choose good cartoons, where the correct life values are laid down.
Their characters are positive, but at the same time not ideal, so that the child does not feel guilty for shortcomings.
Cartoons are chosen to be of excellent quality in terms of image and sound.
It is advisable not to focus on gender differences. Boys and girls these years play with the same toys and watch the same cartoons.

Diagnosis of speech disorders

To check on your own how things are going with speech disorders in a child who speaks incomprehensibly, you can conduct several simple tests. To study vocabulary, he is asked to name animals, seasons, dishes, toys, furniture from pictures.

Children are asked to name objects, phenomena, qualities of objects, to carry out an assignment (draw something, bring an object or toy). To find out how they can change words, they offer the following tasks:

form the plural (nose – noses, chair – chairs),
offer to count objects, determining how he coordinates nouns with numerals (one book, two books, etc.);
say “affectionately” (doll - doll, bed - crib).

To determine the level of development of phrasal speech, children are asked to complete a sentence started by an adult: “The boy... is playing ball.” For this, pictures with different scenes are used. When observing a child’s speech in everyday life, you need to note for yourself which parts of speech the child uses and evaluate his ability to correctly construct a phrase.

To examine the syllabic structure of a word, the child is offered verbal tasks without using pictures: repeat syllables from different consonants and vowels (lo-se-ku, pi-ka-chu), syllables from the same consonants and different vowels (da-doo-dy-do) , from the same vowels and different consonants (la-ma-ka-sa). To understand whether the child feels the rhythm of speech, they tap the rhythm of a simple word and ask him to repeat it in the same way.

A child's speech depends on his parents

It is important to understand that the baby learns from the experiences of those around him. Thus, the issue of speech development directly depends on the environment where it grows. If the delay is obvious, then it is better for the treatment to fall on the shoulders of a speech therapist.

But be that as it may, communication with parents remains in the first place for children of any age, including 4-5 years old.
Play with your children while doing speech therapy exercises and help them develop. Then they will not have problems with speech, and communication with peers and adults will become calm and harmonious. Previous articlePreviousNext articleNext

Working out at home

In difficult cases, sessions with a speech therapist alone will not be enough. Parents will have to work with the child on their own. However, even with a more favorable prognosis, home exercises will only bring benefits. This includes consolidating the skills learned from a speech therapist, and completely at-home games if, for example, it was not possible to find a suitable speech therapist or the problem is not too serious.

Here are a few rules that will help parents properly organize speech therapy classes for children at home.

Turn every activity into a game. If a child is interested, he learns the necessary skills unobtrusively and quickly.
Increase the duration of classes gradually: starting from 5 minutes, gradually increasing to 20–35.
Don't overload your child with information. 2-3 games at a time are quite enough for adequate assimilation of the material.
Remember to praise. This is the best incentive for a baby.
Play when the child is alert and in a good mood (after breakfast or lunchtime nap).
Remember that your baby learns everything by imitating you. Therefore, always show him something by turning him face to face.
If, when completing a task, you introduce your child to some natural phenomena, structure the work so that they relate to reality (we study snow and frost in winter, leaf fall in autumn).

Buy special literature to help you organize and conduct classes. For example, benefits N.E. Teremkova, T.Yu. Bardysheva, E.N. Monosova. These authors have various benefits for any age.

What is speech therapy and what are its methods?

Speech therapy literally translated from Greek means “speech education.” To summarize, we can say that this is the science of the development of speech skills, the causes, mechanisms, symptoms of speech disorders and methods of their prevention and correction.

There are many tools in the arsenal of speech therapy. Among them:

articulation gymnastics;
activities to develop fine motor skills;
exercises on onomatopoeia, hearing development, logorhythmics;
repeated repetition of verbal constructions;
breathing exercises and voice exercises;
exercises for individual sounds.

In each specific case, the methods are individual. The tasks are different - to prevent, correct, restore, but the goal of the classes is one - correct-sounding speech.

In a broader sense, the goal of speech therapy is to educate a person with speech disorders and help him with social adaptation.

Now let's move on to the description of speech therapy exercises.

In what cases should you visit a specialist?

