“Development of children’s coherent speech through theatrical and play activities.”

“Development of children’s coherent speech through theatrical and play activities.”

2.1. Development of coherent speech in children of senior preschool age.

Speech, a wonderful gift of nature, is not given to a person from birth. It takes time for the child to start talking. And adults must make a lot of effort so that the child’s speech develops correctly and in a timely manner.

A preschool educational institution develops all children's inclinations and abilities, and among them there is nothing more significant and important in importance than the ability to speak. Therefore, systematic teaching of speech, methodical development of speech and language form the basis of the entire system of education in kindergarten. During the period of preschool childhood, significant changes occur in the thinking of children: their horizons expand, mental operations improve, new knowledge and skills appear, and therefore speech improves. [33 In the development of coherent speech, the close connection between the speech and mental development of children, the development of their thinking, perception, and observation is clearly evident. In order to talk about something well and coherently, you need to clearly imagine the object of the story (object, event), be able to analyze, select the main (for a given communication situation) properties and qualities, establish cause-and-effect, temporal and other relationships between objects and phenomena. Observing various phenomena of the surrounding life (nature, everyday life, the work of adults, etc.), great importance is given to the development of coherent speech in children. The sky, water and earth, fields and forests, thunderstorms, the sound of the wind, the colors of golden autumn, the awakening of nature in spring - all this has an emotional impact on the child and encourages him to speak out. The possibility of repeated observations creates conditions for the correct consolidation of what is perceived in speech and provides material for comparison, generalization, and description of objects and phenomena. By observing nature, a child learns to find and correctly explain the relationship between objects and their changes in accordance with time, circumstances, i.e. explain the essence of the phenomenon. He begins to use sentences involving composition and submission. The methods and techniques we select for the development of coherent speech ensure conscious, deep and lasting mastery of the native language. Therefore, we strive to ensure that children accurately convey the results of observations. [2]

The development of coherent speech in children is carried out in the process of everyday life, as well as in educational activities. The ability to coherently, consistently accurately and figuratively express one’s thoughts also influences aesthetic development. When composing his stories, the child tries to use figurative words and expressions. Some children do not pronounce correctly all the sounds of their native language, do not know how to use intonation means of expression, or regulate the speed and volume of speech depending on the situation. There are also errors in the formation of different grammatical forms (genitive plural of nouns, agreement of nouns with adjectives, different ways of word formation). And, of course, a number of children find it difficult to construct complex syntactic structures, which leads to incorrect combination of words into a sentence and disruption of the connection between sentences in a coherent statement. And therefore, the development of coherent speech is inseparable from solving other problems of speech development: enriching and activating the vocabulary, forming the grammatical structure of speech, nurturing the sound culture of speech. Thus, in the process of vocabulary work, the child accumulates the necessary vocabulary, gradually masters the ways of expressing certain content in words, and ultimately acquires the ability to express his thoughts most accurately and completely. [7; 8; 15] It is important to remember that children first move to a coherent sentence in stories of a calm, narrative nature. When conveying events that caused vivid emotional experiences, the child lingers longer on the situational-expressive presentation. Thus, when children reach senior preschool age, coherent speech reaches a fairly high level. The child answers questions with fairly accurate, brief or detailed (if necessary) answers. The ability to evaluate the statements and answers of comrades, supplement or correct them is developed. In retelling literary works (fairy tales or short stories), children learn to coherently, consistently and expressively present the finished text without the help of an adult, intonationally conveying the dialogue of the characters and the characteristics of the characters. In storytelling based on a picture, the ability to come up with a title for a story in accordance with the content is developed. When talking about toys (or a set of toys), children are taught to compose stories and fairy tales, observing the composition and expressive image of the text. When choosing appropriate characters to tell, children give their descriptions and characteristics. In the senior group, learning to tell stories from personal experience continues, and these can be statements of different types - descriptive, narrative, contaminated

The influence of didactic and theatrical games on the speech development of preschool children

 The problem of speech development is relevant at the present time. This is due to the fact that children’s health is deteriorating; narrowing the scope of communication between parents and children; imbalance of family education in matters of speech development; global decline in the level of speech culture in society; contradictions between modern requirements and the need for maintenance, taking into account the Federal State Educational Standard on this issue.

