Characteristics of children with general speech underdevelopment (GSD). Article on speech therapy on the topic
Characteristics of children with general
speech underdevelopment (OND).
With normal speech development, children by the age of 5 freely use expanded phrasal speech and various constructions of complex sentences. They have a sufficient vocabulary and master the skills of word formation and inflection. By this time, correct sound pronunciation and readiness for sound analysis and synthesis are finally formed.
However, not in all cases these processes proceed well: in some children, even with normal hearing and intelligence, the formation of each of the components of the language is sharply delayed: phonetics, vocabulary, grammar. This violation was first established by R.E. Levina and is defined as a general underdevelopment of speech.
General speech underdevelopment is a complex speech disorder in which children have impaired formation of all components of the speech system related to its sound and semantic side, with normal hearing and intelligence.
The etiology of OHP includes various factors of both biological and social nature. Biological factors include: infections or intoxications of the mother during pregnancy, incompatibility of the blood of the mother and fetus according to the Rh factor or group affiliation, pathology of the natal period, postnatal diseases of the central nervous system and brain injuries in the first years of the child’s life, etc.
At the same time, ONR may be due to unfavorable conditions of upbringing and training, and may be associated with mental deprivation during sensitive periods of speech development. In many cases, OHP is a consequence of the complex influence of various factors, for example, hereditary predisposition, organic failure of the central nervous system (sometimes mild), and an unfavorable social environment. The most complex and persistent variant is ONR, caused by early organic brain damage.
E. M. Mastyukova attaches particular importance in the etiology of ONR to perinatal encephalopathy, which can be hypoxic (due to intrauterine hypoxia and asphyxia during childbirth), traumatic (due to mechanical birth trauma), bilirubin (due to incompatibility of the blood of the mother and fetus according to the Rh factor or group accessories).
R.E. Levina identified 3 levels of speech underdevelopment:
Level 1: children either completely lack speech or have only elements of speech.
Children at this level use mainly babbling words, onomatopoeia, individual nouns and verbs of everyday content, and fragments of babbling sentences, the sound design of which is blurry, unclear and extremely unstable, to communicate. Often the child reinforces his “statements” with facial expressions and gestures.
Level 2: children use more extensive speech means. However, the underdevelopment of speech is still very pronounced.
Children's statements are usually poor; the child is limited to listing directly perceived objects and actions. The story based on the picture and the questions is constructed in a primitive way. The forms of number, gender and case for such children essentially do not have a meaningful function. When reproducing words, the sound content is grossly disrupted: rearrangements of syllables, sounds, replacement and assimilation of syllables, abbreviations of sounds when consonants are combined are noted.
Level 3: characterized by the presence of extensive phrasal speech with elements of lexical-grammatical and phonetic-phonemic underdevelopment.
At this stage, children already use all parts of speech, use simple grammatical forms, and try to construct compound and complex sentences. The child's pronunciation abilities improve. However, a careful study of the state of all aspects of speech reveals a clear picture of underdevelopment of each of the components of the language system: vocabulary, grammar, phonetics. Insufficient development of phonemic hearing and perception leads to the fact that children do not independently develop readiness for sound analysis and synthesis of words, which subsequently does not allow them to successfully master literacy at school without the help of a speech therapist.
Analyzing all three levels of general speech underdevelopment, we can say that these children have typical manifestations indicating a systemic disorder of speech activity. One of the leading signs is a later onset of speech. Speech is ungrammatical and insufficiently phonetically designed. The most expressive indicator is the lag in expressive speech with a relatively good, at first glance, understanding of addressed speech. There is insufficient speech activity, which drops sharply with age, without special training. However, children are quite critical of their defect.
Inferior speech activity leaves an imprint on the formation of children's sensory, intellectual and affective-volitional spheres. There is insufficient stability of attention and limited possibilities for its distribution. With relatively intact semantic and logical memory in children, verbal memory decreases and memorization productivity suffers. They forget complex instructions, elements and sequences of tasks. In the weakest children, low recall activity can be combined with limited opportunities for the development of cognitive activity.
The connection between speech disorders and other aspects of mental development determines specific features of thinking. Possessing, in general, complete prerequisites for mastering mental operations accessible to their age, children lag behind in the development of verbal and logical thinking, without special training they have difficulty mastering analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalization.
