Speech preparation of children for school

The problem of preparing children for school has always been considered one of the most important in preschool pedagogy. The transition from kindergarten to school is associated with a change in the social status of the child who becomes a schoolchild. This is preceded by a huge amount of preparatory work, developing general and special preparation for studying at school, the result of which should be readiness for school, and it depends on the correct organization and quality of preparation.

Special preparation for school is in addition to the child’s general psychological readiness for school. Children receive special knowledge that they will need in the future to study various school subjects. These are classes on teaching literacy, the formation of elementary mathematical concepts, and classes on speech development, including the development of the linguistic and communicative abilities of a preschooler.

By the beginning of schooling, practical mastery of the native language reaches a fairly high level, however, language acquisition presupposes not only the formation of practical speech skills, but also the awareness of the linguistic elements of speech as a new area of objective phenomena for him (A.N. Gvozdev, F.A. Sokhin) .

The famous linguist A.N. Gvozdev formulated the results of speech acquisition as follows:

The level of mastery of the native language achieved by school age is very high. At this time, the child has already mastered the system of grammar to such an extent, including the most subtle patterns of syntactic and morphological order operating in the Russian language, as well as the firm and unmistakable use of many isolated individual phenomena, that the acquired Russian language becomes truly native to him
A.N. Gvozdev / Issues in the study of children's speech. SPB “Childhood-Press”, 2007

The role of speech development in preparing a child for school

Definition 1
Speech preparation of children for school is purposeful work on the formation of oral and written speech skills, which contributes to the activation of thought processes and the development of the child’s cognitive processes.

Speech preparation for school makes it possible to simplify the process of a child’s adaptation to the new conditions of his life, changing the leading activity from play to learning.

Speech is necessary for a child in school education, since it is the leading means of cognition and communicative development of the child. Not only educational activities take place within the walls of the school. It implements a variety of extracurricular activities that require building communication connections. Thus, comprehension of a new social role - the role of a student - is possible only with a sufficient level of speech development.

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The role of speech development in the process of preparing a preschooler for school can be expressed by the following parameters:

Speech helps a child develop self-control and discipline skills.
Speech reflects the child’s level of intellectual development and his mental readiness for school.
Speech is closely related to the development of skills in planning one’s activities. A plan for performing a particular operation is formed in the mind of a preschooler, like a speech model. An activity is built by pronouncing its stages in the mind. Thus, the child’s inner speech underlies the planning of his actions and actions.
Verbal pronunciation of this or that information contributes to its conscious perception and understanding. Consciousness and conscious perception of information helps in comprehending the student’s new social role and getting used to learning activities.
A child’s failure in elementary school is often due to underdevelopment of speech.
Through speech, the work of higher forms of intellectual activity is activated, since speech connects thinking processes with activity.

Finished works on a similar topic

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II. Objectives for the development of language and communication abilities

The tasks of speech development for preschoolers presented in the speech development program for preschoolers - education of sound culture of speech, mastering vocabulary, formation of grammatical structure of speech, development of coherent speech - are solved throughout the entire preschool age. However, at each age stage, all of the listed tasks have their own methods of solution. At the same time, it is important for teachers to know the individual characteristics of each child, since his special (speech) preparation for school depends on the creation of favorable conditions for the speech development of each child.

A special role in the development of speech is played by the formation of the emotive function, that is, the emotional development of preschool children . The emotional health of children largely depends on creating conditions for the development of their creative abilities. Consideration of the problem of emotional life in the development of the personality of a preschool child involves the development of his ideas about the world and, above all, the emotional world, by studying his verbal activity and studying his emotional vocabulary.

The works of representatives of different areas of science clearly prove how great the role of properly organized communication is in speech development. An integrated approach to solving the problems of speech development and verbal communication in kindergarten (adults with children and children with peers, both in classes and during routine moments, as well as in independent activities) provides for a significant increase and enrichment of opportunities for participation in verbal communication every child.

Linguistic (linguistic) competence, in relation to preschoolers, is considered as an elementary awareness of the phenomena and facts of language and speech, the formation of the ability to correctly pronounce and use words, their forms and syntactic structures in accordance with the norms of the literary language, and to use synonymous and antonymic resources of the native language. Soviet psychologist D.B. Elkonin wrote:

There is every reason to believe that it is the sound side of language that early becomes the subject of a child’s activity and practical knowledge.
D.B. Elkonin, 1989. p. 370

This position was confirmed in the studies of N.S. Varentsova, N.V. Durova, L.E. Zhurova, L.N. Nevskaya, G.A. Tumakova and others. They created a fundamentally new system of teaching literacy based on sound analysis of a word, in which the child was familiarized with the sequence of sounds in a word.

