SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Speech development is a complex process influenced by various factors, which are very important. From birth, a child is surrounded by sounds coming from the environment, and for them to be able to produce sounds themselves, they need time and interaction with others. A child often experiences the first interaction with the parents, whose role is to provide the child with a safe and stimulating speaking environment and care for his speech development. As the child grows, they get to know other people, most often the teacher and the children in the educational groups with whom they interact. However, there are children who, despite proper cognitive development, proper hearing, and good health, show certain deviations from proper language development. It is considered that these children follow the course of regular language development, only that it develops more slowly than in children who do not belong to this group. Significant deviations from proper language development make it difficult for children to communicate already in the early years of life, which ultimately results in lower achievements in school. It is a well-known fact that children acquire knowledge through play, which, in addition to being interesting and fun, provides great benefits. In addition to the environment, language games play an important role in developing speech and speaking skills. Playing language games affects the child’s activity and speech training, especially if the child is faced with articulation or other speech disorders already at an early age. The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the importance of language games in preschool and the child’s environment for their normal and overall development. Language games can precisely enable such children to successfully solve challenges.