Children with general speech underdevelopment lag behind normally developing peers in reproducing a motor task in spatiotemporal parameters, disrupt the sequence of action elements, and omit its components. For example, rolling the ball from hand to hand, passing it from a short distance, hitting the floor with alternating alternation; jumping on the right and left leg, rhythmic movements to the music.
There is insufficient coordination of the fingers and hands, and underdevelopment of fine motor skills. Slowness is detected, stuck in one position.
Correct assessment of non-speech processes is necessary to identify patterns of atypical development of children with general speech underdevelopment and at the same time to determine their compensatory background.
Children with general speech underdevelopment should be distinguished from children with similar conditions - temporary delay in speech development. It should be borne in mind that children with general speech underdevelopment in normal periods develop an understanding of everyday spoken speech, interest in playful and objective activities, and an emotionally selective attitude towards the world around them.
One of the diagnostic signs may be dissociation between speech and mental development. This is manifested in the fact that the mental development of these children, as a rule, proceeds more successfully than the development of speech. They are distinguished by their criticality towards speech insufficiency.
Primary speech pathology inhibits the formation of potentially intact mental abilities, preventing the normal functioning of speech intelligence. However, as verbal speech develops and speech difficulties are eliminated, their intellectual development approaches normal.
To distinguish the manifestation of general speech underdevelopment from delayed speech development, a thorough examination of the medical history and analysis of the child’s speech skills are necessary.
In most cases, the medical history does not contain evidence of gross disorders of the central nervous system. Only the presence of minor birth trauma and long-term somatic illnesses in early childhood are noted. The adverse effects of the speech environment, failures in education, and lack of communication can also be attributed to factors inhibiting the normal course of speech development. In these cases, attention is drawn, first of all, to the reversible dynamics of speech failure.
Thus, children with general speech underdevelopment (GSD) have a reduced ability to both perceive differences in the physical characteristics of language elements and distinguish the meanings contained in the lexical and grammatical units of the language, which in turn limits their combinatorial capabilities and abilities, necessary for the creative use of constructive elements of the native language in the process of constructing a speech utterance.
So, the totality of the listed gaps in the phonetic-phonemic and lexical-grammatical structure of speech, in the development of fine motor skills of the general coordination of the child’s movements, serves as a serious obstacle to his mastering the program of a general kindergarten, and subsequently the program of a comprehensive school.
How is the diagnosis made?
Babies develop speech at different rates.
To establish a speech therapy conclusion, the child must accumulate a passive and active vocabulary, be able to compose coherent small sentences, and form the plural. It is by the age of 3 that the main components of speech begin to form. Therefore, the diagnosis begins to be made at this age. At the beginning of the school year, speech therapists conduct classes for children to identify speech disorders. Differential diagnosis is based on the general didactic principles of accessibility, perception, and gradual complication. Children are encouraged to draw, work on letter assignments, and solve conflicting problems. This could be writing a short essay about vivid impressions or finding a hidden letter in a picture.
To examine phonemic perception, the teacher asks the child to draw a word and find mistakes.
To test letter recognition, the baby is given printed and written versions of letters. He must either complete the missing part, or find differences, or convert the printed font into handwritten one.
The results may help select a group of children with whom speech therapists should work and with whom further in-depth examination will be required.
The main condition for diagnosing pathology is multicomponentity. Clinical diagnosis examines impairment of oral and written language.
A good exercise for correcting speech is “learn the letters”
What else can you do?
If you have a child in your life diagnosed with ODD, especially in its severe form, do not despair. This is the case when “patience and work will grind everything down.”
Yes, it takes a lot of time, a lot of physical and mental strength, but the result will definitely come. This disease is treatable, even if it costs thousands of small steps.
Your inner state of calm, firm confidence in a favorable outcome and inexhaustible warmth - this is what you can share with a little person, and what will give him the strength to cope with his illness.
Comprehensive diagnosis of the disease
It is important to involve different specialists in diagnosing speech underdevelopment. This is necessary to identify the cause of the disease. After all, it is important to treat it, and not the symptoms.
First of all, a neurologist, speech therapist, and neuropsychologist look at the baby. In some cases, you may need to consult a surgeon, dentist, otolaryngologist, or psychoneurologist.
