Oral language is a skill that is learned naturally in response to a series of exchanges that take place in the social environment. The acquisition of it is an evolutionary process that follows its own rhythm and evolution, therefore, it does not matter in all children.
A child / to articulate correctly the sounds of spoken language depends largely on how you do the adults around him (father, mother, grandparents / as, brothers / sisters, teachers / as ...), which should offer a correct pronunciation models. Moreover, it is also crucial the proper functioning of the ear, breathing, the breath and proper mobility of bucofonatorios organs (tongue, lips, palate ...).
Some of the guidelines that we can use to promote language stimulation in children are:
- Talk to him slowly and clearly, without imitating his speech and giving him time to answer the questions asked.
- Teach him to mark and respect the turns of intervention in communication.
- Include in the statements a greater number of information.
- Try to keep the conversations that the child starts as long as possible.
- Carry out with the child activities that stimulate spontaneous language such as commenting on magazine images, inventing stories, playing with puppets, making dramatizations of familiar stories, playing guessing objects, teaching him songs and riddles, playing “I see, I see”…
- Ask questions about things that happen in your daily life to develop attention span.
- Watch with him / her a children's TV program and comment later.
- Play with the child to imitate sounds of the environment, animals or people, teaching where they come from.
- Play with the child to make movements such as making little bones, giving kisses, doing pedreretas, licking his lips, sticking his tongue out of his mouth, raising it to his nose ...
- The child can play blowing pinwheels, blowing soap bubbles, blowing whistles or blow-mouthers, inflating balloons ...
All these activities, among others, help children learn to communicate with others, which will greatly develop their oral language.
Beatriz Ramos Sáez
specialist teacher in Hearing and Language
