Stage speech for children. Stage speech exercises for children

• September 8, 2018
• Psychology of communication
• Maria Ivanova

If a child dreams of becoming an actor or a professional presenter on radio and TV shows in the future, then he needs to train long and hard. To achieve this goal, there is a set of special exercises for stage speech. Methods will include various training sessions that will help improve your diction and gain new skills. Specialized classes contribute to the development of acting skills in both adults and children. This article will discuss: methods of stage speech for children, diction exercises.

Distinctive features of stage speech

Any person who plans to devote his life to acting must perform a set of special exercises. In the process of such classes, he will need to develop a loud voice, good diction, and learn how to correctly place emphasis in the text. This will help to express basic emotions and feelings, and correctly perform the task at hand. The technique of stage speech is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. An actor seeking to develop his talents must be able to convey the mood, show the inner world, character and other distinctive features of his character. If a person learns to do this correctly, he will soon become a real star in the cinema or theater.

Stage speech is considered a mandatory addition to acting. This technology developed over a long period of time and continued to be actively improved as it developed. Ancient Greek speakers used it in speech while moving, since this type of speech aroused the greatest interest among the audience. Already in those days, people understood that not only the meaning of the spoken words was important, but also the quality of their presentation, the intonation used and the method of reading.

Demosthenes, a famous philosopher and orator, had a very quiet voice by nature; all his speech was more like muttering, so many listeners simply could not make out his words. After the thinker realized what his problem was, he began to persistently train his diction. To do this, Demosthenes constantly went out to the edge of the cliff by the sea and made his speech, trying to shout over the noise of the raging waves. His contemporaries claim that he also often secluded himself in a cave and it was there that he rehearsed his monologues so that he had a chance to listen to himself.

Currently, there is no need to use such radical methods to improve your oratory. For this purpose, there are special stage speech exercises for preschool children. All of them are considered quite simple, but at the same time effective. Rehearsals to improve diction can be done at home or take classes with a teacher.

Advanced classes

The word “advanced” means a person who has already mastered voice and diction. The next stage for him is working with text material. The priority task here is to make speech not only sonorous and correct, but also expressive. This includes:

1. Logical text analysis.
2. Working with intonation.

Logical text analysis

In life, we do not think about the logic of speech, because by default we construct speech in accordance with logic. It simply cannot be otherwise, because we express our own thoughts and put our own emotions into sentences. We intuitively highlight the main words and secondary words that reinforce them with intonation, maintain logical pauses, maintain the desired rhythm, etc. It’s simple, because it’s ours. But the text that we are going to read in front of the public is not born in our heads here and now, but this is exactly the impression that should ideally arise in the listener. The way out is to analyze the text, decompose it into logical components and work through them in accordance with them. What they are, these logical components:

• A logical block
  is a self-sufficient piece of text that carries its own complete thought; in prose it usually corresponds to a paragraph;
• Logical pause
  - there are several types, corresponds to punctuation marks (pauses after a comma, after a period, after a question mark, after a logical block - different);
• Stress
  - we mean a strong word that is emphasized in the text, stresses are primary, secondary and tertiary;
• Tempo
  - this acting term means a combination of the speed of internal action (rhythm) and external expression (tempo). Simply put, this is reading speed justified by internal motivation. If your speech is a philosophical monologue of a bored person about the frailty of existence, the speed will be the same. If the inner speech of a prisoner running away from pursuit, the speed is completely different. If these two speeds are reversed, both monologues will sound false and unconvincing.

Exercises for intonation flexibility

The number of intonation shades that you can use in speech depends on the flexibility of your voice and the breadth of its range. Intonation exercises and exercises to expand the range of the voice can be combined.

• Slowly and continuously draw each vowel sound from the vowel chart (i, uh, o, u, a, s) from the lowest note you can hit to the highest and back again. To this exercise, add a simple action, for example, be indignant, surprised, scared, happy, upset, touched, etc. Each of these verbs has its own intonation.
• Choose a word, phrase or short sentence and go through as many intonations as possible that correspond to different actions (infinitive verb). Come up with unexpected actions for yourself, find the best shades of intonation, change words, combine different actions with each other, etc.

