The importance of speech development in children at preschool age
The development of speech in children is perceived by many adults as the main indicator of intelligence. This approach is explained by the fact that awareness and logic can be traced in statements and conversation. Of course, thinking and speech as mental processes are closely interrelated. But speech development is only part of the intellectual level of an individual.
At the same time, for a preschooler speech is a multifunctional tool. With its help, he receives information and establishes contact with the outside world. Words help the child consolidate the result of objective activity in his mind. Thanks to speech, children come to perceive and use images.
The speech of a preschooler is egocentric and spontaneous. He speaks more to himself, using repetition and monologue. It's like thinking out loud, with the pronunciation of which comes understanding. Words serve as an activity enhancer and support the child in his actions.
For preschool children, the cognitive and communicative functions of speech are equally important. By listening to adults, they absorb information and discover the world around them. At the same time, children learn to speak and strive to be understood.
What factors influence speech development
Factors influencing the development of a child's speech.
A child’s mastery of oral speech is determined by the following conditions:
- Heredity, structure of speech organs. Incorrect anatomy of the organs of the articulatory apparatus and undeveloped facial muscles complicate the development of speech in children 1-3 years old. Drinking through a straw and inflating balloons help strengthen your facial muscles. Whereas physiological problems are solved by medical methods.
- Correct functioning of the central nervous system, speech zone of the brain. Disturbances in the functions of the nervous system or Broca's center are often accompanied by delayed speech development in children. To develop these functions, exercises for fine motor skills are used.
- Pregnancy, childbirth without complications. Research confirms that anemia during gestation, premature birth before 35 weeks, hypoxia and other pathologies delay speech development at an early age.
- Contact with parents and close relatives from the first days of life. The foundation for future communication and healthy development of the newborn is a sense of security, physical closeness to the mother, and provision of physical and emotional needs.
- Constant interaction between parents and child. He learns about communication from changes in facial expression, movements, and gestures. Then he begins to perceive addressed speech, distinguish between emotions and voice intonations. Therefore, it is recommended to pronounce your actions, call the baby by name, and do not ignore babbling or crying.
Speech development tasks
The psycho-speech development of a child occurs, first of all, due to the natural processes of maturation of the body and the formation of personality. Everything that a baby unconsciously guides while exploring the world is his needs. Adults understand perfectly well that a child must cover a considerable distance in speech development in just a few years. By the time it is time to go to school, a preschooler needs to:
- Know and use many words
- Speak clearly and coherently
- Using speech, receive various cognitive information
- Communicate with peers and adults
The listed tasks are the most important in the speech development of preschool children. They are resolved gradually at each age stage.
Speech formation: stages and recommendations
As the child grows and develops, he first pronounces individual sounds, then simple words (for example, “mom” or “dad”), and only then learns to speak more complex words. Speech development is a fascinating process that parents watch with great interest.
Speech development plays an important role in the overall development of the child. Knowing the specifics of this process and its main stages, you can understand how developed your child’s speech skills are. Let's take a closer look at them.
Speech development in a child
The foundations of speech are laid in a child during the first year of life, and the first three years of life are decisive in the development of speech skills. These skills develop in an atmosphere in which the child hears the sounds and speech of other people. Children under three years of age perceive language best, so developing speech skills at this age is extremely important.
Babies communicate by crying, for example when they are hungry or want their parents to come to them. As they develop, they learn to hear and understand the sounds of language and can express themselves using single words and short one-syllable sentences. The rate of development of speech skills is individual for each child.
Stages of development of language skills in children
Pre-speech stage
At this stage, the child learns to communicate with others. Most children begin to communicate with their parents at about one year of age. By this time, children understand most of what their parents tell them and can express their needs by pointing to specific objects.
It should also be noted that not all children develop language skills in the same sequence.
3–4 years
At the age of 3–4 years, a child usually has long and interesting, although sometimes meaningless, conversations with his parents. At this age, children's vocabulary increases and they begin to understand the basics of the grammatical structure of the language. They talk a lot and enjoy long conversations.
At this stage, there are certain indicators that indicate the child’s normal speech development:
1. The child quickly learns new words.
2. The child uses plural nouns, but may use verb forms incorrectly (for example, he may say “sells” instead of “sells”).
3. A three-year-old child speaks almost clearly and coherently:
- makes sentences of four or more words;
- knows and understands children's poems;
- uses pronouns correctly.
4. The speech of a four-year-old child is completely understandable, but sometimes there are minor inaccuracies. At this age the child:
- uses long and complex sentences;
- can tell long stories with the correct sequence of events;
- asks a lot of questions. The child’s speech is clear and understandable, without gross errors.
During preschool age, children typically have longer, more complex conversations with their parents.
5–8 years
By age 5, a child typically speaks grammatically correctly and demonstrates a large vocabulary. By age six, children can write simple stories and understand how sounds form words.
The indicators of a child’s speech development at this stage are as follows:
1. At the age of five, a child usually forms sentences grammatically correctly, but sometimes makes grammatical errors.
2. Five year old child:
- has a more extensive vocabulary;
- can express his point of view in discussions.
3. By the age of six, a child understands about 13,000 words.
4. A six-year-old child uses pronouns correctly and understands the difference between them.
5. By the age of seven, a child understands 20,000 to 26,000 words and can recognize errors in other people's speech.
6. At the age of eight, children make very few grammatical errors. They can have meaningful conversations with adults and follow complex instructions without repetition. They can read age-appropriate texts and write simple essays.
These are the main stages of children's speech development. However, some children reach certain milestones earlier and others later than usual. As long as you see progress in the child’s speech development, albeit small, there is no reason to worry. However, sometimes a child may not understand what is being said to him and may also have difficulty expressing his thoughts. This may indicate a language disorder in the child. Although such disorders can be a serious problem, they are treatable.
Speech disorders in children
To develop language skills, a child must have listening, understanding and remembering skills. Also, the child must be able to structure his speech. If these skills are not developed, it may be associated with speech disorders.
According to statistics, symptoms of various speech disorders are observed in 5% of all children. Speech disorders in children are different from speech defects, which involve the child's inability to articulate certain speech sounds. With speech disorders, children reproduce sounds normally and their speech is understandable. However, they face difficulties understanding the speech of others (receptive language) or expressing their own thoughts (expressive language).
How to determine if a child has problems with speech development?
Children suffering from receptive language disorder (also medically known as sensory alalia) may have difficulty with:
- understanding the speech of others;
- following instructions;
- organizing your thoughts.
