Speech is one of the main forms of mental activity, social in its formation and systemic in its structure. The main structural components of speech are sound composition, vocabulary, and grammatical structure. Many authors, including such famous people as E. A. Arkin, A.V. Zakharova, and A. N. Gvozdev, studied the stages of development of the structural components of speech. The stages of development of the sound composition are presented in the following table:
| Child’s age | Sounds that appeared in speech |
|---|---|
| 1 year — 1.5 years | b, t, c, h |
| 1.5 years -2 years | f, v, t, d, n, l, c, x |
| 2 years — 2 years 6 months | s, z, n, b, m, t, d, n |
| 2 years 7 months — 3 years 5 months | f, v, s, z, h, l |
| 3.5 years — 3 years 8 months. | h, s |
| 4 years — 4 years 6 months. | w, j |
| 4 years 6 months — 5 years | r |
The development of a child’s vocabulary is closely connected, on the one hand, with the development of thinking and other mental processes, and, on the other hand, with the development of all components of speech: the phonetic-phonemic and grammatical structure of speech. In the child’s vocabulary, words of a specific meaning appear early, and later-words of a generalizing nature. The development of vocabulary in ontogenesis is due to the development of the child’s ideas about the surrounding reality.
E. A. Arkin gives the following data on the growth of the dictionary:
1 year — 9 words, a year and a half-39 words, 2 years-300 words, 3 years 6 months-1110 words, 4 years-1926 words.
This indicates that communication with a child at this age is fundamental to the development of his vocabulary. [1, c. 225]
The vocabulary of an older preschooler can be considered as a national language model, since by this age the child learns all the basic models of the native language. During this period, the core of the dictionary is formed, which does not change significantly in the future. The basic “framework” of the dictionary does not change, despite its qualitative replenishment and increase in volume. [6, p. 129]
A. N. Gvozdev identifies the following periods of the formation of the grammatical structure of speech:
1 period — the period of sentences consisting of amorphous words of roots, which includes two stages:
1 stage of a one-word sentence (from 1 year 3 months to 1 year 8 months.);
Stage 2 of sentences consisting of several root words (1 g. 8 months. 1 g 10мес.).
2 period — the period of development of grammatical structures of the proposal, consisting of three stages:
Stage 1 the formation of the first forms of words (1 10мес. — 2 years 1 month.);
Step 2 use flexinol language system for the expression of syntactic relations of words (2 years 1 month. — 2 years 6months.);
3 stage of learning the keywords for the expression of syntactic expressions (2 years 6 months.
3 period — the period of further assimilation of the morphological system (3-7 years). [2, c. 153]
Kuraev G. A. and Pozharskaya E. N. from the point of view of psychology distinguish three main mechanisms of language acquisition:
- Imitation;
- Formation of conditioned reflex associations;
- Formulation and experimental verification of empirical hypotheses.
Imitation affects the formation of all aspects of speech, but especially the phonetics of grammar. This mechanism is implemented when the child has the first signs of the corresponding ability. But imitation is only the initial stage of speech development. The function of conditioned reflex conditioning in the generation of speech is that the use of various incentives by adults accelerates the development of children’s speech.
The formulation and testing of hypotheses as a mechanism of speech assimilation is confirmed by the facts of active children’s word-making. However, isolated by itself, this mechanism too intellectualizes the process of speech development in young children.
Thus, speech development at an early age is explained by a combination of all three considered learning mechanisms. [4, c. 59–60]
The development of speech in general, as the leading method of human communication, occurs due to the saturation of the environment around the child with the audible speech of adults and voice contacts with them. Voice contacts are born in a situation of emotional communication and carry mainly an expressive function. But, being immersed in the speech environment and under its influence, the child begins to distinguish the audible matter of the language and the sound form of human contacts. This leads to the fact that voice contacts are becoming an increasingly important (and subsequently leading) form of appeal to an adult. The speech flow has a positive effect on the emergence of active speech of the child only when the speech of adults is included in communication with the child and has a reversed character against the background of emotional contacts that arise between the child and the adult. The child chooses from the huge variety of audible speech of the surrounding people, learns and appropriates what is necessary and sufficient for him to solve the communicative tasks that face him in connection with the peculiarities of his life activity at this stage of development. [5, c. 196]
Communication is a significant cause of lagging children in the development of speech, but not the only one. In the first years of life, the biological factor plays an important role in the development of a child’s speech, but it can also be noticed that as he grows up, he fades into the background and the social factor becomes more and more important. Which is not surprising, because speech is social in its formation. Uruntaeva, G. A., Gribova A. O., Smirnova J. T. based on the data presented in his works, compiled the following table of the form of speech and approximate age of its appearance, signs of deviation from the ontogenesis line, and possible causes:
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Intonates screams (You can distinguish between screams of pleasure and displeasure), 1-2 months. Signs of deviation: The child reacts poorly to sounds and practically does not make any sounds. Possible causes: Taking antibiotics in the first months of life, unstable/stressful situation in the family, mother’s stress during pregnancy, frequent otitis media and other ENT diseases, disorders associated with prenatal, natal and postnatal organic pathology of the central nervous system or peripheral parts of the articulatory apparatus, traumatic disorders of the vocal cords or laryngeal department, some genetic syndromes associated with impaired vocal and articulatory function.
