Talking is an act that adults take for granted, but which during childhood involves a lot of work, and a lot of exercise and effort on the part of children. Within all this process that we all go through, the correct or incorrect position of the tongue is what truly facilitates or prevents a correct pronunciation of the letters, chewing well or having or not an atypical swallowing.
The tongue is a very important muscle of the body that we hardly pay attention to, but it helps us every day to do different activities, all of them super essential for life, such as talking or eating. And so that this great muscle is strengthened and your children pronounce the words well, we wanted to compile in this article a series of exercises and practices recommended by specialists, particularly speech therapists, and that we can all practice with the little ones also from our own House. Even if a child does not have language problems, it is still advisable to do a series of simple exercises every day to activate that essential muscle of our body .
Shall we start?
Proper exercises to exercise the tongue
- Stretches in various directions
It is a recommended exercise when problems with pronunciation of phonemes are observed in the child. Stretching the tongue in different directions is highly recommended, and can be done in the following ways:
- Try to touch the nose with the tip of the tongue.
- Try to touch the chin with the tip of the tongue.
- Widen and tunnel with the tongue, several times.
- Bring the tongue to the upper palate and click with it.
- Stick a piece of wafer on the palate and try to remove it with your tongue.
- Articulation and pronunciation of sentences
This is an exercise that improves speech and pronunciation problems and is also very useful as a tool for other aspects of language and literature, such as the pronunciation of poetry, tongue twisters, repetition of syllables or phrases . This type of exercise uses rhythm as a facilitating ally to better articulate words.
- Lip parting exercises
Lip exercises are probably one of the first exercises that all children do when they begin to speak. The union and separation of the lips is a necessary exercise for the pronunciation of some letters of the alphabet, such as “p” or “m”. That is why in the words “papa” or “mama”, parents tend to place a lot of emphasis on the union and separation of the lips when they are taught these words for the first time, and the little ones do to repeat it by pressing and forcing their mouths.
- Language and breathing work
The pronunciation of some letters such as vowels (a, ei, o, u) need correct breathing to properly go outside, although we do not usually pay attention. This makes a suitable exercise to, for example, inhale slowly through the nose. At this point, and for the proper performance of this exercise, the child should retain the air and after that exhale slowly and calmly , pronouncing the 5 vowels little by little and without pressure.
- Orofacial exercises
Facial exercises also allow for better articulation to speak better. One of them is to inflate the cheeks, hold the air for a few seconds and finally deflate the cheeks. For this exercise the child can inflate or deflate balloons or use straws to blow water through them . In addition, these exercises can also be a very good idea to enjoy and have a great time.
Do you know other ideal exercises to work the language and speak well? Do you usually carry out these dynamics at home or in your classroom? We would love to hear about your experiences in the comments!
