Features of speech development in a child under one year old
Yulia Vertinskaya
Features of speech development in a child under one year old
FEATURES OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN A CHILD UP TO ONE YEAR OLD
Preverbal (pre-speech)
the period lasts from 0 to 8 months of life.
At this time, the formation of the psychophysiological basis of speech . The motor, auditory and visual analyzers come into action in a certain sequence. As they mature, their interaction occurs, which ensures the preparation of speech perception and reproduction. At this stage the child is extremely sensitive to language, makes short or melodious sounds, and discovers the opportunity to communicate with adults through sounds and gestures. Already at the moment of birth, the child’s and his senses are prepared to master language. The cry of a healthy newborn, announcing his birth, is long, characterized by a short inhalation and an extended exhalation, the voice is clear. By the 2-3rd month of life, the child’s becomes significantly richer in intonation; when screaming, there is an increase in uncoordinated movements of the arms and legs. From this age, the child begins to react with a cry to the cessation of communication with him, the removal of bright objects from the field of view, etc.
Children often react with a cry to overexcitation, especially before falling asleep . The intonation enrichment of the cry indicates that the child has begun to develop a communication function. The period of intense intonation enrichment of the cry coincides with a certain stage of motor development . The child begins to hold his head upright, open and close his hands, and hold an object placed in his hand. At the same time, he begins to listen to the sounds of speech , look for the source of the sound, turn his head towards the speaker, focusing his attention on the face and lips of the adult.
At the age of about 2 months, the child begins to pronounce sounds using the lips and tongue, and most importantly, it becomes noticeable that the child himself enjoys them. These audible vocal reactions, which also include grunting and joyful squeals, are called humming. They can hardly be identified with the sounds of the native language, however, it is possible to distinguish sounds that resemble vowels (a, o, u, e, the easiest to articulate, labial consonants (p, m, b, due to the physiological act of sucking, and back-lingual ones (d , k, x, associated with the physiological act of swallowing.
During the period of humming, in addition to the signals of displeasure expressed by screaming, intonation appears, signaling the state of the child’s , which from time to time begins to take on the character of an expression of joy. The child looks intently into the face of the speaking person. If at this moment the adult’s facial expressions and intonation are joyful, then the child clearly repeats the facial movements (echopraxia)
and imitates vocal responses
(echolalia)
. Usually by 3 months of age, the noise reaches its maximum. Its nature and duration depend on the mother's reaction to it.
If she reacts to the sounds made by the child , smiles in response, repeats them, the humming intensifies and becomes more and more emotional. These are the first "dialogues"
mother and
child , first experience of communication. of developing understanding of speech occurs .
First of all, the child begins to distinguish the intonation of speech , then words denoting objects and actions. At approximately 4-5 months of life, the next stage of pre-speech development of the child begins - babbling . This is an involuntary physiological reaction, indicating the child’s and good mood. First, the child makes short sounds that resemble consonant-vowel
.
Gradually the babble becomes more complex, and the complication goes along several lines. Firstly, more and more new combinations of sounds arise. Secondly, the sound sequences lengthen: if at first the child pronounced one syllable, then soon chains of syllables appear, including 3, 4 or more identical syllables.
Gradually, the syllable chains become more and more diverse; they contain not only the same, but also different types of syllables. This period coincides with the formation of the child's sitting function .
Initially, the child tries to sit down. Then he develops the ability to hold his body in a sitting position, which is finally formed by the age of six months. In the babble of a 6-7-month-old child , one can already catch a certain semblance of intonation, and the rudiments of intonation structures characteristic of the native language can be heard more and more clearly. It has been noticed that deaf children also babble, but gradually their babbling fades and stops. After 8 months, sounds that do not correspond to the phonetic system of the native language begin to gradually fade away. Some babbling sounds that do not correspond to the phonemes of the speech heard by the child are lost, and new speech sounds similar to the phonemes of the speech environment appear.
There is also a third stage in the development of babbling , when the child begins to pronounce words formed by repeating the same
syllable. This stage of babbling is usually short, and the child soon , by the end of the first year of life , begins to speak his first words. This period coincides with a new stage in the development of psychomotor skills . The child begins to take his first steps and learns to walk in a short time. Active hand activity develops The thumb and the terminal phalanges of the remaining fingers begin to participate in grasping objects with the hand.
When pronouncing the first words, the child reproduces their general sound appearance, usually to the detriment of the role of individual sounds in it. The first words are usually a combination of open repeated syllables ( "ma-ma"
,
“pa-pa”
,
“dya-dya”,
etc.). More complex words can be phonetically distorted while retaining part of the word - the root, initial or stressed syllable.
As the vocabulary grows, phonetic distortion becomes more and more noticeable. This indicates a more rapid development of the lexical-semantic side of speech compared to the phonetic side, the formation of which requires the maturation of phonemic perception and speech motor skills. utterance of words is usually accompanied by gestures and facial expressions.
The timing and pace of development of understanding the speech of others diverges from the timing and pace of the formation of oral speech . Already at 7-8 months, children begin to respond adequately to words and phrases, which are accompanied by appropriate gestures and facial expressions. For example, a child turns his head and eyes when he hears: “Where is the woman?”
,
“Where is mom?”
and so on.
In other words, at this time the relationship between the sound image of a word and an object in a specific situation begins to develop . When adults repeat words multiple times in combination with showing an object, the connection between the visual image of the object and the sounding word is gradually imprinted the child’s Thus, understanding of an audible word is established long before the child can pronounce it.
There are some differences in the rate of speech development in boys and girls. There are indications that girls appear words at 8-9 months of life, and boys at 11-12 months.
FEATURES OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN A CHILD IN THE SECOND YEAR OF LIFE
Understanding of speech develops most rapidly in the second year of life. The child begins to understand speech addressed to him and carries out simple instructions. Gradually, he develops an understanding of the names of the people around him and the names of objects. He looks in the direction of the adult’s pointing gesture, chooses at his request ( “Give me the doll”
,
“Give me the dog”
) is an item from a number of others.
The child perceives whole phrases and gives a response - for example, to the question “Where is the clock?”
or
“Where did mom go?”
follows a pointing gesture with the utterance of a word - understands speech addressed not only to him, but also to others.
A two-year-old child is interested in the actions of other children, communicates with them emotionally, shows sympathy, at the request of an adult, gives a toy to another child or shows protest - motor, verbal, emotional. The child, under the influence of adults, develops a positive attitude towards other children: the adult attracts the children’s attention to each other, gives feasible instructions, teaches children to express a positive attitude towards each other in actions and in speech : “Don’t cry”
,
“He wants to see his mother”
.
An understanding of the image of individual objects and actions in the picture appears as a reaction to the questions “Where is the ball, show me?”
,
“What is the girl doing in the picture?”
etc.
develops . The child , following verbal instructions, brings objects, selects the one he needs among many objects, takes it from one person and gives it to another, and when carrying out verbal instructions from an adult, emotionally expresses consent and refusal. He loves to look at pictures, he develops an understanding of words-names and words-actions, which contributes to the development of visual play.
By the age of 2 the child already understands the simple plot of the picture, loves to listen to fairy tales, songs, poems, and is good at differentiating words that differ from each other by only one phoneme, for example, showing where the mustache and ears are in the picture. He able to understand speech about events that have already taken place in his personal experience, for example: “Today we will go to Misha, remember, he has a big car.”
.
By the end of the second year, the child basically masters the ability to isolate and distinguish phonemes of his native language, understands a story without accompanying it with illustrations (for example, a fairy tale)
and can answer questions related to its content, and understands the speech of others well.
In the second half of the second year of life, a qualitative leap occurs in the development of active speech . At this time, attempts appear to link words into phrases using plural forms. The child not only masters the pronunciation of words, but also significantly expands his vocabulary - the vocabulary of children of this age contains at least 50 words.
Elementary phrasal speech usually includes 2-3 words expressing a demand ( “Mom, give me”
,
“Dad, go”
).
Phrases at the end of the second year of life are characterized by a special word order , in which the main word comes first, and the fact that they are mostly pronounced in the affirmative form.
