Speech development at 5-6 years old: norms, symptoms of impairment, correction

An important indicator of the intelligence of a preschooler is the development of speech at the age of 5-6 years. At this age, the child knows 3000-4000 words and pronounces most of the sounds correctly. Children are able to construct detailed phrases and give detailed descriptions. To improve pronunciation and develop vocabulary, didactic games, finger and articulation gymnastics are used.

The speech development of a 4-5 year old child is very important.

Speech development in preschoolers

Normally, by the age of 5-6 years of life, a child’s speech is similar to an adult’s. The main task of developing the ability to correctly express one’s thoughts in a conversation is to prepare a preschooler for learning to read and write. If your baby has difficulty differentiating sounds, he will inevitably have problems writing letters.

A limited vocabulary and inability to consistently express thoughts will not allow the student to retell what he has read or explain the solution to an example.

And you should start preparing for school early and gradually. The tutor will be able to quickly prepare the child. However, the effectiveness of such intensive classes will lose its relevance after 1-2 quarters if the preschooler has speech disorders. Therefore, it is worth starting to prepare for admission to 1st grade 1.5-2 years in advance.

Vocabulary

At 5 years old, a child should actively use about 3-3.5 thousand words. He knows how to generalize concepts (plants, animals, dishes, clothes). In the speech of a preschooler, there are not only the names of everyday objects, but also abstract concepts - love, resentment, planet, universe, etc.

Children 5-6 years old love vocabulary games with rearranging words or making mistakes in the text. Eg:

• The bathhouse ran past the man, and the gate growled at our cat.
• I chopped the ax with my notebook, and the fence jumped over the cat Egorka.

Grammar

Short answers become longer and more detailed. Children already know how to correctly decline complex forms of nouns. However, they may make mistakes by saying kittens instead of kittens or calves instead of calves. The following speech games help develop grammar:

• “Say it the other way around” is a game to find antonyms.
• "Broken phone."
• "Guess what I'm talking about."
• “Finish the sentence.”

The model of literacy is the adults who surround the baby. If family members have problems with the correct placement of stress, speech disorders, or abuse of slang and obscene words, the child will copy them.

Articulation

The vocal apparatus of a preschooler corresponds to that of an adult. If there are no anatomical disorders - a shortened frenulum, malocclusion - children pronounce most phonemes correctly. Most often, children 5-6 years old have difficulty pronouncing the sound “r”. They either replace it with a simpler “l” or “y” - balsuk, not badger, yak, - not cancer, or skip it altogether - baaban instead of drum, vaenik instead of dumpling.

If a child has not learned to pronounce the sound “r” by the age of 5, he will no longer be able to cope with it on his own. You should not expect the child to outgrow the problem. A consultation with a speech pathologist and attendance at speech therapy classes are required.

Another important aspect is long pauses in conversation, or stuttering. This is a complex speech disorder that may take years to resolve. The reason may be:

• increased nervous excitability;
• strict parents;
• too much load on the speech apparatus at an early age;
• imitating a relative or friend who stutters.

Logic and consistency

Coherent speech in a preschooler is the result of many years of efforts by parents involved in its development. Such children speak expressively, use epithets and comparisons, and create their own stories. While the baby, whose speech skills have not been developed by anyone, speaks monotonously and inarticulately.

At 5-6 years old, a child composes a coherent story based on a picture, retells the text he heard, expressing his opinion on what he heard or saw.

Children who spend 90% of their free time on a computer or smartphone have difficulties with the coherence and logic of the narrative. It is difficult for him to answer the question in detail. However, he is ready to talk about his favorite characters in the game for hours. If you do not limit the time you use gadgets, this will negatively affect speech development.

How to develop speech at 5 years old?

The main role of parents at this stage is to develop coherent and logical speech. This requires:

• expand your vocabulary (get to know concepts, synonyms, antonyms);
• practice the skill of accurate retelling;
• form literate speech (correct declension in numbers, genders and cases).

Don't forget that at this age your child is still a baby (no matter how strange it may sound). Therefore, in every lesson it is worth remembering the elements of the game. Below I would like to give examples of exercises and games that you can use when working with your children.