There are several signs that indicate your child's speech needs professional help:

very poor vocabulary;
inability to correctly pronounce a large number of sounds;
incorrect choice of word, lack of correlation between the word and the object to which it refers;
constant omission of some syllables in words;
slow or, on the contrary, very fast speech, pronouncing most words in syllables;
slurred speech, stuttering;
constant hesitations and pauses.

In these cases, it is necessary to show the child to a speech therapist, possibly a neurologist, as quickly as possible, this will help identify the causes of the disorders and eliminate them.

Types of speech therapy classes for children

Speech development classes may consist of:

finger games;
articulatory gymnastics;
games for onomatopoeia, hearing development, logorhythmics (poetry with movements);
poems for replenishing vocabulary, speech development.

Speech therapy classes should be conducted daily. The most difficult thing about them is to be able to interest the child. Therefore, it is not at all necessary that such classes be conducted like lessons at school, where students humbly sit at their desks and the teacher explains a new topic in a monotone voice. For kids, such activities are akin to torture. Turn on your imagination: let your baby learn with you, playing on the rug, sitting on a pillow, hiding in his hut, jumping or running... The main thing is the final result. Build your lessons in a playful way - this way your child will remember the material better and won’t get tired at all.

In addition, when arranging speech therapy classes with your child at home, you should:

Start classes with 2-3 minutes, gradually increasing their duration to 15-20 minutes.
Make classes interesting so that the child has a desire to study. Never force your child to do exercises - you will get the opposite result.
Perform tasks more often, but let them be short-term.
Treat your child’s failures easily, without shouting, with understanding. Analyze each situation together, for example, look for the reason why the child has such a naughty tongue, and how to fix it.

Now let's look at each of the types of speech therapy games listed above.

Finger games

Through finger games, a child's fine motor skills develop. How does this help speech development? Scientists have found that there is a close relationship between the human hand and the part of the brain that is responsible for speech. Therefore, by learning texts using finger exercises, the child develops spatial thinking, imagination, reaction speed, attention and emotional expressiveness. Memorizing texts occurs faster, and speech becomes more expressive.

The effectiveness of finger games is achieved if you work with your child daily, devoting only 5 minutes to such exercises. Let's look at a few examples of finger games.

"Flower". Fingers pointing up, gathered together. We make a bud from half-bent palms, pressing them together. We begin to pronounce the quatrain, performing movements on every second line:
The sun is rising -
The bud is blooming! (spread the fingers of both hands to the sides, keeping the lower part of the palms together)
The sun is setting -
The flower goes to bed! (return to the starting position).
"Kitty." Place your palms on the table and clench them into fists. To the words “Fist - palm. “I’m walking like a cat,” we simultaneously straighten our fingers, without lifting the handles from the surface of the table, and squeeze them. To complicate the exercise, unclench your palms alternately on the count of “one, two.” You need to repeat the exercise 3-5 times.
"The bird is flying." Cross your arms with your palms in front of you. Interlace your thumbs together to imitate the head of a bird. The remaining fingers are wings that will need to be flapped without separating the fingers.
The birds have flown (flapping their wings)
We sat down and sat, (press our palms to our chests)
Read also: Morning exercises in preschool educational institutions. Workshop for educators
Then we flew.
"Maple". This game is suitable for children 3 years of age. All movements are performed in accordance with the text of the poem:
The wind quietly shakes the maple tree, (spread your fingers and pull them up)
Tilts to the right, to the left: (swing your palms to the right and left)
One – tilt and two – tilt, (tilt your palms as low as possible in the indicated directions)
The maple leaves rustled. (we move our fingers quickly)
"Cake". We perform movements according to the text of a poetic work.
We remember the dough with our hands (squeeze and unclench your fingers several times)
We will bake a sweet cake. (think imaginary dough)
Lubricate the middle with jam (make circular movements with your palms on the table surface)
And the top with delicious cream (with three palms touching each other in a circular motion)
And coconut crumbs
We will decorate the cake a little (we imitate the action with both hands)
And then we’ll make tea -
Invite a friend to visit! (we shake our left hand with our right hand).
"Winter". Suitable for children 4-7 years old.
One, two, three, four, five, (fingers bend one at a time)
We went out into the yard for a walk.
We sculpted a snow grandmother (we perform the movement of sculpting snowballs)
The birds were fed grains (we throw grains, rubbing our fingers together)
After we rode down the hill, (we run the palm of our right hand over our left palm)
They were happily lying around in the snow. (we alternately place the pens on the table surface, either with our palms or with our backs)
We came home in the snow, (shake off the snow from our palms)
We ate borscht and went to bed. (we make movements with a spoon and pretend to be asleep by folding our hands, palms to palms, and placing them under our cheeks)