At the same age, children begin to talk to toys, pictures, and pets. Speech becomes the main means of communication with adults, and the language of gestures and facial expressions gradually fades away. In the second half of the child’s second year of life, the first place comes to a variety of independent activities, directed by parents, and the baby’s closely related susceptibility to speech impulses.
In joint activities with adults, who give explanations along the way and show the child the world around him , the baby begins to understand speech better and better. At the same time, the focus of his actions increases, motivation , concentration and attention develop.
In the second half of the second year of life, the child begins to ask questions: “What is this? What is this?
.
Some children begin to construct polysyllabic sentences very early, others at 2 years old have an extensive passive vocabulary, but can barely pronounce words themselves.
FEATURES OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN A CHILD AT THE AGE OF 3 YEARS
At this age, not only does the volume of commonly used words rapidly increase, but the ability for word creation, which emerged at the end of the second year of life, .
A 3-year-old child gradually develops the ability to correctly connect different words into sentences. From simple two-word phrases, the child moves on to using complex phrases using conjunctions, case forms of nouns, singular and plural. The vocabulary is already 250-700 words. The child says his name , gender and age, understands the meaning of simple prepositions - performs tasks like “put the doll in the crib”
,
“put the cube in the box”
, uses simple prepositions and conjunctions in sentences because, if, when.
He correctly uses the pronouns I , you, me in speech, repeats two numbers in the correct sequence, has the concept of “one”
,
“one”
.
The child understands the designation of actions in different situations ( “Show me who is sitting, who is sleeping”
, the meaning of prepositions in a familiar specific situation (
“What are you sitting on?”
, correctly pronounces the sounds [s], [z], [l]. A three-year-old
child understands read short stories and fairy tales with or without the support of pictures, can evaluate his own and others' pronunciation, asks questions about the meaning of words.
By the beginning of the 3rd year , children develop a grammatical structure of speech . Children of this age are characterized by a need for communication. Development various forms of communication a child and peers is the most important task of early childhood pedagogy. Frequent contact with adults and peers promotes speech development . Children begin to actively tell others about where they went, what they saw, using various parts of speech , simple and common sentences. In At this age, their speech, under the guidance of adults, quickly improves, and the child’s perception of objects and phenomena becomes more accurate and meaningful. He tries to find similarities between objects, compares them, and establishes the simplest connections between them. This ability to differentiate and generalize is constantly improving. A child of this age in different environments recognizes familiar objects, regardless of their color, shape and size, which often causes difficulties in children of the second year of life . Looking at toys, pictures, illustrations, he accurately names familiar objects. In children of the third year of life, the ability to combine objects is formed , focusing on a functional sign indicated by an adult, for example: “A cup is a utensil, people drink from a cup”
.
The child is able to listen and perceive simple stories without demonstration and carry out simple verbal instructions.
He easily remembers and repeats after adults not only individual words, but also entire phrases and rhymes. , the child’s perception of the speech of others improves significantly . In some cases, he catches the incorrect pronunciation of words by peers. Having mastered a new word, the child already strives to reproduce it accurately. He increasingly uses words that are more complex in syllable structure, consisting of 3 or more syllables, although he still cannot always preserve the structure of the word and correctly pronounce all the sounds in it in the appropriate sequence (for example, the word “ bicycle”
can be pronounced as
"apiped"
,
"vesiped"
).
level of thinking reflects his speech : he uses common and complex sentences. By the end of the 3rd year, the child owns a set of approximately 1000 words. Speech development occurs differentially over time, since in this regard much depends on the conditions of speech communication in a particular family and on the conditions in which the child lives . of the speech of others also changes significantly . The child understands the meaning of what an adult says about what directly surrounds him in everyday life, concerns him personally and is connected with his experiences. of speech also changes significantly . At this age, the use of speech as a means of teaching and education increases significantly.
In the 3rd year of life, a child begins to develop various forms of communication. During the game, he shares toys, impressions, makes requests, expresses his attitude towards the actions of another, gives advice, and helps other children. At the same time, the child has a selective attitude towards children - he prefers to communicate with only one child or he does not develop such an attitude. During the first 3 years of life, both the child’s understanding of speech and his active own speech is formed, which begins to include expressions of relationships between people and objects.
FEATURES OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN A 4-YEAR-OLD CHILD
After 3 years of age, phonemic perception and mastery of sound pronunciation develop It is believed that the sound side of the language with normal speech development of a child is fully formed by 4-5 years of life .
The sounds of the Russian language appear in the child’s speech in the following sequence: plosives, fricatives, affricates. Later, children usually begin to pronounce the trembling sound r. In the speech of a 4-year-old child , complex and complex sentences are already encountered, the prepositions by, before, instead of, after, conjunctions what, where, how much are used. The child correctly pronounces the hissing sounds [w], [zh], [h], [sch], as well as the sound [ts], the softened pronunciation of consonants disappears. But not all children at this age pronounce the sounds [r], [l], hissing. There are replacements and omissions of difficult sounds, and their rearrangement.
The vocabulary consists of 1500-2000 words, including words denoting temporal and spatial concepts. The active vocabulary that a child has at the age of 4 gives him the opportunity to freely communicate with others, but he often experiences difficulties due to the insufficiency and poverty of the vocabulary when he needs to describe an event in which he himself was a participant. The child develops a motivated attitude towards vocabulary. Often children begin to use words that are not in their native language (they dig with a shovel, which means it’s a “dig”
etc.).
Simultaneously with the enrichment of the vocabulary, the child more intensively masters the grammatical structure of the language. He increasingly answers questions from adults with detailed phrases consisting of 4 or more words. His speech is dominated by simple common members, nouns and verbs in the plural. At this age, children master the comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs , and short participles appear speech Increased interest in the sound side of a word helps the child change words by analogy with others, however, such changes may not always be successful. Children of this age still make grammatical errors - they incorrectly agree words, especially neuter nouns with adjectives, and use case endings incorrectly. When forming the genitive case of plural nouns, the influence of the ending -ov, -ev on other declensions is noted (house - houses, pen - pens instead of pens, frequent errors are observed in the use of indeclinable nouns (" And a button on my coat came off"
, incorrect changes in persons even of frequently used verbs.
At this age, the child is not yet able to independently talk logically, coherently and clearly for others about the events he witnessed; he cannot intelligently retell the content of a fairy tale or story read to him. His speech is still situational. From the pronunciation side, the appearance of many sounds is noted. Most children correctly pronounce such difficult-to-learn sounds as ы], е], х], bringing them closer to the norm and pronouncing whistling sounds more clearly, they have the sound ц]. Some children develop sounds of late ontogenesis ([w], [zh], [h], [sch], [l], [r], but, as a rule, most babies do not yet pronounce hissing sounds, replacing them with corresponding hard whistling sounds , for example, the sound [w] with the sound [s] (suba instead of shub)
etc.
FEATURES OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN A CHILD IN THE FIFTH YEAR OF LIFE
By the age of 5, a child’s vocabulary increases to 2500-3000. He actively uses generalizing words (clothing, transport, vegetables, pets, wild animals, etc., names many objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality. There are no omissions or rearrangements of sounds and syllables in the words; the only exceptions are some difficult ones and unfamiliar words (excavator)
.
All parts of speech . The child masters all the sounds of his native language and pronounces them correctly in speech .
He already consciously approaches certain linguistic phenomena, thinks about his speech, and creates a number of new and original words by analogy. At this age, children easily remember and recite poems, fairy tales, and convey the content of pictures. child begins to verbalize his play actions, which indicates the formation of the regulatory function of speech . By the age of 5, the child has fully mastered everyday vocabulary, and by the age of 5-6 he masters the types of declensions and conjugations. Collective nouns and new words formed with the help of suffixes appear in his speech By the end of the 5th year of life, the child begins to master contextual speech and independently create text messages. His statements begin to resemble a short story in form. The active dictionary contains a large number of words that are complex in their lexical, logical and phonetic characteristics. Utterances include phrases that require the agreement of a large group of words. At the 5th year of life, the child shows significant progress in mental and speech development . He begins to identify and name the most essential features and qualities of objects, establish the simplest connections and accurately reflect them in speech . His speech becomes more varied, more precise and richer in content. The stability of attention to the speech of others , the child is able to listen to the answers of adults to the end. At this age, children begin to master monologue speech. In their speech , sentences with homogeneous circumstances appear for the first time. They learn and correctly agree adjectives with nouns in indirect cases. However, many still cannot independently, without the help of adults, coherently, consistently and accurately retell the text of a fairy tale or story they have read. In the fifth year of life, a child is able to recognize by ear this or that sound in a word, and select words with a given sound.
