The habit of speaking is formed correctly in early childhood. A child who has been taught to speak clearly and beautifully will not experience problems in kindergarten, school, or in adulthood.
Unfortunately, not all children aged 3-4 years have good diction, but this is fixable. A speech therapist and home exercises can help parents to improve articulation. We will tell you about how to do articulatory gymnastics for children of early preschool age in this material.
About method
The articulating set of exercises is a charge to strengthen the muscles of the speech apparatus. If they are weak, then the baby will have problems with pronunciation. As the lips, vocal cords, cheeks and neck, and the uvula strengthen, it becomes easier for the child to pronounce different sounds and their combinations. And gradually the correct pronunciation becomes habitual.
Gymnastics has a therapeutic and prophylactic purpose, that is, it helps to correct incorrect speech habits, and can also prevent the appearance of speech defects.
During the exercise, the blood circulation of the speech muscles improves, the increased muscle tone decreases, which prevents the baby from pronouncing certain sounds without hindrance. In the course of performing static exercises, the child learns to establish the correct position of the speech apparatus, and dynamic tasks will help in mastering pronunciation.
To whom are classes shown and contraindicated?
Such speech gymnastics is certainly useful for all kids. At the age of 2-3 years, basic speech skills are formed, at the same time, alas, speech defects are also formed. It is reasonable to start classes at the age of three, and if the baby belongs to the category of early speakers, then at 2.5 years.
After three years, some deviations and anomalies in the pronunciation of sounds become apparent. So, at this age, stuttering is clearly manifested. Many children, due to the weakness of the muscles of the speech apparatus at this age, "chew" half of the alphabet, which makes it difficult to understand what the child is saying. Stuttering and dysarthria may also occur.
Gymnastic articulation exercises will help in establishing diction, vocal power, pronunciation, increase speaking speed, and improve speech intelligibility.
However, there are situations and conditions in which it is temporarily or absolutely not worth doing this type of gymnastics.
Contraindications include congenital heart defects, if gymnastics is combined with respiratory, mental ailments in which the child does not understand the "introductory" and is not guided in what they want from him.
Sick teeth or stomatitis are also temporary contraindications. Wounds, inflammation of the tongue, palate, inner surface of the cheeks, tonsillitis are in full swing - all these are conditions in which articulatory gymnastics is not recommended.
General requirements
If a decision is made to do such gymnastics with the baby, remember that you need to start with easy tasks and gradually move on to more difficult ones.
The easiest and most accessible for beginners are static exercises, in which you need to keep the speech muscles in a given position. You should not rush with dynamic exercises. At the age of 2-4, these exercises are still considered quite difficult, but as the static group improves, dynamic tasks can be added.
It is important to conduct classes in a playful way, otherwise the baby will get bored very quickly and he will refuse to complete the tasks.
Systematicity is necessary - gymnastics should be done daily for quite a long time. You can conduct 3-4 lessons for 5 minutes a day. These "five minutes" will not let the child get tired and will be interesting.
Try to include 2-3 exercises in each task, no more. Be sure to repeat the tasks and techniques already learned earlier, and only one task during the lesson, choose a new one that is not yet familiar.
Gymnastics is carried out in a sitting position. The child must learn to relax the neck and arms. It is best to practice in front of a mirror. In it, the child can see himself, his lips and facial expressions during pronunciation, and also compare them with your facial expressions and the location of your lips and tongue.
Printed or drawn picture cards are helpful to illustrate some of the exercises. For example, for the exercise "Hedgehog" you need to have a picture with a bright and colorful cheerful hedgehog. This will give the child a better idea of the problem.
Do not offend the kid, do not criticize, do not scold him if something does not work out.
Resentment and grief will only strengthen muscle clamps, undermine his confidence in his strength, he will begin to refuse to study. Mom's voice should be soft and quiet, not demanding.
Recommended exercises
For a specific child, an individual complex can be assigned, but among the basic tasks for children of the indicated age, the following can be noted:
- "Pipe". Ask the child to stretch out the lips with a tube forward and hold it that way for as long as possible. When the exercise becomes more complicated, you can ask the child to produce something like "doo-douuuu".
- Kitten Breakfast. Show your kid a picture of a kitten drinking milk from a bowl. Have your toddler open his mouth and demonstrate how cats lap milk. Complicate the task by asking to open your mouth wider, at the same time smile and stroke the palate while “lapping” your tongue.
- "Hedgehog". This is an active exercise. Show the kid the card with the hedgehog and read the rhyme: "It looks like a ball, dear, kind, glorious hedgehog." At the beginning of the verse, the child breathes in, and at the end of the couplet, you need to actively exhale and, as you exhale, pronounce "puff-puff" as loudly as possible.
- "Goal". Mom reads: “We open the gates, we invite everyone to visit! ". The baby's task is to open his mouth wide, hold it in this state for 5-7 seconds and close it smoothly.
- "Balloons". Have your child inflate their cheeks like balloons. The task is to keep them in this position as long as possible, and then sharply slap your palms on their cheeks, blow off the "balls".
- "Watch". Mom shows a card with a pendulum clock. Reads: “The clock is quiet, five minutes, seven minutes” (with these words the child sticks out his tongue and tries to describe a circle with his tip in the air, like the hour hands). Mom continues: “Well, the pendulum is a master, tick-tock, tick-tock! »(The child, after circular movements with the tip of the uvula, moves to moving the tip of the tongue to the right and left, like a pendulum).
"Puppy and Snake". Ask your child to show how a puppy breathes on a summer day - the tongue is flaccid, wide and spread over the lower lip. And then ask to show how the snake does it - the tongue becomes mobile and "sharp".
If certain sounds are defective, add exercises to improve the pronunciation of these “problem” sounds:
- "Zoo". Show the card with the tiger and ask the kid how the tiger growls - "Rrr". Show pictures of those animals in the name of which there is a sound that is difficult for the baby and ask them to voice the name and show how the animal “speaks”: to pronounce the sound "P" - a tiger cub, badger, fish, giraffe, to practice the sound "L" - a lion, husky, fox, dolphin, fallow deer, deer, lemur, on "W" and "F" - beetle, bumblebee, giraffe, foal, jackal, on "C" - dog, owl, elephant, fox, gopher.
"Pure phrases". You can use a variety of rhymes, phrases. The main requirement is the repetition of the "problem" sound. With an indistinct pronunciation of "R", for example, you can come up with something like: "Ra-ra-ru, ra-ra-ru, I'll walk around the yard, ru-ru-ra, ru-ru-ra, it's time to go home! ". You can compose similar phrases on your own for any sound that the child is not very good at pronouncing.
Useful Tips
Be sure to include some exercises from breathing exercises according to the Strelnikova method into the training program. It is considered to be very effective in developing speech. In particular, you can take an ordinary feather and ask the child to hold it in the air for as long as possible, making sharp short exhalations. Teach your child to breathe calmly and regularly. At the last exit, after 5-6 breaths, you can pronounce short syllables "Ra", "Sa", "La", etc.
Do not force or compel the child to continue the activity if he is tired and began to be distracted and capricious. It is better to take a break and return to class later, when the baby is in the mood to play and work out. There will be no benefit from coercion.
You can find out about other interesting articulation exercises for children in the following video.