Children with expressive language disorder (also known as motor alalia) have difficulty expressing their thoughts and needs:
- their sentences may be short and simple, and their speech unstructured;
- their vocabulary may be significantly smaller than that of their peers;
- It can be difficult for them to find the right word, they are able to fill pauses with various sounds or filler words (“umm”, “nuuu”, etc.);
- they may use grammatical forms of words incorrectly;
- they can repeat the same phrases in the same story.
One of the most serious language disorders is specific speech disorder:
- children have delayed speech development (for example, they may not be able to speak until they are three years old);
- at the age of three they may not speak clearly enough;
- Children are susceptible to difficulties using verbs in speech. This is the hallmark of a specific speech disorder;
- children may miss auxiliary verbs in sentences;
- Children confuse verb tenses.
Causes of speech disorders
Sometimes a child cannot develop speech production, listening, understanding and remembering skills for various reasons:
- The child does not hear enough live speech in everyday life. The more a child is immersed in a language environment, the faster he develops speech skills;
- some children experience difficulties only in the development of speech, while other areas of the psyche develop normally;
- The causes of expressive speech disorder are not fully understood. But sometimes such a disorder is associated with developmental delays;
- receptive language disorder can be caused by genetic disorders;
- mixed speech disorders can be caused by traumatic brain injuries;
- speech disorders can occur in children with developmental delays, autism spectrum disorders and hearing problems;
- A speech disorder such as aphasia (impairment of already formed speech) can occur due to damage to the central nervous system.
If your child has difficulty developing speech even at age three or older, consult a doctor to identify and promptly treat possible health problems.
Diagnosis and treatment of speech disorders
- the doctor should examine the family's medical history to find out whether family members have had speech disorders;
- the doctor can conduct tests for the child on the level of development of receptive and expressive speech;
- A hearing test or audiometry can help determine whether your child has hearing problems.
Speech therapy is the best way to treat speech disorders. Consultations with a psychologist or psychotherapist are also recommended, because speech disorders can lead to psychological problems.
How to develop speech in a child: useful tips
1. Talk to your child . Talk to him about general topics as much as possible. For example, you can start a conversation with abstract phrases: “We are going for a walk in the park. Do you see how the birds fly? Do you feel how the flowers smell?”
2. Read books to your child. It's never too early to start reading books to your child. Start with books for little ones, then as your child gets a little older, move on to fairy tales and short children's stories.
3. Turn on your child’s TV and computer as little as possible. Do not introduce your child to electronic devices from early childhood. To develop speech skills, a child needs to interact with people and hear live speech. TV cannot provide him with this.
4. Go for walks with your child. A walk to the park or museum together can open up a whole new world for him. The more a child interacts with the world around him, the more curious he becomes and the more questions he asks. You can talk to your child, encouraging him to share new experiences.
5. Set a good example . When talking to your child, stand opposite him. Speak slowly and clearly. If a child says a word incorrectly, do not scold him, but correct him by saying the word correctly. Knowing how to pronounce a word correctly, the child will learn.
6. Remember that you and your child have different levels of speech development. Don't use words or phrases that your child won't understand. If you nevertheless utter some word that is incomprehensible to the child, explain its meaning.
7. Adapt to the child. If he initiates the conversation, let him talk and explain. Support your child in such situations: even a simple pat on the shoulder will give him self-confidence.
8. Speak and repeat . If your child pronounces a word correctly, repeat it several times in different sentences to help him understand its meaning better.
9. Learn new words with picture books. Buy some picture books and help them learn new simple words (eg ball, tree, etc.). After that, show the picture that matches this word. Discuss the picture with your child.
10. Teach your child new words. Teach your child new words from time to time. Invite your child to come up with a sentence with a new word. It doesn’t matter if the child doesn’t immediately understand a new word. Sooner or later he will learn to use it correctly.
11. Ask your child questions. Do everything you can to help your child develop language skills. If you are walking in the park, find something that interests your child. Ask him questions and invite him to tell you what he sees.
12. Sing songs to your child and read poetry. The rhymes that are in poems and songs help the child better learn new words.
Bilingual atmosphere and child speech development
Sometimes it happens that a child grows up in an environment where two or more languages are spoken. And parents worry: will this situation lead to speech disorders in the child?
Experts answer this question unequivocally: no. Until recently, parents were encouraged to speak one language in front of their child. Psychologists believed that a bilingual environment could interfere with a child's ability to acquire language. It was also believed that a child learns to speak faster and easier in the language that is heard more often in the child’s environment. However, such assumptions have not found scientific confirmation. Moreover, there are many examples of young children growing up in a bilingual environment and successfully acquiring both languages.
If your child suffers from some type of developmental delay, don't despair. Spend more time developing his speech skills. If your efforts are not enough, seek professional help to cope with speech disorders.
Related links:
- The main stages of speech development in children
- Simple ways to teach a child to speak
- Speech development in a child: how to speed it up
- How to help a child start talking?
- Speech delay: myths and facts
- More articles on child development
Psychological characteristics and stages of speech formation in preschool children
The psychological features of speech development in preschool children are determined by the fact that each year of their life sets its own pace and rhythm. The years of preschool childhood are filled with the development of actions, the formation of mental processes, and the accumulation of emotional experience.
If you compare what a child was like a year ago and what he became a year later, these changes are striking. Speech skills change dramatically over such a period of time. In a child’s active vocabulary, the number of words can almost double, and statements become figurative and emotional. Every year a preschooler moves to a new level of speech development.
Development of child speech from 3 to 4 years old
What kind of speech baggage do children enter the preschool age period with? They already know more than 1.5 thousand words. Their statements contain almost all parts of speech with a predominance of verbs and nouns.
The child is no longer content with showing actions, but strives to describe and explain them in words. Speech at 3-4 years of age is still ungrammatical. Individual words are combined awkwardly, reflecting solely the child's interest, need and desire. No logic or conclusions can be traced at this stage. The sentences are simple and short.
The child’s thinking is still strongly tied to the visual situation and is based on momentary impressions. Therefore, his speech is situational. This means that without external clues in the form of surrounding objects or phenomena, it is difficult to understand what the baby is talking about.
The child’s phonemic hearing has already been formed, but many sounds are not yet pronounced due to complex articulation. It is especially difficult to cope with words where there are several consonant sounds in a row. Children distort such difficult moments or skip them altogether.
Formation of speech skills in children from 4 to 5 years old
A 4-year-old preschooler has a significant vocabulary and actively uses simple sentences. In some sound combinations it is possible to pronounce sibilants, but the pronunciation is still unstable. The child persistently repeats if those around him cannot understand what he is talking about.
