Alalia in children

It happens that the child has normal hearing, intelligence is ok, but he does nottalking or talking very badly. This lack of speech or its underdevelopment is called alalia. This disorder occurs in about 1% of preschool children and in 0.6-0.2% of schoolchildren. Moreover, in boys it is twice as likely as in girls.

The reasons for the development of alalia have not been elucidated, but there are risk factors, which include birth trauma, the effect of viral infections during pregnancy, uncontrolled intake of medicines by a pregnant woman, endocrine and other diseases. Also affect psychological factors: separation of the baby with the mother, nervous situation in the house, critical attitude to the child's success - all this can cause the child to stop to perceive and understand the speech of the people around him normally, although previously everything was normal.

Alalya undergoes systemic hypoplasia of speech. All of its components are violated, manifestations can be:

• Wrong pronunciation of sounds,
• Limited vocabulary,
• Other people's speech misunderstanding,
• Violation of grammatical structure of speech,
• Absence of speech,
• Problems in learning reading and writing skills.

In addition to speech disorders in children, alalikov, there are motor disorders, neurological, psychopathological manifestations. The set of symptoms is often individual, and the manifestations of the same form of alalia in children can be very different. It is accepted to allocate motor, sensory and sensorimotor alalia.

Motor alalia

Motor alalia occurs because of decreased activity or damage to the cerebral cortex, in particular the Broca center, which is located in the fronto-parietal areas of the cortex of the left hemisphere. If to speak in simple language, then in motor alalia, communication between brain speech centers and speech organs is broken.

Children with motor alalia understand the speech of other people well, but their speech develops slowly, it does not go through all the stages of formation. It is very difficult or impossible for such a child to repeat not only words, but also syllables and even sounds. They understand everything and can explain themselves by gestures, for example, show the named subject or ask for something, pointing to it. Very often such children do not speak at all. This has a bad effect on overall development, detaches the child from communicating with other people.

Manifestations of motor alalia:

• Inability to correctly pronounce words,
• Inability to correctly match words in gender, number, case,
• Incorrect use of prepositions,
• Swapping sounds and syllables in a word,
• A small vocabulary.

Motor Alalia can be the cause of poor school performance. It is the basis of such disorders as dyslexia and dysgraphia, combined with disorders of efficiency and attention in children, accompanied by excessive motor activity or vice versa retardation.

Sensory alalia

This form of alalia is much less common than motor. With sensory alalia the child does not understand enough the speech of other people, although he hears well. The reason for this defeat is the center of Wernicke. This center is located in the temporal region of the left hemisphere and plays the role of the auditory analysor. Since the perception and understanding of speech in a child with sensory alalia are violated, the formation of speech is also disturbed.

Displays of sensory alalia:

• Children mispronounce sounds, distort words,
• They may not respond when they are called, but respond to distracted noises,
• Children in some cases can repeat syllables, words or phrases, others do not,
• Understanding words, when they are spoken separately and misunderstanding of the same words in a coherent speech,
• Understanding the meaning of phrases only in a specific context or in a specific situation,
• Some children with sensory alalia understand only what they themselves can say,
• Difficulties inmaintenance of attention, in switching from one activity to another.

Sensomotor alalia

With sensorimotor alalia, the disorders inherent in both forms of this disease are combined. Violated as the connection between the brain and the speech apparatus, and the ability to perceive and analyze someone else's speech. As a result, the child not only can not speak, but also does not understand what others say. This violation is the most severe form of speech development disorders. There is a sensorimotor form in 3-4% of cases of alalia.

Alalya: ways of treatment

In some cases, alalia passes by itself, as the child grows up. However, it is often impossible to do without medical and logopedic care. Very important is the timely detection of violations and qualified assistance to the child, if the correction is carried out at a sufficient level and started in a timely manner, the speech is formed completely, the intellectual abilities of the child are improved, it adapts to the surrounding world and becomes able to communicate with peers and adults. So, sensory and motor alalia in 3 years is much easier and more amenable to correction than in 5-6 years. If the parents did not bother with the poorly developed speech of the child, before he went to school, then most likely in the general education school he will not be a successful pupil, and it will take much more time and effort to restore the speech.

Treatment of alalia should be comprehensive, it includes various medical effects, vitamin therapy, drug therapy, which improves the metabolism in the brain, a system of speech therapy exercises and general developing activities. If the problem is caused by a disease, an infection, then first of all, it is necessary to direct the forces to their treatment.

One of the modern methods for treating alalia in children is electro-reflexotherapy .With the help of a special apparatus, electrical impulses are transmitted to the cerebral cortex. Stimulated are those zones, whose functions are more violated. As a result of this influence, new neural connections are formed, and training in speech skills is faster and more successful.

It should be remembered that alalia presents a serious problem, and it will not be possible to solve it in a couple of weeks. It takes more than one year of painstaking work, several repeated courses of treatment, a lot of time, patience and care from adults. However, the results are worth it. After not having a normal speech, a child can not feel comfortable among others, he will have many limitations in choosing a further life path.

How to recognize a problem?

Alalia is a "cunning" disease. Sometimes a child, not understanding the speech of others, distances himself from them, becomes uncommunicative. This can cause an incorrect diagnosis. Sometimes I attribute autism to this kid, delay mental and intellectual development, and it is also not always possible to establish the level of hearing.

First of all parents should take care of their child. In order to notice the problem in time, you need to know the stages of speech development.

Speech in children develops approximately like this:

• 2-3 months - walking,
• 3-4 months - babbling,
• 6-8 months - pronunciation of the first words,
• 1 year - phrase construction.

