It is time to start the new year for your child. Sometimes real changes in speech and language development occur over the Christmas break for preschoolers. I have seen children improve their speech and language skills radically when they return to preschool in January. Maybe they just needed a little push from school and then some time at home to practice. And they must practice improving those speech and language skills.
Improving your child’s articulation skills or language skills depends on practice just like learning soccer or basketball. Yes, we do practice every day but do we practice the correct pronunciation or grammar structure? If your child is not pronouncing a sound correctly then they are just practicing it incorrectly all day long. If your child says ‘him’ instead of ‘he’, then he is practicing it wrong all day long.
Yes, it is hard to correct them all day long however, you should try to correct them several times a day. Here it gets tricky. If the child can say the sound correctly in the word, then have them say it correctly again. If they can not say it correctly in the word then you should just model the word correctly for them. the child can always repeat the correct grammar structure, even if you have to break it down word or word. It only takes 5 minutes a day to practice with your child and help them to use the correct pronunciation or grammatically correct sentences. So, pick a time that works for both of you and spend 5 minutes saying words or sentences correctly.
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