Good pronunciation skills are a very important part of good communication skills. People should be able to understand what you’re trying to say. If a child has trouble pronouncing words clearly, they won’t be able to communicate clearly with others. A person’s ability to speak clearly can have a very big impact on their academic and professional success.
Children learn words quickly enough, at this age they’re like sponges and absorb information quickly. They pick up words by observing the people around them. This is why it's extremely important for the people around children to practice using good language at home. They need to ensure that their language is filled with positive words like positive words that start with a. But just learning the words is not enough, the child needs to learn how to pronounce the words accurately too. Mispronunciation can often lead to miscommunication. To avoid this, children need to learn how to pronounce words properly.
So, how can you improve your child’s pronunciation skills? Unlike learning new words, pronouncing them is not just about knowledge. It’s a physical skill acquired with practice. Additionally, good pronunciation skills aren't just about learning the different sounds of letters and putting them together. It’s also about learning when to stress a particular syllable and understanding intonation. Kids need to be taught how their voice has to rise and fall in order to pronounce different words. They also need to understand where a particular syllable needs to be stressed in a word. All these skills help a child get their message across clearly to the other person.
Here are the 4 best ways to improve your child’s pronunciation skills. These tips will take them one step closer to being perfect English speakers.
4 Activities To Build Better Pronunciation Skills
These 4 tips will help you enhance your child’s English pronunciation skills.
- Nursery rhymes and sing-alongs: Little kids love nursery rhymes and singalongs. Not only are they fun and entertaining, but they are also great at teaching children the sounds of English words. This will help children distinguish different sounds and pronounce words correctly. So, download some traditional nursery rhymes and songs. Sing them along with your child as often as possible to help them learn new words.
- Reading: Reading and listening to stories are another great way to build a child’s word skills and pronunciation. Ask your child to pick a book of their choice and help them read it. If they have difficulty pronouncing a word, break it up and help them pronounce each syllable to form the word. It might be slow, but it’ll help them learn the correct pronunciation of words. If your child is too small to read, you can read aloud to them.
- Tongue twisters: Tongue twisters are also a great tool to build better pronunciation skills and improve fluency in the English language. For young children, start with simple and funny tongue twisters for kids. Once they get the hang of it, they’ll love the activity and look forward to more. Not only do they promote pronunciation and fluency, tongue twisters are also great at keeping kids entertained.
- Games: Teaching kids about intonation and stressing syllables can be tricky. But games and activities can smoothen the process and help make it easier. Word bingo is a great game to teach children about correct intonation and stress. Prepare bingo sheets with some simple words for kids, like P for pen, B for ball etc. Then underline the letter, which the child needs to stress to pronounce the word correctly. When your child is ready, call out a sound. For example, “buh” for B and ask the child to find a word that matches the sound on their bingo sheet.
In addition to these activities, have your child do some oral motor exercises to learn how to move their mouth and tongue to say the words correctly. These games and activities will help your little one pick up better English speaking skills.
