Usually, by the age of 5-6 years, with normal development, the child will master the full phrase phrase, master the levels of the complex sentence. By this age, the child already has a rather voluminous vocabulary, he easily uses the norms of grammar, vocabulary, word formation, and with the reproduction of sounds no difficulties arise. But before that, the baby goes through several stages of speech development.
4 levels of speech development in preschoolers
Not immediately, the child manages to speak. Gradually, hardworking, he will have to master the level of knowledge of the language in terms of phonetics, grammar, vocabulary and word formation. The levels of children's speech development have been described and studied by many specialists in the field of pedagogy, linguistics and speech therapy. For example, Professor T. B. Filicheva identified 4 levels of speech development.
- Level 1 - up to 2-3 years,
- Level 2 - from 2-3 to 4 years,
- Level 3 - from 4 to 5 years old,
- Level 4 - from 5 to 6 (7) years.
Their brief characteristics are given in the table below.
| Age | Lexicon | Speech Development Level |
| up to 2-3 years | up to 500-800 words | Babble speech, often gestures and facial expressions replace words. Distortion of words with the omission of several syllables, substitution and rearrangement of sounds and syllables. Phrases are poorly expressed. |
| 3-4 years | up to 1900 words | Speech is attached to the situation, the sentences are simple. Parts of speech: nouns, verbs, pronouns. Sonorous, problematic G, K does not pronounce. Hard, wheezing and hissing can be softened. |
| 4-5 years old | 2000-2500 words | Begins to actively use adjectives. Composes rhymes and consonant words. Interested in sounding speech. Often uses only the direct meaning of words. When word formation uses diminutive suffixes. Uses unions, including subordinates. Able to express the qualitative and quantitative relations of objects, phenomena and actions. The syllabic structure of the word begins to be recognized by ear. The pronunciation of sounds is clear, with slight distortion - R. |
| 5-6 (7) years | 4000 words | The speech is folding and often deployed using complex sentence designs. Declination, change in time, childbirth, numbers continue to be mastered. The syllabic structure is deciphered visually. Speech is built correctly grammatically and in meaning. He begins to understand the figurative meanings of words. Sounds are pronounced correctly. |
Characterization of the levels of speech development can help in determining the level of language acquisition by the child. Each level corresponds to a certain psychological age with the parameters of perception of the phenomena of the world. After all, the inner world of the child is inseparable from his speech. The levels of speech development of preschoolers are described in detail below.
Level 1 of speech development: features of psychological perception
Children of the 1st level of speech development are distinguished by their emotional perception of the world, they are not yet logical, and their speech is situational. The younger the child, the more he reads the reaction to the world in its facial, gestural and sound expression in adults. This means that if an adult drops a toy, puts his palms to his cheeks and exclaims “Oh, I fell!”, Then in the same situation the child will do and say the same thing. But if not an object falls from the hands, but a person, then the baby will not react in the same way - this is a different situation for the child.
Grammar, phonetic features of the 1st level
For conversation, children of this level use reinforced facial expressions and gestures of onomatopoeia, babbling and unclear sentences built on its basis, with a fuzzy distorted pronunciation. Also difficult to perceive:
- category of elementary prepositions (s, under, before ...);
- grammatical differences in the plural or singular;
- generic differences (ran - ran - ran);
- verb tense (does, will do, did);
- degrees of comparison of adjectives (strong - strongest).
The first level is far from the perception of the syllabic structure of a word. Children of the 1st speech level are characterized by a small volume of words of everyday content pronounced in a babble way, truncated. For example: "amot" - a hippopotamus, "iska" - a hare. You can often hear in children of the initial speech level and nonexistent words - designations of some objects, feelings, actions. For example: "Abuki" - shoes. Such words can mean even a few objects. For example: "kesya" - sweets, sugar, honey, beloved bear, fun. Here the word "kesya" means both the object "candy" and that which has a connection with it through associations of qualities: sweet, tasty, bringing joy, a state of pleasure.
Children of this level do not use morphological phenomena to build grammar. This means that the “phrase” consists of root words without using prefixes, suffixes and endings depending on the situation. Such "phrases" can only be understood in the context of a specific situation; her child is trying to describe with a lack of vocabulary gestures, facial expressions, exclamations, onomatopoeia.
