8 Ways Educators Can Help Children Develop Their Speech

As an educator, you play a big role in supporting a child’s development, particularly their speech and language skills. This can be a huge responsibility and in order to get the best results, you need to have the best strategies and tactics in place. With that in mind, here are some great ways you can encourage speech development in the classroom and support all students, especially those with speech difficulties.

1. Always Model Clear And Expressive Speech 

Whenever you’re interacting with children, particularly those you know to be struggling with their speech development, always speak slowly and clearly. be sure to pronounce words distinctly and use an expressive tone as you do. This can help children learn proper pronunciation and speech patterns by listening to clear models. Not only this but you should introduce new words on a regular basis and use them in context to help broaden the child’s vocabulary and understanding of language structure.  When speaking with a student be sure to expand on the things they say to model more complex language and get a conversation flowing. For example, if they say ‘that’s a ball’ you could respond with, ‘that’s right, it’s a big, blue bouncy ball. Shall we play with it?’.

2. Read Aloud Regularly 

Reading is an important part of every child’s learning and development and reading aloud can help them to strengthen their speech.  Make sure that you choose engaging stories with repetition, rhyme and rhythm, as these help to reinforce language patterns and encourage participation. You can also take these opportunities to ask open-ended questions and encourage the children to think about the story and give you a response.

 Another way to get them talking is to have them read aloud with you, even if they need lots of help. This gives them a chance to practise familiar phrases or to act out parts of the story, reinforcing memory and language use.

3. Make Learning Fun With Games 

There are lots of great games and activities that you can use as an educator to engage children and support their speech development. You could consider:

•           Playing rhyming games: Choosing activities that focus on rhyming words or recognising similar sounds. This could include clapping, tapping or using instruments while singing to build listening and pronunciation skills

•           Using sound matching games: Children can spend time identifying words that start or end with the same sounds, you can use cards or visuals to help with this

•           Breaking words into syllables: Clap out syllables with children to help them better understand word structure and have a bit of noisy fun

•           Singing songs and chants: Rhyming songs and chants help children develop rhythm

•           Encouraging dancing and hand gestures: Movement-based songs, like ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ can be a fun way to reinforce vocabulary and the actions make the language more memorable

4. Encourage Role Play

As well as games, you can also encourage role play by creating scenarios or play areas like a supermarket, doctors office or fire station. This allows the children to use their imagination, whilst also using role-specific language to practice conversation in different contexts. You can invite them to act out stories or pretend to be different characters, for example, arranging a drama lesson where they pretend to work in said doctors office or supermarket. This promotes expressive speech and helps them learn conversational cues.  And just to make it even more fun and engaging, inspire the children with props and costumes, asking them to describe the outfit they want or are currently wearing.

5. Encourage Listening Skills

It’s not all about talking and playing, it’s also about listening too and guess what, there are games for that too. Games like ‘Simon Says’ or ‘I Spy’ require the child to listen carefully, which helps to  improve their comprehension and response time.

 You should also use active listening yourself to teach them how to engage in meaningful conversations. Techniques such as eye contact, nodding and repeating things back to them show engagement and teach positive behaviours.

6. Reinforce learning with visual aids 

There are lots of simple ways you can reinforce a child’s learning with visual aids, such as labelling items around the classroom. This promotes word recognition, giving the children visual connections to spoken words and can help to strengthen their vocabulary. Another way to use visuals is through storytelling aids that help them to understand the structure of stories and express their own ideas.  If they are younger students or those really struggling with their speech,  picture cards with phonics sounds and letters can be also be a good way to help children connect visual cues with the correct sounds.

7. Create A Language-Rich Environment

Following on from the last point, it’s also important to create a language-rich environment for the children. This could include hanging thematic word walls (visual aids) to immerse children in written language. You could even choose weekly themes that set the tone for the week’s activities, games, stories and more. For example, choosing weather as a theme to give children a context for new vocabulary. What’s more, you can use art as a form of expression and a prompt for talking. Organise an art activity and ask the children to describe their work, which gives them practice in narrating and using descriptive language. Then, you can hang their artwork on the wall to make the space more fun and decorative.

8. Partner With The Parents For Consistency

Finally, setting homework is one thing, but providing parents with feedback about what their child is learning and how can be very beneficial for everyone involved. You can provide them with tips for language-building activities they can do at home, like reading aloud together or engaging in role play. Sharing updates on their child’s language development is an important tactic, especially for those struggling with their speech, as early intervention is the key to addressing speech and language difficulties. If the child is already taking part in speech and language therapy with an expert therapist, collaboration between all parties is even more important. This is crucial for sharing techniques and the relevant treatment plans that have been set out in their therapy sessions.