Effectiveness of oral language stimulation strategies in early childhood education for children aged 3–5 years

Abstract

Introduction Oral language is essential to children's cognitive, social, and academic development. This study evaluated changes in oral language after the application of stimulation strategies in children aged 3–5 years enrolled in Early Childhood Education. Methods A quantitative, longitudinal, quasi-experimental single-group pretest-posttest design was used. The sample comprised 341 children from 11 public educational institutions. A structured observation instrument with 12 indicators across six oral-language dimensions was applied. The instrument showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.896). Results The global mean increased from 41.50 at pretest to 46.01 at posttest, a gain of 4.51 points. The paired-samples Student's t-test showed a statistically significant difference, t(340) = −6.039, p = 0.001. The largest improvements were observed in verbal fluency, phonological development, pragmatic skills, and receptive and expressive vocabulary. Discussion The findings indicate favorable changes following the systematic use of rhymes, chants, and tongue twisters. However, because the study lacked a control group, the results should be interpreted as evidence of change associated with the intervention rather than definitive proof of causality.