Level 1 Speech Development Recommendations
In this case, correction is not required. 1st level is valid up to 3 years. Up to the age of three, a child’s life experience is not rich, he is not yet able to consciously look at the variety of manifestations of the world around him. That is why it is required to talk more with the child, to speak the names of objects, the states of nature and man, trying not to distort words. Let the baby not immediately learn the correct pronunciation, but he will definitely remember it.
2nd level of speech development, features of psychological perception
Children begin to use speech to communicate with peers. A conversation is started with adults with a cognitive purpose, with the children trying and wanting to be understood, and the adults trying to observe different language norms when answering the question. With peers, the conversation is structured differently. Kids show each other objects, phenomena, actions and express their opinions on this matter. Moreover, they do not care to be understood. At this age, what a child says to a child is by default perceived to be heard and understood. The conversation can be conducted in various forms, depending on the emotional perception of the interlocutor. It can be a game, explanation or emotional outburst. Also, the child often accompanies with speech any action. At the third level of development, more and more active and passive words appear in the child’s speech, the rudiments of understanding the grammatical properties of the language continue to form.
Grammar, phonetics and word formation at the 2nd level
Vocabulary at the 2nd level of speech development is increasing. Communicative opportunities are becoming more and more. Sound reproduction is still quite distorted, grammatical forms are not clear. The child is better at mastering forms with emphasis on the last syllable. Speech media at this level become more permanent. Words already appear that indicate not only objects, actions, but also their properties (white, fast, beautiful). There is still not a large volume of words denoting color, shape, size, so children often try to replace them with familiar words. For example: instead of “a huge ball” - “circle to the sky”. Phrase speech in its true meaning is already appearing.
The child expands active vocabulary (words used in everyday speech) and passive (a set of words known to the child). Being at the second level of development, the child already begins to understand grammatical forms, makes not always successful attempts at declension in cases (nouns, adjectives) and tenses (verbs). A child’s grammatical change in form is not yet perceived as a reason for semantic transformation, therefore, shaping does not play a role for the child’s pronunciation of this level. For example: instead of “cat walking down the street” - “cat walking down the street”. Prepositions at this stage are often used erroneously, with semantic substitution. For example: instead of "climbed under the table" - "climbed into the table." Virtually no unions and particles are used.
The pronunciation of the children of the 2nd stage of speech development is still far from true. Soft sounds are confused with hard, deaf with voiced. Hissing, sonorous, whistling are poorly pronounced. For example: “Zoya” - “soybean”, “cat” - “koska”, “tree” - “deevo”. Often there is a rearrangement of syllables in the words: "monocle" - "nomocle", "birch" - "winch". Also, the syllabic composition can be violated not only in the order and quality of reproduction, but also in quantity. For example: “gate” - “orot”, “towel” - “potentia”.
Child support at the 2nd level of speech development
This level is characteristic of the normal speech development of children 2-4 years old. This time is good for replenishing the vocabulary and improving the ability to build a phrase. It is very important that the child hears grammatically and phonetically correct speech. With it, you need to read poems and fairy tales, try to recall the fairy tale from the pictures in the book, and be sure to prompt the adjectives necessary in the context. For example: instead of “a mouse ran up” - “a gray mouse ran up”, “a mouse-mouse”. You can immediately clarify that “Norushka”, because he lives in a mink, so it will be easier to remember a new word. Also, if the child says “the cat ran up”, it can be explained that the cat is a girl, therefore she “ran up”. At this level, the child first of all learns the grammatical essence of speech, therefore, he needs unobtrusive clues for the misuse of forms of words, stresses.
3rd level of speech development: psychological characteristics
This level is characterized by greater independence of judgment. A child of 4-5 years old continues to gain experience in exploring the world around him. He still asks questions to an adult, but now he has a need to express his opinions about the world around him. In reasoning, the child waits for the adult to respond to his judgment, thus trying to determine how true it is. At the third level of development, rhyming is observed, attempts to compose a melodic phrase, a short story from simple sentences. The child becomes more sensitive to the manifestation of linguistic capabilities in different areas of life.
Grammar, phonetics, word creation, semantic content at the 3rd level
The child’s vocabulary at the 3rd level of speech development is replenished, it already includes words that call the qualities of objects, actions and phenomena. At this stage, all parts of speech are traced in children's speech, but sometimes their functions are not meaningful. The child expresses himself with sentences, it can even be difficult if the category of function of unions and union words is learned. If not, then when you try to express yourself with a complex sentence with a causal relationship, you get a similar construction: “I didn’t draw, ... I lost a pencil.”