1. We select synonyms. You name any word and ask the child to name a similar one. For example, sad - sad.
2. We select antonyms. Everything is the same as with the first exercise, but the task is to name the opposite meaning of the word. For example, big - small.
3. Classify objects into one group or another based on certain characteristics. For example, ask your child what type of sofa there is (soft, large, comfortable, corner, etc.). Then think about which object has the same qualities. For example, a chair. Remember together the general word for these items - furniture.
4. Grammar exercises. Practice correct agreement of numbers, gender and cases. For example, you say: “I have one book, and on the nightstand...”, and the child continues: “... many books.”
5. We make a sentence from words. You show cards with words. For example, we, love, listen, music. The task is to formulate a sentence that is grammatically correct: we love listening to music.
6. Reading children's fiction, rhymes, sayings, tongue twisters and nursery rhymes. This is still one of the most effective ways of speech development. So try to read as much as possible.
7. Game "Guess". You name the signs of objects, and the child guesses it. For example, red, green tail, grows in summer, added to salads - tomato.
8. Game "Broken Phone". It's great to play with the whole family. Think of a word and say it quietly in each other’s ears. The last person gives away what he ultimately heard. This develops pronunciation and hearing.

Remember the main rule - spend as much time as possible on your child and communicate with him. Your time, attention, love, care, experience and knowledge are the most valuable things you can give to your children.

A child’s speech at 5 years old can still be improved. So everything is in your hands. I look forward to your likes and comments. See you again!

Generally accepted standards

Normally, a preschooler:

• Knows and follows the rules of grammar. He may put the emphasis incorrectly on an unfamiliar word or make a mistake when changing it. However, if a parent or teacher corrects him, the children remember and do not make any more mistakes.
• Gives a detailed answer to the question.
• Pronounces sounds articulately and clearly.
• He can compose a logical story based on a picture or a series of photographs, come up with his own beginning or ending to a fairy tale, retell a text he heard, share emotions from watching a cartoon or spending time together, playing a game.
• Describes an object and guesses it from the description.
• Can change intonation, voice volume, speed of speech.
• Participates in theatrical performances (at home or in kindergarten), artistically recites poetry, and makes intonation pauses.
• Selects words that are close or opposite in meaning: joyful and cheerful, laughing and crying.
• Actively uses prefixed verbs: the white door is open and the green door is closed.
• Able to generalize concepts: fork, plate, pan - utensils; cat, mouse, dog, rabbit - pets; eagle, thrush, tit - birds.
• Pronounces most phonemes correctly. The exception is the sound “r”.

Signs of speech underdevelopment

The main sign of speech disorders is a violation of diction and articulation. A child with speech delay pronounces words unclearly, it is difficult to understand him, and as a result, it is extremely difficult to track his speech literacy. Articulation is impaired, most phonemes cause difficulties in pronunciation.

These children have a limited vocabulary. It is noticeable to any adult that he is inferior to his peers in the ability to logically and consistently express his thoughts. Preschoolers with speech impairments are limited to short phrases containing only a noun and a verb. It is difficult for them to describe the subject, formulate and argue their thoughts.

If at least one of the listed signs is present, the help of a speech therapist-defectologist is required.

Diagnosis of speech disorders

To identify speech disorders in children 5-6 years old, ask:

• Describe the action of the person or object in the picture. For example: what is the eagle doing? (flies). What is the girl doing? (combs his hair).
• Indicate the action opposite to that named by the speech therapist: “lay down - stood up”, “ran - stood”, as well as the antonym of the proposed sign: “cheerful - sad, slow - fast”.
• Say what the baby of this or that animal is called. For example: a cat has a kitten, a fox has a little fox, a dog has a puppy, an elephant has a baby elephant.
• Name the shape and color of the drawn figure (triangle, circle, oval, square).
• Describe the item. “What kind of chair?” - “Soft, cozy, warm, with wooden armrests, gray, large.”
• Take a toy that lies ON the table, UNDER the stool, IN the drawer, IN FRONT of the bag, BEHIND the book, BETWEEN the chairs. This allows you to determine whether the baby understands prepositions correctly.
• Convert singular to plural. One nightingale - two nightingales, one drop - three drops, one village - five villages.
• Change the noun by case. What? Bed. Shall I lie on what? Beds. Made what? Bed. Pushed towards what? To the bed. I'll tell you what? About the bed.
• Agree verb and noun according to gender. The cat came into the kitchen. How about a cat? The cat came into the kitchen.
• Name what is shown in the pictures. For this task, pictures are selected in the same color scheme. Red fish, red cherry, red jacket, red flower.
• Repeat difficult words after the speech therapist: excavator, electricity, perestroika, shipwreck, propeller. The baby repeats each word 2-3 times. And the specialist monitors whether the child rearranges syllables, replaces or skips sounds, and whether the stress is placed correctly.