Finger games can be used as physical education during speech therapy classes. They help to change the type of activity without losing children's attention and desire to learn. In addition, it is interesting, fun and useful. The main thing is to tell the poems with exciting expression and clearly show the movements.

In addition, finger games help:

develop coordination of movements of both arms of the child;
combine the child’s speech and physical activities, use them simultaneously;
develop precise and differentiated movements of children’s fingers and hands;
learn to repeat the movements of adults;
become more attentive, develop visual perception;
improve memory, imagination, perseverance.

Finger games need to be done systematically. Classes are possible with one child or with a group of children. However, it is important to take into account the age of the children, their mood, readiness for classes, desire and opportunity.

Articulation gymnastics

You can find the presentation and musical accompaniment for articulatory gymnastics on this page.

Articulatory gymnastics is necessary for correct sound pronunciation, strengthening the muscles of the face, tongue, lips, and soft palate. There are many exercises, a specialist will help you choose the most suitable ones for your sounds.

Tasks are divided into static and dynamic. Each has a name that your baby can easily remember, which will make it much easier to understand the instructions during class. Using a little imagination, you can go on fabulous trips with your child, where the main character will be the child’s tongue. There are many variations, it all depends on you. Below are the same exercises; after reading the descriptions, you will understand that they are not complicated and do not require additional knowledge from you (parents).

Articulatory gymnastics is a group of exercises for the tongue and lips. They are the main ones in the process of sound pronunciation. If the tongue is not developed enough, a person will not be able to pronounce sounds, which means that his speech will be incomprehensible or not clear enough.

They perform articulatory gymnastics in front of a mirror - this way you can see the correct movements of the tongue and lips during exercise. It is very important for children to see how his tongue and lips move, how and where they are located. This way, understanding of their correct location quickly comes, on which the effectiveness of articulatory gymnastics depends. Speech therapists recommend doing the exercises twice a day for 5-7 minutes. As a result, your child will receive correct and clear speech.

Let's look at a few simple but effective exercises.

"Smile." Stretch your lips strongly in a smile, but your teeth should not be visible. Hold a smile for 30 seconds.
"Fence". Smile hard so that your teeth are visible, hold the smile.
“Let’s punish the naughty tongue.” Open your mouth slightly, place your tongue on your lower lip and, slapping it with your lips, pronounce “five-five-five...”.
"Tube". Open your mouth, stick out your tongue and try to bend its side edges upward in the form of a tube, hold it in this position for 30 seconds.
“Let’s lick the jam.” Slowly, without lifting the tongue, first lick the upper lip from corner to corner, then repeat the procedure with the lower lip.
“The clock is tick-tock.” Make a smile, open your mouth slightly, then use the tip of your tongue to touch the corners of your mouth one by one.
“Brushing our teeth.” Smile, open your mouth slightly, then with the tip of your tongue, pressing it hard enough, brush the inside of the teeth of the lower row (7-10 times). Repeat the same exercise with the teeth of the upper row (7-10 times).
"Swing". Smile and open your mouth wide. Then lower the tip of the tongue behind the bottom row of teeth by “one”, and lift it by the top row by “two”. Repeat – 4-5 times.
"Snake". Open your mouth, stick out the narrow part of your tongue from your mouth and quickly hide it back. Touching teeth and lips is prohibited.
"Rent a pencil." Place a pencil on the table in front of the child. Ask him to smile, place the wide front part of the tongue on the lower lip and, slowly (exhaling air), blow on the pencil so that it rolls along the surface.

In addition to articulatory gymnastics, exercises are used aimed at developing the voice, breathing, and speech hearing. In this complex, classes will allow the child to develop correct sound pronunciation.