Little Trains and Loudspeakers

Most of the children in our preschool classroom have speech delays, so we have come up with lots of fun and interesting ways to encourage language development.

The children love when we read Thomas the Train books, so we decided to make a play railway track along the walls of the institution, with different stops. At some stops, the teachers tell the children about their hometowns; at other stops, we do some sightseeing; and often, we go to other departments to meet new people.

The children love this game and often make train sounds as they go. But for us, it is a great way to teach them how to properly greet a new person, and practice common everyday exchanges such as ‘Hello, how are you?” or “My name is…”

We are also working on teaching the children to speak louder. For fun, to emphasize this, we built a play ‘loud speaker’ in the classroom that they can use. They come here to tell others about their exciting news, such as what they did on the weekend, or what they have had for breakfast.

As a result of all these fun games, many children can now say simple sentences and express their needs more clearly. And for us, as teachers, it has given us the confidence to continue to find creative and fun ways to address problems.

* Thank you to our partners at OneSky Australia (OSA) for generously supporting our work in Hunan and Yunnan Provinces.