When to start worrying and when to just wait?
— It happens that parents complain that the child does not start talking for a long time. What does "long" mean?
“Speechlessness” may have different reasons. Children not only do not speak with speech impairments, but also with hearing impairments, intellectual impairments, and autism spectrum disorders.
“Long” is when the child is one year old, but he does not respond to his name, does not understand simple addresses (“let’s go to bed,” “wash hands,” etc.). Or when, after three years of age, a child understands spoken speech, he has many gestures, but no independent speech.
If at the same time the child is too “independent”, does not look into the eyes, avoids physical contact or, conversely, loves hugs too much, if he has a reduced sense of pain, then you need to quickly contact a specialist.
In these cases, you need to first check your hearing, preferably more than once. Visit a neurologist, get a consultation with a speech therapist at two years. There is such a wonderful study - evoked potentials (a method of studying the nervous system based on recording electrical potentials of the brain in response to any influence - Ed.), it is quite objective.
— What features in the development of a child’s speech should cause concern for parents? When should you immediately contact a specialist, and when is it better to wait?
— When it comes to speech, I don’t like to wait. It is acceptable not to utter a word for up to a year; there may not be a short phrase for up to two years; and an extended phrase for up to three years. If up to two years of age the child is social, communicative, and understands spoken language well, then we observe for another three to four months. But three years is a “Rubicon”. At the age of five, speech completes its development, leaving the opportunity to accumulate a vocabulary throughout life. If the appearance of sound complexes (combinations of sounds, for example “au” - Ed.), words and sentences does not fit into the deadlines, this is a reason to see a doctor and speech therapist.
You should be concerned if a child has a poor vocabulary (a vocabulary that is not appropriate for his age); incorrect use of words - speech agrammatisms; incoherent speech (badly retells fairy tales); failure to pronounce sounds and, possibly, features of the formation of phonemic hearing.
In addition, you need to pay attention to the understanding of spoken language, the ability to communicate and the emotional development of the child.
— Are the most common causes of speech disorders neurobiological, anatomical (structure of the speech apparatus), psychological, or something else?
— Most often it is impossible to name one specific reason. Let's say my mother smoked a pack a day (an example from practice) - this could be the reason.
If these are problems with sound pronunciation, then the reasons may be a violation of the structure of the articulatory apparatus or muscle tone, or combined.
If a child does not speak, for example, with motor alalia (absence or underdevelopment of speech in a child with normal hearing - Ed.), most often this is a pathology of pregnancy and childbirth: rapid or prolonged labor, asphyxia.
Increasingly, cervical-head injuries during childbirth are cited as the root cause of speech disorders.
This was the opinion of, in particular, A.Yu. Ratner and P.G. Zamaratsky. “10-15 minutes is enough. oxygen starvation of the brain, so that this affects its functioning. In 70-80% of newborn children, the cervical spinal cord is affected, in 35-40% - the thoracic and lumbar spine,” wrote Professor Ratner. In the future, this results in headaches, speech problems, difficulties with mastering the curriculum, disobedience, and inappropriate behavior.
When is it necessary to contact a speech therapist?
It is worth contacting a speech therapist if:
- a two-year-old child does not speak yet; - the speech of a three-year-old child remains slurred and incomprehensible to others; - for his age, the child has a small vocabulary (for example, by the age of one year he still does not speak at all; and by the age of five, sound pronunciation has not yet formed); - the child often stumbles or stutters; - a five-year-old child does not know how to coordinate words in a sentence and speaks in monosyllables; - you are starting to prepare for school; — the school curriculum for reading and writing is difficult for the child, he makes ridiculous mistakes, knowing the rules.
So, if contacting a speech therapist is a necessity for you, you should find a qualified specialist based on a number of criteria.
If a child is teased for burring or lisping
— How hard can you work with a child on speech development, so as not to cause other problems - psychological?
— Now there is a strong tendency to teach all children as early as possible: “reading from the cradle,” “talking before walking,” etc.
I am categorically against it when a child is developed for prevention: “let the child work out, it won’t get worse.” I think it will be worse.