The method of teaching preschoolers to read, developed by D.B. Elkonin and his followers, proved that learning to read begins with introducing the child to the sound reality of the language in order to ensure the subsequent acquisition of grammar and associated spelling. It is very important to attract children’s attention to observations of the pronunciation of words, the phenomenon of alternation of vowels and consonants, the role of stress in the Russian language, and the meaning of intonation.

The formation of a sound analysis of a word (the ability to isolate certain sounds, syllables and stress in words or phrases), familiarization with the phonetic structure of a word has a serious impact on nurturing interest in linguistic phenomena.

A well-known scientist who studies the problems of phonetics, L.V. Shcherba emphasized that working with a living, spoken language helps the student connect it with the sounds that make up these words. In relation to preschool children, it can be noted that their phonetic observations (for example, on articulation) create the basis not only for the formation of speech hearing, but also for the development of a culture of oral speech in its pronunciation aspect.

The sound side of preschool children's speech has been studied in different aspects - as the development of speech perception and as the formation of the speech motor apparatus (E.I. Tikheeva, O.I. Solovyeva, V.I. Rozhdestvenskaya, E.I. Radina, M.M. Alekseeva, A. .I.Maksakov, M.F.Fomicheva, G.A.Tumakova). At the same time, many researchers emphasize the role of developing children’s awareness of the phonetic side of speech, since children early begin to notice shortcomings in their own and others’ speech (A.N. Gvozdev, K.I. Chukovsky, M.E. Khvattsev, D.B. Elkonin) . From understanding the features of the sound side of speech, one can stretch a thread to the awareness of speech in the broad sense of the word - as awareness of the phenomena of language and speech by preschoolers, as a condition for the formation of voluntary speech (F.A. Sokhin).

Pedagogical research emphasizes that during preschool childhood, the child’s intonation side of speech intensively develops, and at the same time his speech hearing develops - a sense of pitch, sound strength, a sense of timbre and rhythm. There is no doubt that school teachers rely on this foundation.

Work on the sound side of speech with preschool children includes exercises carried out with all elements of phonetics. In constructing an utterance, the role of each element of the sound culture of speech is extremely important, with a special role played by the intonation characteristics of the spoken speech. School teachers consider the development of intonation skills to be important for the perception of written speech.

The child’s orientation in the sound side of a word influences the development of all aspects of speech, including the semantic aspect of the child’s understanding of the semantic side of the word, although in practice the capabilities of preschool children are far from being fully used. Many researchers have emphasized that the task facing the teacher in the development of children's speech is not only to increase the vocabulary, but also to develop an accurate understanding of their meaning and semantically correct use.

Domestic teachers (I.I. Sreznevsky, K.D. Ushinsky, etc.) wrote about the importance of working on the semantic side of words for the speech and mental development of children. The need for qualitative improvement of the dictionary, work on understanding the meanings of words, and their correct use was pointed out by E.I. Tikheeva, A.M. Leushina, A.P. Usova and others.

A well-known specialist in speech development methods, M.M. Konina, believed that guiding the development of children's vocabulary begins not with teaching children new words and figures of speech, but with activating their existing vocabulary. M.M. Konina attached great importance to the child’s assimilation of the meaning of a word, which he could explain from the point of view of children’s logic, so educators need to work on clarifying the vocabulary and developing the ability to use words in accordance with the meaning.

Various issues of vocabulary work are considered in many studies: features of the formation of the dictionary of children of different ages, compilation of indicative dictionaries, which include thematic groups of words from the field of everyday life, work (V.V. Gerbova, A.P. Ivanenko, N.P. Ivanova, Yu.S. Lyakhovskaya, V.I. Yashina, etc.). At the same time, researchers emphasize the need to study children’s vocabulary not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively. It is very important to instill in children the habit of correctly using words in the most precise meanings (Yu.S. Lyakhovskaya, A.P. Ivanenko), to solve purely speech problems, using a wide variety of lexical exercises for this purpose (N.P. Ivanova, E.A .Stavtseva, V.I.Yashina).

Further studies devoted to work on the semantic side of the word (F.A. Sokhin, E.M. Strunina, A.A. Smaga, A.I. Lavrentieva) showed that raising children's attention to the content side of the word, its semantics, clarification of the meanings of words, develops accuracy of word use, and has a positive effect on the coherence of monologue speech.

