“There is no need to limp with a child”: how to avoid a speech development delay Neurologist Chutko told how to prevent a speech development delay in a child 23.03.2023, 08:04

— How often do children in Russia have speech disorders?

– According to the literature, 5-10% of children of preschool age suffer from this pathology, while boys are more likely to suffer from it.

What are the most common speech problems in children?

– One of the most common types of delay in speech development is alalia, the absence or underdevelopment of speech, which is caused by damage to the central nervous system. Depending on which speech centers are affected, motor (expressive) alalia, in which persistent speech underdevelopment is observed with partially preserved understanding of someone else’s speech, and sensory (expressive) alalia, in which speech understanding is primarily impaired.

Mixed sensorimotor alalia is common. The child cannot master the language – sounds, words, grammar. Cannot find the correct order of sounds in a word. Vocabulary develops slowly in children with Alalia.

The concept of “alalia” is more often used by speech therapists. Doctors often use the term Special Language Developmental Disorders (SRPP). [SLI]).

– What usually causes violations?

– The most common causes of speech development delays are hereditary factors, pregnancy and birth complications, intrauterine infections, prematurity, birth trauma. Hearing loss, lack of communication between parents and children also contribute to the development of pathology. Parents, and sometimes even experts, have an erroneous opinion about the leading role of cervical spine trauma in the origin of speech pathology, “instability of the cervical spine.” But it is not.

– If the child is not speaking, how do you know if the problem is a neurological disorder and not hearing loss or something else?

To do this, it is necessary to exclude other possible factors. A child is said to have speech underdevelopment if he has age-appropriate intelligence, normal hearing, normal conditions for mastering speech, and violations occur without a previous period of normal development.

It should be said that the development of speech in a child begins not with the appearance of words, but much earlier.

Thus, at the age of 2-3 months, cooing occurs. At the same time, vowels (a, e, y, o) appear first, and then – consonants. It is interesting to note that cooing (according to its phonetic characteristics) is the same for all peoples of the world. At the age of 6 months, babbling occurs, which is combinations of consonants with vowels. The most common ones are “ma-ma-ma”, “ba-ba-ba” etc. The first syllables are formed.

That’s why doctors always ask: how did the child communicate in the first year?

At the age of 10-12 months, the first meaningful words emerge from two identical syllables (“father”, “mother”, “woman”). At the end of 1 year, his vocabulary reaches 5-10 words.

“But still, children develop at different rates and speech development is no exception. How do parents know if their child has a speech delay?

– It is noteworthy that babbling at an early age is absent or limited. The first words and phrases appear late. Parents note the silence, characterizing the children as understanding, but unwilling to talk.

Instead of speech, facial expressions and gestures are actively developing. In the future, speech appears with a delay, but the vocabulary is still poor. For such children, errors in the coordination of parts of speech in terms of status, number and gender are typical. Children have difficulty describing the order of events in time.

This may include abbreviated pronunciation of words, misuse, or lack of grammatical features. Prefixes and suffixes are either not used at all or are used incorrectly.

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– What other deviations can occur in children with speech delay?

– Often speech disorders are combined with general clumsiness, clumsiness, hyperactivity, disinhibition or, conversely, drowsiness. In addition, children with speech disorders at an early age experience difficulties in the formation of reading skills and difficulties in presenting the read material.

– Now parents begin to teach their children a foreign language from the preschool years. When is the best time for a child to learn a second language?

— A healthy child in a multilingual environment can speak many languages ​​from early childhood. In general, teaching a child a foreign language is very beneficial.

Therefore, if a child is good at speaking, you can playfully teach him a foreign language from the age of 4-5 – by this age, the child is already quite confident in mastering the first language.

But new languages ​​are very difficult for children with speech disorders. If there are problems with speech, then at preschool age it is better to limit yourself to one language.

– Is there a prevention of speech disorders? How can parents minimize risk?

– It is important to communicate with the child more often, smile at him more, try to understand him, read aloud more. There’s no need to limp with a child, you should use casual conversation. The child must learn the correct pronunciation.

The child tries to imitate the intonation, tempo, rhythm of speech of an adult at the moment of communication. When communicating with an adult, he takes an example from him and can model incorrect sound pronunciation.

The problem is that parents don’t talk much to their children and “entrust” them to the TV or computer. Of course, it is better for the child to spend less time in front of the screen and practice more communication. If you need to occupy your child with something, it is better to use audio recordings in which songs and text alternate: fairy tales, for example.

– Is the help of a specialist always necessary for speech disorders – a neurologist, psychotherapist, speech therapist? Or are there measures that parents can take on their own?

– If you suspect the presence of speech disorders, parents should consult a pediatric neurologist. The doctor will determine the degree of speech disorders and, if necessary, prescribe treatment.

In clinical practice, the treatment of children with speech disorders begins at the age of two and continues for a very long time. Doctors and speech therapists also work on the consequences of school-age speech disorders.

In the treatment of speech development delays, various drugs that improve learning and memory processes, drugs that positively affect the higher integrative functions of the brain are used. Their main action is to improve the processes of learning and memory in case of their violation. A neurologist will recommend a specific drug to treat a child. And of course, long-term speech therapy correction is often necessary.

The Center for Behavioral Neurology of the Human Brain Institute (St. Petersburg) has also developed a method for treating speech pathology using the transcranial micropolarization method (TCMP). It is based on the direct application of electric current with a small force to the brain tissue. This allows you to “start” the nonspecific activating systems of the brain, improve the functioning of neurons and accelerate the development of immature elements of the cerebral cortex.

– What threatens if you do not take timely treatment of speech disorders? Will such a child be able to master speech skills in adulthood?

– The problem of speech disorders will not disappear as soon as the child has words and phrases.

It is known that children with speech disorders at an early age learn to read worse later on and have difficulty presenting the material they read.

Also, such children often have a limited vocabulary, they make mistakes when accepting parts of speech as letters, numbers and gender. They have difficulty in describing the order of events in time and often make mistakes when writing.

And adults with a history of speech disorder have low levels of self-efficacy: belief in the effectiveness of their own actions and expectations of success from their implementation.