All this is possible only if in previous age groups the teacher developed phonemic awareness in children. sufficiently developed speech hearing gives him the opportunity to distinguish between increases and decreases in voice volume the speech of speech , and to grasp various means of expressiveness. Imitating adults, he himself can quite accurately reproduce various intonations: raise and lower the tone of his voice, highlight individual words and syntagms in phrases, pause correctly, express an emotional-volitional attitude to what is being said. 's exhalation lengthens . is able vowel sounds within 3-7 seconds, free exhalation when blowing on the plume is somewhat shorter (from 2 to 5 seconds)
.
By the end of the 5th year, many children master the pronunciation of all sounds of their native language, but some of them still incorrectly pronounce hissing sounds, the sound [r].
Topic: Pre-verbal (pre-speech) stage of a child’s communicative activity
Practical lesson 1.
Topic:
Pre-verbal (pre-speech) stage of a child’s communicative activity
- The main characteristics of the pre-verbal (pre-speech) stage of a child’s communicative activity.
The development of children's speech up to three years of age is traditionally divided into three main stages:
1) the pre-speech stage (the first year of life), in which, in turn, the screaming stage, the humming stage and the babbling stage are distinguished;
2) the stage of initial language acquisition - pre-grammatical (second year of life);
3) stage of mastering grammar (third year of life).
The researcher of children's speech V. Stern argued that the beginning of speech is usually considered the moment when the child first utters sounds associated with the awareness of their meaning and the intention of the message. But this moment, he noted, has a preliminary history, which, in essence, begins from the first day of life.
A child’s acquisition of independent speech is preceded by the so-called pre-verbal (pre-speech) stage.
, which is characterized by the formation of emotional and personal communication with an adult, the development of understanding of his speech and preparation for the design of his own speech. At this stage, the development of the child’s speech and phonemic hearing and his articulatory apparatus occurs, which is manifested in the utterance of various types of vocalizations (which include screaming, crying, humming, babbling). A person is born with the prerequisites for mastering speech: he has hearing, a number of instincts and unconditioned reflexes. Throughout the first year of life, the child transforms the reflex-motor reactions received at birth (cry, grasping reflex, turning the head, direction of gaze, etc.) into sign (proto-sign) means of communication.
Usually the preparatory stage is divided into three periods (according to G.L. Rosengardt-Pupko).
First period
- the stage of emotional communication between a child and an adult - covers the time from 1 to 5-6 months of life. In the second or third months of life, the so-called revitalization complex appears (N.M. Shchelovanov). The child reacts to the approach of an adult with joyful excitement - a smile appears on his face, his eyes light up with joy, bodily motor skills increase, and primary vocalizations occur. The screaming stage, which lasts approximately the first two months of life, is replaced by humming and hooting. Screaming as a manifestation of discomfort transforms into crying.
Second period of the preparatory stage
(from 6 to 11 - 12 months) - the formation of communication between an adult and a child based on understanding the adult’s speech, and then - pronouncing the first words. The main prerequisites for a child’s reaction to a sound complex (i.e. a single word or combination of words) are:
- highlighting an object among others;
- focusing on the subject;
- the presence of a pronounced emotional reaction in the child.
Third period of the preparatory stage
(10-12 months - second year of life) - the beginning of the development of independent speech of the child. Children babble a lot, adopt new sounds, sound combinations, and simple words. Repeated repetition of syllables and words is a very exciting activity for a child. At the same time, the child cannot do without an audience (as at all further stages of speech development). During this period, the first normative words appear in the child’s speech - designations for close adults (mom, dad, aunt, nanny, woman), names of food and drink or utensils for them (mako, sosa), individual actions (dai, di-di) , the words “yes” and “no” appear. In addition to words of babbling origin, the baby’s vocabulary includes onomatopoeic elements (onomatopoeia), which are sometimes called “nanny language”: “av-av”, “bi-bi”, “yum-yum”, etc. These words reflect the fundamental property of the first names - the desire to bring the sound form closer to the object or phenomenon that they denote. The initial children's vocabulary often also includes so-called frozen phrases, formulas - expressions consisting of more than one word, which the child perceives and reproduces as a single whole (Ka-ku! - how delicious; Totam? - who is there; Here - here Here). In general, the vocabulary of a one-year-old child usually contains from 3-5 to 10-12, sometimes up to 20 words denoting the names of persons and objects. It is important that they are used in a meaningful situation, although their meaning can be very unstable. The main thing is that words acquire an object-related relationship, which creates the basis for the child to master their meanings.
- Pre-speech vocalizations of the child (humming and babbling).
Booming
- monotonous vocalization - vowel-like sounds (a-aa, uh-uh, uu-u, g-gu, boo-u), which sounds reminiscent of the cooing of a dove. These sounds are absent in the speech of an adult. Later, from about four months, hooting appears (the sounds “agu”, “e”, “i”, pronunciation of complex complexes of sounds “til”, “frrr”, “a-e-e”, “r-r-r” ). T.N. Ushakova writes that these manifestations should be recognized as biologically determined: this kind of vocalization is almost the same in children all over the world, regardless of the linguistic environment. Humming and honking are congenital, so they are also typical for children who are deaf and mute from birth. At the end of the fourth month of life, the child himself begins to use speech sounds to call an adult to interact, calling to him at a distance. By five to six months, the child's speech begins to babble.
Babbling
is a combination of sounds that resemble consonant + vowel combinations. Usually this is the repeated pronunciation of individual syllables (ba-ba, ma-ma-ma, cha-cha-cha, etc.). The “monologues” subside only when the tired baby falls asleep. Deaf children also begin to babble, but gradually their babbling fades and stops. Sound complexes that appear in a child at the age of about six months, as before, are in no way connected with meaning. It is no coincidence that the popular proverb says: “The tongue babbles, but the head does not know” (V. Dal. Proverbs of the Russian People). However, babbling prepares speech. Syllable chains are becoming more and more diverse. Babbling takes on the features of modulated babbling. It seems that the baby speaks his own language, creating entire phrases, making statements, asking questions. Almost all components of spoken speech are present: tone, rhythm, tempo, melody, intonation. With the development of speech, these components will obey the word and phrase.
- Basic phonetic characteristics of babble.
Babbling
- This is a special form of independent activity of a child, a pre-speech means of communication and a way of expressing an emotional state. At the early stage of babbling development, the child produces sounds that are found in a wide variety of languages. The vocal evolution of the babbling period (4 months - 1 year 9 months) is subject to the action of the imitation reflex. The most important role here belongs to a mechanism called echolalia - the unconscious imitation of speech sounds that the child hears. “Alien” sounds, unusual for a given speech environment, are gradually “cut off”. Your own vocalizations are “adjusted” to the speech of the people around you. Over time, the babbling of infants increasingly reflects the phonetic features of the language spoken by the adults around the child. It is important that during the period of babbling, syntagmatic organization of speech appears. This is the division of the speech stream into component segments, which means that the child has formed a physiological mechanism of syllable formation.
- Development and change of babbling structures.
With normal child development, “booming” at 6-7 months gradually turns into babbling. At this time, children pronounce syllables like ba-ba, dy-dya, de-da, etc., relating them to certain people around them. In the process of communicating with adults, the child gradually tries to imitate intonation, tempo, rhythm, melody, and also reproduce series of syllables; The volume of babbling words that the child tries to repeat after adults expands. V.I. Beltyukov and A.D. Salakhova believe that babbling, developing on the basis of the child’s innate instinctive reactions - sucking, swallowing, etc. - is autonomous and reflects in its development the processes of maturation of the nervous system. Babbling (according to V.I. Beltyukov) is a congenital process, that is, the result of known historically accumulated speech motor reactions of a person, inherited by the child, and consists of three stages:
Stage I - the inherited program of articulatory movements is implemented regardless of the child’s hearing in the form of humming and babbling;
Stage II - autoecholalia mechanisms are included in babbling;
Stage III - echolalia mechanisms are included in babbling.