And the consequences may be delayed. Because those people who in childhood, instead of playing, sat through classes to learn a couple of English words, in adulthood try to “play at life” and “play at being daughters and mothers.”
A preschooler is not required to study; he has another leading activity - play. Before school, a child must be able to play well and a lot, be able to interact in the game, understand the rules, and correspond to the proposed role. As paradoxical as it may sound in the mouth of a speech therapist, it is better to let them have a lisp, but just ride down the mountains and play hide and seek. There will be more benefits for future social life.
The only time a speech therapist should be irreconcilable is if the child has no speech at all and communication is impaired.
— Do parents often complain that their children are teased by their peers because of speech disorders?
— Children do not hear very well and distinguish between sound pronunciation disorders. I had two wonderful boys. Misha did not pronounce [r], he was in the second grade, [r] did not affect his studies, his grades were good. He didn’t want to fix anything—everything suited him. Mom, as motivation for classes, said that I needed to fix it, otherwise the guys would tease me. To which Misha replied: “What kind of friends are they then?”
The second boy, Vitaly, was in the sixth grade, there were a little more sounds for correction, but otherwise the situation was similar. The mother approached her son with the same motivation, the answer was: “Why would they suddenly tease? Why didn’t you tease me before?”
I still recommend putting on the sounds, and preferably before school, so as not to narrow the range of available professions in the future. Speakers, lecturers, politicians - they all must have clear, intelligible speech with the correct sound.
In addition, incorrect sound pronunciation is often accompanied by a violation of phonemic hearing, which means that if not corrected, there will be errors in writing.
How to choose a speech therapist/speech pathologist for a child
A fairly common question is that the child does not want to work with a speech therapist . First a special case. A colorful description of a typical session with a speech pathologist from an attentive and thoughtful mother from the current workshop. Unfortunately, it's common. Is the child bullying the specialist or is the specialist not meeting the child’s needs?
“Today I visited a speech pathologist with my son, and I looked at everything that was happening from the point of view of the levels of development that you spoke about. The defectologist is trying to teach her son something, the concepts of “big-small”, words, colors, sorting... The son does not complete any of her tasks. Almost nothing. And he has no motivation at all. And I pay money for it. For example, she takes apart a nesting doll in front of him, and the son must show where the big one is and where the small one is. And the son simply takes one of the nesting dolls and opens it (unscrews it) and closes it many times... Ignoring all the questions. And how the defectologist didn’t try to get an analysis of the size of the nesting dolls out of him... He just took each one and opened and closed it... She expects him to put the animal figures on the corresponding pictures... But he doesn’t listen to the teacher at all, he just fiddles with each figurine in his hands, and when he gets bored – puts it anywhere, without hesitation. And at a certain moment he throws everything away with the words: “That’s it! All! All". It is not yet clear to me how to compensate for his developmental lag. But clearly, this must be done through the sensorimotor level.”
So, point by point.
How to choose a speech therapist for a child? The market is rich. What, in my opinion, does “a good speech therapist, defectologist” mean?
1) If a speech therapist comes, lays out her teaching materials and pulls the child out of his activity of creating a house for a dog, playing with pots or with a string, for example, then look at what she offers in return. If there is a teaching method to which the child does not react emotionally, think about it. The child learns information well when emotionally involved. And not only the child - we also perceive it better this way. If it is not there, the child gets tired and switches off.
In a good situation, the child will learn to speak sounds, but with emotional involvement, difficulties may arise again. Those. in a calm atmosphere during classes with a speech therapist (if the child agrees to study at all), the child learned to speak correctly. But when the child is doing something of his own in the game, gets involved emotionally, and begins to speak to you emotionally, then the skill will “fly” again.
Anastasia Platonova writes about the speech therapist’s classes with her child: “She worked with him while Danya did tricks on the wall bars - that’s the only way it worked.”
Any skill should be learned in conditions as close as possible to those in which you are going to use it. Speech must be learned in an emotionally charged environment.