The development of awareness of linguistic reality, the elements of language (including the semantic side of a word) to a certain extent occurs spontaneously, and specifically, in pedagogical work, begins to be carried out when teaching preschoolers (as well as first-graders) to divide sentences into words and sound analysis of words as prerequisites for literacy training.

Mastering the vocabulary of the native language is a necessary condition for mastering its grammatical structure, developing coherent monologue speech, and nurturing the sound culture of speech.

Research devoted to the formation of various aspects of the grammatical structure of speech has experimentally proven that in order to master oral and written speech, it is necessary to develop a sense of language, “intuitive”, “subconscious grammar” (terms of A.M. Peshkovsky), that the sense of language has an objective conditionality and can be education. Creating conditions for optimal mastery of language patterns is possible if the leader in teaching is not the presentation of speech samples by the teacher, but the formation of language generalizations, which “constitute the core of the psychological mechanism of language acquisition” (F.A. Sokhin).

Based on psycholinguistic work in the field of word creation (N.I. Lepskaya, T.N. Ushakova, A.M. Shakhnarovich, N.H. Shvachkin, N.M. Yuryeva), pedagogical research proves that preschoolers, experimenting with words, focus on both the semantic and grammatical aspects of the language. Word creation, on the one hand, is clear evidence of the assimilation of the morphological system of a language. On the other hand, it reveals and reveals an important mechanism for mastering vocabulary: the child learns words not only as ready-made units, but also creates and constructs them himself. Having revealed the patterns of this process, researchers were able to control the enrichment of the dictionary by forming productive methods of word formation (F.A. Sokhin, E. Federavichene, A.G. Tambovtseva).

Conclusion

The transition from kindergarten to school is associated with a change in the social status of the child who becomes a schoolchild. This is preceded by a huge amount of preparatory work, developing general and special preparation for studying at school, the result of which should be readiness for school, and it depends on the correct organization and quality of preparation.

The study of the relationship between thought, speech and language in the development of the personality of a preschool child provides opportunities to identify patterns of development of intellectual, communicative, speech and language abilities in preschool childhood.

Improving communicative competence is impossible without mastering the basics of speech culture, the absence of which can cause a misconception about the essence of the statement. In speech behavior, the expressive moment is also important, i.e. subjective emotional assessment of the content of one’s statement, which determines the choice of lexical, grammatical, compositional means.

Based on the formation of a child’s speech skills and abilities, his speech develops: understanding the meaning of a word and enriching the vocabulary, mastering a system of linguistic concepts and patterns in the field of morphology, syntax, word formation, mastering the sound culture of speech, developing coherent monologue speech.

The development of linguistic, communicative and intellectual abilities is an important condition for the formation of a linguistic personality in preschool childhood and the formation of initial ideas about the linguistic picture of the world.

These areas are considered as the main guidelines necessary for the formation of speech readiness for school education and for the further successful development by children of the native (Russian) language teaching program in primary school.

Criteria for a child’s speech readiness for school

To understand how developed a child’s speech is, and whether he is ready in his speech development for learning at school, you need to pay attention to the following criteria for the child’s speech readiness for school:

Development of the sound side of speech. A diagnosis of the child’s pronunciation is carried out and the extent to which all sounds are pronounced clearly and correctly is analyzed.
Development of the phonemic aspect of speech. If a child perceives speech well by ear, understands and distinguishes sounds, and can reproduce what he hears, then his auditory perception of speech is at a high level of development. It is important to pay attention to the slightest deviations in the auditory perception of speech sounds. It is necessary to work on the phonemic side of speech, since very often problems arise in understanding and distinguishing words that sound similar: meadow-onion, fruit-raft, etc.
Development of motor function of speech. It reflects the correctness of the child’s performance of certain movements when pronouncing sounds, words and phrases. Here, it is important to practice articulatory movements, since the clarity and understandability of pronunciation depends on them. A variety of articulation exercises are used to practice complex sounds.
Readiness to conduct sound-letter analysis and synthesis of the sound composition of a word.
Skills in using various techniques for constructing words and phrases. The child must be able to correctly use words in varying degrees of comparison, form words with the same root and adjectives from nouns.
Development of the grammatical aspect of speech. Oral speech must be correctly constructed. The child should easily construct grammatically correct sentences and express his thoughts in a detailed speech form.
Rich vocabulary. By the beginning of school, the child should speak 4000-5000 words. At the same time, he must actively use different parts of speech in his speech in the correct case, number, gender, declension, operate with different parts of speech, understanding their semantic meaning.
Development of coherent speech. Here an assessment is made of whether the child can reflect in speech the essential aspects of its subject content.

