The development of speech in children is very important in creating confident kids who can communicate effectively. Speech pathologist Janelle Curry tells ABC Education how parents can help their kids learn how to pronounce and use English words correctly right from the start even if they are from non-English speaking homes.
What are the most common challenges kids aged 2-4 face when they are learning English?
"A common challenge is grammar. As children become more fluent and produce their own sentences they make grammatical mistakes. For example, “I no want put sock” instead of “I don’t want to put on the sock'.
How can parents help kids overcome these challenges?
"Parents can help by repeating back their child’s sentences and adding the correct grammar or the correct words."
By modelling the correct sentence a couple of times, the children know that you have heard their message and will pick up on the added/corrected words and continue to feel confident to have a try.
How can apps with audio narration help parents teach their kids how to pronounce English words correctly?
"Children’s brains are like sponges – the more vocabulary they are exposed to, the stronger their language and literacy skills will be.
Reading to your child every day as well as using apps with audio exposes them to new vocabulary and gives them the correct model of pronunciation of the new word."
It is important that children learn and can say the correct pronunciation when they are learning a new word so that they store it correctly in their brains.
What about kids from non English speaking homes or non English speaking countries? How can they learn to pronounce English words at that age?
"If the parent’s proficiency in English is not well-developed or their pronunciation is unclear, audio apps are a great way for children to get the correct model of grammar and pronunciation in a fun way. If the children are attending childcare or pre-school, it is important to let their educators know that they are learning English. This way the educator knows that he should break long sentences down into shorter ones or single words and teach vocabulary by attaching the word to the object or action."
What is your advice to parents who are raising bilingual kids?
"There are many myths around bilingualism. One is that it causes language delays but this is not the case.
A bilingual child’s vocabulary may be smaller than average in each of the individual languages. However, the child's total vocabulary from both languages will be the same size as a monolingual child.
A bilingual child who is showing delays in language milestones may have a language disorder and should be seen by a speech pathologist."
Janelle Curry is a certified practising speech pathologist based in Melbourne. She is the director of Melbourne & Peninsula Speech Pathology and has been working with children for 17 years.
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