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Gook, gulenie (The child repeats after you or independently pronounces individual syllables, as if playing with you), 1.5-3 months. Signs of deviation: The child reacts poorly to sounds and practically does not make any sounds; does not understand frequently used words and does not imitate the sounds of speech, does not react to addressed speech, and only resorts to shouting to attract attention.
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Babble (The child repeats after you and says something similar to words, but consisting of the same syllables), 4-5 months. Signs of deviation: same as above, plus an unusual tone of voice (e.g. speaks through the nose, or in a very raspy voice).
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Babbling words (The child uses the “nanny language”: words consist of two or three open syllables like lala, tata, kuka, plus onomatopoeia like bi-bi, woof-woof, pee-pee), 8 months — 1 year 2 months. Signs of deviation: lack of interest in speech activity, inability to understand simple questions or point at pictures; does not use common gestures like pointing or waving goodbye; unusual tone of voice; reluctant to repeat words. Possible causes: parents do not communicate much with the child, limited communication with older children, excessive screen time (TV, tablet, phone), bilingual household, excessive parental guardianship preventing motivation for speech communication, poorly developed fine motor skills, insufficient reading to the child.
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Two-word sentences (e.g. “give pi” for “give to drink”, “dad no” for “dad is not at home”), 1 year 6 months — 2 years 2 months. Signs of deviation: does not yet imitate sounds, hardly understands simple requests, unusual tone of voice, lack of interest in speech activity, silent or walks away when asked to repeat, prefers to solve problems independently (“independent child”).
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Active growth of the dictionary (The child asks what things are called), 1 year 9 months — 2 years 6 months. Signs of deviation: can only imitate speech or gestures without spontaneous initiative, uses only a limited number of sounds, cannot communicate beyond immediate needs, unusual tone of voice. Normally a child should understand about half the words they utter at age two and about three-quarters by age three. Possible causes: lack of interest in speech activity, limited parental communication, excessive screen time, bilingual household, excessive parental guardianship, insufficient reading.
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The appearance of grammatical forms of the word (The child changes words by number, gender, case, etc.), 2 years 4 months — 3 years 6 months.
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Word-making (The child “composes” his own words, but using the laws of his language), 2 years 6 months — 3 years 5 months.
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The child speaks out his actions when playing alone with toys or busy with other activities, 2 years 6 months — 3 years 6 months.
Based on this table, we can draw a conclusion about the importance of social causes, which can be divided into three groups: motive, upbringing and speech environment. And only if all these parts are present, the child’s speech can be formed normally. It can be assumed that this is due to the lack of awareness of the parents in this matter and not fully understanding the importance of these factors. In addition, parents often do not use the opportunity to organize early help for children with speech problems. Many expect that when the child turns 3 years old, he will speak himself. The lack of assistance in early preschool age leads to a number of consequences of speech underdevelopment. These are the disruption of the communication process and the difficulties of adaptation in the children’s team and speech negativism, the peculiarity of the emotional-volitional sphere, infantilism, the secondary delay in cognitive activity, difficulties in mastering the entire school curriculum, especially in the language. [3, c. 21–22]
It should be noted that it is even more effective to manage the process of mastering speech at an early stage, starting from one year, when the child should have the first babbling words. In this case, it is possible to “coincide” with the natural timing of the formation of the rudiments of speech and avoid secondary layers.
The delay in the rate of speech development, as a rule, is due to improper upbringing or frequent illnesses of the child. The elimination of the cause that causes deviations in the development of the child, the change in the conditions of his upbringing determine the success of the further development of the child in preschool and school age.
Literature:
- Arkin, A. E. Preschool age. – M.: Uchpedgiz, 1948.
- Gvozdev, A. N. Questions of studying children’s speech. – M.: Publishing House of the APN of the RSFSR, 1961.
- Gribova, O. E. What to do if your child does not speak: A book for those who are interested in it. – Moscow: Irispress, 2004.
- Kuraev, G. A., Pozharskaya, E. N. Age psychology: A course of lectures. – Rostov-on-Don: The Union of Valeology
- Lisina, M. I. Communication and speech: Speech development in children in communication with adults. 1985. Moscow: Pedagogika.
- Uruntaeva, G. A. Preschool psychology. – M.: Academy, 1996.