Speech development includes mastery of speech as a means of communication and culture; enrichment of the active vocabulary; development of coherent, grammatically correct dialogical and monologue speech; development; development of speech creativity; development of sound and intonation culture of speech, phonemic hearing; acquaintance with book culture, children's literature, listening comprehension of texts of various genres of children's literature; formation of sound analytical-synthetic activity as a prerequisite for learning to read and write. Extract from the Federal State Educational Standard

Play is the most accessible type of activity for children; through it, children reflect their acquired knowledge and impressions. The game promotes the development of creative imagination and fantasy. Taking on a play role, the child enters into the process of communication with peers. The game reveals the child’s need for communication. This is how preschoolers come together to play, think through play actions, develop, and maintain play dialogue. The game encourages children to get acquainted with the world around them, actively interact with peers, participate in the lives of adults, and fulfill their dreams. In their independent activities, preschoolers actively use board and printed didactic games, as well as creative games: role-playing games, director games.

Didactic, board and printed games also have a greater impact on the speech development of preschoolers. The didactic game contains great opportunities for the development of speech in preschoolers. A didactic game can be used as part of educational activities and as an independent activity. In the first case, the leading role is played by the teacher, who creates a game situation and introduces elements of competition.

The teacher organizes games for the development of speech breathing (“Blow on a dandelion”, “Snowflakes flew”, “Boats sailed”, etc.), for the development of phonemic hearing (“Who called?”, “What does it sound like?”). To prevent possible violations of sound pronunciation, the teacher conducts daily games to strengthen the muscles of the child’s articulatory apparatus from the “Fun Tongue” series, and uses finger games based on folklore works. The daily content of speech interaction with children is games on onomatopoeia (“Who is screaming?”, “Guess who lives in the house”, etc.).

The teacher attracts the child’s attention to speech as a special object of cognition: uses games for word creation (“Come up with a name for a fairy-tale object”, “Come up with a name for a fairy-tale character”), attracts children to participate in word games, and discusses with the children the meaning of new incomprehensible words.

Most often, the didactic game is used in mathematical development: “Identify the neighbor”, “Settle the house”; native language “Which one?” Which? Which one?”, “One many”...; acquaintance with nature and the surrounding world “What has changed?”, “What first, what then?”..., in the development of sensory culture “Assemble a still life”, “Assemble a landscape”, “Make a portrait”...

Games enrich his vocabulary: he learns the name of an object; the names of some of its parts and pronounced features; names of actions of an object that can be performed with it. The accumulated experience helps to replenish the preschooler’s vocabulary and find application for a more complex form of coherent speech.

Independent play activity is carried out only if children show interest in the game, its rules, actions, if these rules have been learned by them. In order to attract children's attention to didactic games, manuals, fiction, we use motivational signs: “Eye”, “Tongue”, “Ear”, “Mouth”...

The bright, colorful environment of the speech center attracts the attention of children, “invites” preschool children to independently join in playful speech activities, and in older preschool age, children’s speech creativity is an indicator of the development of children’s coherent speech. So “Exclamation Mark” calls on children - play with me. The “Eye” says: tell me what you see, look at the illustrations. “The Hand” suggests - open the book, flip through the pages...

Difficulty icons also attract children to didactic games in the mini speech center. They awaken curiosity and initiative in children. So, on an unfamiliar, new game, the “Three Bells” sign is first placed, which means the game is educational, complex, interesting, new. As children master the rules of the game, when children begin to play independently, the game is in demand, the sign first “Two bells” appears, then “One bell”, which means the game is simple and can be used by children in independent activities.

Crying signs of motivation attract children's attention. So the sign “Tears” encourages children to play with a game that is not in demand by children. The teacher, attracting the children's attention, explains that no one takes the game to play, and she got bored and cried. The teacher’s task is to arouse the desire in children to unite independently to play, playing independently and following the game rules, and maintaining a game dialogue. To stimulate gaming activity, we use incentive prizes. The prize incentive greatly contributes to the development of gaming activity.

Frontal or individual implementation of didactic games, “Which one?” Which? Which ones?”, “One - many”, “Who does what?” contribute to the expansion of children's active and passive vocabulary. Didactic games like “Funny Stories” help children write descriptive stories based on a series of pictures. Through the game, attention and memory are developed, logic and coherent speech are developed, the game influences the development of fantasy (interpretation of the plot), and the enrichment of vocabulary. Games like “Yes-no” teach children to use detailed questions in speech that require a short answer.