Rapid improvement in speaking technique

If a parent wants to develop correct, clear and beautiful speech in his child, then he should enroll him in special lessons. Teachers will help you cope with this task.

Many people have had to attend a lecture or other class and listen to boring and inarticulate speech, which makes you want to sleep more than do anything. A professional speaker uses all the available capabilities of his speech apparatus, which helps to regularly maintain the attention of the audience and attract the interest of listeners. Stage speech lessons are well suited for artists, businessmen, politicians, and specialists in areas that require correct and competent communication with people. In any case, your child will need these kinds of skills in life, and the sooner training begins, the better his abilities will develop in the future.

In order for your child to learn how to properly control his voice and improve his diction in a short time, he will need to regularly perform simple stage speech exercises for children 3-6 years old. They won’t take up too much free time, but will still help you achieve a good result. The attention span of young children is more limited than that of adults, so experts have developed a special training system for them.

For correct and clear speech, it is important to carefully monitor your breathing. During stage speech lessons, the following tasks can be given: pronouncing tongue twisters, expressive reading with correct intonation, as well as special breathing exercises

What if the child pronounces all the sounds?

Exercises to loosen the articulatory apparatus are necessary, even if the child does not have speech problems. After all, beautiful speech is not only the correct pronunciation of sounds. This is the ability to speak expressively, clearly and clearly. Monotonous speech does not cause attraction, even if all sounds are pronounced correctly.

The benefits of working on diction from an early age are obvious:

• the child learns to speak beautifully and clearly, it is easier for him to explain his feelings and desires. Children who are understood are less prone to hysterics and whims;
• phonemic hearing develops;
• vocabulary increases;
• Speech breathing improves - the child can speak for a long time without stuttering or choking. This skill will help during long presentations at the board and at school conferences;
• communication skills develop, children feel more confident and make friends with peers more easily.

It is also important that the child be able to formulate his thoughts, convey them clearly to his interlocutor, and not be afraid to make contact and express himself. Therefore, a speech therapist alone for children in Moscow and other cities is not enough. Do you want your child to not only improve his diction and socialize better at school? Give it to children's acting classes.

We invite your children to the Children's for acting classes. This is the comprehensive development of the child’s talents, speech production, getting rid of embarrassment and psychological pressures. In our courses, children discover themselves and gain confidence in their abilities!

Exercises to improve breathing

Stage speech exercises for children will necessarily include proper breathing. This technique in oratory is of great importance. Anyone giving an important speech to an audience cannot afford to inhale air through the mouth. This can lead to the fact that it gets confused, which is why a person will not be able to maintain intonation and place accents correctly. To work on your voice, your child will need to regularly perform special exercises:

1. Breathe through your nose with your mouth open for three to five minutes.
2. Place two hands at once on the solar plexus. Take a deep, slow breath (hold in this state for 3-4 seconds). At the same time, your hands will feel how your stomach rises, fills with air, and then falls back. Such fluctuation should be well expressed. If the child does not feel anything, then while inhaling he should tilt his body a little forward. Over time, the manipulation of drawing in air will need to be increased in duration.
3. Exercises to improve chest breathing. To do this, you need to take a deep breath, as if inhaling the aroma of flowers, then exhale slowly while drawing in your stomach. This exercise promotes free, fluent speech. A short inhalation and a long exhalation will help improve chest breathing. After this exercise is performed simply and quickly, you should begin to pronounce long phrases as you exhale.

Such activities are quite simple and are perfect for developing stage speech for children 7-9 years old. They should be carried out every day, and soon it will be possible to pronounce long phrases without hesitation or failure of breathing.