Physiological echolalia, manifested in the repetition of syllables and then words, precedes the understanding of words and their pronunciation (I. A. Sikorsky, M. I. Astvatsaturov, N. I. Krasnogorsky, E. F. Rau, O. V. Pravdina, I. M. Sechenov, N. I. Kasatkina, G. M. Lyamina, J. Piaget).
At 8.5-9 months, babbling already has a modulated character with a variety of intonations. But this process is not unambiguous for all children: with a decrease in auditory function, the humming “fades out”, and this is often a diagnostic symptom. The most intense process of accumulation of babbling sounds occurs after the sixth month during the seventh month, then the process of accumulation of sounds slows down and few new sounds appear. The process of intensive accumulation of sounds in babbling coincides with the period of myelination, the significance of which lies in the fact that its onset is associated with a transition from generalized movements to more differentiated ones (N. A. Bernstein). From 7-8 months to one year, articulation does not expand particularly, but speech understanding appears. During this period, semantic load is received not by phonemes, but by intonation, rhythm, and then the general contour of the word. The length of chains of babbling syllables at the age of 8 months is maximum and is about 4-5 segments. Then the average number of chain segments decreases to 2-5 (according to S. M. Nosikov), which corresponds to the average number of syllables in word forms of Russian speech - 2-3. The longest segment of the chain is characterized by the clearest structure of its noise and vocal components, while the short segments of Ontogenesis and Dysontogenesis of speech activity are characterized by a relatively erased, reduced sound structure. The initial babbling chains of stereotypical vocalizations (a - a - a, etc.) are replaced by 8-9 months by chains of stereotypical segments with a noise beginning (cha - cha - cha, etc.); then, at 9-10 months, chains of segments with a stereotypical noise beginning and a changing vocal end (te - cha - those) appear.
By 10 months, a higher level of communicative and cognitive activity is formed. All this stimulates a leap in the child’s motivational sphere. Carrying out emotional interaction with the child, the mother systematically turns her attention to various objects of the surrounding reality and thereby highlights them with her voice and her emotions. Imitating his mother and using chains of babbling segments already available to him, he reproduces the first babbling words, in form increasingly approaching the sound form of words in his native language.
By about 11 months, chains with a changing noise onset appear (va - la, di - ka, dya - na, ba - na - pa, e - ma - va, etc.). In this case, any one syllable is distinguished by its duration, volume, and pitch.
By the end of the first year of a child’s life, the first words appear, most of them consisting of paired identical syllables: baba, dad, mom, lalya, etc. The dynamics of children’s mastery of the sound side of speech has been studied relatively little (A. N. Gvozdev, A. D. Salakhova , A. G. Goer and G. Goer, V. I. Beltyukov). A. N. Gvozdev comes to the conclusion that the acquisition of phonetics is mainly determined by the development of the speech motor analyzer. The function of the speech-motor analyzer in its development lags significantly behind the auditory-speech analyzer. The course of assimilation of speech sounds, subject to the laws of development of the speech motor analyzer, proceeds from coarse articulatory differentiations to increasingly subtle ones, and the assimilation of a specific sound occurs through a gradual transition from an easier articulatory structure to a more difficult one. In the process of speech development, there is a repetition of those stages of the formation of articulatory differentiations that took place in babbling.
Signs of speech dysontogenesis at the stage of humming:
The appearance of honking (pre-humming stage) at 3-5 months may be a sign of cerebral palsy.
- Booming does not occur in response to emotional communication with an adult.
- Humming, more like a squeal.
Absence of the second phase of humming: imitation of sounds (assessed from 4 months).
- The humming of the blind is no different from the humming of the sighted, although some blind people experience a longer period of humming.
- Sounds of humming without melodiousness, short sounds.
Absence of back-lingual sounds in humming (a sign of excessive tension in the root of the tongue).
Low buzzing activity. Ontogenesis and dysontogenesis of speech activity
- The emergence of communicative intentions and the development of means of their expression. Protosigns (gestures, facial expressions, vocalizations) and their functions in the initial stages of communication.
Physiological, genetically inherited reflex motor manifestations become the first protosigns
, collectively forming what the famous specialist on children's speech E.I. Isenina calls
protolanguage
, i.e. the primary pre-verbal communication system. Let us note once again that the protolanguage has a nonverbal paralinguistic nature. It consists of gestures, facial movements, manipulation of objects, non-speech sounds, etc.
The basis of the protolinguistic system are gestures (they are also called kine signs). Psychologists distinguish two types of kine signs, which are used by infants to convey any desires.
1. Signs that were invented by the child in the process of communication. These are figurative signs that do not have a socially fixed form (pointing, pushing, etc.).
2. Paralinguistic gestures, which form part of the speech behavior inherent in a given culture. These signs appear somewhat later and may differ among different peoples. For example: among Russians, agreement means a nod of the head, among Bulgarians and Turks - denial; Russians, helping themselves with counting, bend their fingers, starting with the little finger, Europeans and Americans straighten them, starting with the thumb; and so on
Nonverbal protosigns form the basis of a child’s speech activity during the first two years of his life. With the advent of “normal” verbal language, they do not disappear altogether, but go deep into the linguistic consciousness of the developing personality. Having gone inside, the protolanguage forms the basis for the formation of a special language of the intellect, which, as we have already said, N.I. Zhinkin called a universal subject code. Later, this system will be improved along with the language, influencing the process of generation
, the child’s vocal development occurs
, which at first is carried out within the framework of the inheritance program
- Peculiarities of a child’s perception of adult speech in the preverbal period.
Scream -
the child’s first thoughtless phonation, which is an instinctive defensive reaction to any discomfort.
For now, this is practically the only way for a child to establish contact with his mother. Quite quickly, the baby, at a reflex level, establishes a connection between his own cry and the subsequent elimination of discomfort. From this time on, the cry is addressed to an adult and acquires symbolic functions. If an adult does not react in any way to a cry, the child’s message loses all meaning, and from this time on, according to researchers, disruptions in speech formation may begin. The baby's second reflex reaction is a smile,
which at first is only a physiological manifestation of pleasure. After three weeks of the child’s life, it is already addressed to an adult. By three months, the smile is aimed at provoking a reverse reaction from the adult. In this way, a pre-verbal communication system is formed, which consists of proto-signs: gestures, facial movements, manipulations with objects, non-speech sounds, etc.
- Patterns of mastering the sound side of speech: characteristics of the period of “pre-phonemic” speech development (pre-verbal period).
N.H. Shvachkin identified two periods in the development of a child’s speech perception. In the first, prephonemic period
rhythmic-intonation speech, the child does not yet differentiate sounds, but only captures the intonation of an adult’s speech and its rhythm, the general sound pattern of words.
In other words, at the early stage of speech development, the perception of speech sounds, according to the observations of N.Kh. Shvachkin, occurs not due to specific linguistic means (phonemes), but due to the capture of the rhythmic-melodic structure of a word or phrase (intonation). Thus, when instructed to clap their hands with the sound complex “knock-knock”, children gave the corresponding motor reaction to both “knock-knock” and “uk-uk”, and even while maintaining the beat to “o-o”, pronounced with that same intonation (N.Kh. Shvachkin, 1948, p. 127). Over time, the child develops a need to develop verbal forms of communication. He begins to perceive the sounds of adult speech and use them as meaning distinguishers of words. During this period, called N.H. Shvachkin’s “ period of phonemic speech
”, the word becomes a means of communication for the child. This period begins to develop from 2 months and ends by 2 years.
Studying the phonemic perception of children in the process of ontogenesis, R.E. Levina (1961) established the following periods of its gradual development:
During the pre-speech period
the sounds produced by the baby's vocal apparatus (crying, babbling) are not speech in themselves, but intensive training of the articulatory and vocal apparatus during the period of babbling prepares individual elements of pronunciation in the formation of speech sounds. At this stage, the child perceives only undifferentiated complexes from surrounding speech, distinguishing only the melody of speech. Based on their overall sound, the child begins to understand individual words and phrases in their most elementary subject-relatedness. This stage is determined by R.E. Levina as prephonemic.