I remember a story we were told at the institute. Our professor of theory and methods of physical education was a consultant to the national tennis team. She told how one of the athletes made many double faults on serve. I practiced serving at every training session, but at the game I made more mistakes. It turned out that during training she performed her serve with a lower heart rate than she had in the game. We changed the technique, learned to serve with a higher heart rate and got the result.
2) “I work according to the method...”. Those. there is step 1, step 2, step 3 and rigidity. And if the child is at step 5, then the first 4 lessons will be boring. The child will get bored. It turns out that the specialist cannot adjust the technique to the child , but rather adjusts the child to the technique . I’m exaggerating, but this is exactly what is called the lack of an individual approach.
3) Ask why the child does not have quality speech. What does the speech therapist see as the cause of the child’s speech problem? That is, for example, a child swallows sounds. What is the reason: breathing is not controlled, the articulatory apparatus is not working well, or there is a problem with maintaining attention and you are always in a hurry to “get to the train”? How will the exercises chosen by the speech therapist affect the child’s problem? How can parents themselves get involved? Where else would it be useful for a child to go?
And again I will address your comments. From the comments: “Oleg, my name is Natasha. I am a speech therapist. Parents often come to us with silent children and refer them to an applied kinesiologist. What do you think?" What I think? I think you're great. I would like to be able to do everything myself, but this is impossible. I, as a kinesiotherapist, in turn send children to classes with a speech therapist. Very often a comprehensive view and team work .
4) Ask which technique is right for your child and why the speech therapist decided to use it? As psychotherapists, there are different methods - bodily psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, etc. There are visual guys, there are tactile/motor guys, there are hearing guys. How will a specialist select a work plan for your child and according to what criteria? How will it be adapted? An important question that I want to get an answer to. I would like to understand what is happening.
5) The child should be interested in classes with a speech therapist. So he will try. If a child is bored, he will not want to do anything. If a child is bored, this is the problem of the speech therapist, not the child . Normal interaction with a child looks like this: “Then in the evening Fyodor asked when his uncle would come to play with him again.”
Master, literate, smart, but did not find a common language with the child. This is normal, it happens and there is no need to be afraid of it. For me, this is the main factor in finding my specialist. To speak, you need the need to share your thoughts and experiences, you need trust . If I was bored, then I have nothing to share, if I don’t trust, I close myself. Why talk at all then? I can talk, but I don’t talk about things that don’t interest me at all. From now on I will refuse this kind of activity.
PS Most children now need a speech therapist or speech pathologist. I don’t really understand the difference in these specialists. The good work that I saw - specialists flowed from speech pathologist to speech therapist and back. The lag behind the norms of the Soviet period is total. Talking children at 1.5 years old are now a rarity. For me, speech is a complex combination of three parts of the puzzle: motor skills, thinking, communication . Motor skills provide the desire to share your thoughts. The specialist’s understanding of what we are working with determines the type of occupation. Look for your specialist!
about the author
Oleg Leonkin, children's rehabilitologist, hippotherapist, specialist in sensory integration and children's massage, husband and father of 5 children.
For more than 25 years I have been working at the intersection of 3 sciences: medicine, pedagogy and psychology, 18 of which have been with “special children”.
When observing a child, I analyze about 40 factors, see the stage of development, feel the child’s needs and know about his problems. I listen to my parents and believe them. I think, draw conclusions, connect and explain. I translate from children's language to adult language.
How to check the professionalism of a speech therapist?
— When can a specialist help a child cope with speech disorders, and when not? How to determine that the problem is unsolvable and stop annoying your child with exercises?
- You can’t give up and give up. They help those families where there is an iron will and perseverance of the parents. The child himself cannot organize his own activities.
As a child, I often went to visit my grandmother in the village. Grandma had a sister. During her pregnancy, she fell from a cart and hit her stomach hard; the child was born sick. I don’t know if this is a family legend or if this is exactly how it all happened, but Volodya, now deceased, was one of those who are kindly called village fools. He did not speak, except for five or ten words. As a professional, I now understand that Volodya could have been helped if they had worked with him to develop his speech in childhood. But then it was impossible, and the parents probably accepted what happened as fate.