Stage speech exercises: training options and techniques for working on acting diction

For many people, it is vital to know that they are heard and understood. In public professions this is one of the main requirements. Stage speech and diction exercises in this case become an urgent necessity, and beautiful, figurative, correct pronunciation in a well-trained voice is half the success. But such wealth is not given by nature. This is the result of long and hard training, which requires no less willpower and effort than outstanding athletic achievements. If you have to work with an audience, plan to teach, work as a psychologist-consultant in other areas similar in professional requirements, then you should take care of acquiring the skill of a beautiful monologue in advance. You can learn skills at any age.

What is stage speech

One of the main professional means of expressiveness of an actor is inextricably linked with such concepts as breathing, diction, and emotions. A transition is envisaged from everyday, simplified speech, characteristic of most people, to an expressive, bright sounding voice. Also important is the correct placement of semantic accents, the ability to pause and other subtleties that allow you to hold the attention of listeners for a long time. The skill of speaking reveals enormous possibilities for persuasion and conveying the essence. The most experienced speakers can do without a microphone, easily sending sound to the last rows of the hall.

What is special about stage speech?

Comparing professional pronunciation with everyday conversation is like putting a dressing gown and a ball gown side by side. It seems that both items belong to clothing, but the differences are fundamental. Main features of public broadcasting:

• clear logic;
• crystal clear pronunciation;
• pronouncing all letters, including the endings of words and phrases;
• correctly placed semantic and emotional accents;
• smooth breathing, allowing you to build phrases of any length.

You can acquire basic skills at any age. Naturally, for children, stage speech courses in Bryansk bryansk.videoforme.ru/actors_school/speech-art/speech2 are based on play, for adults - on awareness of the logical side of art. It is important to remember that such skills require daily consolidation and improvement.

How to quickly improve your stage speaking technique

Often talented people suffer because they cannot convey their ideas to a large number of people. The reason is unclear pronunciation or monotonous presentation of the material, from which after a couple of minutes the attention dissipates, and then begins to make you sleepy. This is quite easy to avoid if you pay due attention to mastering the basics of oratory. There is a whole system that was developed in ancient times. It is constantly being improved, but the basics remain unchanged. It is based on the activation and development of all muscle groups of the speech apparatus, conscious control of breathing and expressiveness of presentation.

Lessons and exercises on the development of stage speech for theater studios and for public speaking are built on the same principles, so when choosing a method for improving diction and other parameters, you can look for special courses, or simply join the classes of theatergoers.

The guideline is the knowledge that a professional speaker uses all the capabilities of his speech apparatus to constantly maintain attention and attract the interest of listeners. This means that you will have to pay attention to every component of this amazingly powerful art in order to use all the resources.

Speech technique: tips and exercises

The system consists of several components, they are interconnected. But it is worth considering that the work is first carried out separately for each element, and only when certain results are achieved is their gradual combination allowed. So, elaboration begins with the pronunciation of individual sounds, then sound combinations, and only then, when the quality is satisfactory, does the pronunciation of words and sentences begin. This analogy is used to develop breathing, articulation and other components.

You can master the basics on your own, but it’s better to think about attending group classes in stage speech in a theater group . The reason lies in the fact that for effective work and evaluation of results, outside control is necessary. The voice, tempo and timbre sound completely different for the speaker than for the listeners, which means that an independent assessment of the effectiveness of the training, correction of further training and individual points of the training program are needed.

Breathing exercises

This is universal knowledge and skills. They will be useful not only when talking, but also when dealing with anxiety, uncertainty, and will help in stressful situations. It has been noted that the heartbeat can be slowed down or accelerated in accordance with respiratory rhythms, so there is already a clear benefit, and besides, it is breathing that becomes the basis for melodious speech and its wide expressive possibilities. The basis is deep diaphragmatic breathing through the nose, without catching the flow with the mouth. For this:

• inhale and exhale, mouth wide open, but redirecting air to the nose;
• leaning forward slightly, we breathe in equal counts, starting from 4, gradually increasing to 7–8, while we must not freeze, one action immediately passes into another;
• We connect our imagination and as we inhale we smell the flower, as we exhale we release the air in a thin stream with the sound “pf”.