When you need help

Reacting with a smile to words

Experts assure that you can understand what problems may arise in speech almost from birth:

• if by the end of 1 month the baby does not try to let him know by screaming that it is time for him to eat, or when he experiences discomfort;
• if at the end of 4 months he does not respond with a smile;
• if by the end of the fifth month he does not make individual sounds, pointing with his gaze at the object he means. For example, mom asks: “Where is the rattle?”;
• by the end of the 7th month does not try to attract attention with the help of spoken sounds;
• at the end of the 9th month, words consisting of repeated syllables, such as “ma-ma”, “pa-pa”, did not appear in the baby’s vocabulary;
• at 12 months does not respond to simple requests: “Give me a toy.”

Types of speech defects

Before you start classes, you need to know the types of speech disorders:

• stuttering;
• dyslalia;
• nasality;
• neurological diseases.

For your information! To identify them, you just need to regularly communicate with your child.

Speech therapy chants, exercises, songs for children 2-3 years old.

Basic characteristics of speech at 5-6 years old

By this time, speech develops and becomes more complex. The baby is already able to make hissing and whistling sounds. The expressiveness of speech increases, you can notice this when reading poetry and in role-playing games. It becomes coherent and sentences become more common. Children are already able to retell a fairy tale or describe a picture.

How to deal with violation

The level of speech development of a preschooler depends on the diction of the adults around him, the specifics of upbringing in the family, and the efforts made by parents. By completing simple tasks for speech development, the child learns skills in a playful way that will be useful to him at school.

Spending time together with parents is of no small importance: active recreation, visiting museums and theaters, drawing, modeling, folding a puzzle, discussing pictures in a book, while simultaneously commenting on one’s feelings and emotions. All this is a powerful stimulus for the child’s speech development.

Doing exercises to train diction, memorizing counting rhymes, tongue twisters, riddles and poems allows you to correct pronunciation and enrich your vocabulary. It is important to clarify unclear words and phraseological units so that the preschooler can use them correctly in the future.

Speech therapists recommend reading aloud to your child as much as possible. After reading, you should discuss the fairy tale or story, explain the meaning of new words, and evaluate the actions of the characters.

Speech development tasks for children 5-6 years old allow you to develop skills in logical presentation and argumentation of thoughts:

• compiling a story based on a picture;
• detailed answer to questions based on the text;
• retelling what was heard.

You should stop the baby, correcting incorrectly pronounced words and ask him to repeat the word without error. Home theater will allow the child to show his acting abilities, learn to use his voice, making it quieter or louder, use intonation, and pause.

The development of oral speech is the basis for mastering reading and writing, as well as the key to successful learning at school. Therefore, it is worth starting classes as early as possible. And if violations are detected, consult a speech therapist and correct the pronunciation.

Prevention of speech delay

The formation of a senior preschooler’s perfect speech is influenced by his living conditions, the characteristics of his parents’ upbringing style, and, most importantly, the efforts of caring adults. To avoid finding yourself on the threshold of school in a situation where a child has discovered numerous speech disorders and there is no time to correct them, you need to take care in advance of the harmonious development of the child’s speech.

To solve this problem, close communication between children and adults is of great importance. Walking together, doing creative work, looking at book illustrations with a parallel discussion of what they saw and felt. This work will give a powerful impetus to the development of the baby’s speech. It is very valuable to learn and use such rich material as counting rhymes, tongue twisters, poems, riddles, sayings, nursery rhymes, and proverbs. All words that children do not understand need to be explained and ensure that they are used correctly.

Reading children's literature should be accompanied by a conversation about the actions of the characters and an explanation of incomprehensible words. When memorizing poetic works, it is very useful to replenish a child’s vocabulary by drawing his attention to the figures of speech used by the author. “A dark forest that covered itself with a wonderful hat...” “What hat did the poet write about?” “And fell asleep under her quietly, soundly...” “Do you think the forest can fall asleep?” “How do you understand the word restlessly?”

In order to fully prepare for schooling, a child of five to six years old must be able to coherently express his thoughts and construct logical, complete statements. It is important to correct deficiencies in sound pronunciation in a timely manner, to teach children to use their voice and means of expression. If children receive a lot of positive information from the outside world and from fiction that they can discuss with adults, this greatly stimulates children's speech development.