Kids should learn tongue twisters from an early age to learn a language better. It enhances their pronunciation skills and fluency. Young children can also work on improving their accents by using alliteration meaning repetition of one sound. Tongue twisters not only help kids, but it is also used by politicians, public speakers, actors, etc who want to sound clear while speaking. Tongue twisters can be defined as a sequence of words, having similar sounds, which are quite hard to pronounce easily. These series of words are named tongue twisters because when we pronounce them, it feels like our tongue is getting twisted. Learning tongue twisters positively impacts a child’s brain which controls their speech and oral functions.
For kids, practising a new language tongue twisters help them sound more like their native speakers and can quickly master the accent. Tongue twisters can be an effective tool to become a master in other foreign language pronunciation. Speech therapists also suggest tongue twisters for kids to improve their vowel and consonant sounds. It also helps in exercising the child’s articulators as while pronouncing any tongue twisters it extends the muscles of the tongues. Kids fluency and expression can be improved by regularly practising tongue twisters.
Parents and teachers should make sure that children should understand the meaning of every word included in the tongue twister. They should also be aware of what the tongue twister is trying to convey. According to the age group, kids should be choosing tongue twisters as well as the difficulty level of it. It develops clearer speech and pronunciation skills. Kids can also overcome disorders like spoonerism and stuttering by learning tongue twisters.
Below we have mentioned a few benefits of learning tongue twisters for kids. If kids master tongue twisters they can be a much more confident speaker.
Benefits of Learning Tongue Twister for Kids
- For kids, tongue twisters seem to be a lot of fun and are considered to be a very useful group activity. Learning tongue twisters at a very young age will help kids to work on their pronunciation and fluency skills. So, familiarize your kids with tongue twisters to understand the significance of it.
- The sooner kids begin practising tongue twisters the easier for them to learn new sounds. Practising tongue twisters will help kids to stretch their speech muscles and also strengthen them so that they are able to produce various sounds clearly. Kids who practise tongue twisters regularly have a clearer speech compared to others.
- Parents and teachers can identify their kids’ sound problems by making them practise tongue twisters regularly. Once the problem is addressed, kids can focus on it and can improve it and become perfect. While speaking out tongue twisters, kids can record their voices which will help them to identify these problems and master them.
- Tongue twisters are very useful to energize language and pronunciation skills inside a classroom. Teachers can make kids play tongue twisters to bring energy and fun inside the classroom.
- From the beginning, kids are dependent on their native language. So, few words might be difficult for them to understand. In such cases, tongue twisters highlight the struggles they are facing. While pronouncing a tongue twister kids might be stuck to a particular sound again and again which means they need to focus on that particular sound.
- Tongue twisters are considered a great warm-up for children before they start a presentation, public speaking, lead a meeting, teach a class and more.
Before starting to read a tongue twister, read it slowly and make sure you pronounce the start and the end of the tongue twister strongly. Afterwards, try to pronounce it faster and faster and make sure you say every word clearly as possible. If you make a mistake, start over again. Kids’ speaking ability warmed up by practising tongue twisters. Not only kids, even public speakers and performers often practise tongue twisters before they go out on stage. Even in online learning for kids, tongue twisters form a crucial part of the learning process.
