The children learn the art of speech gradually, just as they learn to walk, hold a spoon, read or draw. Of course, the process of becoming speech is individual. All children begin to speak differently, their vocabulary is not equally replenished, there are differences in the complexity of the phrases pronounced and in many other ways.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the development of speech takes place individually, there are certain standards that children must reach by a specific age. If as far back as the middle of the last century, everything related to speech development was relatively simple - children with defects in pronunciation were sent to a speech therapist and this was limited, but today things are somewhat different. There are many teaching aids with which teachers and parents can evaluate a child’s speech and engage in its development. Research is also underway in this area. Close attention is paid to speech development in kindergartens.
What is speech?
Diagnosis of the speech development of preschool children is impossible without a clear understanding of exactly what verbal activity is. Of course, the expression "verbal activity" in this case means ordinary speech.
What is speech? By definition, this is a form of communication between people and the transfer of information, historically developed and implemented through language constructions. Of course, speech is one of the highest manifestations of mental activity.
What is important for diagnosing its development in children?
Diagnostics of the speech development of preschool children is based on the assessment of individual properties that characterize verbal activity.
The properties of speech that you need to pay attention to are:
- rich content;
- understandability;
- expressiveness;
- effectiveness.
Content - a characteristic that allows you to judge how clearly the child expresses thoughts and their number. On the significance of aspirations, desires of feelings and the correspondence of their reality.
Under the comprehensibility of a child’s speech is meant not only its intelligibility and correct pronunciation of sounds. Within the framework of this characteristic, it is also considered how exactly the baby builds sentences, whether he selects words, whether he uses pauses. That is, this characteristic includes the ability to place a logical stress, emphasize the semantic meaning of the phrase.
Expressiveness is the emotional richness of children's speech. The same characteristic includes concepts such as the variety of language tools used. Effectiveness is the intelligibility of the spoken, the impact of speech on people.
What are the goals of speech development diagnostics?
The question of why this is necessary, parents often ask teachers in kindergartens. As a rule, adults are confused by the wording in which the word "diagnosis" is involved. Accustomed to referring this term to the medical field, many believe that the diagnosis of speech development of preschool children is something similar to a verdict and they fear that someone will put a kind of stigma on their baby.
In fact, the methods pursue very different goals. During speech diagnostics, the following skills are identified:
- accuracy and relevance of the use of words;
- understanding of the meaning, meaning of the spoken;
- possession of declensions and other changes in the forms of parts of sentences;
- the ability to choose expressions that are similar and different in meaning;
- distinction of semantic shades in polysemous words;
- degree of orientation of the spoken to the transfer of meaning, description.
That is, the main goals of diagnostic techniques is to formulate an individual task for the speech development of preschool children. In other words, these techniques reveal the strengths and weaknesses in the baby’s speech and help parents and kindergarten workers identify the areas needed for the optimal development of a particular child.
What can be the results
Specialists determine the following basic levels of speech development of preschool children:
None of them are permanent, unchanging. This means that if the baby has a high level of speech development, then he may well lose it later, if they do not begin to deal with it.
Low level of speech development
Most parents are frightened when they hear from the teacher a statement about the low degree of development of speech in their child. Meanwhile, such a diagnostic result should not cause any worries or concerns. Features of the speech development of preschool children are that each child learns verbal skills individually, at his own pace.
By what criteria is a child assigned a low level of speech development? This question invariably arises among parents who believe that they are engaged in a lot with the baby and, against the background of their peers, their child does not look behind or not particularly developed.
The criteria by which the teacher assesses the level of speech development as low are as follows:
- upon presentation of the word with the task to compose a phrase with him, the baby simply repeats it, without adding anything;
- cannot cope with the choice of antonyms or synonyms, does not understand the difference between them;
- uses inappropriate situations according to the semantic meaning of the expression;
- cannot explain what is meant when listing the names of objects.
This list can be supplemented depending on what diagnostic materials teachers used to assess the verbal quality of the child. For example, if methods based on folklore materials were used, then an incorrect answer to a riddle or a lack of understanding of the meaning of a proverb, proverbs are also criteria that allow us to assert that the speech development of a baby is at a low level.