Figure 1. Speech readiness for school. Author24 - online exchange of student work

Lexicon

The child must have a fairly well developed vocabulary, he must be oriented in the generic and specific relationships of objects:

— it is correct to classify individual objects into one or another group of objects (sofa-furniture, boletus-mushroom, violet-houseplant, mechanic-profession...)

- be able to define an object through a generic name and a specific concept: a sugar bowl is a container in which sugar is located... Cuts vegetables - a vegetable cutter...

The game “Word Auction” will help expand and enrich children’s vocabulary with adjectives. Any item will do for the game.

Invite your child to name the following words:

- What saucepan? The child says: pure, then your word is “deep”... etc. Whoever ends up with the words wins...

Select the fourth extra item:

- airplane, helicopter, bicycle, hot air balloon.

- tit, sparrow, rook, bullfinch.

The child must know a few “stubborn” words: those that never change: “coat”, “cocoa”...

By the end of the 6th year, a preschooler must understand and use antonyms in speech - select pairs of words with opposite meanings, denoting spatial concepts (high - low...), states of objects (hot - cold), human feelings (cheerful - sad), spatial and temporal concepts (early - late, here - there, earlier later, left - right) and others.

6-year-old children begin to comprehend and understand words with a figurative meaning (golden hands, time creeps, short memory).

It is important to work on synonyms - words that are similar in meaning and that express different shades of semantic meaning (cheerful - joyful - funny).

Also, by the end of the year, the child can understand and name related, similar words with the help of adults:

Snow - snowfall, snowman, Snow Maiden, bullfinch.

How to develop expressive speech in an older preschooler

Expressive children's speech is a very rare phenomenon. But such speech is a sign of an intellectually developed child. Children with expressive speech later study well and have good relationships with teachers. To form such speech, it is again important to interest the child. And what, no matter how the game, will help in this process. Theatrical games or dramatization will help develop expressiveness. Children take on different roles. At the same time, they do not speak in their own voice, but try to imitate the heroes of history. Here both intonation and timbre of speech change for the better. Preschoolers, in the role of a theatrical performance, try to pronounce words and sentences as clearly and expressively as possible. They feel like real artists, and artists must speak beautifully.

Grammatically correct speech

Speech readiness for school also means grammatically correct speech, which children master in a purely practical sense.

For this purpose, it is useful to play games and exercises:

“One - many” (formation of the plural of nouns): table - tables, ...

“What is it made of?” (formation of relative adjectives). Table made of wood - wooden, plum jam - plum….

“Count the dishes” (coordination of nouns with numerals.) One knife, three knives, and five knives….

“Whose tail?” : (formation of possessive adjectives). The fox has a fox tail, the bear has a bear tail, the pike has a pike tail...

“What with what” (mastering the category of the instrumental case with the preposition “with”). Chair with legs and seat; bed with mattress and legs.

“Find an object” (learning the preposition “for”). The lid is needed for..., the back is needed for...

“Big - small” - practice using diminutive suffixes: big table, and small... (table), bucket - bucket....

Speech errors should not be left uncorrected, but comments should be made tactfully. Constant jerking and tactless remarks are unacceptable, as they can cause verbal negativism, nervousness and stubbornness.

Speech disorders and their causes

The literacy of a child’s oral speech depends largely on the purity of pronunciation ; by the age of seven, he should clearly pronounce all the sounds of his native language. It is also necessary to pay attention to the speed of pronunciation , since when speaking quickly, speech becomes slurred, the child begins to swallow some sounds and endings. Slurred pronunciation can also disorders of the articulatory apparatus and insufficient tone of the tongue .

In addition to the clarity and clarity of the sounds that the student uses, the rhythm and tempo of his speech and intonation correctness are no less important . Deviations in sound pronunciation that go undetected in time can affect school performance and lead to trouble.

Typical mistakes in speech disorders

Speech impairments, as a rule, automatically affect writing.
A child with sound pronunciation impairments often makes the following mistakes when writing :

replaces sounds and syllables;
omits vowels and consonants;
skips syllables and parts of words;
rearranges syllables;
adds sounds and syllables;
writes parts of words separately.

Problems with sound pronunciation and understanding the structure of spoken words can create serious difficulties in written speech.

