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Early childhood represents a golden period that is vital for the development of all aspects of a child’s abilities, particularly language skills. Speaking ability plays a central role as it serves as a child’s primary means of communication and social interaction. However, not all children achieve speech milestones appropriate for their age. Speech delays can negatively affect social, emotional, and academic growth if not identified early. This study aims to identify speech delays in early childhood through classroom interactions and to analyze the role of teachers in early detection and stimulation of language skills. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, the study involved ten children aged 4–6 years at Siti Khadijah Kindergarten. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation, and analyzed using the Miles and Huberman interactive model comprising data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. Findings revealed that two children showed signs of speech delay, characterized by limited vocabulary, unclear pronunciation, and difficulty forming simple sentences. The main contributing factors were a lack of verbal stimulation at home and excessive gadget use, which reduced direct communication. Activities such as circle time, role-playing, and storytelling were found effective for detecting and stimulating speech development. Teachers play a crucial role as early detection agents, working collaboratively with parents to ensure continuous stimulation at home. Strengthening teachers’ capacity to observe, identify, and support children with speech delays is essential for promoting optimal language development.

Speaking ability is one of the important skills in education and daily life, but students often face obstacles such as lack of self-confidence and minimal opportunities to practice. This study aims to improve students' speaking ability through debate and discussion-based training. This activity is designed to provide students with direct experience in constructing logical arguments, conveying opinions effectively, and interacting in formal and informal forums. The methods used include theory training, debate simulations, and group discussions with periodic evaluations through observation and questionnaires. The results showed a significant increase in students' speaking ability, especially in terms of clarity of idea delivery, argument structure, and courage to speak in public. In addition, this training also had a positive impact on students' critical thinking skills, ability to work together, and self-confidence.

The purpose of this research is to prove whether the snowball throwing technique is effective or not in developing students’ speaking abilities at SMA Negeri 3 Ratahan. It is a pre-experimental design. The instrument used in collecting data is an oral test. The results show that the lowest pretest score was 4 and the highest posttest score was 10. Pretest scores totaled 137, while posttest scores totaled 181. The mean of the pretest scores was 5.95, while the mean of the posttest was 7.86. The standard deviation of the pretest was 0.46, while the posttest was 0.95. The pretest results show that the students are still struggling to learn the snowball throwing technique. The posttest results show that the students' proficiency in learning to speak through snowball throwing has increased.