Parents experiencing excitement should know in advance exactly how the diagnosis of the speech development of preschool children will be carried out in the kindergarten. The table with the questions and the testing methods involved, as a rule, is not secret and is either placed on the information stand or is available directly from the teacher or manager.
What to do if the baby's speech is low
The relativity of the criteria that guide workers in preschool institutions is obvious even to people far from pedagogy. Therefore, you should not be upset, and even more so argue with the teacher. It is necessary to find out in all details what exactly the child did not cope with during the performance of diagnostic tasks.
For example, if the diagnosis of the speech development of preschool children revealed that the baby cannot pick up antonyms or synonyms by the way, then it’s worth doing exactly that. Things are much more complicated in situations where teachers use the so-called “fashionable” methods, in other words, thematic ones. For example, those based on folklore, folklore. The results of testing children using such specific methods are not only controversial, they almost always do not correspond to reality. If the teacher in the preschool is going to use such diagnostic materials, then he must first deal with the kids - to introduce children to folklore, to analyze proverbs and sayings, to clarify the meaning of riddles.
For example, the well-known mystery of a girl in a dungeon that released a braid on the street. A modern urban child, without a preliminary explanation, is not able to guess that we can talk about carrots. For the baby, this vegetable appears from a store or from a market counter, and not at all from the ground. And there are a lot of similar nuances.
The average level of speech development
The main problems of speech development of preschool children, the identification of which allows teachers to talk about an average level, are as follows:
- upon presentation of the word with the task to compose a phrase with him, the baby supplements it with only one epithet;
- copes with the choice of antonyms or synonyms, but pronounces them in the wrong case, declension;
- incorrectly pronounces individual sounds, which causes difficulties in understanding what has been said;
- in case of errors in the tests, corrects them with leading questions or other hints.
Thus, almost any baby can demonstrate an average level of speech development without any special activities with him. However, difficulties can arise in those children who are not particularly active in communication and are prone to embarrassment, excitement. Often this is the reason that the child copes with the tasks average, and not perfectly.
What to do if the baby’s speech is average?
Average estimates of the level of verbality is a good result, talking about the correct and timely development of the baby. However, this does not mean that parents do not need to do anything.
You should constantly deal with the child, increase his vocabulary, and expand the difficulty levels of constructing phrases. It is necessary to find out from the teacher what exactly to pay increased attention to. For example, if a child on a task makes a sentence out of just a couple of words, this should be done.
High level of speech development
Such an assessment does not mean at all that the diagnosis of the speech development of older preschool children did not reveal any problematic nuances. She only says that the baby is not constrained by communication, active and has a broad outlook for his age.
The criteria that allow the kindergarten teacher to assert that the baby’s speech is developed as much as possible are as follows:
- upon presentation of the word with the task to compose a phrase with him, the child makes a sentence of at least three components;
- there is no difficulty in understanding the meaning of expressions;
- easily and quickly selects synonyms and antonyms, in the correct form;
- copes with such a test as retelling a heard literary work;
- no defects in pronunciation of sounds.
High assessments of the level of speech development are usually given to children inquisitive, active and sociable. This is a very good result, indicating not only verbal development and intelligence, but also that the child is devoid of complexes and does not experience psychological problems.
What to do if the baby’s speech is at a high level?
Such an assessment is often a cause of pride of parents, especially mother-housewives like to brag about it. But it is not only an occasion for family joy, but also a reason to think about how to maintain the achieved result.
Be sure to talk with the teacher and find out during which tasks the child was weaker. Of course, they should be a priority in the classroom. It is also important not to overdo it. Excessively early development often leads to the fact that in the elementary grades the child has nothing to learn. He becomes bored, the brain stops straining, which leads to a sharp decline in performance after completing education in elementary school.
What is GEF?
Quite often, teachers tell parents that in the kindergarten speech development of preschool children is carried out according to the GEF. It sounds solid, but completely incomprehensible to the vast majority of people choosing a garden for their child.
The abbreviation GEF stands for very simple. These are state educational standards of federal importance. That is, in essence, this is a kind of analogue of GOST, it only regulates not the quality of products, but services in the field of education.