At the institute we were taught: “you should make any child fit into the norm.” Of course, not everyone, due to the severity of the problem, will be able to survive, but we must create all the conditions.
— It happens that one specialist helps, but another does not. How can parents build the right “route” when searching for a suitable speech therapist?
— Professionalism is my sore subject. I teach at a university and I know that universities have been shaking for a long time. The programs have been revised and teaching hours have been reduced. But the biggest problem, in my opinion, is the correspondence form of training for speech therapists, when inadmissibly little time is allocated for practice. Clinical cases, specific cases of correction and training - it is impossible to “go through” this on your own.
Let's try to give specific advice on finding a speech therapist:
Specialist education . This is a diploma of higher special (defectological) education, better than full-time education.
Advanced training and additional education . For example, if a specialist positions himself as a professional in the field of speech correction for children with autism, then he must know ABA therapy. If you are involved in the correction of dysarthria (impaired pronunciation of speech due to insufficient innervation of the speech apparatus - editor's note), then you need knowledge to conduct speech therapy massage, the ability to work with prosody (intonation-expressive coloring of speech - editor's note).
Continuity: from whom did the speech therapist study ? A teacher must be a respected person in the profession. Of course, it’s good to have feedback: does the teacher know this specialist, because a student is a “piece” of work. For example, I am a student of Maria Fedorovna Fomicheva.
In which institutions did the specialist work, and where does he work now? There are so-called “branded” places that allow you to judge the status. True, you also need to ask how long the person worked there.
You should ask specific questions about your problem . For example, does the specialist know how to work with a non-speaking child and what systems of work he knows. In speech therapy, strange as it may sound, there is no method for working with alalia. There are methods, techniques, approaches associated with specific names, but there is still no methodology. It is important that the specialist not only name names, but also tell what exactly he is going to do.
It is important how many children were in his practice . A novice speech therapist can work with a child, but a parent has the right to know that his child is a professional start-up. Typically, such a specialist offers diligence in return.
The speech therapist is obliged to give a prognosis and name the number of classes required . Of course, with complex speech disorders it will not be possible to do this right away, but you can set intermediate goals. Parents should not be satisfied with the answer “we’ll see how it goes.” I usually say: give me a few sessions to determine how the child will interact with me. A child, like an adult, may be sleep-deprived, agitated, “not in the mood,” etc. And at the next lesson everything will be different: I got enough sleep, wasn’t capricious, was well-fed and able to work.
Professional interdisciplinary connections are important - with whom the speech therapist collaborates . When a child has a complex diagnosis, an integrated approach to correction is important.
— A free consultation with a speech therapist can only be obtained in a kindergarten or clinic. How do you assess the qualifications of speech therapists working in these institutions?
— Free consultations are available only in government institutions, but there may also be paid ones, this is now allowed. As for qualifications, they, like conscience, either exist or they don’t. The institution itself has nothing to do with it.
It seems to me that the problem is in the formal approach to the work of regulatory authorities, which boils down to checking documentation. The problem is that there are practically no professional associations. There are no sections or round tables in the professional space. And if there are, then they are only paid. Here is the answer. The main criterion is the conscience of a specialist. Only he himself, having paid, can go and learn - or buy a certificate without studying. Choose a topic for self-education and hone your skills - or stop there.
How to find a good speech therapist and where to look?
More and more children need speech therapy help. But a professional should work with the child. How to find such a professional and what qualities should he have? The truth is that a person's professionalism can only be determined by another professional in the same field . Those. You personally, if you are not a speech therapist yourself, will not be 100% able to determine whether the person in front of you is a professional. This is worth remembering when listening to “good reviews from friends.” If they are not speech therapists, then their reviews, to put it mildly, mean nothing. And on the Internet, everyone buys as many reviews about themselves as they want.
And yet there are indirect signs that will help you cope with this task.