The first period of speech formation
characterized by the appearance of the first words of active speech. The words spoken by the child are in the nature of undifferentiated sound complexes and often merge with the child’s expressive movements; they widely use intonation, raising and lowering the voice, and onomatopoeia. Characteristic of this period is the emergence of the ability to repeat a stressed syllable in a heard word. This period is characterized by elementary phonetics and vocabulary. The initial level of phonemic development corresponds to amorphous meanings of words. Acoustically distant and close phonemes are not differentiated. A child hears sounds differently than an adult. Distorted pronunciation probably corresponds to misperception of speech. There is no difference between correct and incorrect pronunciation.
Second period of speech formation
opens a new level of perception and reproduction of the syllabic structure of a word. Two-syllable constructions appear in the child’s speech, which make it possible to later move on to the use of commonly used lexemes. There is a fairly definite relationship between the pronunciation of individual sounds and the level of the syllabic structure of the word. This dependence is evidenced by the fact that children show the ability to use many sounds (or their substitutes), but only within two-syllable or one-syllable words. The same sounds in three-syllable or polysyllabic words are pronounced slurred. The child begins to find a more adequate sound design of a word not only thanks to the developing articulatory-auditory ability, but thanks to the purposeful repetition of words after adults, which is closely related to motivational processes.
The third period of speech formation
marks the transition to the use of trisyllabic structures and the emergence of a more constant pronunciation of sounds. If for the previous period it was typical to use two-syllable words and only the outlines of three-syllable words, now three-syllable words are pronounced quite clearly. Along with the direct reproduction of the word, the beginnings of “observations” arise on the sound composition of the word and the phonetic relationships present in the language. The discrepancy between pronunciation capabilities and the growing differentiation of meanings is clearly evident. “The child confuses the words “bouquet” and “package,” although he distinguishes both objects perfectly. Inaccurate perception of sounds is increasingly becoming an obstacle to expressing the meaning of words. The child is forced to use the same word to denote completely different meanings: for example, the word “belt” serves both to denote a belt and to denote a train. In general, “in the structure of the former undifferentiated “contours” the use of clear phonemes appears” (R.E. Levina, 1961, p. 26).
By the fourth period of formation
speech, favorable conditions are created for the manifestation of the ability to reproduce four-syllable and polysyllabic structures. It soon turns out that children begin to grasp such complex phenomena of language as the tendency to change the sound of a voiced consonant before a voiceless consonant or at the end of a word (R.E. Levina, 1961).
- Patterns of mastering the sound side of speech: characteristics of the period of “phonemic” (verbal) development of speech; the complexity of this process, typical irregularities in pronunciation.
The process of gradual development of phonemic perception is described by N.Kh. Shvachkin (1948). He identifies twelve genetic series. First, a distinction occurs between the most roughly opposed sounds - vowels and consonants, then gradual differentiation occurs:
– vowel sounds: [i] - [u], [e] - [o], [i] - [o], [e] - [u], [i] - [e], [u] - [o ];
– consonants: noisy - sonorant, hard - soft, nasal - smooth, labial - lingual, plosive - fricative, anterior-posterior lingual, voiceless - voiced, hissing - whistling, smooth.
In general, N.H. Shvachkin determined that the sequence of distinguishing speech sounds goes from distinguishing contrasting sounds to distinguishing increasingly close sounds. First, the discrimination of vowels is formed, then consonants, since vowel sounds are more common and are better perceived. The distinction between the presence and absence of a consonant appears before the distinction between consonants.
At first, the child distinguishes sonorant and noisy sounds in speech. Among noisy consonants, it begins to distinguish articulated noisy sounds earlier than others. At this stage, not only hearing takes part in the development of phonemic perception, but articulation also has an influence. Thus, in the process of speech development, the speech-auditory and speech-motor analyzers closely interact with each other. Underdevelopment of the speech-motor analyzer inhibits the activity of the speech-hearing analyzer. Next, the child distinguishes between hard and soft consonants that are articulated, and then those that later appear in speech. After this, the child learns differentiation within groups of consonants from sonorant to noisy.
In the further development of phonemic perception, sounds different in the method of formation begin to be distinguished, primarily plosives and fricatives. Plosive consonants are distinguished and articulated earlier, since the presence of a stop enhances kinesthetic sensations in the process of articulating these sounds.
Then the distinction between anterior and posterior lingual sounds appears. The difficulty in differentiating these consonants is explained by the inaccuracy of the kinesthetic sensations of the position of the tongue in the oral cavity.
At the next stage of phonemic perception, the child masters the differentiation of voiceless and voiced consonants. First, their acoustic differentiation occurs, on the basis of which pronunciation differentiation arises, which contributes to the improvement of acoustic differentiation. At this stage, a large role is also given to the interaction of the speech-auditory and speech-motor analyzers.
Later, in the process of developing phonemic perception, the child learns the differentiation of sibilant sibilants, smooth sibilants, and i (th). Hissing and whistling sounds in the speech of children appear late, due to their similarity in their articulatory characteristics, and differ only in the subtle differentiation of movements of the anterior part of the back of the tongue.
According to the results of research by N.Kh. Shvachkin, by the age of two, all the sounds of the Russian language are differentiated in the child’s sensory speech, including sounds that are acoustically close, although the function of the speech motor analyzer at this age has not yet been formed.
We find approximately the same sequence of the process of children’s perception of speech sounds in the work of A.N. Gvozdeva (1948, 1961). The results of this author's research indicate that vowel sounds are distinguished first in children's speech, then consonant sounds begin to be differentiated in pronunciation (from 1 year 9 months to 3 years).
- The sequence of mastery of consonant phonemes, the dependence of their appearance on the type of articulatory work; difficulties of this process and ways to overcome.
IN AND. Beltyukov, studying the development of auditory perception in children, came to the conclusion that at the first stage of the development of phonemic hearing, the most roughly opposed sounds are distinguished: vowels and consonants, while within each of these groups of sounds an even wider generalization is observed. Consonant sounds are not yet differentiated at all, and among the vowels the most phonetically powerful and easily articulated sound [a] stands out; all other vowels are opposed to it, which are also not differentiated from each other (V.I. Beltyukov, 1964).
Next, there is a gradual differentiation of the remaining vowels. The author notes that the most difficult to distinguish are pairs of vowels such as [o] - [u], [e] - [i]. With the further development of phonemic hearing, the child begins to distinguish the presence or absence of a consonant in a word as a broadly generalized sound (for example, distinguishes “uk” from “zhuk”, where instead of “zh” there can be any consonant sound). This prepares the possibility of differentiating consonants among themselves.
At the next stage of development of phonemic hearing, the child begins to distinguish between sonorant and noisy sounds, without yet differentiating consonants within these groups. After sonorant and noisy ones have been differentiated, consonants are divided into hard and soft. Next, the sonorant consonants are distinguished from each other. In this case, nasal (m, n) are differentiated earlier than smooth (r, l). Following the differentiation of nasals, there is a gradual differentiation of noisy consonants.
Distinguishing consonants by the presence or absence of voice occurs already at the next stage of the development of phonemic hearing. The most difficult to distinguish by ear are hissing and whistling sounds (V.I. Beltyukov, 1964). This is the general picture of the development of phonemic hearing in young children.
In general, based on the data of N.Kh. Shvachkina, A.I. Gvozdeva, V.I. Beltyukov and other researchers of children's speech, we can state that by the age of two, the formation of the phonemic hearing of a child with normal intellectual and speech development is basically complete, and that he can distinguish by ear all the phonemic subtleties of the speech of the adults around him. At the same time, thanks to the early development of phonemic hearing, the child for the first time learns to distinguish various phonetic elements of speech, their precise auditory representations, which become a regulator for the development of these elements in his own pronunciation.
Examination of infant pre-language development
Speech therapy diagnostics and stimulation of speech development at the initial stages of the formation of speech communication is aimed at early recognition and correction of deviations in speech development and begins from the first months of a child’s life. This involves the use of special examination techniques and differential diagnosis in combination with a thorough analysis of medical history data and psychological and pedagogical observations of the child.