An orientation towards the sound of the word is formed. Children begin to come up with meaningless words, but in such a way that they create a funny rhyme: porridge-baby, kitten-potten...
This desire to look for speech analogies is called word creation. It gradually becomes more active, starting from the age of 3, and is most clearly manifested by the age of 4.5-5 years. This is an original practice that helps the child learn a lot about his native language through experimentation. The appearance of word creation is a sign that the preschooler is beginning to acquire primary literacy skills.
By the age of 5, the grammatical structure of speech in statements acquires a new level. The preschooler composes complex sentences, takes into account the order of words, uses words in the appropriate cases, changes by gender and number.
But not all grammatical forms are distinguished yet. Even five-year-olds, without thinking, can use “I’m taller than Kolya,” “my pencil is thinner,” and other similar statements.
Features of speech development of a preschooler aged 5-7 years
Speech skills rise to a new level in older preschool age, when situational simple sentences are gradually replaced by coherent speech.
Speech that is connected by semantic content is called coherent or contextual. This content quite fully reveals the speaker’s thought or intention, and the thought is expressed in consistently and correctly constructed sentences.
The cognitive speech development of older preschoolers allows them to express their thoughts in understandable language. At this age, children speak with a listener in mind.
A 6-year-old learns speech planning. If earlier words accompanied the action or followed them, then in older preschool age they come to the fore. The preschooler first thinks through and tells what he intends to do.
An important achievement is the emergence of speech forms of activity. The older preschooler perceives listening, telling, reading, and reasoning as activities.
Speech development of preschool children
Olga Stoyan
Speech development of preschool children
Of all educational areas, speech development is most relevant in preschool age .
Timely and complete formation of speech in preschool childhood is one of the main conditions for the normal development of a child in the future and his successful education at school.
The main goal of speech development is the development of free communication with adults and children, mastering constructive ways and means of interaction with others.
According to the Federal State Educational Standard for Additional Education, speech development includes the following components :
1) mastering speech as a means of communication and culture (this means that it is necessary to form the oral speech of children at such a level that they do not experience difficulties in establishing contacts with peers and adults, so that their speech is understandable to others);
2) enrichment of the active vocabulary (occurs at the expense of the preschooler’s and depends on the vocabulary of the teacher and parents; to expand the children’s favorable conditions are created with comprehensive thematic planning of work);
3) development of coherent , grammatically correct dialogical and monologue speech (our coherent speech consists of two parts - dialogue and monologue. The building material for it is the dictionary and mastering the grammatical structure of speech, i.e. the ability to change words, combine them into sentences);
4) development of speech creativity (the work is not easy, it assumes that children independently compose the simplest short stories, take part in composing poetic phrases, come up with new moves in the plot of a fairy tale, etc. All this becomes possible if we create conditions for this) ;
5) acquaintance with book culture, children's literature, listening comprehension of texts of various genres of children's literature (the main problem is that the book has ceased to be a value in many families, children do not gain the experience of reading at home - listening, the book should become a companion for children );
6) the formation of sound analytical-synthetic activity as a prerequisite for learning to read and write (preparation for learning to read and write is the formation of skills in sound analysis and synthesis. The formation of correct pronunciation also depends on the child’s ability to analyze and synthesize speech sounds);
7) development of sound and intonation culture, phonemic hearing (the child learns the stress system, pronunciation of sounds, the ability to speak expressively, read poetry; the child learns to name words with a certain sound, determines the place of the sound in a word).
The development of a preschool child is most successfully carried out in an enriched developmental environment , which ensures the unity of social and natural means, a variety of activities and enrichment of children’s speech experience .
A developing environment is a natural setting, rationally organized, rich in a variety of sensory stimuli and play materials.
In such an environment, it is possible to simultaneously involve all children in the group .
The speech development environment , as part of the general one, is aimed at an effective educational impact, at the formation of an active cognitive attitude to the surrounding world and to the phenomena of the native language and speech. Therefore, the creation of a speech development environment is the most important direction for improving the quality of work on the development of speech in preschoolers .
The speech development environment is not only a subject environment; the role of an adult in organizing the influence of one’s own speech on the development of different aspects of a preschooler’s .
One of the most important components is the teacher’s competent speech. The teacher’s speech has a teaching and educational orientation. The main thing is the quality of its language content, which ensures high results of work. The teacher’s speech must meet the following requirements:
1) CORRECTNESS – i.e. compliance with language norms. While listening to the teacher, children should not be distracted from the content or meaning of the speech due to incorrect pronunciation or a non-standardly constructed phrase.
2) ACCURACY - i.e. precise speech is speech that adequately reflects reality and unambiguously indicates in words what should be said.
3) LOGICALITY - i.e. the presence in the statement of 3 meaning-forming components: the beginning, the main part and the end of the statement. Also important is the teacher’s ability to correctly, competently, and logically connect all sentences and parts of a statement with each other.
4) PURITY - i.e. the absence in speech of elements alien to the literary language. The teacher’s language is also polluted by his unjustified use of borrowed words, dialectal, slang and slang expressions.
5) EXPRESSIVENESS is a feature of speech that captures attention and interest, creating an atmosphere of emotional empathy.
6) APPROPRIATENESS – i.e. the use in speech of units that correspond to the situation and conditions of communication. Relevance requires flexibility of speech behavior : can he determine the correctness and appropriateness of words, forms and phrases, their semantic nuances, and foresee the work of assimilating them in advance.
Features of speech development of the second younger group
1. Competent speech of the teacher;
2. methods and techniques aimed at developing speech as a means of communication (instructions, hints, sample address, pattern of interaction through speech in different types of activities);
3. methods and techniques aimed at developing the ability to listen and hear (conversations, stories, reading)
;
4. organization of the “Corner of Interesting Things”
(stimulating independent examination of books, pictures, toys, objects for
the development of initiative speech , enrichment and clarification of children’s ideas about the environment ).
The main areas of work on speech development are :
1. Vocabulary development : mastering the meanings of words and their appropriate use in accordance with the context of the utterance, with the situation in which communication takes place. While expanding your vocabulary, you should simultaneously develop the ability to express elementary judgments. Here, questions from adults play a significant role, leading the child to say “What do you think?”
,
"For what?"
,
"Why?"
...
2. Education of sound culture of speech: development of perception of sounds of native speech and pronunciation. An examination of speech by a speech therapist begins at the age of 5, since it is believed that speech development occurs before the age of 5.