Theatrical play has a great influence on the child’s speech development. Stimulates active speech by activating vocabulary, improves the sound culture of speech, its grammatical structure, and articulatory apparatus. The child learns the richness of his native language and its means of expression. The role played, the lines spoken, confront the child with the need to express himself clearly, distinctly, and intelligibly.

In theatrical play, dialogical, emotionally rich speech is formed. Children better assimilate the content of the work, the logic and sequence of events, their development and causality. The development of speech is closely related to the formation of the child’s thinking and imagination. The gradually developing ability to compose simple stories, but interesting in their semantic load and content, to construct phrases grammatically and phonetically correctly, and to compose their content compositionally, contributes to the mastery of monologue speech, which is of paramount importance for the full preparation of a child for school education.

By participating in theatrical activities, children get acquainted with the world around them in all its diversity through images, colors, sounds, and correctly posed questions force them to think, analyze, draw conclusions and generalizations, and contribute to the development of mental abilities. The love for theater becomes a vivid childhood memory, a feeling of a holiday spent together with peers, parents and teachers in an unusual magical world. Theatrical activities create conditions for the development of creative abilities. This type of activity requires from children: attention, intelligence, speed of reaction, organization, the ability to act, obeying a certain image, transforming into it, living its life. Therefore, along with verbal creativity, dramatization or theatrical production is the most frequent and widespread type of children's creativity.

Theatrical games are the acting out of literary works (fairy tales, short stories, specially written dramatizations). The heroes of literary works become characters, and their adventures, life events, changed by children's imagination, become the plot of the game. The peculiarity of theatrical games is that they have a ready-made plot, which means that the child’s activity is largely predetermined by the text of the work.

Traditionally, there are several types of theatrical activities, differing in artistic design, and most importantly, in the specifics of children's theatrical activities. They can be divided into two main groups: dramatizations and directorial ones (each of them, in turn, is divided into several types).

In dramatization games, the child, playing a role as an “artist,” independently creates an image using a set of means of verbal and nonverbal expressiveness. Children worry about their hero, act on his behalf, bringing their own personality to the character. That is why the hero played by one child will be completely different from the hero played by another. Dramatization games can be performed without spectators or have the nature of a concert performance.

In director's play, “the actors are the toys or their substitutes, and the child, organizing the activity as a “scriptwriter and director,” controls the “artists.” “Voicing” the characters and commenting on the plot, he uses different means of verbal expressiveness. Directing games can be group games: everyone leads the toys in a common plot or acts as the director of an impromptu concert or play. At the same time, children accumulate experience in communication, coordination of plans and plot actions.

The types of director's games are determined in accordance with the variety of theaters used in kindergarten: tabletop, planar and volumetric, shadow theater, flannelgraph theater, puppet theater (bibabo, finger, puppets), etc.

It should be noted that only an integrated approach to the organization of theatrical activities determines its effectiveness in the development of speech and creative imagination in children. All play activities of children in their free time from classes should acquire special content and mood in independent children's activities.

Enrichment of children with artistic means of conveying an image is facilitated by sketches from a read work or the selection of any event from a fairy tale and its practical joke. Also interesting are sketches in which children move to fragments of musical works.

In the middle group there is a gradual transition of the child from playing “for himself” to playing for the viewer; from a game in which the main thing is the process itself, to a game where both the process and the result are significant; from playing in a small group of peers playing similar (“parallel”) roles to playing in a group of five to seven peers whose role positions are different (equality, subordination, control); from creating a simple “typical” image in a dramatization game to the embodiment of a holistic image that combines the emotions, moods of the hero, and their changes. At this age, there is a deepening of interest in theatrical games, its differentiation, which consists in the preference for a certain type of game (dramatization or directorial), and the formation of motivation for interest in the game as a means of self-expression through speech.

In the older group, children continue to improve their performing skills. The teacher helps students independently find ways of figurative expression and develops a sense of partnership. In the preparatory group, for preschoolers aged 6–7 years, dramatization games often become a performance in which they play for the audience, and not for themselves; they have access to director’s games, where the characters are dolls, and the child makes them act and speak. This requires him to be able to regulate his behavior, movements, think about words, expressively pronounce sentences or part of the text.

