Speech therapist

For many people, the word "speech therapist" is associated with the image of Rolan Bykov's character in a comic scene from the film "For Family Circumstances." The image of a speech therapist, with his characteristic "fictional effects," has become, so to speak, the hallmark of speech therapists. But all this is funny when it does not concern speech problems.

People are not born with a developed speech. Speech development occurs gradually. First, the child learns to pronounce sounds correctly and clearly, gradually linking them into words, which he then tries to put together into sentences, and then learns to express his thoughts consistently and constructively. Speech development does not always occur simultaneously with the mental development of a person. It often happens that speech development occurs with some features that a specialist - a speech therapist - can help correct. In general, a speech therapist is a specialist with a pedagogical education who corrects and eliminates speech disorders in adults and children. The main task of a speech therapist is to study the causes, mechanisms, symptoms, structure of speech disorders and the system of correction of these disorders. When working with children, the tasks of a speech therapist are significantly expanded. Namely, it is necessary to develop children's attention, visual and auditory concentration, general thinking of the child, fine and general motor skills. A systematic approach to the educational process of a child allows achieving high results. The tasks of a speech therapist do not have a specific framework, because along with speech correction, vocabulary is enriched, coherent speech develops, and the level of literacy increases. Therefore, the specialization of a speech therapist is quite broad and also includes the basics of psychopathology, neuropathology, pathology of the organs of hearing and speech.

Speech therapy is a section of defectology – the science of speech disorders and methods of their prevention, further diagnostics, and elimination. The subject of speech therapy is the symptoms, mechanism, structure, and course of various speech disorders and the system of correction of these disorders.

The profession of a speech therapist is relatively new and did not have much significance or recognition until the beginning of the 20th century. Speech problems went away on their own with age. Lack of knowledge in the field of speech therapy contributed to the fact that speech problems were considered a physical defect for a long time and were treated as ordinary diseases. And only in the 50s of the last century the psychological basis of the problem of speech disorders was established.

Every person has a social nature and needs constant communication with other people. Communication is a significant aspect in people's lives. Speech problems, diction defects can become a serious reason for the development of an inferiority complex. Many sociable and sociable individuals would not have the opportunity to be so if a speech therapist had not taken care of them in a timely manner. Of course, the role of speech therapists in society is invaluable, because their work can change people's destinies.

Nowadays, a speech therapist is a fairly common profession, due to the significant scale of speech problems in modern children. The effectiveness of a speech therapist's work only partially depends on the specialist himself. Various defects of the oral cavity and jaws, the removal of which is not always possible, can interfere with the successful result of speech correction.

Who is a speech therapist?

Who is a speech therapist and what are their goals and objectives? We will find out now. A specialist in speech disorders in adults and children is actually called a speech therapist. As a rule, a speech therapist is a teacher who corrects, identifies and eliminates speech disorders. Many people believe that a speech therapist corrects pronunciation problems. Indeed, the tasks of a speech therapist have a much wider range of activities, including the perfection of the structure of syllables of a word, the formation of sound synthesis and analysis skills, the perfection of literate and coherent speech, literacy skills, and the correction of reading and writing disorders. It is quite obvious that the professional activity of a speech therapist is multidisciplinary and requires deep knowledge of pedagogy and speech therapy, psychology, the basics of neuropathology, anatomy, and human physiology.

Since speech is a higher mental function of people, the activity of speech therapists is aimed at developing mental processes in a child, namely, concentration of attention, perception, both auditory and visual, development of thinking, motor skills, memory. Providing qualified assistance to a child becomes impossible if the speech therapist does not have sufficient knowledge of the basics of the physiology of the organs of hearing, speech and vision, neuropathology, human anatomy. After all, only a systematic approach to the problem of speech disorders can guarantee effective correction and a successful result. Therefore, it is possible to say for sure - who is a speech therapist, only by combining all these skills and specialties into one general concept.

When should you see a speech therapist?

Quite often parents of children ask the question - when should I contact a speech therapist? You should not postpone a visit to a speech therapist in the event that when communicating with your child you notice incorrect pronunciation of sounds, stuttering, lack of understanding of speech, or a delay in the child's speech development.

Stuttering is characterized by spasms of the muscles of the child's face, tongue, lips, and respiratory system. By type, spasms can be tonic, clonic, or mixed. Clonic spasms are characterized by the repetition of one sound or one syllable, for example, "po-po-po-pomogi", while tonic spasms are characterized by difficulty in starting speech, when the child seems to be stuck on one word. In particularly difficult cases, mixed spasms are observed, combining the characteristic features of both types of spasms.

In addition to the characteristic convulsions, one can notice characteristic motor tricks - when before starting a conversation the child makes some movement with his hand, for example, stroking the forehead, nose, earlobe. Stuttering is accompanied by speech tricks, when before starting to speak the child pronounces one sound for a long time or repeats one word many times, for example, "e-e-e-e-e-e", "da...da...da...da...".