But you should not wait until this age for the child to develop incorrect pronunciation of sounds; parents need now:
• develop the speech apparatus (mobility of the tongue, lips with the help of simple exercises, for example: “The tongue hid, appeared”
,
“The tongue is painting the walls in its house”
,
“The tongue is looking out to see if it’s raining”
);
• encourage onomatopoeia, sound accompaniment of game actions in games: “Horse”
,
“Steam Locomotive”
,
“How does the machine hum?”
,
“How does a bear growl?”
...
• practice correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants (avoid lisp)
.
You can repeat pure sayings with children, for example: “Bai, bayu, bayu - I rock the doll”
,
“Lyuli, lyuli, lyuli - the dolls have fallen asleep”
,
“A hat, and a fur coat - that’s all Mishutka
.
• develop phonemic awareness (in games “Guess what it sounds like?”
,
“Who called you?”
).
• Develop speech breathing : singing long songs (offer for a long time (2-3 seconds)
in one breath, pronounce the sound as you exhale:
“a-a-a-a”
,
“oo-oo-oo”
).
3. Formation of grammatical structure. The grammatical structure of speech consists of:
• developing the ability to coordinate words in a sentence;
• use of affectionate and diminutive words;
• use of adjectives, verbs.
Suggested tasks:
• "One is many"
: matryoshka-matryoshka, machine-machines.
• "Name the Cub"
: cat-kitten, duck-duckling, bear-cub, dog-puppy...
• "Add a word"
: house - house, table - (table, spoon - (spoon, chair -
(chair)
.
4. Development of coherent speech (Dialogical (spoken)
speech Monologue speech
(storytelling)
.
When developing coherent speech , children :
• Understand and answer a variety of questions;
• To ask questions;
• Be actively involved in the conversation;
• Explain the content of the picture, situation;
• Talk about objects, toys, events. Recognition of actions in a picture is an important element in the development of phrasal speech . Here is a girl standing, crying, with a balloon pointing into the sky. Ask: “Why do you think the girl is crying, what happened to her?”
. Let the child think and even fantasize and come up with the ending of the story.
The leading form of work on the development of children's speech is the educational situation.
Educational situations are used:
– in those classes during which actions with objects and movements are developed The teacher determines the content (what to do)
and ways
(how to do)
children’s activity in the classroom;
Children didactic -oriented activities. This activity depends on the type of activity; when getting acquainted with the surroundings - observation, in classes with pictures - examination. During repeated lessons, it is advisable to intensify the children’s , the teacher asks questions, the children answer if the answers are not complete, the teacher constantly complements the children’s , and in cases of difficulty he himself leads the story, urging the children to repeat after him .
To develop speech activity in children, pictures depicting individual objects, objects in action, and plots are widely used. This increases interest in what is depicted and helps develop generalization and various mental operations. As a result, the child develops the ability not only to repeat words after the teacher, but also to independently express his opinions.
- during regime moments and are aimed at consolidating existing knowledge and skills, their application in new conditions, the child’s manifestation of activity, independence and creativity.
Let's look at examples of educational situations used for speech development of preschoolers .
O. M. Eltsova notes that a game learning situation is used to develop game communication. All qualities and knowledge are formed not by the ITS itself, but by one or another specific content that is specially introduced by the teacher.
1. Situations - illustrations. Reading books with illustrations is of particular importance. In subsequent classes, the teacher encourages children not only to look at the pictures, but also to talk about what is written in the book.
Suitable for younger preschool age . Simple scenes from the lives of children .
2. Situations - exercises. When working together with children on design, appliqué, drawing, music, etc., children encounter many different objects and materials. As a result, a vocabulary accumulates: nouns, adjectives, verbs, the grammatical structure of speech is mastered, the passive vocabulary gradually turns into active
3. Situations - problems. Used from older ages . Participation in situations - problems contributes to children’s assimilation of the main directions of social relations, their “working out”
and modeling the strategy of one’s behavior in the human world. By actively participating, the child finds an outlet for his feelings and experiences, learns to recognize and accept them.
4. Situations - assessments. Used in the preparatory group. They involve analysis and justification of the decision made, its assessment by the children . In this case, the gaming problem has already been solved, but the adult is required to help the child analyze and justify the decision and evaluate it.
Another form of children's speech development is scenarios of activating communication - teaching game (dialogue)
communication. This form includes conversations with children, didactic, active, folk games; staging, dramatization, examination of objects, etc.
Implementation of the educational field “ Speech development ”
possible through the project method.
Using project activities, children automatically master new concepts and ideas in various areas of life. The essence of the “project method”
in education is to organize the educational process in such a way that children acquire knowledge and skills, experience in creative activity, and an emotional and value-based attitude to reality in the process of planning and performing gradually more complex practical tasks. The main task is to help the child believe in himself, since children most fully and clearly perceive what was interesting, what they themselves found and proved.
Design technology and the use of the project method in preschool educational institutions with integration in various educational fields is a unique means of ensuring cooperation, co-creation of children and adults , a way of implementing a person-centered approach to education.
Integrated learning gives children the opportunity to think, create, fantasize, compose, learn, develop communication skills, enrich their vocabulary and form grammatical structures of speech.
This form of speech development in preschoolers as a game encourages children to make contacts and is a motive for communicative activities. A child of this age can already compose a story from memory about what he saw. This means that in everyday communication you need to encourage him to remember and talk about some interesting events.
For a 3-4 year old child, speech is a means of communication not only with adults, but also with peers. Therefore, you should support the child’s desire to actively engage in communication, respond to an adult’s questions and suggestions, speak out, express his desires, feelings, thoughts. Encourage your child's interests in the affairs of his peers and the desire to communicate with them. At this age , the formation of moral qualities occurs, so teach your child to understand the emotional state and mood of others: friends, relatives, fairy-tale characters. After watching a cartoon or reading a book, be sure to discuss the content: who did well, who did poorly, why this cannot be done. Exercise your child in situations in which you need to feel sorry, comfort, help (for example, a doll is sick, a sad bunny)
.
Another example of the form of speech development of preschoolers is offered by literary and musical festivals, folklore fairs, dramatization games, various types of theaters, social events, speech newspapers , homemade books, problem situations, gatherings.
When organizing any educational situation, any lesson in a preschool educational institution, it is important for the teacher to:
- firstly, think through the organization of different ways of adult-child and children’s activities,
-secondly, to see the resources of different stages of the lesson for the development of children’s communicative competence .”