Sets of trainings and exercises on stage speech for students may vary, but the breathing block is always present, in one form or another.

The next stage of mastery is pronouncing a long phrase on one exhalation. At the same time, endings cannot be sacrificed. They must be completely audible. Air pick-up is also not allowed. First, everything is done in a static position in a stable position. Then movement is added, which develops concentration in multitasking mode.

The degree of difficulty is determined by the instructor individually. For a child, such activities are always carried out with elements of play and the addition of external attributes, for example, feathers or a burning candle.

Stage speech exercises for articulation

The clarity of pronunciation depends on the level of muscle development and the degree of control. This is one of the most time-consuming aspects of the job. It begins with pronouncing individual vowels, then combinations of 2-3 sounds with an extremely clear transition between them. Next come the consonants, soft and hard separately. There are special settings for this, which the mentor introduces by example.

You need to pay attention not only to external manifestations, but also to focus on sound. Only after mastering the basics can you move on to tongue twisters. Clear stage speech for an actor and diction exercises for theatergoers are unthinkable without this element of the lesson. The principle is incremental. First slowly and in a whisper, then with gradual acceleration and adding volume, leading to recitation. As you master the technique, endurance and lung capacity will increase, as well as the habit of smooth air supply and its economical consumption with a sufficiently strong and rich sounding voice.

Working on diction

Clear pronunciation of sounds in accordance with the phonetic norms of the language is important in communication for both children and adults. The final formation of a skill occurs at different ages, and in some cases it is not fully formed on its own, requiring special training to achieve results. When expressing emotions, you should not let them take precedence over the quality of the sound. While on the move, stage speech and acting skills are subjected to an additional test, so practicing the skill of speaking in any situation, at rest or actively moving around the stage, is the next step and you need to be mentally prepared for it.

There are many exercises for this section of skill. The most famous are tongue twisters again. There are many collections, you can choose both well-known and less popular ones. The selection criterion is the achievement of a specific goal, for example, working out a difficult letter combination, a certain phrase, or training skills combined with a section of speech scenes in exercises for sending sound .

The lesson should give results. After completing a block of exercises, the method of consolidating the result is to read a complex text with maximum expressiveness.

Training “Tongue without bones”

A great way to cheer up, remember your childhood and bring real benefits to your muscles. To do this you will need a mirror. The training consists of several parts.

1. Rotate the tip of the tongue clockwise and counterclockwise 10 times. The mouth is slightly open, control is carried out visually.
2. Stick out your tongue as much as possible, curl it into a tube, and blow into it. And then try to move it in different directions in this state.
3. Run your tongue along the outside of your upper and lower teeth.
4. Lightly nibble on this muscle until it becomes warm.

Work on stage speech begins with a warm-up, and this is one of the most effective. The result is increased clarity of pronunciation of words, a feeling of ease when voicing long phrases and difficult-to-pronounce terms.

Exercise "Traffic"

For this lesson you will need a regular champagne cork. This is analogous to talking with a pebble in your mouth, only in this case you cannot unclench your teeth that hold the accessory. For pronunciation, a simple short tongue twister is selected. The task is to not let the cork out of your teeth when pronouncing words and at the same time achieve the clearest sound possible.

Using this method will help turn a stage speech lesson in a theater group into a fun competition, with no losers. Everyone will get their share of experience and a good mood. The benefits are also great for appearance. Alternating tension and relaxation of the facial muscles increases skin elasticity, tightens the oval, smooths out folds in the area of ​​the nasolabial triangle. After the task is completed, there is a feeling of ease in conversation, and the quality of diction significantly improves.