In a speech therapy examination of young children, depending on whether the child is raised from birth in a family or an orphanage, a combination of methods is used to analyze anamnestic data, questioning parents and monitoring an infant. When conducting early diagnosis of deviations in speech development, it is also advisable to focus on the traditional scheme of normal development of full-term children under 3 years of age (N. M. Aksarina, 1972; L. O. Badalyan, 1982, 1988) and methods for diagnosing the neuropsychic development of young children (G.V. Pantyukhina, K.L. Pechora, E.L. Frucht, 1996).
Stage I (newborn period)
In the absence of developmental abnormalities, the child screams loudly from the first minute of life, his breathing is characterized by a short inhalation and a long exhalation. The first vocal reactions are still intonationally inexpressive, but individual vowel-like sounds (“a”, “e”) can be clearly distinguished in them.
Particular attention is paid to the nature of the newborn’s cry, which in the first weeks of life in children with developmental disabilities purely resembles individual sobs during a sigh, with a characteristic nasal tint. In cases of the most severe pathology, a piercing, painful, continuous cry is noted, which is commonly called “brain scream”. Crying disorders are clearly manifested in children with severe motor pathology, who subsequently develop dysarthria or anartia (L. O. Badalyan et al., 1988. - P. 100). If by the end of the newborn period the cry still predominates over other reflex sounds (groaning, grumbling, hooting), then pathological deviations in the development of the child can be identified with a high degree of probability.
Speech therapy examination
When collecting anamnestic data about the neonatal period, it is advisable for a speech therapist to focus on the following:
· the nature of the newborn’s first cry (loud, shrill, hoarse, weak, quiet, after a slap on the butt, after stimulation, did not cry);
· physiological respiratory function (breathed independently from birth, rehabilitation measures were carried out due to ingestion of amniotic fluid or mucus, connected to a ventilator, for how long, duration of stay in the incubator);
· intensive care in the neonatal period (antibiotics, replacement blood transfusion, connection to an IV);
· surgical measures in the neonatal period (in cases of severe congenital pathology of the respiratory system, blood circulation, voice formation, etc.);
· the baby’s first breastfeeding (on what day, did he suckle himself or fed expressed milk from a bottle, was a breast pump used);
· reasons for early artificial feeding (staphylococcus in mother's milk, mother's illness, child's illness, weakness of the sucking reflex, separation from the mother, etc.);
· duration of feeding (he quickly got tired and fell asleep, sucked milk from the nipple and refused to suck further, actively sucked throughout the feeding, refused to latch on to the breast, demanded the pacifier);
· the nature of sucking and swallowing movements during feeding (regurgitation, choking, choking, flow of milk through the nose, limp lips, painful “biting” of the breast during feeding).
Stage II (1-3 months)
Against an emotionally positive background, the child develops the sounds of initial humming (hooking), which by the end of the period turns into a melodious humming (“baaa, maaa”). The baby gradually moves from single vowel-like sounds to the utterance of short sound chains. When humming, the child’s overall motor activity decreases.
On the basis of visual and auditory concentration, a facial-somatic “revival complex” arises and is consolidated (3 months): the child begins to perceive an appeal to himself and “respond” to it with a combination of a smile, general facial animation, vocalization, and generalized motor activity. He reacts differently to an angry and gentle voice, smiles or cries. With the help of a cry, which becomes intonationally expressive, the child expresses his protest or displeasure.
If there are deviations in the early development of the child, indicative visual and auditory reactions are formed with a delay or are absent altogether. Negative reactions predominate (monotonous crying, prolonged screaming in one tone), smiling is extremely rare.
In case of deviations in speech development, vocal reactions are little expressive; in case of gross disorders associated with organic pathology of the central nervous system, the initial humming (hooting) is absent (L. O. Badalyan, 1988. - P. 135).
With pronounced disturbances in the emotional and mental sphere, the formation of imitation mechanisms is disrupted, and the humming seems to linger at the autoecholalic stage. It is also necessary to pay special attention to the formation in the baby by 3 months of a pronounced emotional reaction to the adult caring for him (“revitalization complex,” smiling, more active humming after sound stimulation). The absence of such a reaction is a prognostically unfavorable indicator and requires further monitoring of the child’s mental and emotional development (E. L. Frucht, 1998).
Speech therapy examination begins with observation of the child in natural
conditions. When interviewing parents and examining a child, the speech therapist pays special attention to:
· the nature of reactions to hunger, cooling or overheating during bathing (a sharp cry and general motor activity, sluggish grunting, a prolonged shrill cry, general lethargy and passivity);
· the appearance of the first facial grimaces (reaction to “bitter-sweet” when a nursing mother changes her diet or introduces a new formula or food additives), their symmetry or asymmetry, lethargy, blurredness;
initial visual and auditory concentration (subsides when a bright, luminous object is brought to the face or when listening to a new sound against the background of others);
· fixation of gaze on the face of a speaking adult;
· the presence of a “revival complex” in response to an adult addressing him;
· the nature of the predominant reactions to stimuli (sharp sound, bright glare, pain): screaming, crying, flinching, wide opening of the eyes, initial concentration, lack of reactions;
· the nature of the predominant reactions to the mother’s speech addressed to him: “oral attention”, “cohabitation complex”, turns away, cries, does not react;
· manifestation of positive emotions in comfortable conditions, for example after feeding or changing wet diapers (grunting, grumbling, sniffling, etc.).
The first pre-speech reactions are separately noted
baby:
· initial humming - hooting";
· true humming (the time of its appearance, duration and melodiousness of vocal production, the presence of vocal and motor autostimulation, features of general behavior during humming, the presence/absence of an emotional reaction to the caring adult in the form of more active humming after sound or motor stimulation);
· first reactions to an adult’s intonation (angry, affectionate), their manifestations in the form of crying, a revival complex, and facial grimaces;
· monotony/expressiveness, humming melodiousness, modulated/unmodulated nature of the first pre-speech production
Stage III (3-6 months)
At the beginning of this stage, the child still makes drawn-out vowel-like sounds, but gradually a transition from humming to babbling is outlined: the sounds become melodious, prolonged, and noticeably more varied (“true humming”). By 6 months, sound combinations of vowels with labial consonants such as “ba-ba-ba”, “ma-ma-ma” (autolalic stage of babbling) should be clearly distinguishable. A change in the nature of the child’s vocal production leads to the fact that the baby begins to babble with a melody typical of his linguistic environment.
Gradually, the child develops specific auditory reactions to all external stimuli (mother’s voice, conversation, observation of a sounding object or toy). From 4 months, he steadily finds with his eyes the source of a sound that is outside his field of vision, recognizes his mother and smiles at her. From 5 months, differentiates between familiar and unfamiliar faces. Distinguishes between strict and affectionate intonation of speech, reacts emotionally positively to the mother’s voice, and only listens to the voice of a stranger, but remains indifferent. After 4.5 months, he protests against “formal communication” and shows a pronounced communicative intention (M. I. Lisina, 1986).
Cognitive development: the child’s cognitive interest prevails over emotional interest (he reaches out with interest to a new toy, is easily distracted by a new stimulus). An expectation of repeated actions is formed.
Communicative activity: the child strives to communicate with an adult. Communication develops with the help of gestures: he stretches out his hands to be picked up or given a necessary object.
Disturbances in the intonation-melodic structure of babbling are observed not only in deaf children, but also in cases of natal injury to the cervical spinal cord. In this case, the process of voice formation is influenced by dysfunction of the spinal respiratory center, weakness of the diaphragm muscles due to damage to the C-4 segment and intercostal muscles (A. Yu. Ratner, 1990). Children breathe shallowly, their expiratory volume is reduced with general muscle hypotonia, which becomes especially noticeable due to the peculiarities of the vocal structure of babbling. Prolonged vocalized exhalation is clearly difficult; short babbling series (“poor babbling”) predominate.
In cases of more severe neurological pathology, by the end of the first six months of life, infants experience severe muscle hypotension. Specific distortions of sound pronunciation and poor vocal reactions are observed. Singing hum may be completely absent. The intonation-melodic expressiveness of vocalizations is reduced, there is no self-imitation (L. O. Badalyan et al., 1988. - P. 141).