Thus, various forms of work are resourceful in terms of the development of preschoolers’ speech children’s communicative competence , if: - children jointly solve an educational and gaming task that is interesting and significant for them, acting as assistants in relation to someone, - enrich, clarify and activate their vocabulary, performing speech and practical tasks - the teacher is not a tough leader, but an organizer of joint educational activities, who does not advertise his communicative superiority, but accompanies and helps the child become an active communicator.
The influence of fairy tales on speech development
“For a child, a fairy tale is as serious and real as a game: he needs it in order to make up his mind, to study himself, to measure his capabilities.” J. Rodari
A fairy tale teaches you how to live. Otherwise, why would our ancestors waste precious time on them? Why would they devote their evening hours to fairy tales and take away children's attention? And only children the listeners of the grandmother-storyteller in the family?
Fairy tales allow teachers to unobtrusively and with interest for children conduct moral conversations using the plots of fairy tales. Adults get the opportunity to engage in correctional work with conflict-ridden, anxious children, with children with high or, conversely, low self-esteem, self-centered, and also insecure.
Transforming into fairy-tale characters, children complete tasks with much more enthusiasm. Through fairy tales, a child gains knowledge about the world, about relationships between people, about the problems and obstacles that a person faces in life. Through fairy tales, a child learns to overcome barriers, find a way out of difficult situations, and believe in the power of goodness, love and justice.
Speech therapists know how difficult it is to perform, for example, articulation gymnastics with an excitable, disinhibited child. Not only does he have a naughty tongue, he is constantly distracted, fussing, asking questions, trying to talk about something. His concentration only lasts for a minute .
Are the children lethargic, weakened, with high nervous system exhaustion? They do not violate discipline, and sometimes they are not noticeable at all in the group, but the speech therapist has to experience considerable difficulties with them. After just a few minutes of work, the child announces in a weak and lifeless voice that he is tired and cannot do anything else. In such children , as a rule, it is difficult to produce sounds that require active exhalation, and automation occurs slowly and sluggishly.
If a child learns to be aware of what he sees, hears, feels, if he tries to determine the nature of what he feels, then his increased sensitivity greatly helps the speech therapist in such an area as, for example, the development of phonemic hearing. Most children quite easily begin to differentiate sounds that are similar in sound and articulation, to feel the rhythm of a word, its melody and structure.
Emotionally discharging, releasing tensions, anxiety, aggression, guilt, children become softer, kinder, more self-confident, more receptive to people and the world around them. They develop a positive image of their body, accepting themselves as they are.
"The influence of finger games on the development of children of primary preschool age "
“The hand is the tool of all tools”
, Aristotle concluded.
"The hand is the outer brain"
- Kant wrote.
Scientists, studying the activity of the children's brain, note the great stimulating value of the motor function of the hand. Scientists have found that the level of development of children's speech is directly related to the level of development of gross and fine motor skills. The higher the motor activity, the better speech development . In the cerebral cortex, the sections responsible for the development of articulatory and fine manual motor skills are located close to each other and are closely interconnected. develops earlier in the process of ontogenesis , and its development seems to “pull”
behind
the development of speech . Therefore, by developing a child’s fine manual motor skills, we stimulate the development of his speech .
It is best to sculpt from plasticine, fold pyramids, string rings on sticks, lace shoelaces, string buttons, play with construction sets, make mosaics, draw, etc. Exercises for palms and fingers with walnuts are widely used. Rolling a hexagonal pencil between your palms has a remarkable effect.
From an early age we were taught to play “Magpie – White-sided”
,
“Ladushki”
,
“Horned Goat”
.
“Whose nose?”
Today, experts
are reviving old games and inventing new ones. And so, the greatest impact of impulses from the arm muscles on the development of the cerebral cortex occurs only in childhood , while the motor area is being formed. Therefore, work on developing fine motor skills of the fingers in preschool age is of particular importance.
By developing fine motor skills of a child’s hands, several tasks are solved at once:
-stimulation of speech development in young children ;
-training attention, spatial thinking;
- education of emotional expressiveness, imagination and fine motor skills of the hands.
Finger games and exercises are a unique means for developing fine motor skills and speech in their unity and interconnection. They are very emotional, fascinating, captivate the child with their improvisation, spontaneity, theatricality, elements of surprise, and contribute to the development of speech and creative mental activity.
All finger games are divided into several groups
Primary games or games are manipulations.
Subject finger exercises
Finger exercises combined with self-massage of the hands and fingers.
Primary games or games are manipulations. These games focus on simple touching of fingers, stroking hands, simple circular movements inside the palm clockwise and counterclockwise. In this way we activate points associated with the speech areas of the brain . Gradually we make the games a little more complicated. This includes: “Finger, boy?”
,
“This finger wants to sleep”
,
“This finger is a grandfather...”
,
“The fingers went for a walk...”
,
“One, two, three, four, who lives in my apartment?”
— the child bends his finger one by one.
He can do these exercises with the help of an adult. They develop imagination : in each finger the child sees one or another image.
Subject finger exercises. "Fingers say hello"
- the pads of the fingers are in contact with the thumb
(of the right and left hand at the same time)
.
“A flower is blooming”
fingers
“appear” from a clenched fist -
palms facing themselves, fingers intertwined.
"Christmas tree"
- palms facing you, fingers in
a “lock” (palms at an angle to each other)
.
The fingers are pointed forward, the elbows are not pressed to the body.
This group also includes exercises that allow children to depict objects of transport, furniture, domestic and wild animals, trees, birds, and insects.
Finger exercises combined with self-massage of the hands and fingers.
These exercises use traditional massage movements - kneading, rubbing, pressing, pinching (from the periphery to
- movements as when washing hands.
"We put on gloves"
— with the thumb and index fingers of the right and left hands, rub each finger of the left hand, starting with the little finger, from top to bottom. Finally, rub your palm.
"Pickling cabbage"
- movements of the edge of the palm of the right hand against the palm of the left hand: tapping, sawing. Movements of both hands: imitation of sprinkling salt, clenching the fingers into a fist.
"Let's warm our hands"
- movements as when rubbing hands.
"Hammer"
- use the phalanges of the fingers of the right hand clenched into a fist
to “hammer nails
.
"Geese are nibbling grass"
— the fingers of the right hand pinch the hand of the left. For more effective self-massage of the hands, use a walnut, chestnut, hex pencil, or massage ball.
Allows you to increase overall tone, develop attention and memory , and relieve psycho-emotional stress. "Butterfly"
- clench your fingers into a fist and alternately straighten the little finger, ring and middle fingers, and connect the thumb and index into a ring.
Make quick movements with straightened fingers ( “finger fluttering”
).
