Analysis of the level of language skills of preschool children

Abstract

The publication has an empirical character and presents the findings and results of the research from the area of analysis of the level of language skills in children of preschool age. The theoretical part presents conceptual and theoretical bases of the research followed by the specifics of research methodology. The empirical part consists of quantitatively oriented research implemented through the Sentence Repetition Test, Morphological Awareness Test and Lexical Test applied to preschool children in the age bracket from five to five and a half years. The level of speech skills was assessed in the fields of grammatical structure of sentence, active and passive vocabulary and accuracy of imitation of sentences. The data was collected via audio recordings and tests and their analysis was further processed into tables and graphs. Research sample consisted of 75 children from South Moravia and Zlin region. The research took place in fifteen kindergartens ranging from September to November 2014. The aim of the research was to analyze and asses the level of language skills of preschool children in a given age bracket. Diagnosis starts with unimpaired children, and therefore we have focused on the analysis of speech skills just at children of preschool age in our research. We mapped out in detail the areas of morphology, lexicology and interpretation of sentences. Research has shown that, naturally, with rising age of the children are decreasing the errors in all categories and the difficulty of processing for the child. The age categories from 5,0 to 5,5 years are preschool children which have reached good results and low error rate throughout the research. The results of research form part of a nation-wide research realized in the Czech Republic and a starting point for a creation of standardized test battery for determining the level of speech and language skills in children of preschool age.