A child's speech development begins immediately after birth with the first cry, which shows that
its speech organs are sufficiently developed. In the first year of life, the child pronounces
individual voices that are combined to form words as it approaches its first birthday. Language
develops intensively during the pre-school years, with two of the most important factors being the
adults and the child’s environment. Adults – including kindergarten teachers, who are very
important in this regard – have a positive influence on the child’s language development by being
a language role model and encouraging speech. Many authors claim that reading aloud has a very
positive effect on children. It is important that we present children with a variety of literature and
actively involve them in reading. One of the genres of literature that encourage children to read
are pictograms. Pictograms are easily available, we can find them in printed form (magazines,
books) or online. This is confirmed by our research, in which 67% of participants had no
problems finding pictograms. A wide range of pictograms allows us to find a suitable pictogram
for the child’s age, interests, etc. Finally, we can create one ourselves, although the participants in
our survey rarely do this. The children like pictograms and read them with enthusiasm because
they can be involved. The universal use of pictograms is reflected in their numerous applications
(planned activities, reading dwarf, class rules, book corner). Pictograms are mainly used in
second grade classes where we can involve the children in the creation of the pictograms
(drawing the nouns in the text). More than half of the participants (51%) make pictograms with
children. Reading pictograms has a positive effect on the child’s language development and pre-linguistic skills – the participants are aware of this and therefore they use pictograms in different
ways. The most frequently used pre-reading and pre-writing activities are the use of picture books
and language games (ABC cards); other activities were graphomotor exercises, which are
important before writing
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