"Fairy tale"
- children are invited to act out a fairy tale in which each finger is a character.
"Octopussy"
- the right hand, carefully and one by one moving its tentacles - fingers, travel along the seabed. An octopus is moving towards - the left hand. They saw each other, froze, and then began to explore the seabed together.
And so, to summarize, we can state the following: finger games and exercises are a unique means for the development of fine motor skills and speech in their unity and interconnection. Learning texts using “finger”
Gymnastics stimulates
the development of speech , thinking, voluntary and involuntary attention, auditory and visual perception, speed of reaction and emotional expressiveness, the ability to concentrate.
The influence of family communication on the development of speech in children of senior preschool age .
Computer games can be introduced only after the child has mastered traditional types of children's activities - drawing, designing, perceiving and composing fairy tales. And, most importantly, when he learns to play ordinary children's games on his own (take on the roles of adults, invent imaginary situations, construct a game plot, etc.) and learn to distinguish the game from reality. Watching cartoons for young children should be strictly dosed. At the same time, parents should help children comprehend what is happening on the screen and empathize with the characters in the film. It is possible to provide free access to information technology only beyond preschool age (after 6-7 years, when children are already ready to use it for its intended purpose, when the screen will be for them a means of obtaining the necessary information, and not a powerful master over their souls and not the main teacher
Proper assistance in the development of a child’s speech is the most valuable thing that parents can offer their child.
Norms of speech development in a preschooler from 3 to 7 years old
The results of studies of the speech of preschoolers make it possible to establish average indicators. Let's consider what levels of speech development are expected at each age stage - for younger, middle and older preschoolers. For convenience, we present the data in a table.
Table. Approximate norms for speech development of preschool children
Age | Lexicon | Level of speech development |
3-4 years | up to 1900 words | Speech is situational, using indefinite forms there, like that. Makes simple sentences. Uses verbs, nouns and pronouns (often demonstrative this, that). Pronunciation: softens the sound, does not pronounce the sound R, less often – L, K, G. replaces hissing sounds with whistling ones. |
4-5.5 years | 2000-2500 words | Expands the use of adjectives. Literally understands the meaning of the word. He is interested in the sound of words, composes rhymes and new consonant words. Uses diminutive suffixes. Uses conjunctions a, and, but, as well as subordinates that, when, because... Expresses quantitative and qualitative relationships: many-few, high-low... Pronunciation: overcomes softening, masters almost all sounds, partially copes with the pronunciation of R. |
5.5-7 years | up to 4000 words | Speech is coherent and detailed. Composes messages from several sentences united by a common meaning. Builds sentences correctly from a grammatical point of view. Modifies words using suffixes. Masters the declension of nouns and the conjugation of verbs. Sound pronunciation must be correct. |
Main stages of speech development
Speech refers to the highest mental function. It depends on how developed the central nervous system is. It is both a means of communication and the basis of thinking. From the moment of birth, the baby finds himself in a social environment, which means he begins to listen and learn to communicate with the outside world. To be sure that development is going in the right direction, you need to know the norms and pathologies of speech for each age stage.
Speech of a child from 2 months to a year
This stage of development can be roughly divided into three stages.
- Booming. From 2 to 5 months. The child begins to intonate his cry, indicating his condition. Humming sounds appear, they are combined with vowels, they arise in communication with parents, and this is the child’s first conscious communication with adults (agu, agi, ge, aa, uh). At the same time, you can see the first smile, hear the child’s first laugh.
- Babble. This period lasts the longest - about seven months, up to one year. Syllables appear (la, yes, pa), word chains (pa-pa, la-la-la), and then the first words, for a start - consisting of identical syllables (pa-pa, ba-ba, ma-ma) . The speech apparatus is already configured to perform various movements, and unique sound combinations are heard (ma-ma-ma, la-la-pa).
- First words. By the first year of life, the child learns to pronounce his first words. Usually there are about 20-25. And they consist of the same syllables. During this period, the child begins to correlate what he says with specific actions, people, objects (the appearance of his mother - “ma-ma”, etc.). At this time, the baby is very actively engaged with toys, learns their names, is able to hear, perceive and find the desired object, not yet being able to name it independently (he will not say that it is a “cat”, but will find a cat among the toys).
Ideally, by the end of the first year of life, speech becomes the child’s main way of communicating with adults.
Number of months from birth | Speech skills |
2 | Pronunciation of individual sounds, the appearance of the first spontaneous vocalizations, usually directed towards an adult. |
3 | Experimenting (stretching) with vowel sounds - “uh-uh”, “a-a-a”, “o-o-o”, humming, “cooing” (chest gurgling sounds). |
4 | The transformation of individual sounds into entire roulades and the flow of one sound into another - “o-o-o-o-o-o”. |
5 | The appearance of random babbling, rhythmic humming, the combination of vowels with some consonant sounds - “gu-gu-gu”, “bu-bu-bu”. |
6 | Improving random babble (“na-na-na”, “da-da-da”), merging vowel/consonant sounds, trying to imitate audible sounds, establishing a kind of dialogue with people around. |
7 | Frequent repetition of babbling, understanding the meaning of some words, the appearance of semantic pauses (the child babbled something and fell silent, waiting for an adult to answer). |
8 | Using babble as a way of communication, trying to pronounce different sounds and their echolalia (repetition without awareness of the meaning). |
9 | It is possible (but not necessary) that the first lightweight words “ba-ba”, “ma-ma” will appear, and babbling will become more complex. |
10 | Carefully listening to the speech of adults, expanding passive vocabulary, pronouncing new syllables and simple words (quite rare) - “av”, “na”. |
11 | An increase in the number of lightweight words or their appearance (if there were none before), semantic content of words and syllables (one word or syllable can have several completely different meanings). |
12 | Ability to understand more than 20 words, pronunciation of 5-10 simplified words, improvement of imitation. |
Treatment of stuttering in a 3-year-old child at home
Norms of speech development from 1 year to 2 years
The next year of the baby’s life is a continuation of the previous stage. The first 12 months have prepared the articulatory apparatus, and the child is already actively using his own words. He knows how to imitate animals and everyday sounds around him. The following stages of development are distinguished:
- The child recognizes individual objects and understands questions regarding them: “where is the cube?”, “where is the girl?” etc. It can accompany its action with words and sounds. “Talks” with other children using sounds and imitation.
- The baby knows the names of objects and their qualities, emotional assessments. The first meaningful words: cat “meow-meow”, dog “aw-aw”, etc. Sounds may be skipped.