Contact with the child . Even if a speech therapist is a doctor of science at least three times, if emotional contact is not established, you will achieve results much more slowly. Of course, we should not forget that children are all different and there are some who find it difficult to meet new people. In this case, it is worth observing several classes in order to determine as accurately as possible whether the teacher is suitable for the child. Also take a closer look at the speech therapist yourself: how he behaves. A competent specialist must have correct, beautiful speech, and the ability to correctly construct sentences. Qualification. Unfortunately, even a higher education diploma will not give you a 100% guarantee of a highly qualified specialist. But it wouldn’t hurt to inquire about the availability of such a diploma. You can also ask to see the speech therapist’s portfolio.
To provide effective assistance, the material and technical base is important. At your first meeting, pay attention to the number of teaching aids in the office.
The most reliable way to confirm your qualifications is the network structure of the company you are applying to. No one checks a single specialist either when applying for a job, or the classes he conducts (whether a private trader, a speech therapist in a kindergarten or in some “developer-diversified specialist”, etc. But here it should be remembered that the quality of classes at home in times worse than in a specialized office. Otherwise, what are millions of employees doing in offices when all the work could be done at home? That's right: refrigerator, TV, sofa, Internet... And if an adult cannot motivate himself at home, how to deal with it to kid?
And yet, what price is optimal? Here you think about what you want to get for your money. Soft sofas for those waiting, free WiFi, coffee, TV and large rooms - the price will be high, because... All this is not free and you pay for it.
Group classes, private classes at home, speech therapist in the garden, classes via Skype - the price will be low. But the effect of the classes will be even lower.
We decided to look for a “golden mean”, but at the same time completely exclude low-effective options, and also work without unnecessary frills for those waiting. Yes, this reduces our profit, but due to the large flow of people who are willing to pay for a specific solution to problems in the shortest possible time and due to the large number of our centers, we offer one of the lowest prices for individual (most effective) classes.
And yet, even with such a low price as ours, it is worth thinking through and planning the family budget in advance, taking into account the fact that classes with a speech therapist will most likely take place at least twice a week (the frequency depends primarily on your capabilities - time and financial; the more often you practice, the faster the result will be). And if you quit classes “halfway”, there is a high probability that your child’s speech will return to its previous state, and all the money you spent will go “down the drain.” A common question parents ask is “How long will it take to see a speech therapist?” After all, knowing the price, you also want to know the period during which the family budget will incur additional expenses. For a detailed answer to this question, see the link in the article of the same name. Here we will say briefly: you should be wary if the speech therapist gives a very clear forecast regarding the timing. Please take into account that the teacher has not known the child for so long, and during the diagnosis, children are often nervous; accordingly, the teacher will not be able to see the full picture of behavioral reactions. But how a child will behave in class - complete tasks, or shirk them, be capricious - is one of the important components of success. Also, the teacher does not know whether you will personally study at home with the child and monitor his speech, without which the time required for producing sounds will increase significantly.
Where to look?
There are many options, both cheap or even free (budget kindergarten, clinic) and not so (speech therapist within a multifunctional development center, private classes at home, speech therapy centers). We will not take into account the “human factor” or any specific companies; we hope that you will come across the best people and companies in the country. Let us consider only the structural disadvantages and objective advantages of each of them.
In state budgetary organizations (kindergarten, clinic, GPPC, etc. options):
Pros:
1.Free or inexpensive.
2. If this is a speech therapist in a kindergarten, there is no need to take the child anywhere separately, everyone is in one building.
Cons (for more details, see the article “Will a speech therapist help in kindergarten?”):
1. Complete lack of control over the professionalism of the speech therapist.
2. The speech therapist has no motivation to work with your child; no one checks him on this matter.
3. You have no idea what is being done in class.
4. Very short-term classes (in a regular kindergarten - 10 minutes, in a correctional kindergarten - 20 minutes)
5. Very long queues. In order to get to a speech therapist at all, they will often require a certificate, wait another year, “don’t come before 5 years old,” etc. Many parents face this.