Theatrical activities are an effective means of speech development of a preschooler. A child’s participation in theatrical activities creates favorable conditions for him to develop a sense of partnership and learn ways of positive interaction. In the course of improving game dialogues and monologues, mastering the expressiveness of speech, the child’s speech development occurs most effectively. Theatrical activities make it possible to develop the experience of social skills and behavior, to solve many problematic situations indirectly on behalf of a character, which helps to overcome shyness and self-doubt.

Literature:

1. Ushakova O. S. introduces literature to preschoolers aged 3–5 years. - M., 2010.
2. Ushakova O. S. we introduce literature to preschoolers aged 5–7 years. - M., 2010.
3. Artemova L.V. Theatrical games for preschoolers: Book. For kindergarten teachers - M., KNORUS", 2003
4. Karamanenko T. N., Karamanenko Yu. G. Puppet theater for preschoolers: Picture Theater. Theater of games. The Parsley Theater: a manual for educators and music directors. - St. Petersburg: 2003.
5. Makhaneva M.D. Theatrical classes in kindergarten: A manual for preschool workers. - M.: Sphere shopping center, 2001.
6. Mendzheritskaya D.V. Dramatization game. In: Raising children through play. - M.: A.P.O., 2004.

Possibilities of theatrical activities for speech development

It is easy to imagine a theatrical performance and guess what its significance is in the development of the speech of the participants. The actors expressively and emotionally deliver monologues, conduct meaningful dialogues, demonstrate a rich vocabulary, are full of synonyms and epithets... Of course, this beautiful sound is preceded by numerous rehearsals.

But, if adults can polish their speech with the help of theatrical activities, then why not use elements of theatrical performance to develop the speech skills of children who are only at the first stages of speech development?

In fact, specialists and educators have long adopted elements of theatrical activities to develop the speech of preschoolers and primary schoolchildren.

Children's speech skills develop in theatrical play, in recitation, and when voicing dolls in small productions, which are quite accessible at preschool age.

By including the child in playing small scenes, or inviting him to play the role of a fairy-tale hero, adults create conditions for the development of the most important speech skills:

• Use ready-made speech patterns
• Practice pronunciation
• Competently construct sentences
• Formulate your thoughts logically
• Express yourself expressively
• Understand logical stress in phrases

Systematic classes with elements of theatrical performances, as well as theatrical games, have a significant impact on the development of speech in preschool children. Children learn to speak coherently, and the development of coherent speech in preschool children is the main goal that must be achieved in speech development.

Speech, being one of the main specific abilities of a person that distinguishes him from animals, is of great importance in the development of personality. Speech activity is in close relationship with the most important mental processes - thinking, perception - it mediates knowledge of the surrounding reality, contributes to the formation of a person’s ideas about himself.

Early preschool age is a sensitive period in the development of speech, when the most favorable conditions are created for the formation of its various aspects. At the same time, the leading activity of a child of primary preschool age is play in various forms, including in the form of theatrical performance. This circumstance opens up wide opportunities for the use of theatrical activities in the process of speech development in children of primary preschool age.

Thus, the relevance of the research is due to the social significance of speech development during early preschool childhood, the importance of forming all aspects of the speech of younger preschoolers for the development of a full-fledged personality of the child, the need to increase the level of general speech culture of preschool children, as well as the possibility of using it as an effective means of speech development of preschoolers theatrical activities in the context of the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard for Education.

The purpose of the research is to theoretically study the significance of theatrical activities in the process of speech development in children of primary preschool age.

The object of the study is the process of speech development of children of primary preschool age, the subject of the study is the importance of theatrical activities in the development of speech of children of primary preschool age.

Junior preschool age is a stage of child development, covering the time period from three to four years. This stage is characterized by the intensive development of all the child’s mental processes and his mastery of the surrounding reality. In children of primary preschool age, visual-figurative forms of thinking, perception, involuntary attention, and memory predominate. The need for physical activity is extremely high; Children of this age group actively develop flexibility, speed, strength, endurance, and coordination. Regarding the social-emotional sphere of a child’s personality development at this age, we can talk about an increased desire to communicate with peers and adults, which allows younger preschoolers to develop the skill of playing together. Children at this age are willing to make contact, help adults, and share toys. They begin to learn gender roles. The speech capabilities of a preschooler increase significantly; complex sentences appear in the child’s speech [4, p. 15].