- Understands simple sentences that call for action: “Let’s go eat,” “Give me, please,” etc. Words generalize concepts, for example, “av-av” means all dogs at once, not a specific one. There are already about 30-40 words in the vocabulary.
- By the age of one and a half years, he pronounces almost all vowels and some consonants. Some of them soften. Sound substitutions occur (“ko” – milk). The dictionary has been expanded to 40-95 words. Speech is dominated by gestures, sounds, and facial expressions.
- Imitates adults as much as possible. He turns to them with requests: “Dad, give me!” Knows how to connect words into sentences: “Katya wants la-lya” (a doll). Speech becomes self-sufficient, gestures and facial expressions disappear.
- Knows how to replace incorrectly pronounced words with the correct ones: “la-la” - “doll”. By the age of one year and 9 months, he normally knows about 175 words, using 3-4 in sentences.
- Listens to fairy tales, poems and songs, distinguishes words by sounds (does not confuse mustache and ears). Indicates your actions during the game. Uses pronouns and adjectives.
- Recognizes words that relate to events in his own life. “We are going for a walk in the park, where we met a big dog.” Speech develops very actively when playing with dolls and animals. By the age of 2, the dictionary contains about 300-400 words. Most often - noun and verbs. Adverbs are added: here, here.
Norms of speech development for children aged 3 to 4 years
The writer Korney Chukovsky called this stage in a child’s life a period of “brilliant linguistic giftedness.” At this time, kids are engaged in a kind of creativity: they come up with their own words and names, entire structures, rhyme, compose, create concepts known only to themselves. What characterizes this age for speech:
- The vocabulary already contains 1500–2000 words. The norm is some distortion of difficult to pronounce words, rearrangement of syllables.
- Sentences are built from three to four words; at 4 years old he can pronounce common sentences.
- Complex and even complex constructions and homogeneous members are used.
- They actively use adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, and numerals.
- He can already pronounce vowels without making them soft. Phonetic errors are still the norm. For example, hissing ones are replaced by whistling ones.
- Difficulties arise with the letters “l” and “r”.
- The speech is generally not very coherent; there are some descriptive elements (“This is a cat. She drinks. She is soft.”).
- They easily remember and repeat poems, nursery rhymes, and songs by heart.
- An understanding of the rhythm and volume of speech comes. But kids are not yet able to regulate them on their own.
- They know how to reason and draw conclusions.
- State your first name, last name, patronymic, and the names of relatives and friends.
- Summarizes objects into groups, determines the signs of objects (hot tea, sweet honey) and actions (mom is sleeping, dad has come).
Norms of speech development from 4 to 5 years
At four years old, a child’s language is varied and precise, emotionally vivid. He asks questions and is happy to read and listen. And:
- The vocabulary consists of 2500-3000 words.
- Accurately names objects and their qualities.
- He comes up with his own words and even poems.
- There are many adjectives and prepositions in speech.
- There are more personal pronouns
- A child can form a logically correct statement from several sentences.
- Monologue speech and retelling are mastered.
- Able to clearly and colorfully describe an object, picture, or toy.
- Almost all sounds are pronounced correctly (there may be exceptions with “L” and “R”; they take the longest to form).
- Able to reduce sound volume and speak in a whisper.
- He doesn't speak quickly.
- Uses expressive intonation to read poetry.
Norms of speech development for children 5 – 7 years old
By the age of six, a child can already speak freely with peers and adults. Ideally, by the age of seven, he is ready to master the school curriculum and does not experience communication difficulties. What characterizes this period:
- Many collective nouns and adjectives appear, denoting states and abstract concepts.
- Knows how to use general concepts (“Transport” is an airplane, a bus, and a car).
- Knows and distinguishes between seasons, plants, animals, berries, mushrooms, birds, fish, etc.
- Knows where right is left; how much time.
- Uses the names of days of the week, days, months.
- Knows the name of the country and capital.
- Operates with geographical concepts.
- Knows the rules of pedestrian traffic.
- Declines nouns according to numbers and cases.
- Able to agree nouns with numerals, and adjectives with nouns.
- Uses all parts of speech correctly
- Speech is coherent, able to retell a fairy tale or story.
By the age of seven, there are almost no errors in speech, all sounds are clear, the accents are correct.
Child's age in months/years | Speech skills |
18/1,5 | The presence in the active vocabulary of 5-20 words, mainly nouns. Frequent repetition of one phrase or word, willing repetition of emotionally charged jargon (“eat”, “kitsia”, “musenka”, etc.), the ability to fulfill simple requests. |
24/2 | The ability to name different objects from one’s environment, the use of several prepositions, sometimes not entirely correctly (on, under, in). Composing short sentences - “let me drink”, “look, kitsya”, having in the active vocabulary from 100 to 300 words. Occasionally correct use of the pronouns “I”, “you”, “me”. The question “what is this?” appears. |
36/3 | Correct use of pronouns, occasional use of some nouns in the plural and verbs in the past tense. Correct use of at least three prepositions – for, on, under; ability to correctly name and show body parts. The active vocabulary ranges from 900 to 1000 words, and the child’s speech is 90% understandable to others. Understanding complex questions (“Are you hungry now?”) and the ability to give an adequate answer to them. |
48/4 | Correct use of at least 4 prepositions. Understand and reproduce the names of familiar animals and various objects in magazines or books. Correct repetition of words with four syllables, understanding the ratio of big/small, many/little. Easy fulfillment of simple requests, frequent repetition of various syllables, sounds, phrases and words. |
60/5 | Use of many descriptive words – adverbs and adjectives; speech is 100% understandable to adults, despite the possible presence of some articulation problems. Repeating sentences up to nine words; the ability to name household items and understand what they are needed for. Distinguishing between the concepts of today/yesterday/tomorrow; fulfilling three consecutive requests; reducing the number of grammatical errors in speech. |
72/6 | The ability to roughly navigate time, compose a coherent story from a picture. The presence of more than 2000 words in the active vocabulary; the emergence of questions “why?”, “why?”, rapid enrichment of vocabulary. |
84/7 | Mastery of coherent speech, the ability to retell a text heard or read. There may be small errors when pronouncing complex sentences with participial phrases. Modulation of intonation and volume of the voice, correct articulation of all sounds. Replenishment of active vocabulary up to 3500 words, improvement of speech attention and intensive development of logical thinking. |
Peculiarities of mastering the sound aspect of speech by preschoolers
Parents' activity in the development of their child's speech
It is important for parents to consider that each child has his own individual pace of development. Noticing problems in the development of speech in their child in the preschool period and some discrepancy with the norms, they should not jealously compare with others and catch up with their peers, at all costs. However, this issue cannot be ignored.
