Do you want your child to pronounce all sounds correctly and have a rich vocabulary? You will achieve the best results by taking care of it from infancy. But then you can also do a lot for the child's proper speech development. It is important for his future: good relations with peers and school successes.
The primary environment for shaping the child'sspeechis the family. Parents, from the moment of the birth ofchild , can provide the child with optimal conditions for the correct, harmoniousspeech development . They are the first and most important speech pattern that your little one will try to imitate. Here are the most important tips to help shape your child's pronunciation and develop their vocabulary.
How to develop a child's speech
1. Talk to your baby from the first days of his life - in a calm voice, slowly and clearly. Conscious organization of situations conducive to verbal initiation is important. In the early stages of an infant's life, these situations will most often be related to the nursing activities performed by the child by adults - mother, father. A great opportunity to play with the language is, for example, feeding, bathing or changing the child. Gradually, activities with the parent's verbal participation should transform into the state of the child's individual linguistic activity.
2. Remember that breastfeeding (apart from all its advantages) is the most natural form of speech therapy prophylaxis, which will ensure the proper development of articulation organs and teach the child to breathe and swallow properly. Malfunctions in malocclusion and speech are frequent consequences of abnormal breathing and swallowing. 3. Avoid giving your baby a pacifier; make sure that it does not suck the finger and breathe with the nose while sleeping. Observe if he reacts to sounds in the environment. The basis for the proper development of speech is efficient hearing.
4. When your child starts talking, listen carefully. Answer the questions patiently and fully. Speak clearly in understandable and simple language. Avoid diminutives and tampers. Provide your toddler with the correct language pattern, remembering about the correct Polish language. The householders should be the best example of careful pronunciation. Do not repeat your child's erroneous linguistic products. Encourage but do not force you to speak. Praise forany manifestation of verbal activity. Discern even the smallest achievement, rewarding it with praise. Correct (but discreetly) the linguistic mistakes of a small speaker. Make every effort to make the conversation with you a pleasure for the child.
5. Sing along with your baby. Singing songs deepens the breathing, makes the diaphragm more active and strengthens the vocal organ. The content of the songs develops the toddler's imagination and interests, enriches his vocabulary, helps to improve pronunciation and helps to concentrate attention. Music and movement classes make children sensitive to phenomena common to music and speech, such as rhythm, melody, tempo.
6. Tell and read fairy tales to your toddler, teach short poems and counting lists by heart. However, you should avoid unnecessarily and too loudly switched on the TV, which bombards the immature nervous system of the child with excessive amount of stimuli.
7. Engage with your child in a variety of home language games and activities. Create opportunities to recount what you have experienced. Let him tell a fairy tale he saw, share his impressions from kindergarten, come up with an ending to the story you read.
8. Make sure that the child has systematic contact with peers, e.g. on the playground, in the kindergarten, which will allow them to acquire new language skills.
9. Remember that the articulation apparatus exercises also support the intellectual development of the child. Exercises to improve the speech organs can be carried out in the form of fun with a 2- or 3-year-old. They should be a pleasure for the baby, mom and dad. A toddler's success depends largely on our ingenuity, fantasy, as well as persistence and regularity.
10. From an early age, give your child regular exercise and as little stress as possible. Watch over the correct diet, make sure that it contains the right amount of minerals (magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron). Provide your child with lots of opportunities to play and to work creatively - create conditions for them to draw and paint.
Fun speech therapy exercises
- After breakfast or dinner, brush your baby's mouth with honey or chocolate cream and ask her to lick her lips thoroughly.
- When brushing your teeth in the morning and in the evening, ask your child to count their teeth with the tip of the tongue or greet them in such a way that the tip of the tongue touches each tooth separately.
- Taking the opportunity to draw with your child, check if he can use his tongue to draw: a circle (the tip of his tongue around his lips) or lines (from one corner of his mouth to the other).
- Try together with"paint" the palate with the tongue, draw flourishes, circles, etc.
- Encourage you to lick the honey from the saucer, eat the kissel from the saucer only with your tongue, and to tear the sticky candy off the palate with your tongue.
- Practice your breathing by blowing on a plate of hot soup or any light objects; puffing on cold hands, pecking, blowing soap bubbles.
Observe your child's speech development
Listen, observe, read a lot and talk to your child. Keep an eye on the development of your child's linguistic and communication skills, and if there is no progress, contact a specialist - a pediatrician, a speech therapist. Make your child familiar with the reading as early as possible - teach him to deal with books. Talk to the preschooler often, teach him to count counts and simple songs. Do not underestimate other developmental or educational difficulties, be vigilant and seek the help of a psychologist or educator.
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