The degree of underdevelopment of emotional and mental reactions is quite variable. In some children with developing cerebral palsy in the third period, these functions may still be full (mild forms of spastic diplegia, hemiparesis, mild ataxic form) or slightly impaired (L. O. Badalyan, 1988, ibid.). In cases of severe damage such as RDA of organic origin or profound mental retardation, the child may be clearly non-communicative, passive, his orienting reactions will be reduced or, conversely, he will have a predominance of pathological motor activity, anxiety, negative emotional reactions to new objects (crying, screaming). , turns away).
Speech therapy examination
It is advisable to note the following features of the pre-speech development of a child 3-6 months old:
· the nature of the baby’s vocal reactions and the characteristics of his behavior when he is addressed or looked at for a long time (actively reacts, does not pay attention, reaches out to an adult, turns away, cries, shows concern; spontaneous or situationally determined “hooting”, the predominance of short vocal series, transition to long melodious vocalization);
· features of intonation coloring of vocal reactions and their melodic organization (expressiveness, monotony, scantiness, exhaustion of voice and breathing, closeness of vocal production to the melody of the child’s native language);
· transition to pronouncing articles close to speech sounds; the appearance of “syllables” of varying duration (with an emphasis on the first “syllable” of the series);
· change in behavior in response to auditory stimuli (the child turns around to the clap of his hands, closes his eyes to a loud noise, turns his head in the direction of the rustling of paper, the sound of a bell, the creaking of a door);
· the presence or absence of muscle activity in the speech and facial muscles (grimacing, the first laugh of the “squealing” type, clicking the tongue, smacking the lips, “chewing” toys);
· pathological difficulties when switching to thick food (the presence of a gag reflex when trying to feed from a spoon, the peculiarities of developing the ability to drink sips from a sippy cup, swallow droplets of liquid or cookie crumbs from the tip of the tongue): “dysphagia”;
· features of visual contact with close people: searching for or avoiding oncoming gaze, tension, detachment of gaze;
· inferiority of the revitalization complex (absence of a motor, vocal, emotional component, its lack of address or being addressed to inanimate objects, delayed reaction to a stimulus).
Stage IV (6-9 months)
In independent vocal production there is a gradual transition to active babble, diverse in sound composition. The sounds begin to gradually differentiate and approach the sounds of the native language, appearing in the child’s babble in a certain sequence: oral-nasal, voiced-voiceless, hard-soft, stop-frictional (V.I. Beltyukov, 1977). The infant is induced to repeat echolalic syllables after an adult, copy the intonation-melodic structure of a familiar phrase, and can also imitate coughing and clicking of the tongue.
The role of stimulation on the nature of prelinguistic vocal production is increasing.
The emergence of primary communicative intentions is significantly influenced by the presence of a favorable environment for interaction between an adult and a child.
Communication activities
1. Understands when addressed by name and responds to the word “no.”
2. Vocalizations and gestures perform a communicative function (intonation of pleasure, displeasure, pleading and protesting gestures).
3. Initial situational perception of addressed speech (turns head towards the person being called). Deviations in development lead to a delay or impossibility of forming the communicative function of speech; the child reacts to stimuli with undifferentiated screaming, crying, and spontaneous gestures.
4. In the case of severe developmental pathology, physiological echolalia and syllabic babble are not formed or appear later in a distorted form, intonation expressiveness is absent, the reaction to addressed speech manifests itself in the form of extremely poor vocal production, individual sound complexes, undifferentiated vocal activity (E. F. Arkhipova, 1991. - P. 11). The child does not strive for onomatopoeia. With severe mental retardation and RDA, these signs are even more pronounced.
Cognitive development
The “revitalization complex” fades away, giving way to more differentiated mental reactions. Imitation and active manipulation of objects develop. Actions become purposeful (persistent attempts to reach for the desired object; after distraction, the gaze returns to the place where the person’s face or object was).
In case of developmental deviations, instead of an indicative reaction and play activity (manipulation), a general complex of animation and an imitative smile are expressed (L. O. Badalyan et al., 1988. - P. 145). In cases of RDA, emotional reactions in children are very selective and unexpected, often associated with inanimate objects.
After 6 months, disorders of cognitive development are quite noticeable, however, differential diagnosis is very difficult; in order to determine the leading disorder, it is necessary to correlate all data on the anamnesis with dynamic observation of the child
Speech therapy examination
With targeted monitoring of the child’s development and its compliance with age standards
The following should be noted:
1. Features of the formation of babble:
· absence of babbling, babbling modulated in volume and tone, its attenuation during this period; gradual enrichment of the sound composition, intonational expressiveness of speech production;
· closeness of babbling to the intonation features of native speech (incompleteness of intonation, differences in the frequency of the fundamental tone in pitch and volume, lengthening of stressed vowels, etc.) (N. I. Lepskaya, 1997);
· babbling dialogues: a gradual transition from an emotional reaction to the mother’s addressed monologue to a mother-child dialogue in which they express their emotional attitude towards each other in a series of syllabic sequences (ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma);
· the child’s ability to express his emotions in the company of other people or alone (when playing with toys) using babbling.
2. Features of the formation of understanding of addressed speech:
· knows his name (reaction to the name), begins to distinguish the names of close people - what they are called in the family (mom, dad) and turns his head in their direction in response to the questions: “Where is mom?”; "Where is Dad?".
3. Development of paralinguistic forms of communication:
· expressing your requests with gestures and demanding exclamations, shouting;
· formation of a directed gaze (“connecting”), using it along with gestures to get the necessary toy or food;
· the ability to always look your “interlocutor” in the eyes, to maintain a certain sequence, vaguely reminiscent of a dialogue, when “conversing” with an adult (in “dialogical” babble series).
4. Development of swallowing skills and formation of chewing skills for solid food:
· the gag reflex gradually weakens, moving to the root of the tongue, and the child gets the opportunity not only to suck solid food in the mouth, but also to eat crumbly potatoes and pieces of biscuit;
· the tongue movements from side to side and up and down, necessary for chewing solid food in the mouth, develop, and the child stops pushing solid food out of the mouth by moving the tip of the tongue forward;
· transition from drinking kefir (a thick liquid) to the ability to drink water from a cup in small sips, without choking or choking.
5. The nature of the interaction between mother and child:
· how much time the mother devotes to communicating with the child, playing with him;
· whether the mother is trying to activate the baby’s response.
Stage V (9-12 months)
At the beginning of the period there is active babbling, at the end of the period most children pronounce 5-6 babbling words. Normally developing children imitate well the intonation of an adult “interlocutor”, copy individual syllables, exclamations, and interjections. They express their mood well by changing the tone, volume, and duration of their voice.
The presence of rudimentary babbling, monotonous and monotonous vocal reactions indicates a serious deviation in the early development of the child, which can be either partial or complex in nature.
In milder cases, when some syndromic manifestations are compensated by this age (hypertension-hydrocephalic syndrome, neuro-reflex excitability syndrome, vegetative-visceral syndrome), disturbances in the formation of vocal reactions are combined with weakness of auditory differentiation, lack of auditory attention and difficulty localizing the sound source in space. This delays the development of initial understanding of speech in children with residual neurological symptoms (E. M. Mastyukova, 1993, 1997).
By the end of the first year of life, the clinical signs of the main forms of cerebral palsy become pronounced: spasticity is formed, symptoms of ataxia and hyperkinesis become pronounced, which leads to an increase in pathological changes in the tone of the muscles of the speech, voice-producing and respiratory apparatus.
Dysfunction of general speech-motor skills and disorders of the mechanisms of phonation and breathing are indirectly manifested in persistent difficulties in developing the skills of chewing solid food, swallowing and the ability to drink liquid in small sips from a cup.
Communicative activities and pre-verbal forms of communication
The baby understands pointing and prohibiting gestures, and also performs some communicative actions: waves his hand when saying goodbye, imitating an adult, uses a pointing gesture to make a request. At this age, a system of pre-verbal forms of communication is actively developing, which includes sounds (vocalizations), facial expressions, voluntary body movements, gestures and glances (“pointing”, “seeking evaluation”, “connecting”). A delay in the formation or complete absence of the corresponding paralinguistic structures at the end of the first year of life indicates serious violations of the communicative function of speech.
A normally developing child develops an understanding of spoken speech:
responds with action to verbal requests (for example, claps his hands when the word “okay”), nods his head as a sign of “agreement-disagreement
.
By 12 months, verbal communication appears using the first words, usually denoting close people, a favorite toy, or a frequently performed action.
