Any deviation that occurs in the development process, causes anxiety in parents. When speech functions are disrupted, the child is not able to fully communicate with members of his own family and surrounding people. In severe cases, we are talking about such a pathology as systemic speech underdevelopment.
Let us consider this pathology in more detail.
General characteristics
Underdeveloped speech of a systemic nature is a complex violation of the functions of the speech apparatus in a child, which is characterized by the lack of formation of the processes of speaking and receiving speech messages.
In this case, the following language elements may be violated:
- Phonetics - the child pronounces some sounds incorrectly.
- Vocabulary - a child does not own the volume of vocabulary that he should have mastered for a given period of his development.
- Grammar - there are violations in the selection of case endings, in the preparation of sentences, etc.
This category of deviations is, as a rule, violations that qualify in existing classifications as general speech underdevelopment, or motor alalia.
The concept of "systemic underdevelopment of speech" was introduced by R. E. Levina and is used in the diagnosis of speech functions of children who have mental retardation. For patients with organic brain lesions, which are characterized by a secondary speech disorder, speech therapists most often make a similar diagnosis against the background of this pathological condition. Children with sound hearing and intelligence are diagnosed with general speech underdevelopment.
A true diagnosis can be made after the child is admitted to three specialists: a neurologist, psychologist and speech therapist. In addition, a similar diagnosis is not given to those children who have not reached the age of five.
Reasons for the development of pathology
It is rather difficult to single out the main reason for the occurrence of systemic underdevelopment of speech, since often not only one factor, but their whole combination is important.
The main factors are:
- head injuries that were received by the child during childbirth or in the first years of life;
- the difficult course of pregnancy, and this category of causes includes serious infectious diseases during the period of bearing a child, drinking alcohol, smoking, severe chronic infections, etc.
- fetal hypoxia;
- unfavorable situation in the family - inattentive and rude attitude towards the child, frequent quarrels between relatives, overly strict methods of education, etc .;
- childhood diseases, which include asthenia, cerebral palsy, rickets, Down syndrome, complex CNS pathologies.
In certain cases, systemic speech underdevelopment develops to a mild degree in the form of a reaction to a bacterial or viral infection.
Signs and Symptoms
How to understand that a child is lagging behind in development, and to suspect that at the same time there is a delay in speech, mental or intellectual development even before he turns five?
Initial warning signs in children with systemic speech underdevelopment may occur in the first year of life. Such situations should be alert when a child does not try to reproduce them in response to certain words spoken by adults.
At the age of one and a half years, the child must learn to imitate the sounds made by surrounding people, and also point to objects at their request. If this is not observed, parents need to think. The next milestone is two years old. Here the child needs to be able to pronounce words and even phrases at will, spontaneously.
At the age of three years, children should understand about two-thirds of what adults say, and vice versa, adults - a child. By the age of four, the meaning of absolutely all words should be mutually understood. In cases where this does not happen, you should seek the advice of a specialist.
At the age of five, when the question is about making a diagnosis such as systemic speech impairment, the symptoms may be as follows:
- the child’s speech is slurred, it is extremely difficult to understand;
- there is no consistency between expressive and impressive speech - the child understands everything, but cannot speak independently.
Classification
This violation has several degrees of systemic speech underdevelopment:
- Mild - insufficient vocabulary for a certain age, a violation in the pronunciation of sounds, inaccuracy in the use of indirect cases, prepositions, plurals and other difficult moments, dysgraphia, insufficient awareness of cause and effect relationships.
- Systemic underdevelopment of moderate speech - difficulties in perceiving too long sentences, words that are used in a figurative meaning. Difficulties in constructing semantic lines during retelling are also noted. Children do not know how to coordinate gender, number, case, or do it with mistakes. They have underdeveloped phonemic hearing, weak active speech, poor vocabulary, and coordination of language movements in the process of articulation is impaired.
- Systemic underdevelopment of severe speech - perception is severely impaired, lack of coherent speech, impaired fine motor skills, a child cannot write and read, or it is given to him with great difficulty, there are only a few dozen words in the vocabulary, the tone is monotonous, the voice power is reduced, no word formation. At the same time, the child cannot engage in a constructive dialogue, since he hardly answers even simple questions.
