Not every child speaks clearly and flawlessly. In the modern world, where people most often communicate with each other using electronic gadgets, this problem is very acute.
In preschool age, you can still improve your child’s speech and even prevent the appearance of speech defects if you start working with a speech therapist in time.
How to find a competent specialist and get your first speech therapy consultation? The services of a specialist from our children's development center will help in this matter
Why do you need a speech therapist?
A speech therapy specialist corrects a wide variety of speech defects in childhood: from incorrect pronunciation of certain sounds and hesitations in constructing phrases and sentences to anxiety disorders caused by diseases of the nervous system.
A speech therapist can teach a child to speak correctly and clearly, which will speed up social adaptation.
A speech therapy specialist also works with disabled children who have serious speech impairments. The teacher helps to direct their communication abilities in the right direction, teaches them how to communicate correctly with peers and with adults.
Why do you need a speech therapist if the child does not speak? Speech therapist or speech pathologist - what's the difference? What happens in group classes?
These and some other questions are answered by our speech therapist and defectologist in Sochi, Ekaterina Bogova.
Why do you need a speech therapist if the child does not speak?
If a child does not speak, this does not mean at all that he cannot do this. The earlier speech develops, the easier, simpler and more comfortable it is for a child to adapt to society - to find new friends, get to know the world and, of course, study and master the curriculum in kindergarten or school.
Quite often, in the process of speech development, a number of difficulties arise. For example, a real problem is a discrepancy in the number of words and concepts that the child knows and which he voices: that is, he understands, but does not speak. As a rule, such a situation arises in the absence of motivation - he does not see, or has not been shown to him, that this makes sense for him, that this will somehow expand his capabilities and add pleasant moments to his life.
Speech therapy group classes
As a specialist, I strive to encourage the child to interact with the world around him and to enjoy communication. I provoke him to talk, offering positive emotions in return. Teaching speech becomes not a difficult and tedious lesson, but a relay race with pleasant prizes.
In speech therapy work, it is very important to look at the world through the eyes of a child, hear him, and understand his desires. In the center, where the speech therapist’s office is equipped specifically for classes, where the child can choose subjects that are interesting and desirable to him, the desire to communicate is born.
Gradually following the child’s interest, feeding him with new ideas, showing various ways of communication (verbal and non-verbal), including musical and logarithmic tasks, we develop dialogue.
Speech therapist and speech pathologist-defectologist: what are the differences?
A defectologist is a jack of all trades
The specialty “Defectologist” is broader than “Speech therapist”. Unlike a speech therapist, a defectologist deals not only with the development of the child’s speech function, but also, in general, with the development of such mental processes as attention, thinking, perception, memory - developing the entire complex of cognitive activity, and not just speech.
A set of tools is selected based on the request of the parents and the needs of the child, as well as age, diagnosis and many other factors. As a rule, when working with special needs children, a defectologist is needed to a greater extent, as a specialist with a broader profile, so that development occurs comprehensively, giving better results.
Group speech therapy classes: how are they useful?
In group speech therapy sessions, children come together and communicate – verbally and non-verbally – with each other, and not just with the specialist. Group classes with a speech therapist include tasks to develop imitation and imitation - children repeat exercises not only after the teacher, but also after each other. This is a very useful skill for the development of imagination and the psychophysiological sphere responsible for the motives of action.
In groups, children play together games to develop fine and gross motor skills, games for attention, and perform voice and breathing exercises aimed at comprehensive work with speech disorders. They jointly carry out tasks to develop phonemic hearing, a sense of rhythm, automate sounds, expand the vocabulary, and develop coherent speech.
Logorithmics is fun!
While working in a speech therapy group, social skills of interaction with the world are formed - awareness of one’s desires, their manifestation and achievement of the desired result. Of course, at the initial stages, the desires are simple - “I want a cookie, I’ll do the exercise, I’ll get it,” but gradually, as you progress, both the exercises and desires become more complex, and the motivational sphere expands.
The game transforms activity - it transfers imagination into learning, fulfilling the need for communication and leading the child to the desire to cooperate, he begins to understand the “benefits of speaking.”
Group classes with a speech therapist are called Logorhythmics, meaning rhythm as the basis of all components of the Speech process - from breathing to complex speech structures that we need to achieve great goals and to solve simple everyday problems.
The key to success in correctional work is the creation of a comfortable and positive environment in which children can achieve maximum results, and our center copes with this task perfectly.