Cognitive development
The child develops the first visual and effective ideas, which are the sensory-perceptual basis for the formation of generalized thinking and speech in young children. A special form of activity of an infant is imitation (movements, gestures, facial expressions, voice, simple words) of an adult, which becomes conscious and varied at the end of the first year of life
With severe disorders of psycho-emotional and cognitive development, the following are observed:
1. unexpressive and monotonous facial expressions;
2. emotional manifestations in the form of chaotic motor activity or oral synkinesis;
3. inadequate reactions to speech, verbal instructions, or demonstrated action.
Speech therapy examination
The most important diagnostic parameters for assessing a child’s speech development by 1 year
are:
1. priority acquisition of the basic pragmatic aspects of human communication (the baby looks into the eyes of the interlocutor, follows the order of “statements”, nods his head - “agree/disagree”, waves his hand - “goodbye”, etc.);
2. good understanding of addressed speech (knows his name, understands simple questions, reacts to prohibitions, follows simple instructions);
3. completion of the babbling stage (active babbling, its intonation coloring and proximity to the expressive melodic-rhythmic features of adult speech, the transition from the autotolalic stage of babbling to babbling dialogues with the mother, imitation of new syllables);
4. the appearance of the first words and the transition to speech communication (in babbling, the first words are distinguished, close in structure to babbling, imitation of significant words of adults in the form of several simplified words develops);
5. conditions that most influence the activation of a child’s sound/speech activity: tactile-emotional, emotional-speech, objective-active communication between a child and an adult or a combination of these forms (Yu. A. Razenkova, 1998);
6. development of basic swallowing and chewing skills. It is advisable to conduct a survey of parents and analysis of the results of observation of a child in the first year of life based on the general patterns of development of the infant’s first mental reactions in ontogenesis, their dependence on the formation of motor functions, the child’s somatic health and other factors (for example, characteristics of emotional relationships in the family).
Any violations of the vocal, respiratory or articulatory component of the pronunciation aspect of speech identified in an infant require timely corrective measures, additional examination of the child by other specialists (neurologist, otolaryngologist, audiologist), and difficulties in the formation of communicative activity require consultation with a child psychologist.
Approximate phases of emotional and speech development
- Cry
A baby's cry is very different from birth. If the child does everything correctly intonationally, then the parent quickly learns to understand the difference and respond to these “requests.” In this case, emotional and speech development occurs harmoniously. Please note: if the child cries monotonously and reacts poorly to the voice, consult a doctor.
- Booming
If the child is healthy and has no hearing problems, then in response to positive emotions in the second month of life he begins to “walk.” Along with the “humming”, the first laughter appears - squealing in response to emotional communication with an adult. The sounds of “humming” are already distinguished by a certain variety - with these sounds he tries to communicate, reacts to what is happening around him.
At the same time, he carefully watches his mother’s lips and tries to repeat these movements, but so far silently. So, a little later, a true “humour” is formed, when the child focuses on the sound or syllable being spoken and listens to himself.
- Syllables
At the end of the pre-speech period, the child already understands speech emotionally and facially, and tries to construct words.
By the age of one year, a child should speak about ten simple words of several syllables. Motor speech begins to form.
- Simple sentences
By imitation, the child easily pronounces familiar and unfamiliar words, both addressed to him and accidentally heard from others, but does not yet put them into sentences.
Intensive development of motor speech usually begins in the second half of the 2nd year of life. Until one year and six months, a child pronounces about 30 simple words.
- Meaningful speech
At two years old, a child already has almost phrasal speech; he can formulate a simple thought or request. Speech therapy roughnesses at this age are permissible and are not considered deviations - the speech muscles are still getting used to the tricks of pronunciation of certain combinations and sounds. By the age of three, a child’s speech contains up to 1200-1500 words, including almost all parts of speech.
This is a standard and average clinical picture of development. If you notice differences that are not accompanied by the factors below, rest assured. Your child will definitely speak when he is ready for it. Please be patient!
Work within the framework of sensory-integrative therapy with children with cerebral palsy in the pre-speech period
Work within the framework of sensory-integrative therapy with children with cerebral palsy in the pre-speech period
Stage I
Children at the first stage of pre-speech development are characterized by the absence of indicative reactions to visual and auditory stimuli. There is no voice activity. Hand function does not develop. The tone of the muscles of the tongue and lips is impaired. The functions of sucking and swallowing are impaired. Unconditioned reflexes of oral automatism are absent or weakened.
The main directions of correctional and speech therapy work at stage I:
§ normalization (stimulation) of innate unconditioned oral reflexes;
§ correction of the feeding process (act of sucking, swallowing);
§ vocalization of exhalation (breathing exercises);
§ development of a “revitalization complex” with the inclusion of a voice component;
§ stimulation of vocal reactions;
§ development of visual and auditory concentration;
§ normalization of muscle tone and motor skills of the articulatory apparatus (speech therapy massage, passive articulatory gymnastics);
§ normalization of the position of the hand and fingers. The choice of posture for exercise is important.
The use of a “reflex-inhibiting position”, in which pathological tonic reflexes appear minimally or not at all.
Stage II
Children who are at stage II of pre-speech development have the initial elements of pre-speech activity in the form of undifferentiated sounds. Visual and auditory perception disturbances are evident. Weakness of indicative reactions is noted; lack of hand-eye coordination. Pathology of the articulatory apparatus manifests itself differentially: in the form of spasticity, hypotension, dystonia; hyperkinesis of the tongue, lips, facial muscles; restrictions on the mobility of the tongue and lips; preservation and strengthening of oral automatism reflexes.
The main directions of correctional and speech therapy work at stage II:
§ stimulation of humming;
§ normalization of muscle tone and motility of the articulatory apparatus (differentiated massage, acupressure, passive articulatory gymnastics);
§ developing the need to communicate with adults;
§ suppression of oral automatism reflexes;
§ development of visual stable fixation and tracking of a moving object;
§ developing the ability to localize sound in space and perceive the differently intonated voice of an adult;
§ increasing the volume and force of exhalation followed by vocalization (breathing exercises);
§ development of grasping function of the hands.
Stage III
Stage III of pre-speech development is characterized by the appearance of elements of humming in children. Pathology of the articulatory apparatus can have varying degrees of severity. Indicative reactions are cognitive in nature. Children are emotional, they can develop a “revival complex”: toys are usually grabbed, but the positions of the hand and fingers are pathological, manipulative functions are most often inaccessible to them. A characteristic feature is the uneven development of sensory perception, visual-motor coordination, orientation-cognitive activity, the emotional sphere and sound communication with others (the emotional sphere is much ahead of motor and pre-speech development).
The main directions of correctional and speech therapy work at stage III:
§ stimulation of intoned vocal communication and babbling; normalization of muscle tone and motility of the articulatory apparatus (differentiated speech therapy massage, acupressure, probe massage, artificial local hypo and hyperthermia, passive articulatory gymnastics);
§ development of rhythmic breathing and movements (breathing exercises),
§ development of reading differentiations;
§ development of an acoustic attitude towards sound and voice;
§ development of auditory differentiation;
§ formation of preparatory stages of speech understanding;
§ development of kinesthetic sensations and, on their basis, finger touch (development of hand movements).
Stage IV
Children who are at stage IV of pre-speech development are characterized by the ability to pronounce individual babbling sound combinations. There is a change in the muscle tone of the articulatory apparatus, the presence of hyperkinesis and oral synkinesis, and limited mobility of the tongue and lips. Children begin to develop impressive speech. The manipulative function is limited, differentiated movements of the fingers are not available.
The main directions of correctional and speech therapy work at stage IV:
§ stimulation and improvement of communication with adults using babbling sound complexes and babbling words;
§ normalization of muscle tone and motor skills of the articulatory apparatus;
§ development of manipulative function of the hands and differentiated movements of the fingers;
§ formation of situational understanding of addressed speech (speech instructions in a specific situation);
§ increasing the strength and duration of exhalation.
Levchenko I.Yu., Prikhodko O.G. Technologies for teaching and raising children with musculoskeletal disorders: Textbook. aid for students avg. ped. textbook establishments
. —— M.: Publishing House, 2001. — 192 p.