Younger preschool age is of increased importance in the development of a child’s speech. At the same time, the development of speech of a child of primary preschool age in ontogenesis occurs simultaneously in various directions, determining the formation of phonetic-phonemic, lexical-grammatical aspects, as well as the development of coherent speech.

In terms of phonetic-phonemic development of speech, in early preschool age phonemic perception is already well developed: children almost do not mix words that sound similar and try to maintain the syllabic structure of the word in independent speech. In the fourth year of life, the articulatory apparatus continues to strengthen, and the movements of the muscles involved in the production of speech sounds become more coordinated. In the speech of a preschooler, hard consonants and hissing sounds appear, words with a combination of several consonants are pronounced correctly [2, p. 137].

The lexical and grammatical side of speech development of a child of primary preschool age is characterized by the fact that by the age of three, the child’s dictionary already contains more than 1000 words. At this stage, generalization words denoting generic concepts are actively formed in the preschooler’s speech, and the meanings of words are clarified. The sentence of a younger preschooler consists of 5-6 words; lexicogrammatical relations in it are expressed using prepositions and inflections. The volume of the vocabulary increases due to the enrichment of the child’s life experience and communication with surrounding adults. As a result, by the age of four, the child’s vocabulary increases to 1600 – 1900 words, and the sentence becomes more common, complex and complex sentences with conjunctions appear [2, p. 137 – 138].

The development of coherent speech in early preschool age is characterized mainly by the fact that at this stage there is a separation of speech from the child’s direct practical experience. The main feature in this regard is the gradual emergence of the planning function of speech, which takes the form of a monologue, contextual one. Children master different types of coherent statements, while still relying on visual material, the syntactic structure of the child’s stories gradually becomes more complex [2, p. 138].

An effective means of developing the speech of children of primary preschool age is theatrical activity as a form of play, the implementation of which at this stage determines the formation of the main psychological new formations of a person, high-quality changes in his nervous system [3, p. 37].

Theatrical activity is, at the same time, a type of artistic activity of a preschool child, during which the integration of literature, music, visual arts, and plot play occurs, which manifests itself in the child’s creative experience. Through theatrical activities, children develop the ability to use various forms of speech activity: they learn to competently ask questions and answer them in accordance with the topic and situation (in detail or briefly); they learn to communicate their opinion to their interlocutor, give reasons for it, learn to reflect their impressions and emotions through linguistic means, learn to be tolerant of opinions that differ from their own [5, p. 110 – 112].

In the process of theatrical activity, elementary rules of behavior in the process of interpersonal interaction are formed in children of primary preschool age (listen carefully to the interlocutor, speak out in turns). The memorization of literary dialogues, role-playing of poems and nursery rhymes that take place in the process of theatrical activities enrich the speech of younger preschoolers with new words and lexical and grammatical categories, contribute to the assimilation of the principles of correct pronunciation, and supplement children’s speech with forms of dialogical remarks. In the process of theatricalization, children remember the rules for carrying out communicative activities, they form an idea of ​​​​the participants in the dialogue [1, p. 119].

Thus, theatrical activities have a positive impact on the development of all aspects of the speech of a child of primary preschool age. In theatricalization, the formation of phonetic-phonemic and lexical-grammatical aspects of speech, the replenishment of vocabulary, and the development of coherence in statements occur.

Literature

1. Vdovenko L.V. Theatrical activity as a means of developing the speech of a preschooler // Science and education: new times. – 2017. – No. 6. – P. 118 – 120.
2. Dementieva T.V. Development of coherent speech of children of primary preschool age // Priority directions for the development of science and education. – 2015. – No. 2. – P. 137 – 138.
3. Zayats O.V. Directions for the development of role-playing play in preschoolers // Problems of theory and practice of developmental psychology. – 2018. – P. 37 – 38.
4. Kovyneva O.G., Vvedensky V.N. Psychological characteristics of preschool children // Universe: psychology and education. – 2022. – No. 11. – P. 13 – 16.
5. Nikanorova I.V. Theatrical activity as a means of developing dialogical speech of preschoolers // Innovative pedagogical technologies. – Kazan: Buk, 2014. – P. 110 – 112.