6 Exercises To Help Children With Language Problems

Children with language problems should receive help from a professional and from parents. Only then can they develop well and improve over time.

“There is that little boy, crying in the classroom because his classmates make fun of him. They point it out because they can’t pronounce words like car, rail, or road. He feels guilt for something that he shouldn’t feel : being a child who finds it hard to pronounce one word or another ”.

Do not allow this situation to be repeated with a child close to you. Read these tips and help him correct a problem that is so common in childhood. It is important to emphasize that, in the case of a child, a delay in language does not have to mean a problem in the other areas of his development.

Just because a child finds it difficult to speak does not mean that he or she is less intelligent or incapable. In addition, such language problems are very likely to occur only in childhood.

Although it is hard to believe, adolescents and adults with excellent speech may have had speech disorders as children. This did not prevent them from developing and having a completely normal adulthood.

What exercises can help children with language problems?

1. Cards

The cards that refer to sounds are very helpful for children to learn to pronounce each syllable correctly. It is best to turn this exercise into a game and reward the child for pronouncing each sound correctly.

2. Mirror exercises

Mirror exercise is very helpful for children who have trouble pronouncing words and sounds. The mirror is used to teach them how to correctly perform the movement of the mouth and the sound that accompanies each word.

3. Repetitions

Repeating the words over and over is among the most effective exercises to help with language problems. Each rep should be done slowly. In this way, the child will be able to hear them and be aware of all the phonemes.

4. Talk to the children

Parents and other family members should communicate frequently with children who have language delays. In this way, verbal communication is encouraged. The child has the opportunity to hear new words, learn them and be able to communicate them correctly.

5. Enhance speech

To enhance speech in young children, it is ideal to give them what they ask for only if they say the right word, and not to do it if they only use hand gestures. This motivates the child to find ways to use language and get what he wants.

6. Read

Reading is an appropriate resource to enhance children’s language, since through this they work a new vocabulary, according to this study carried out by the Arauco Educational Foundation (Chile). Through reading, they learn to structure sentences better and to pronounce words that are more difficult for them. Stories, for example, also help stimulate creativity and imagination.

How are language disorders diagnosed?

One of the biggest challenges parents face is identifying if their children have language difficulties and if they need specialist support as soon as possible, according to this study carried out by the National Autonomous University of Mexico. However, it is important to note that each child has their own variations in speech development.

Some of the situations that can help identify children with language problems are: 

• If at 18 months he has not said a word, he does not point to objects and has no interest or intention to communicate.

• He is 18 months old and does not understand simple commands of maximum three words.
• At 2 years of age, he only repeats what he hears and nothing he says is understood.
• At 3 years of age, he does not construct plurals or use pronouns.
• If at 4 years old he mispronounces consonants, he has nasal sounds and does not conjugate verbs through speech.

Recommendations for parents of children with language problems

Parents should take into account that children learn language by imitation, listening to the people around them. For this reason, they must be spoken to a lot, in simple and clear language to understand.

During the infancy stage, it is important to spend time verbally communicating with children, teaching signs, and imitating sounds and gestures. Likewise, from 6 months of age, it should be read to him every day.

Picture stories are great for stimulating language development. Take advantage of bath time or changing clothes to reinforce speech and language. These are ideal situations to name objects, clothing and other parts of the body.

Parents and others around the child should not laugh at the phonological mistakes made. Teasing can cause great psycho-emotional damage in children with language problems.