Parental assistance is necessary for a preschooler in cognitive and speech development. Children, with the support of their parents, successfully progress in the following areas:
- vocabulary formation
- word creation
- development of verbal description skills.
In everyday communication with a child, parents have hundreds of opportunities to use new concepts and explain what they mean. Such simple participation of adults will significantly expand the active vocabulary of a preschooler.
Word creation allows the child to better understand the language and contributes to the development of a sense of rhythm. In addition to benefits in speech development, this activity brings incredible pleasure to children. Emotional speech, joint invention of new words with mom or dad is always accompanied by laughter and a joyful mood.
Parents can successfully teach verbal descriptions to their child. An adult can tell stories and describe what is happening to a preschooler, giving an example of a coherent statement, and then invite him to similarly describe what he sees around him. These activities are easy to do and can be done in any environment - at home or on a walk.
How to help young children develop speech
To stimulate the formation of speech from an early age, it is necessary to develop all modes of perception. In the first years, the child learns about the world around him through sensations, his own actions and the feedback he receives.
Recommendations for speech development through the sensory system:
- Touch. Tactile senses give the first ideas about life. It is important to constantly touch the newborn, massage, and exercise. It is also recommended to introduce him to textures: choose toys from different materials, offer to touch water, grass or flowers outside, cereals or sand.
- Vision. Teaches you to focus, concentrate, pay attention to an object and hold it with your gaze. In addition to the mobile or the bumpers in the crib, it is also necessary to show the situation in the apartment and introduce objects (cars, trees, birds, etc.) on the street.
- Hearing. It is recommended to create a rich sound space: everyday sounds, music, singing. From birth, you are required to constantly talk to your child, comment on your actions, and name objects around you. It is important to respond to babbling and repeat sounds in order to stimulate imitation of adult speech.
- Taste. When offering an unfamiliar product, you need to name it, describe its taste (sweet applesauce), properties (cottage cheese is made from milk given by a cow). This will introduce the child to new concepts.
- Smell. Smells are associated with the objects they correspond to. Through the sense of smell, the child learns to distinguish between pleasant and unpleasant sensations and expands the sensory range.
- Motor skills. Mobility contributes to understanding the world, so movement should not be limited. In a safe space, self-confidence increases, curiosity and play skills develop. The connection between fine motor skills and speech has been scientifically proven. Finger games, any exercises with small objects, everyday activities (tying shoelaces, eating independently with a spoon) contribute to the development of precision of movements and pronunciation.
Methods of speech development in preschoolers.
Development of children's speech in different types of activities
The relationship between speech and the content of activity intensifies with age. The need for verbal expression differs in different types of activities.
While playing with his toy, the preschooler conducts a dialogue with it. This one-sided conversation can be internal, not expressed in words. But more often the child says out loud all his calls to his toy friend.
Playing with peers offers other conditions. It is necessary to contact your partner, it is also important to hear him and exchange information. If at younger preschool age verbal communication in the game is simple and may be limited to role-playing participation, then older preschoolers often use explanatory speech.
The speech of a preschooler, which presents a holistic message and fully describes the situation, is called explanatory.
Explanatory speech develops well when preschoolers agree on the rules of the game or coordinated actions and explain the structure of the toy.
The creative activity of a preschooler is also permeated with speech. A child's drawing often needs explanation. And not only due to the fact that the adult asks what is shown on the sheet. More often than not, the author himself wants to tell what he drew. Speech description invariably enriches the content of the picture. Or dots the i's if something incomprehensible is depicted.
With the help of speech, children convey the character of their characters, thus overcoming the limitations of their own artistic abilities.
§ 3. Speech development in preschool age
At preschool age, a qualitatively new stage of speech development begins. The motive for active mastery of the native language is the growing needs of the preschooler to learn, tell and influence himself and another person. Speech is included in all types of activities, including cognitive ones. Changing the tasks facing a preschooler, the emergence of new types of activities, the complication of communication with adults and peers, the expansion of the circle of life connections and relationships in which the child is included, leads to intensive development, firstly, of all aspects of speech (vocabulary, sound culture, grammatical structure ), secondly, its forms (contextual and explanatory) and functions (generalizing, communicative, planning, regulating and symbolic).
The development of all aspects of speech is impossible without mastering its sound culture, which forms the basis, the central point of language acquisition. The sound culture of speech increases the preschooler’s ability to navigate complex relationships of grammatical forms and ensures the development of the morphological system of language.
In the development of the sound side of speech, the formation of phonemic hearing and correct pronunciation are distinguished. The main thing is for the child to distinguish between the given sound and the sound he himself pronounces. At preschool age, the process of phonemic development is completed. The child hears sounds correctly and speaks. He no longer recognizes mispronounced words. A preschooler develops subtle and differentiated sound images of words and individual sounds.
Significant qualitative and quantitative changes are observed in the development of a preschooler’s vocabulary. There are not only more words in the child’s speech, but, very importantly, their meanings are developing. The baby learns words early, but learns the meaning contained in them gradually. With age, the nature of the generalizations contained in the word changes. Let us recall that at the end of the first and beginning of the second year of life, the word designates one specific object, corresponding to its sensory image. By the end of the second year of life, the word denotes a group of homogeneous objects (“cup” means different cups). At 3-3.5 years old, a word unites several groups of homogeneous objects: furniture, toys, clothes. At 4-5 years old, the child uses words containing the result of previous generalizations. For example, the word “plant” includes groups such as berries, trees, fruits, etc. But such a generalization is still based on the most striking features that the child has learned in his own practical activities. That is, the generalization contained in the word remains specific and visual. Behind every word a preschooler says is an idea of a specific object or situation. An older preschooler, using words denoting abstract categories, explains them based on his experience of interacting with others. For example, a greedy person is one who does not share toys, a kind person is one who does not fight. Moral concepts are tied to a specific situation. Therefore, in the speech of a preschooler, words predominate that denote specific objects that are as close as possible to the child himself, objects with which he constantly acts. This feature of a preschooler’s vocabulary was described by E. A. Arkin. He showed the ratio of different nouns in the speech of a four-year-old child: housing - 15.2%, food - 9.6%, clothing - 8.8%, animals - 8.8%, plants - 6.6%, urban life - 5, 1%, body parts - 4.7%, profession, technology and tools - 4.6%, inanimate nature - 3.3%, time -3.4%, social phenomena - 3.3%, generic concepts -1% , geometric shapes - 0.9%, abstract words - 0.7%.