6. A huge flow of children. The norm for a speech therapist at a school, for example, to which several kindergartens have been added, is 1000 children. Do you think he will be able to study with this amount two or three times a week for at least 10 minutes? If he receives all these children for 9 hours without breaks, breaks, lunches and rest, then it will take 11.8 minutes for each. According to reporting, he is engaged, we are talking about reality.
Private speech therapist (tutor) at home.
Pros:
1. Tutors who come to your home are very convenient. There is no need to take your child to a specialist; the speech therapist will come himself and bring with him some of the teaching aids.
2. They couldn’t even come up with a second advantage. Think for yourself.
Minuses:
1. Complete lack of control over the professionalism of the speech therapist.
2. The speech therapist does not have the motivation to quickly correct your child’s speech. The longer this happens, the more he will earn. And no one controls him on this or any other matter.
3. You have no idea whether your child is being treated CORRECTLY or not. No one checks such a speech therapist.
4. The speech therapist will only be able to bring a couple of aids with him. If something doesn’t work out for your child, then the speech therapist will not replace benefits, which is wasted time and your money down the drain. But no speech therapist will carry 2-3 cabinets with manuals to your home.
5. My home is my castle. And also toys, favorite places, a refrigerator with “goodies”, cartoons, etc. Very often, children do not want to study normally at home, they are capricious, inventing that they feel bad, want to sleep, are tired, etc. And the teacher will not be forced to engage in the educational process, but to play the role of an “animator” who must entertain the child. The child will get used to such “entertaining education”, come to school, and there will be 30 children per teacher in the class. “Have fun” to the fullest.
Speech therapist in a private clinic.
Pros:
1. A medical license inspires confidence.
2. The proper level of pathos: waiting room, reception, sweets, etc.
Minuses:
1. Prices are two to five times higher than market prices.
2. “Multiprofessionalism”: one specialist receives a bunch of diplomas for completing accelerated courses and can treat anything, as long as they pay well. For example, we personally met the services of a speech therapist at the ophthalmology center. Don't see the connection? Bring money, they'll come up with a connection for you.
3. They will probably ask you to take a dozen more tests from them in order to definitely determine the diagnosis.
4. Do you personally feel comfortable in the hospital (if you are not a doctor, of course)? Here. And the child begins to think that he is sick, since he goes to the clinic. We think it would be more correct if he thought he was healthy and just went to classes.
Speech therapist at a development center somewhere nearby.
Pros:
1. Often close to home.
2. Low prices, especially for group lessons.
3. Here you can sign up for several classes in a row: mental arithmetic, drawing, chess, etc.
Minuses:
1. Complete lack of control over the professionalism of the speech therapist. There is no senior speech therapist above the speech therapist who would check him when applying for a job and during the work itself.
2. A speech therapist most often has 2-3 small shifts per week when he conducts classes. This is clearly not enough for a person to even eat normally, not to mention other needs. Therefore, he either runs around several such centers and conducts classes, or in the same center he does mental arithmetic, drawing, modeling, etc. Could such a “one-man orchestra” be a specialist in each field?
3. Inconvenient schedule, most often 2-3 times a week in a limited time.
4. The center makes money in group classes, but you personally lose . Example: 5 children in a group, 500 rubles. per lesson. The center earned 2500 rubles. in 40 minutes, and your child received: 40/5 = 8 minutes of teacher attention for 500 rubles. Those. the effectiveness will be as many times worse as the number of children attending such classes. It’s as if they wanted to save money and signed themselves up for a group operation, for example, with a surgeon who also works as a medical assistant, a nurse and a watchman. The effect will be approximately the same.
Specialized speech therapy center.
Pros: 1. Most likely, only professionals who have passed all stages of interviews work here; 2. A special educational environment has been created in the classrooms to facilitate the development of speech skills by your child; 3. Specialists deal ONLY with speech therapy, i.e. You receive the highest level of professionalism.
4. Surely there is control over the conduct of classes. Please note whether cameras are installed in the office. If yes, then there is definitely control.