Obvious changes in the child's behavior are also a reason for an urgent visit to a speech therapist. When a child is embarrassed by his stuttering, becomes withdrawn, and avoids communication even with his parents. In general, stuttering significantly complicates the development of the child's personality in the future, and low self-esteem may develop. Not always the worries about stuttering are adequate to the seriousness of stuttering. Very rightly, among speech therapists there is an opinion that stuttering affects, first of all, the personality, and only then speech.

An important sign of stuttering, experts say, is logophobia. The emergence of an inexplicable fear and dread of situations in which stuttering may occur, for example, answering in class at school, addressing strangers in unusual situations.

The question of when to contact a speech therapist cannot be left without specifics regarding the age of patients. Specialists have identified mandatory visits to a speech therapist in several periods. Thus, the help of a qualified speech therapist is necessary in cases when:

• a child aged two to three months does not produce cooing sounds;
• a child aged six to seven months does not babble;
• a one-year-old baby does not make sounds;
• a two-year-old child does not speak words;
• All children aged three years need to consult a speech therapist;
• A five-year-old child has difficulty expressing his thoughts, constructing sentences, and retelling fairy tales and stories.

In a situation where it is necessary to contact a speech therapist, parents need to formulate goals and objectives that require the direct participation of a qualified specialist. Such a formulation may consist of the following questions:

• teaching the correct pronunciation of sounds;
• teaching skills in writing stories and retelling fairy tales;
• teaching literacy and writing;
• elimination of problems of writing and reading disorders;
• teaching skills of syllabic structure of words;
• stretching of the hyoid frenulum, which interferes with the correct pronunciation of the sounds -l- and -r-;
• speech therapy massages.

What tests should be taken when visiting a speech therapist?

Many parents ask the question before visiting a specialist, what tests should be taken when visiting a speech therapist? The importance of the first visit to a speech therapist is significant, but, nevertheless, there is no need for any tests or laboratory studies. As a rule, everything happens in the speech therapist's office. It is necessary to tell the speech therapist in detail about the emerging speech disorders or deviations that you pay attention to. The detail and detail of your story will help the speech therapist choose a method of diagnosis and further correction of the child's speech disorders.

Any diagnosis of speech disorder begins with questioning parents about the composition of the family, the child's language communication, and heredity. When answering the speech therapist's questions, parents need to be extremely precise in their answers, because we are talking about their child. Important information is about the baby's early childhood, the course of pregnancy, the birth of the child, the physical development of the baby, when he said his first word and sentence.

As practice shows, the first visit to a speech therapist is introductory, examination is carried out at subsequent meetings, in view of possible shyness or timidity of the child. It is quite possible that the child will not answer the speech therapist's questions and even more so participate in games and training. Such situations are absolutely normal. An unfamiliar environment and conditions, a meeting with a stranger contribute to the child's cautious attitude. A qualified specialist knows how to establish personal contact with a child.

Many parents are frightened by the speech therapist's diagnoses, for example, dysarthria, dyslalia. But such speech therapy conclusions are not a medical diagnosis and contain recommendations for eliminating speech disorders. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the correction of speech disorders equally depends on the participation of the child's parents in this process. The duration of the correction process directly depends on the seriousness of the child's and his parents' attitude to speech therapy classes. In some cases, the presence of parents at classes is mandatory. A successful result of speech defect correction is possible with the efforts of all participants in this process, namely, the child and his parents and the speech therapist.

Consultation with a speech therapist is very important and any concern regarding speech disorders is justified. By seeking help from a speech therapist in a timely manner, you will significantly contribute to the successful resolution of problems, if any.

What diagnostic methods does a speech therapist use? Let's take a closer look at what diagnostic methods a speech therapist uses in his practice. In order to identify speech defects, first of all, a speech and physical examination of the child is carried out. The speech therapist needs to thoroughly assess the level of the child's speech development. To do this, it is necessary to find out the correct pronunciation of sounds, the level of his vocabulary and the ability to use it in communication, the correct formation of phrases. The level of speech communication taking into account the child's age. In a school-age child, the level of literacy in writing and reading, the level of development of imaginative thinking, the ability to navigate in space, drawing skills, and design are additionally assessed. It is very important to assess logical thinking and the ability to consistently express one's thoughts. It is important for the speech therapist to know the child's preferences in games, his interest in games. The formation of the child's ability to speak correctly occurs under the condition of the child's emotional development and his needs for communication with people. Assessing the level of emotional development is very important when examining a child by a speech therapist.

When a disorder in a child’s speech development is detected, the speech therapist’s task is to determine the causes and mechanisms of this disorder and to determine a strategy for corrective education or treatment using therapeutic and restorative measures.