Methods of teaching stage speech

There are several most successful options for improving diction and speech. They are taken as a basis, creatively processed and supplemented by each specialist conducting classes for children or adults, taking into account the capabilities of the training participants. The most popular methods:

• complete immersion, in which the blocks complement each other, the emphasis is on intensity, while classes in speech scenes and acting lessons are held frequently, with the obligatory recording of the achieved results;
• step-by-step development, in which a simple task is first set and becomes more complex as skill increases;
• a game option that is equally suitable for both adults and children, since the imagination is involved, there are no training sessions of the same type, the task varies each time, leading to an excellent result;
• The affiliate program is available mostly to adults, where the mentor provides advice, but not a strict requirement.

With due persistence, any technique quickly produces visible results.

Test your knowledge

To know for sure that the material is clear, it is worth selecting and passing several tests for knowledge of the rules and principles of how acting speech and exercises are formed and trained, and which types should be a priority. In this case, you can work independently or give preference to classes with a mentor. It depends only on personal preferences, the task at hand and the availability of time for training.

Key questions to answer for yourself:

• why do I need this?
• what benefits does the acquired skill provide?
• how much time am I willing to spend on classes;
• how to study more comfortably, in a group or individually;
• how you plan to use the new skill.

You will have to constantly study, train and improve yourself, and then your oratorical abilities will surprise everyone around you, attract attention and help you achieve new heights in your chosen direction, be it speaking in front of an audience or building personal relationships.

Improved articulation

To make the pronunciation of individual sounds and letters clear and understandable, it is important to regularly train the organs that are responsible for articulation.

During your first lesson, you should start pronouncing vowels, consonants and simple connectives. With such training, it is important to monitor your voice; it should sound bright and loud, not like in everyday life.

Many tongue twisters will help improve your speech apparatus and diction. It is important to pronounce such poems quietly or in a half-whisper. Over time, the reading speed should increase and the volume should increase. The following types of tongue twisters should be considered when practicing stage speech for preschool children:

• “The bob got some beans.”
• “The clatter of hooves sends dust flying across the field.”
• “Prokop came - dill was boiling, Prokop left - dill was boiling.”

If a child has been taking stage speech lessons for a long time, then over time he can complicate his task by learning longer and more complex phrases. If he managed to remember and correctly recite the longest tongue twister, “Liguria,” then he will definitely become a good speaker.

Diction and sound features

The correct sounding of the voice will help improve the expression of emotions. A person must learn to freely regulate timbre, range of sounds, intonation and overall volume. To improve your sound, you should do the following exercises:

1. Often read prose or poetry, regularly change the volume of speech. The first line should be spoken quietly, the second more loudly.
2. You should pronounce one phrase with one intonation, try to change the second using simple words, express your emotional state - happiness, surprise, fear, anger, and so on.
3. It is also important to develop your imagination well. You can imagine what kind of voice animals would speak in if they could do it. The verse should be told from the perspective of a dog, cat or hare.

Good diction is very important for stage speech. It helps to achieve significant success in a career, since people already in their subconscious listen more to a person’s clear pronunciation and pleasant words.

Exercise 2. “Sound singing”

While doing this exercise:

• your voice will sound with new colors;
• speech will become clearer.

We need: Text.

What are we doing?

For example, the text could be like this. “Do you know that “Speech development exercises help me in life and in my career!” They hear me, they listen to me, they understand me. My colleagues like me, I captivate my friends and build my life!”?

Mantra? YES! But it begins to work if you use a certain technique when reading it. So, we begin to read our mantra, removing all consonant sounds, then vowels. It will sound like: “ U-A-E-I-YA A-I-I-E E-I O-O-A-YU E I-I AND A-E-E!” and so on,” Read the same text, but without the vowels.

These are the mantras that work!

Effective exercises

You can develop good public speaking skills through the following exercises:

1. Stand up straight, cross your arms over your chest, spread your elbows to the sides. Take a deep breath, releasing excess air from your lungs, slowly leaning forward. Exhalation should be accompanied by the pronunciation of elongated vowel sounds.
2. Each time you should pronounce complex combinations of sounds - VZVA, LBAL, STFRA. At first, this exercise may seem too difficult, but over time everything will begin to work out.
3. You should try to read a short text with your mouth closed.