Minuses:
1. There are not many such centers even in Moscow; they will not always be near your home.
2. Although we said that we would not take into account the “human factor,” due to the small number of disadvantages, we decided to voice this one too - the position of the management of such centers. If it is aimed only at “earning money” from clients, at the very first diagnosis you will be bombarded with professional terms, asked for a subscription for a month in advance, given an incomprehensible price list with different cost of classes, depending on what you did during this class (and you have no idea, There was a lesson on alalia, or on dislalia, but the price will be different!), etc.
If the management of the center thinks not only about profit, but also about children: everything will be simpler, clearer, more convenient, and more loyal.
Good luck with your choice!
About very specific
— What modern effective methods exist for correcting dysarthria, dyslalia, stuttering, alalia, aphasia, etc., in addition to classes with a speech therapist?
— There are three methods: medical, psychological-pedagogical and hardware (non-drug). The selection of working methods in different areas is important.
To correct dyslalia (violation of sound pronunciation with normal hearing and intact innervation of the speech apparatus, manifested in distorted pronunciation of sounds, in the replacement of sounds or their mixing - editor's note), the knowledge and skills of a speech therapist are sufficient. A speech therapist who deals with dysarthria (impaired pronunciation of speech caused by insufficient innervation of the vocal apparatus - Ed.), rhinolalia (violation of voice timbre and sound pronunciation caused by anatomical and physiological defects of the speech apparatus (congenital cleft palate) - Ed.), stutterer , must know the techniques of speech therapy massage. With dysarthria, it is necessary, in addition to classical techniques for producing sounds, to work with the normalization of muscle tone, the prosodic component, and breathing. For a child who stutters, a relaxing general and speech therapy massage is needed.
With dysarthria and stuttering, it is important to work on establishing a long oral exhalation and establishing a diaphragmatic type of breathing. This function is well trained and stabilized on the BFB-logo simulator; the child himself controls the process.
A very large block of physiotherapeutic procedures is also aimed at correcting speech disorders: amplipulse therapy, laser therapy, transcranial micropolarization.
Speech requires high-quality auditory perception and “phonemic hearing.” Since 1940, there has been hearing therapy using the Alfred Tomatis method. A more modern method is the computer speech correction program Fast ForWord; it develops phonemic awareness, concentration and cognitive functions.
Speech is a coordinated motor act. Therefore, it is important to carry out not only speech therapy, but also therapeutic massage, exercise therapy, cerebellar stimulation (balance exercises), and use a biofeedback-myosimulator.
As for classes at home with parents, here we should talk more about the cooperation of the speech therapist and the family. In a trio: specialist-parent-child, two people must want to study. The specialist a priori wants to help. If the child does not want to, then the professionalism of the specialist and the love of the mother will help to include him in the classes. If the mother does not participate, then the time for correction is extended.
It is very important that parents and their child read a lot, play and complete tasks from various specialists. If a mother takes on the functions of a professional, this most often happens when she receives additional education (speech therapist or psychologist), or in the case when there is no specific specialist at her place of residence.
How are the psyche and speech connected?
— What psychological characteristics of a child can cause speech disorders? How does this affect the work of a speech therapist?
— Psychological problems arise in completely different people, and they are not triggered by speech problems. But secondary factors associated with speech disorders can sometimes correlate with psychological characteristics.
For example, a child with rhinolalia spends a lot of time in hospitals: operations, rehabilitation. At the same time, the process of his socialization is disrupted. But I know a huge number of children and adults who do not experience any communication problems due to the sound of their voices or traces of previous operations. I had a friend like this when I was a kid who grew up to be successful in business. This also applies to people with stuttering and dysarthria. If a person is the life of the party, then stuttering will not interfere with this.
In the case of verbal negativism (refusal to speak - Ed.), it is very important how the family accepts the child. No matter what conflict situations arise “in the sandbox,” a mother should always be on the side of her child.
As for the work of a speech therapist, his competencies allow him to take into account any characteristics of the child, including psychological ones. A speech therapist must be able to captivate, organize a game, and switch. Nowadays it is difficult to interest a child in pictures cut out in the last century and pasted on gray cardboard. Classes with children require knowledge and ability to use computer training programs, sensory games, modern devices, all sorts of tricks, and a specially organized special workspace.