Difficulties at this stage can still be caused by grammatical changes in the word form and word formation. But the temporary category of the verb, the case change of nouns, adjectives and numerals are already recognized. The gender category has been mastered, but difficulties may arise if you don’t know which gender a particular word belongs to. For example: "Today I saw such a beautiful blizzard, he circled, circled!". Here you can see the ignorance of the kind of word "blizzard". Accent errors remain. For example: "poured water."
During this period, difficulties may still arise with the pronunciation of individual sounds (hissing, sonorous, whistling). The syllabic division by ear is recognized by many children, but only as an intuitive rhythmic division of the word.
A child may already be able to compose stories from a picture with a brief description of the qualities, shape, size, color of objects.
Work on the development of speech at the 3rd level
The child at this stage can usually listen well to small stories of children's literature, tales, poems. Also, 4-5 year olds already like to retell read aloud by someone. Reading will help enrich the vocabulary and learn the grammatically correct construction of phrases and sentences. Retelling, especially from the pictures, is already an attempt to put grammar, word-formation and lexical norms into practice.
Inventing poems in two or four rhymes, role-playing conversations on behalf of toys or fictional characters - all this will help the child understand the ways of constructing speech depending on the situation. To work out the classification of words according to one or several criteria, working with cards with the image of animals, products, furniture, things, and seasons will help.
For a better mastery of the morphological side of the language by the child, one should pay his attention to the endings associated with gender, case, time. Make it clear that there are parts of the word that serve to form many words.
At the 3rd level, you can already enter simple pure words. The time for tongue twisters will come at 4th level.
4th level of speech development: psychological characteristics of perception
This level usually falls on 5-6 years. The child is already preparing to go to school. He talks a lot with peers. Able to maintain a conversation with an adult, happily tells tales from memory. Starts trying to read and write. He likes to have his own opinion and try to defend it not only with emotional outbursts, but also with arguments.
Grammar, phonetics, vocabulary of the 4th level
The child's judgments of the 4th level of speech development are logical and framed in complex sentences. Grammatical constructions are slender, but sometimes they have distortions. The child uses all parts of speech, is incompletely aware of their purpose, masters quite well in speech practice the decline, change in numbers, childbirth, tenses, begins to use the degrees of comparison.
The sound system may still be imperfect, especially when changing milk teeth. The speech is already quite harmonious, but there may be a fuzzy pronunciation of sounds, due to which the blurry effect of the word is recognized.
Syllabic division is already perceived visually, which signals the readiness of the child to begin to master the phonetic basics of the language.
The child learns many new words, often trying to guess their meaning from the context. As a result, the semantic content of the word is not fully mastered, which then becomes noticeable when constructing your own sentences using these words. For example: “The plane flew high into the sky and flew to the moon!” The child only learned that the plane is flying, but does not know the full characteristics of its properties.
Lessons with a child at the 4th speech level
At the fourth level of speech development, the child’s vocabulary is rapidly growing. This is due to the expanding circle of communication and the development of new activities. It is important during this period to clarify the exact meaning of the new words. Classes with an explanatory dictionary will not interfere. This stage closes the development levels of preschoolers, so all areas of the language should be worked out on it as much as possible.
What does ONR mean?
If the development of a child at any age does not correspond to the described levels, then it is considered that he has OHP - a general speech underdevelopment. The reasons may be different:
- Speech defects in people from the immediate environment of the child.
- Psychological trauma or poor family climate.
- Weak child health, diseases of internal organs.
- Severe head bruises, after which - loss of consciousness.
- Severely transmitted infectious disease.
- Improper congenital or acquired structure of the vocal apparatus.
- Congenital or acquired defects in hearing and intelligence.
If hearing, innate intelligence and the speech apparatus are integral, then OH can be eliminated quite quickly, but in any case the help of a specialist will be required: a speech therapist, a neurologist, a psychologist, sometimes an orthodontist or a speech development teacher.
Special schools have been created for children with more serious cases of delayed speech development. They are general education, but with special programs for the development of speech in children with OHP.
In fact, the classification of stages given in the article initially characterized the levels of speech development of children with OHP (general speech impairment). But it can be safely applied to the characterization of speech of children with normal, timely speech development. The difference is only in age. Ordinary children master all levels by 5-6 years, but children with a serious ONR will be able to reach level 4 at best in high school classes.
Classification of levels, of course, is not able to reflect the whole picture of improving speech skills. There are special tests to determine the level of speech development.