Speech communication is inherent to human kind only. The fact that there is no part of human life where speech is not represented tells us about the importance of speech. From the birth of a child, other people start to speak, converse and talk to it. Properly developed speech and language are important to an overall starting development of a child, but also to later education as well as professional development. It is important to encourage child’s speech development properly from the earliest age. The most important role in this process belongs to child’s parents and family, as they are the first role models to the child and his speech development. Apart from them, educational institutions and educators have a big role in this process. Child’s play is the most important part of childhood. Children like to play, and, in that play and exploration, they spontaneously learn. From the earliest age, even as a baby, a child likes to be talked to and played with. The first games a parent plays to its child are speech accompanied poems- nursery rhymes. These are folk poems which are performed with gestures and are transferred from knee to knee which makes them a part of a tradition of childhood in certain area. They include a word, often a rhyme, touch or gesture (movement). Children like them so they are happy when they are repeated to them over and over again. With these poems (nursery rhymes) children spontaneously start to repeat the text and perform hand gestures. Speech and motor skills are developed parallelly, which is a special value of these poems in encouraging and developing child’s speech. In working with the youngest, simple, short poems are often used, while with older children, we can use longer poems. The first part of this thesis shows the development of speech since the birth of a child until the start of school education. The second part brings collected poems (nursery rhymes) from the speech area of Krapina-Zagorje County. The third part shows the activities carried out in kindergarten, which included locally gathered poems (nursery rhymes).