— If a child had dyslalia or other deviations in speech development, does this mean that in the future it will be difficult for him to learn foreign languages?
— There are no restrictions or special difficulties in learning any other language. Even general speech underdevelopment (GSD) is not an obstacle to this. My work experience has shown that children with ODD at school learn a foreign language (English, German, French) easier than written Russian.
We have a lot in common in the organization of the phonetic system; sounds differ in binary oppositions (dullness - voicedness, hardness - softness, etc.), which means that there can be their replacements in both oral speech and writing.
About writing disorders
— What are the most common causes of written language disorders such as dyslexia and dysgraphia?
— The most popular dysgraphia is a violation of language analysis and synthesis and acoustic problems. Not the least negative role here is played by the phonemic teaching method, which has been chosen as the basis for the study of literacy in the last 20-30 years.
Children skip letters and syllables and replace sounds that are similar in sound. Many authors believe that children have impaired phonemic hearing. But there cannot be a total violation. With this logic, hearing-impaired children would never learn to read and write.
With dyslexia, in addition to the main symptoms of the disorder (analysis and synthesis, phonemic hearing), the most common problem is the speed and method of reading. Even if children do not make mistakes, but read slowly and syllable by syllable, “guessing” the endings of words and phrases, this is a dyslexic disorder.
Risk areas
— How can parents detect a problem before the teacher points it out?
— There are so-called risk groups: children with perinatal and natal pathologies, children with delays in speech development, with mental retardation, with a pronounced delay in the formation of graphic skills, bilingual children, retrained left-handers.
What should parents do? If a child has a speech delay before school, then it needs to be corrected, or, if this is not possible, then minimized. Do not teach children to read too early, because they have not developed selective attention, without which reading and writing are impossible, and also their arbitrariness, memory and speech have not been formed.
Memory problems are the result of very early learning, because a system of inadequate demands is created.
The involvement of new brain structures in the organization of attention begins only at 6-8 years, when the frontal lobes actively begin to mature and effective visual differentiation begins to form. If a child begins to read early, then he develops an inadequate reading mechanism, in which several letters are perceived and the gaze runs away, and then returns many times. A so-called “guessing reading” is formed.
When a problem is discovered, you need to go to specialists: a neurologist, psychologist and speech therapist. They will offer medication support, methods and methods of correction, and advise modern rehabilitation methods.
— Are dyslexia and dysgraphia corrected, or will the child simply have to adapt and somehow get around the difficulties that arise when reading and writing?
— If dyslexia or dysgraphia is an independent disorder, without combined problems and secondary disorders in the form of persistent speech problems or cognitive difficulties, then they are perfectly amenable to correction. It's important to start on time.
In my practice, there was a child who had speech problems before school, they were corrected, and in elementary school he coped with the program, doing especially well in mathematics. But by middle school, due to the complexity of the dictionary and the increase in the volume of assignments, serious problems began, and a persistent dislike for the subject “Russian language” formed.
Difficulties manifested themselves in the following cases: when selecting test words; when mastering morphemic analysis of words; when differentiating prefixes and prepositions; when isolating and differentiating according to the meaning of word-forming and formative morphemes. When we achieved success in the process of correctional classes, the child came to the conclusion that the Russian language is not so difficult, and his grades improved.
But there are also those who simply adapt, avoiding writing in every possible way.
What impression can a teacher leave?
There are factors that will be decisive in the process of searching for a specialist. It is important to schedule a personal meeting; it will leave a certain impression about the person. Please note the following:
- How the teacher will establish contact with your son or daughter and the latter’s reaction. Will children enjoy the activities? The child feels people well. He will refuse to study if the speech pathologist is bad.
- An experienced professor will not criticize or scold a child. However, indifference is also bad. A person knows how to draw conclusions, is careful in his statements and knows how to find a way out of any situation.
- The speech of the speech therapist himself. He must speak clearly and correctly.
