Speech disturbance in children can be triggered by various factors. The most common ones are:
- difficulties in determining sounds by ear (with normal auditory function);
- Damage located on the crown of the speech zone (during childbirth);
- defects in the structure of the organs of the speech apparatus (tongue, lips, hard or soft palate, teeth);
- poor mobility of the tongue and lips;
- retardation in speech development against the background of mental underdevelopment;
- incorrect speech in the family.
With the most severe lesions, not only sound reproduction is disrupted, but also the ability to distinguish sounds by ear. In addition, there is a limitation of the active (used in speech) and passive (perceived) vocabulary of the child. Speech impairment, not resolved at an early age, entails problems in communicating with others. This, in turn, can lead to complexation.
Speech impairment is classified by severity. Thus, it is possible to identify disorders that do not interfere with education in a comprehensive school, and severe lesions that require a special program.
With normal physical hearing, a child may develop a partial or complete lack of speech (alalia). This condition is caused by damage or underdevelopment of the brain. Sensory alalia is characterized by difficulties in understanding sounds. At the same time, the child hears that they are saying something, but what exactly - he does not understand. Motor alalia - a speech disorder associated with the inability to master sounds, grammar, words.
Dysarthria (anarthria) is a disorder of pronunciation against the background of lesions of the nervous system. In this condition, speech disturbance is noted not only in the pronunciation of individual sounds. With dysarthria, reproduction is fuzzy, blurry. The child may have a quiet or, on the contrary, too harsh voice. There is also a violation of the respiratory rhythm, loss of smoothness of speech, and its pace is abnormally slowed down or too accelerated. Often children with this disease suffer from disorders of fine motor skills of the hand, physical embarrassment.
Erased forms of dysarthria do not sharply distinguish a child among peers. However, there are some features. Children with such an ailment eat poorly and do not speak clearly. As a rule, they do not like meat, carrots, bread crusts, hard apples, as they have difficulty chewing. Often, parents replace solid foods with soft foods. However, this contributes to a greater degree of inhibition in the development of the articulation apparatus.
Often, as a result of fright or against a background of mental trauma, a child stutters. As a rule, it develops between the ages of 2 to 5 years. At the same time, you must carefully monitor the baby so as not to miss the possible appearance of the first signs of stuttering: he suddenly falls silent and refuses to talk.
Separate speech disorders occur with growing up. Some of them are eliminated with the help of a speech therapist in kindergarten or when working with parents. However, serious disorders require long-term treatment. It should be noted that the sooner parents turn to a specialist for help, the more effective will be the corrective work with the child.
Speech impairment in adults in almost all cases is associated with damage to the nervous system of an organic nature. This is a fairly serious symptom, the appearance of which may indicate the presence of a progressing pathological process. Speech disorders accompany diseases such as:
- tumors in the brain;
- stroke;
- multiple sclerosis ;
- epilepsy;
- encephalopathy;
- diabetes and others.
Therefore, you should be attentive to your children and take preventive measures on time.