This post will finish the discussion for the area of learning - Communication. We will finish the component - Speech and do the last 4 performance indicators for the learning expectation: Speech is understood by most familiar adults. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The first performance indicator is: Uses most of the consonants in our language. With the extremely wide range of language skills for this age group that can be present, conquering this one depends greatly on that level of skill. However, there is a way to test even children that are not using a lot of language yet - babble games. Children as young as 12 months old can participate to some degree with babble games. In fact, because we can no longer rely on everyday conversation exposure to ensure language development, babble games should be a part of every toddler curriculum. I have had so many speech issues walk through my door in recent years. Some have been so bad that they have immediately put up my autism radar. I use babble games with 3 and 4 year olds that have difficulty with many consonant sounds. If you do not understand what I mean by babble games, it is when you say a consonant sound over and over and over. Young toddlers love this game and will study you intently until they figure out how to make the sound you are making. Older children actually have a harder time with this game because they have engrained patterns to overcome. Some speech problems stem from lazy habits rather than actual difficulty in pronouncing sounds. Breaking bad habits can be as difficult as dealing with children that have physical reasons for their speech problems. Again, let me say that it is your responsibility as early childhood educators to work with children to improve their speech rather than think their quirks are cute. Sometimes if you do not do it, no one else will until they reach school age and have to have speech therapy.
The next performance indicator is: Majority (about 75%) of speech is understandable; family may understand child better than a stranger. In reality I am only seeing about 25% of children reach this performance indicator by age 3. By age 4 most children have reached this particular performance indicator. We really are having a speech crisis in the early childhood arena of the United States. Some of it is caused by lack of experience with language due to digital electronic use by parents. Some of it is caused by overuse of sippee cups in toddler years. In case you did not know, drinking from a normal cup starting around the age of 18 months is extremely important for the development of the muscles in the mouth. Overuse of sippee cups after the age of 18 months will cause underdevelopment of those muscles and therefore cause the children to have speech issues. Early childhood programs and stay-at-home parents must be proactive about developing language in the children we keep. Give these children rich language environments. Surround them with words and give them ample opportunity to use language as well as hear it.
Next on our list is: May have a "normal non-fluent" period where sounds, words, or phrases are repeated; not to be confused with stuttering. I call this period the "spit it out" period where they seem to get stuck on a word and cannot seem to finish what they are saying. Sometimes this is caused by their brain going faster than their mouth, and they lose track of where they are. Sometimes, they become fascinated with the sound of a word and say it over and over losing track of their original thought. Playing with words and sounds should be greatly encouraged at this age. The more a child pays attention to sounds and words, the more fluent that child will become in speech and language. It may be a little frustrating to try to follow a conversation with a child in this period, but do not worry about the repetition. It is a temporary phase that will go away with time and practice. I will say also that you may see this phase in older children that have been slow to mature in language. With older children, you might want to help them maintain their train of thought more than you would a 2 and 1/2 year old.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectations is: May have some difficulty saying certain sounds that are more complicated to produce e.g., (s), (z), (sh), (ch), (r), (er), (l), (th). This list is by no means all inclusive. I have had children have trouble with nearly every consonant sound. It can vary widely. When 2 and 1/2 year olds have difficulty with sounds, you need not necessarily intervene. When 3 year olds have difficulty with certain sounds, you need to start gently intervening. When 4 year olds have difficulty with certain sounds, it is definitely a speech issue by that point if you have been gently intervening since they were 3 years old. Even if you have not been gently intervening with this child and they are new to your program, at 4 years old it is time to work harder on learning to say the different sounds. My best advice before you start working with children's speech is to sit and ponder how you make certain sounds. Say the sound over and over taking notice of the placement of your lips, tongue, and teeth. Many times children with speech issues will have immature control of their tongue. Working on tongue control and placing the tongue in various positions will go a long way in helping children conquer speech issues. I am not advocating taking over children's speech therapy, but speech therapists only work with children once per week. We have them every day. Work with the speech therapist if the child has one. We can be a great assistance to the speech professionals by making the children work on their speech every day instead of just once per week.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
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