A stage speech lesson, like any other, will give a good effect. After completing a certain series of exercises, you should consolidate the result by reading a complex text as expressively as possible. If classes are held together with a teacher, he may offer to take a special test at the end of therapy.

Exercise “Tongue without bones”

This exercise will be a fun game of stage speech for children. The technique will help to work out the articulatory apparatus well, despite the fact that from the outside it looks more like ordinary antics. To prepare for a stage speech lesson, you should first do a short warm-up.

Articulation gymnastics has many advantages:

• the language will begin to work clearly and correctly;
• the feeling that the conversation is taking place with your mouth full will completely disappear;
• the pronunciation of sounds changes to be more clear.

Technique

To carry out the “Boneless Tongue” exercise, you should use a simple mirror. To do this, you need to stand in front of him and start a simple warm-up:

1. Open your mouth a little. With the end of your tongue, begin to perform circular movements in different directions. You should perform 10 rotations clockwise and then counterclockwise.
2. Next, open your mouth wide, stick out your tongue completely and carefully lift its sides up. In this case, something like a tube should form. Next, you should start trying to move your folded tongue and blow into it.
3. Use your tongue to clean the surface of the lower and upper teeth. Try to repeat this exercise with your mouth closed and open.

Gently biting your tongue will help slightly relieve the tension in such a muscle. The exercises should be repeated before speaking, in which case the speech will be clear and well understood.

Exercise "Traffic"

This exercise is considered the easiest to improve the functioning of the speech apparatus. It will bring good results if you do it constantly. The “Cork” technique is quite popular among both children and adults. This fun activity will help:

• strengthen the muscles of the lips, cheeks and upper palate;
• tighten the skin on the face, hide small wrinkles and nasolabial folds;
• improve speech and diction.

Experts say that such lessons will be useful not only for future artists and stage performers, but also for those who want to maintain the condition of their skin and avoid age-related changes.

The lesson is conducted using the following technique: first you should prepare a small plastic or wooden cork from a champagne bottle. Then learn and prepare a tongue twister. Then clamp the plug in your front teeth. Without releasing it, you should begin to pronounce phrases and repeat them several times at once. This way you can accurately identify which sounds a person produces better and which sounds worse. It is important to regularly improve your pronunciation, train your articulatory apparatus, and also speed up your reading.

A person practicing tongue twisters with a champagne cork usually looks very strange. This kind of fun stage speech training can be a fun activity for the whole family and can be done in the form of a small competition. Each person must read the tongue twister using any unusual method, and then determine who did it best.

Warm up with a cork

Ask your child to hold a clean champagne cork or pencil between his teeth and let him read any passage from a work of fiction. The child’s task is to try to pronounce words clearly and with expression. You need to warm up for at least 5 minutes every day. This exercise is often performed in acting classes. It helps strengthen the muscles of the cheeks, develop the articulatory apparatus and tune it to the correct pronunciation of words. It is believed that similar warm-ups were popular among speakers in Ancient Greece, only instead of corks, they put stones in their mouths and rehearsed speeches with them.

How to learn stage speech?

Professionals in this field, who help both children and adults prepare speech and diction techniques, use various teaching methods. The following are effective ways to improve your voice. The most common include:

1. Continuous development of stage speech. The specialist offers a choice of several sets of exercises, between which there is a logical connection. You should not take long breaks during class.
2. Stepped complication. The student begins to actively develop the level of his speech with simple material, then the load increases.
3. Use of games. Training stage speech through exciting activities is considered the most enjoyable, since during the lessons the student relies on his imagination. Fun game lessons often have a good effect.
4. Partnerships. During the lesson, the teacher and the child must communicate as equals. The teacher only advises, but does not order to repeat certain exercises.

Stage speech is useful for every person. To achieve a good result, you should prepare yourself for the fact that you will have to regularly train, improve yourself and learn new techniques. A child’s perseverance and hard work will help develop his oratory abilities.