Of course, this is the ideal plan for the child's speech development, there may be deviations. For example, the baby began to speak a word only a year, but already by a year and a half he had learned to build simple phrases. In this case, there is probably no cause for concern. But if a child does not speak at all at 2 years or speaks only a few words, then this is an alarming signal, and you should always contact a specialist. Also an important sign of problems of speech development is considered too slow mastering of speech, very slow progress or its absence for a long time.

The scheme of treatment of a child with alalia can look something like this.

• A child speaks very poorly or does not speak at all in 2 years, means you need to consult a neurologist .
• Diagnosis of the condition and functioning of the brain is performed: magnetic resonance imaging, an electroencephalogram .
• The course( possibly not one) of drug therapy , which includes vitamin preparations, drugs that improve the transmission of nerve impulses and the work of the brain .
• Course physiotherapy treatment according to the doctor's prescription.
• At the age of about 4 years it is necessary to begin classes with speech therapist .They can be individual or in a group. A very good option is the special logopedic kindergarten .
• During the whole treatment regular lessons with the child at home .

Ideally, all these efforts should lead to the fact that by the age of 7, that is, to enter the first grade, the child's speech is restored, and he understands people well, communicates freely in various situations.

Classes with the child

All activities, especially speech exercises, are conducted in a game form. Then they do not strain the child, he does it with pleasure. With the help of exercises with a speech therapist and at home with parents, a child-alalik needs to develop memory, attention, ability to distinguish objects from each other, to correlate and generalize objects. These qualities contribute to better learning of speech skills.

Physical exercises and any activities that promote the development of fine motor skills are irreplaceable for the development of speech: ball games, finger exercises, modeling, carving, mosaic, drawing, folding and unfolding of various toys( matryoshka, pyramid).Suggest the kid to try himself in such exercises and classes, let him choose what he likes, then the benefits from them will be greater.

Speech Exercises and Games

Guess the riddle

This speech exercise can be used as a normal game with a child. Children's puzzles have always been used in folk pedagogy. They expand the horizon, help children to get acquainted with the surrounding world, develop wit, observation, memory, expand vocabulary.

Begin with simple puzzles, accompanying them with pictures. The child shows a picture with a guess, calls it. You can analyze why the puzzle is built exactly this way, it will facilitate the child's understanding. The next stage is memorizing by heart. Of course, this stage can be realized only if the child has already mastered sufficient skills of pronunciation of words and phrases.

Especially suitable are riddles in which there are repetitions. They will be a good training of the speech apparatus.

Blinkers

Blinkers are a great speech simulator for any person. They help to improve the speech apparatus, make it more obedient. With constant training over time, the speech becomes correct, clear, expressive. The tongue twisters will help alalik utter the words entirely, not swallow the endings.

Begin with the simplest and shortest, so that they can easily be repeated and remembered. In order to arouse the interest of the kid for this activity, you can pick up funny tongue twisters or those in which there are famous heroes. For example: "Skinny frail Koschey is dragging a box of vegetables."Gradually they become more complicated and lengthen. Also with the speed of pronunciation: first we speak slowly, clearly pronouncing each word, then faster and faster.

At home, you can connect all members of the family to this game or even arrange a competition. Then, in addition to the practical benefits of developing speech skills, everyone will have fun, attention to each other, and this is also an important part of solving the problem of alalia.

Poems

Poetic speech is easier to hear and easier to reproduce, so narration and memorization of poetry is necessarily included in any speech correction program. Begin with the repetition of lines, with their joint pronunciation, then they learn the quatrains with short lines. Classes can be accompanied by examining illustrations to a poem or drawing your own pictures. This will help to better understand the meaning of the text and add one more facet of perception. Gradually accumulate a large number of learned poems, which need to be repeated periodically. You can do this during a walk or on the way from the kindergarten home. Gradually, the speech will become more and more correct and clear.

For example:

Poetry should be pronounced according to the syllables:

Finding objects that we have at home

To correct speech in children with alalia it is very important to stimulate them to pronounce what is happening around, to name different subjects with which they interact. To do this, a simple game is used to search for various items that are in the house. The child is asked to find where, for example, Daddy's favorite cup is. He finds, brings and calls this object or says where the daddy's cup is. There are various variants of complexity: objects are in sight or hidden from the eyes, the child uses these objects or not. The most important thing is to say the names and location first with him, then the child himself will speak. The reverse is also possible: he gives the task to other people. Then it is important that the wording be complete, for example, "Dad, find where my mother's red beads are."

This game develops children's memory, attention, teaches them to freely navigate in space, gives confidence.

Computer games

A computer is a great tool that motivates children. On the Internet, there are many developing games that will help your child have fun while working on the pronunciation of the right sounds and words.

Such children will be suitable for developing computer games, especially those that are built according to the Montessori method. You can offer to play in the sound definition, "Define the color", "Gather the picture".Be sure to say with the baby the names of objects that are found in the game. Children have their own right answers, especially when they are accompanied by feedback from the game program. For example, if the correct answer opens a cheerful smiley.

But we should not forget that computer games are a resource of development that should be used with caution and must strictly dose. Bright pictures, moving objects on the screen are too exciting the nervous system of the child. Child-alalik should not be allowed to independently play computer games. This must be done first together, then under the supervision of adults. And, no more than 15-30 minutes.

We adults should not forget that the little creature that we once gave life needs our constant care and love. Be attentive to your children. If it seems to you that something is wrong with the child, it's better to be safe, asking for help, than to find out later that this treatment was belated.

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