Speech therapist for the child

Very often parents expect that the child himself will master the speech skills with time. But they forget about the role of speech in the self-affirmation of the child. There are often situations in children's groups when one child is not accepted into the game just because they consider him "too small" because his speech is not clear to most children.

How does speech develop?

Each person's speech is formed from birth. Before the baby utters his first word, his speech must go through the stages of walking and babbling. A very important role is played by the understanding of the speech of others, because the crumb begins to understand the speech addressed to him much earlier than he will speak independently. The absence of walking, babbling and understanding of other people's speech are very disturbing signals. It is possible that in the near future you will need classes for a child with a speech therapist.

Sometimes children are born with diagnoses that suggest a delay in the development of speech. And in these cases, children should be dealt with carefully from birth, without waiting for the defects in the development of speech in children to make themselves felt.

When to lead a child to a speech therapist?

Let's highlight the cases when a child needs a speech therapist from an early age (up to three years):

1. The baby is diagnosed (for example, cerebral palsy, CMA), in which the tone of the muscles of the articulatory organs is broken (as well as other muscles of the skeleton), and movement in space is limited.
2. The child has a diagnosis, which is likely to cause heart failure or mental retardation (for example, with genetic disorders).
3. Communication with adults is limited.
4. A small child lags behind in the development of speech for unknown reasons.
5. Mom and Dad (or one of them) talked late, have speech defects or had defects in their childhood (pronounced hereditary factor).
6. The child has visual impairment, hearing.
7. A district surgeon strongly recommends undercutting the sublingual ligament (frenum).

But the reasons why classes with a speech therapist for preschool children are necessary:

1. The speech of the child can be understood only by parents and people who know him well, since she is illegible. Many spoken sounds sound softly, as if the child is still small. Or vice versa it is too hard, as if the speaker has an accent.
2. At the age of 3-4 years the child does not distinguish the syllables in words; distorts the word beyond recognition; shortens words, skipping some consonants, syllables or endings; can not pronounce the whole word; utters the same word in different ways.
3. By the age of 5, the child did not have a coherent speech. He experiences difficulties composing the story of the picture, is unable to establish a sequence of actions, uses too short sentences.
4. By the age of 5-6 there are violations of the general structure of speech: proposals are incorrectly constructed; words are not agreed by the child in gender, number, case; prepositions and conjunctions are used incorrectly.

What can a speech therapist help?

Sometimes, when assessing the speech development of a child, parents pay attention only to the fact that the children correctly pronounce the sounds. If, in their opinion, things are more or less safe, they doubt whether a child needs a speech therapist.

But it is important for parents to understand that the speech therapist works not only over defects in pronunciation. It also helps to expand vocabulary, teaches you how to compose a story, correctly formulate statements in terms of grammar.

In addition, a speech therapist is able to prepare a child for the development of literacy, if he has any problems with speech, as well as to further successful schooling.

Only a speech therapist can analyze the situation qualitatively, give you detailed advice and indicate the need to attend special classes.

If you find serious problems with the speech of your child, be prepared, because you will need a lot of time and energy. In addition to classes with a speech therapist-defectologist for children, it is extremely important to deal with parents. Give your child a good example. Constantly talk with the baby, commenting on everything that you do, describing your actions, feelings, emotions. Read the child, together teach the poem. Then the result will not take long.