The diagnosis, as well as the identification of the degree of disorder that is observed in a particular child, is carried out only by a specialist, and not by parents, other relatives or teachers.
Other classification
There is another classification of general underdevelopment. Wherein:
- 1st degree - no speech.
- 2nd degree of systemic underdevelopment of speech - there are only initial speech elements with a large amount of agrammatism.
- The 3rd degree is characterized by the fact that the child can speak phrases, however, the semantic and sound sides differ in underdevelopment.
- The 4th degree involves individual violations in the form of residual disorders in such sections as phonetics, vocabulary, phonemics and grammar.
General underdevelopment of moderate speech, for example, corresponds to the second and third level of this classification.
The levels of systemic underdevelopment of speech we examined.
Mental retardation
Such a pathological phenomenon as systemic speech underdevelopment in a severe degree with mental retardation is caused by the following symptoms:
- The development of the speech system is far behind the norm.
- There are memory problems.
- There are difficulties in defining simple concepts and the relationships between them;
- Increased motor activity.
- The child cannot concentrate.
- There is no conscious will.
- Underdeveloped or absent thinking.
In the case of systemic speech underdevelopment with mental retardation, the psychoemotional functions of children are not properly developed, which negatively affects not only communication, but also other necessary social skills.
What does success depend on?
The success of corrective measures depends on the degree of violations themselves, as well as on the timeliness of the help of specialists to the child. The goal of the parents is to note deviations in speech or intellectual development in time and visit a specialist with the child.
Systemic underdevelopment of expressive speech
Expressive speech disorders are a general underdevelopment of speech functions in children against the background of sufficient mental development with an understanding of what others are saying.
This disorder manifests itself in a small vocabulary that does not correspond to the age of the child, difficulties in verbal communication, and insufficient ability to express an opinion using words.
Also, for children who have expressive disorders of expressive speech to one degree or another, difficulties in learning grammatical rules are characteristic: the child cannot coordinate the ending of words, inappropriately uses prepositions, cannot inflect nouns and adjectives, does not use conjunctions or uses them incorrectly.
Desire for communication
Despite the above-described disturbances in speech functions, children with similar disorders tend to communicate, use non-verbal remarks and gestures to convey their thoughts to the interlocutor.
The first signs of expressive speech disorders can be seen even in infancy. By the age of two, children with a similar pathology do not use words, by the age of three they do not make primitive phrases consisting of several words.
Therapy and Correction
With a mild to moderate stage of the disorder, the prognosis is usually quite positive, with severe forms of pathology, the treatment is longer and more complex, but it also gives good results.
Therapeutic measures are carried out by a speech therapist if speech disorders are accompanied by other disorders. The work also includes a psychologist and other specialists.
Classes should be held in different forms - both in the form of constant repetition of sounds, rules for building endings, words, sentences and other things, and with the use of progressive modern methods, during the development of which children learn to remember, ask questions, understand speech, learn the meaning of certain concepts , train memory, develop motor skills.
An interesting form of presentation of the material, vivid pictures, a favorable atmosphere in the medical institution where the correction is carried out, are a combination of components designed to help the patient quickly cope with the violations.
As a rule, physical exercises are also included in the process of general therapy - children do not sit still, but actively train the motor center.
Serious approach
Systemic speech underdevelopment is a disease in which a serious approach is needed. You should not rush into determining the child for correction to the first doctor he comes across. At the same time, it is imperative to study whether he has positive experience working with such children, as well as the ability to establish psychological connections with “complex” patients.
Correctional techniques include not only psychotherapy and special exercises, often disorders arise as a result of an incorrect approach to the organization of the educational process, and therefore it is necessary to correct it.
Reviews
On this disease in adults and children on medical sites there is a large number of a wide variety of reviews. Patients and parents of children suffering from this pathology say that such a disorder is very successfully treated with various neurological drugs, as well as medications that help normalize cerebral circulation. In addition, they note that it is extremely important not only to use drugs, but also to carry out special methods for correcting such disorders, which are performed by speech therapists in medical institutions.