But the leading role is given to the neurological examination. The doctor will assess the state of the nervous system and the location of the lesion - the form of the speech disorder depends on it. In conclusion, the neurologist indicates the cause of the disorder, its form, and focuses attention on the primary problem areas. All this data is subsequently used in diagnosis and correction by a speech therapist.
After consulting a neurologist - and in some cases other specialized specialists - the child is referred to a speech pathologist-speech pathologist. He studies the conclusions of his colleagues, supplements the anamnesis with the words of the parents, and then examines the child’s speech apparatus, studying the features of his sound pronunciation.
Then the speech therapist communicates with the little patient. In the process of communication, he assesses the degree of development of the child’s speech: whether he can express thoughts coherently, speak meaningfully, and competently construct a story.
Based on the examination, the speech therapist determines the form and degree of OHP and plans treatment.
Definition of speech anomaly
ONR often occurs in the following syndromes: dysarthria, rhinolalia, alalia, aphasia. Based on this, 3 groups are distinguished:
- Uncomplicated forms of OCD (slight impairment of brain function is observed).
- Complicated forms of OPD (those with mental personality disorders or pathological changes in the development of the central nervous system).
- Severe speech pathology (when the functioning of the parts of the brain responsible for speech is disrupted).
When it becomes clear what form of anomaly the baby has, the level of speech skills is determined.
Prevention and prognosis
The success of speech therapy work to correct speech disorders depends on its timeliness. It is recommended to start treating OHP as early as possible - from 3-4 years. Today, many preschool institutions have experienced specialists who successfully use music, art therapy, speech therapy and play techniques for teaching speech skills.
Prevention of general speech underdevelopment is aimed at preventing the progression of clinical symptoms of the diseases against which it appears - alalia, rhinolalia, dysarthria, aphasia. Parents must create a favorable speech environment for raising their child and stimulate the early development of verbal and nonverbal processes.
Reasons for OHP
The causes that provoke ONR mainly relate to the period of pregnancy and childbirth, and the first years of the child’s life. They are the ones who cause severe forms of the disease.
Social reasons are no less important. This includes a lack of communication, living with deaf family members, lack of attention to the child in the family, and unfavorable conditions in which he lives and is raised.
How to treat this disease, what measures should be taken to restore speech function?
Classification
Depending on the nature of the disorder (internal or external speech), two types of agrammatism are distinguished in speech therapy practice:
- impressive
– understanding of the meaning of grammatical phrases is impaired; - expressive
– the ability to correctly use case forms, prepositions, and agree on words when speaking independently is not formed or disintegrates.
According to the level of formation of grammatical processes, three degrees of agrammatism are distinguished (from more severe to lighter):
- Speech uses indivisible (one-word) sentences. Composing and repeating detailed phrases causes difficulties.
- Sentences are short, syntactic connections between structural components are broken. Repeated speech suffers.
- Errors in declension of sentence members are noted, otherwise the independent phrase is formed correctly. When repeating a given phrase, no errors occur.
Symptoms
General underdevelopment of speech in children (as well as in adults) is accompanied by the following symptoms:
- The child begins to pronounce the first words and sentences after 3 years;
- the child understands the speech of adults, but cannot formulate a sentence himself;
- it is difficult to pronounce even simple sounds;
- after 7 years the child does not pronounce the sounds “L” and “R”;
- rearranging letters in words;
General speech underdevelopment. Symptoms
- the child speaks in short sentences (2-4 words) or abbreviates words. For example, “obaka” - dog or “I drink” - I want to drink tea;
- incorrect declension by cases and tense;
- pronunciation of sentences is too fast or slow, making it difficult to understand what the child is saying;
- when talking, the child pays more attention to gestures than words;
- there are no prepositions in the sentences;
- poor memory, which results in a small vocabulary and incorrect pronunciation of words.
Stuttering is the most striking sign of OHP, and the child can pronounce a word one syllable at a time. General speech underdevelopment not only prevents children from communicating normally with peers and adults, but also causes severe psychological stress.
It is important that parents spend a lot of time with their children and often may not notice the onset of development of OHP, so it is necessary to undergo annual examinations by specialists.