What is included in development programs that comply with state standards
The speech development of preschool children according to the GEF should be carried out in conjunction with other activities. Development programs should include the following areas:
- socio-communicative;
- cognitive;
- direct speech;
- artistic and aesthetic;
- physical.
This means that in preschool institutions, teachers approach the development of kids in a comprehensive manner, not limited to only one of the areas. If a kindergarten has a special status, for example, speech therapy, this means that the problem area has priority over others, but does not cancel them at all.
What are the methods for the development of children's speech that comply with state standards
The speech development technologies of preschool children are classes with them, both in educational and in game forms. The closer the onset of school age, the greater the priority of classes conducted as well as a regular lesson.
Federal standards comply with methods that include the following areas:
- formation of speaking skills;
- replenishment of active vocabulary;
- development of monologue speech and dialogue skills;
- The concept of speech creativity and its basics.
In addition, in the teaching materials used by teachers, there may be sections devoted to the development of intonation skills, logical stress, sound and phonetic culture.
What methods are used in diagnosis
Diagnostic techniques for the speech development of preschool children are constantly being developed and their number is quite large. Each preschool institution has the right to choose for itself a set of teaching materials and manuals. For this reason, those parents who wish to be aware of how their child will be educated and what they will use when diagnosing the degree of development of his speech, you need to contact the teachers or the head of the kindergarten directly.
As a rule, the following authors apply the methods of diagnosis:
- F. G. Daskalova;
- O.S. Ushakova;
- EAT. Strunin;
- O.A. Bezrukova;
- HE. Kalenkova;
- E.S. Zaitseva;
- VK. Sheptunova.
Of course, the list of teaching aids is not limited to the work of these teachers; in a particular kindergarten they can be guided by tests of other authors.
How to deal with the baby, what to look for
The foundations of speech development of preschool children are laid not in childcare facilities, but in families. This must not be forgotten. Kids learn something not only during educational games with them or when their parents read a book out loud to them. The development of speech skills is a continuous process. Children master them, watching adults, copying them, imitating the manner and expression of speech, pronouncing the same words.
This means that no matter what development methods are used in kindergarten, if silence reigns at home, and adults communicate among themselves with mean phrases, there will not be a high or even average result in diagnosis. Therefore, the main task of mothers and fathers, as well as grandparents, is to take a closer look at yourself, how it is customary to communicate in the house, how full sentences are used in the family, and whether adults use the same few words all the time.
It is also important how family members answer the questions of the kids. Just as adults do, he himself will respond in the diagnosis of speech development. For children's questions, you need to give clear and understandable, but the most detailed and detailed answers. In addition to setting an example to follow, it also enriches the vocabulary of the baby.
Particular attention should be paid to such a moment as a retelling of what was heard or seen. It is not at all necessary to force a retell of a read book. The development of monologue speech and dialogue skills is also successfully carried out when the child questions what was in the kindergarten for lunch, what games he participated in and everything else. It is important that the baby tells a lot and in detail, you can not bombard him with questions, without waiting for answers. But if the child answers in a monosyllabic, a couple of words, then leading questions should be asked. The skills acquired in such conversations contribute to the successful completion of complex diagnostic tasks such as composing a story, combining words, choosing synonyms, and others.
What is the diagnosis of speech development in practice
Diagnosis of the development of children's speech skills does not resemble a school exam or job interview, as parents often imagine. Most of all, this process is similar to a game or the most ordinary activity. Therefore, if a child is worried, then, as a rule, this is a consequence of the parents' trick, and not what is happening in the kindergarten.
As a rule, to begin with, children are offered a certain speech situation. This task consists in the following - the baby is described in one or two sentences by the alleged circumstances, after which they are asked about something.
An example of a speech situation could be:
"A new girl came to the group. You do not know her name. How will you turn to the girl?" - a question from a specialist.
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This is followed by assignments for the selection of words, exclusion of unnecessary meaning from the chain, making sentences and others. These tasks seem simple at first glance. In fact, there are a lot of issues in each of them, and children often get tired, start to get confused. For these reasons, the diagnosis of speech development usually combines testing with game tasks.