Correction of disorders: work with a speech therapist

A speech therapist will help determine the child’s level of speech readiness for school.
If you notice serious disturbances in sound pronunciation in your child, immediately contact a speech therapist. This specialist deals with speech defects; he will conduct a comprehensive examination, identify the cause of the deviations, their specifics and possible consequences, and prescribe an individual program of additional classes.

In the process of working with a speech therapist, a child, as a rule, not only gradually gets rid of the defect, but also acquires new cognitive, communication and cultural skills, since the field of knowledge associated with speech therapy begins with neurolinguistics and ends with psychology and pedagogy.

Only a specialist can provide the parent with the correct information and give accurate recommendations for further treatment. A professional can offer different methods of work, a variety of exercises and games that you can practice at home.

Correction of disorders at home

You need to follow the recommendations of a speech therapist no less responsibly than the prescriptions of any other doctor . The correct approach to speech correction can save a child from disorders once and for all; you just need to follow the specialist’s instructions as accurately as possible:

For the greatest effect, conduct home exercises consistently and regularly.
Get your child interested in an exciting activity format - a game, a rebus, a puzzle, or even a walk during which you exercise. Do not force or force your child under any circumstances.
Decide which of the adults at home will conduct the classes.
Before completing the task, make sure that you understand everything yourself.
Use methods to motivate and stimulate your child to work, encourage him and support him.

For those who want to know a little more about preparing a child for school, we are publishing a thematic video.

Characteristics of children with developed speech

Children with developed speech usually have a high level of intellectual and social development.

Let's consider the main directions of speech readiness of preschoolers for school.

Sound speech culture must be sufficiently formed. Children of senior preschool age must have clear diction and good sound pronunciation.

The vocabulary of older preschoolers should be enriched and activated by various words and phrases. This will help children communicate with others.

The grammatical structure and expressive features of speech of older preschoolers are mastered and used through the formation of new words, when a preschool child learns to change words morphologically, change the case of words, and compare adjectives. Use all degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs.

Coherent children's speech, which includes dialogical statements and monologues, presupposes the development in children of the ability to independently construct correct statements. These should be different sentences: reasoning, narration, description. Such skills are successfully developed when the child listens carefully to the statements of others, then repeats the sentences. It’s good when the interlocutor is literate, then the child will be presented with the correct speech samples.

By the sixth year of life, a preschooler improves all aspects of speech activity. Possesses coherent and expressive speech. In communication, the senior preschooler answers questions clearly and has a large vocabulary. This is ideal. If this is not the case, then you need to sound the alarm. And as soon as possible, before the child goes to school, targeted speech correction needs to be carried out.

Characteristics of speech disorders in children

In speech activity, most children of senior preschool age are characterized by self-doubt; it is difficult for children to express their thoughts in the correct form. The hooting of parents causes children to begin to distort words, replacing some sounds with others that are more pleasing to the ear.

According to observations, 60% of older preschoolers have frequent violations of grammar and expressiveness of speech. This includes incorrect agreement of words when composing sentences. Even simple sentences can be very distorted. The vocabulary is poor or filled with vocabulary from popular television and computer programs and games.

Although children will master the basics of literacy only during school, nevertheless, in kindergarten it is already necessary to conduct special speech classes. Then at school it will be easier for children to learn the norms of the language. Important areas in speech activity are phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, and the ability to speak coherently when constructing small dialogues and short monologues.

What means to use in the process of speech correction?

Children's speech readiness is often achieved through games. Including correction through didactic games and exercises.

Conversations should also be given great attention. During a conversation with an adult, a child of the age we are considering will try to speak more expressively. In such conversations, you can use different training phrases. For example, start with one word, then ask the child to repeat a phrase of two words, then of three. Gradually reach a sentence, from simple to complex.

In classes on speech development, it is very important to take an individual approach to each child, because speech disorders are different for each preschooler. The quality of speech correction in children of senior preschool age depends on how interested the children are in the development of correct and expressive speech. Are children of this age sincerely interested in learning to speak beautifully and expressively?

The effectiveness of correcting children's speech is facilitated by independent children's games, during which children look at pictures and books. After this, you can ask preschoolers what they did, what they looked at, what is depicted in the books.

This approach will help teach children to discuss with the teacher and other children what they saw and what they did.

When the violations are too serious, for example, problems with the child’s articulation apparatus, it will be useful to work with the child in front of a mirror, teach him to use articulation correctly. Explain how the tongue works, how it should be positioned when pronouncing a particular sound.