Nowadays, parents occupy their children with music, sports, and foreign languages, ignoring the fact that the child does not speak his native language well enough. This is, of course, the parents' business, but there is no need to overload the child with information, because the limits of human capabilities are not unlimited, everything should be in moderation and in a timely manner.

The timeliness of contacting a specialist actually determines what diagnostic methods the speech therapist uses.

What does a speech therapist do?

Pedagogical specialization determines what a speech therapist does. The main task of a speech therapist is to assess the child's speech development. By determining the child's level of development, for example, the correct pronunciation of sounds, the sufficiency of vocabulary, the ability to compose phrases, practical skills of speech communication, the speech therapist creates an overall picture of the child's speech development and determines the priority areas of his/her activity.

A school-age child is assessed for literacy skills in writing and reading. As a rule, older children are assessed for non-verbal abilities, the degree of development of figurative thinking, the ability to navigate in space, drawing skills, design, logical and constructive thinking, and the ability to consistently express thoughts. In addition, it is important to know the child's gaming preferences, what he likes to play, the variety of games that interest him, as well as the degree of interest in a particular game. The speech therapist's activities are not limited to just correcting the sounds he pronounces. First of all, the speech therapist develops the child's attention, his auditory and visual perception, develops recognition and differentiation of objects in situations in the child, the development of memory and logical thinking. This contributes to the successful educational process of enriching the child's vocabulary, developing literate speech.

If a child is found to have deviations in speech development from children of his age, the speech therapist needs to find out the main causes and mechanism of such deviations. Determine the priority areas for correcting speech deviations, methods of their correction, participants in the correction process, and, if necessary, other therapeutic and restorative methods. It is quite difficult to determine what exactly a speech therapist does, due to the multidisciplinary nature of this profession. In each individual case, an individual method of correcting speech disorders is determined.

In general, speech therapy practice includes correction of the following speech deviations:

• defects in pronunciation of sounds, dysarthria, rhinolalia, dyslalia;
• disturbance of speech rate and rhythm, bradylalia, stuttering, tachylalia;
• voice disorders, aphonia, dysphonia;
• speech underdevelopment, loss of the gift of speech, aphasia, alalia;
• written speech disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia;

All these speech disorders are combined into the following groups:

• disorders in the pronunciation of sounds or phonetic speech underdevelopment (abbreviated as FND);
• pronunciation disorders of sounds, combined with underdevelopment of phonemic hearing or the ability to distinguish sounds (FFNR);
• pronunciation disorders, problems with vocabulary, grammar, coherent speech, and other language structures, or general speech underdevelopment (GSD).

What diseases does a speech therapist treat?

Let's take a closer look at what diseases a speech therapist treats. So, we have already found out that speech therapy specialization is multidisciplinary. This fact determines many diseases in the speech therapist's profile. These include stuttering of various degrees, burring, lisping, nasal speech, inability to pronounce words in a certain order, inability to form logical sentences, treatment of dyslexia of various degrees. Speech defects can be caused by congenital defects, such as cleft lip or speech production defects.

It is not uncommon for adults to seek the services of a speech therapist or phonologist.

This is usually associated with a disruption of the speech apparatus caused by an accident or illness.

Speech therapists practice treating patients whose larynx is removed due to oncological diseases, patients with lesions of parts of the brain caused by sclerotic phenomena or brain tumors, patients with violations of the integrity of the larynx and other diseases as a result of which speech function is impaired. In such cases, the treatment method is prescribed individually and depends on the cause of speech disorders.

Children's speech therapists practice the use of all kinds of games in their methods of treating speech disorders in children, trying to create the most favorable environment for the child's free self-expression.

Treatment methods are quite varied. For example, attempts to blow out a candle or blow soap bubbles help develop the ability to give the lips a certain position and develop the ability to control breathing. By sticking out the tongue, in front of a mirror or showing it to a speech therapist, the child learns about the possible movements of the tongue. Such exercises help train the muscles that are actively involved in pronouncing sounds. The speech therapist teaches the patient how to breathe correctly, and only then begin to develop the correct speech voice. After this, general articulation training begins.

Regular constant training of the articular apparatus, which is possible as a result of a dialogue between a child and an adult, is of great importance. A unique training of the articular apparatus occurs when chewing hard apples or carrots. As a rule, children try to repeat the sounds that the speech therapist tells them. Very often, speech therapy exercises are enough for a child to get rid of tongue-tiedness. Educational games, looking at all kinds of pictures contribute to the correct formation of speech development, learning the correct composition of words and sentences and the development of expressive and coherent speech.

And yet, what diseases does a speech therapist treat? First of all, this is a violation of sound pronunciation or dysarthria and dyslalia, a violation of speech rate or stuttering, speech disorders associated with hearing impairments, loss of the gift of speech, speech underdevelopment or alalia and aphasia, defective bite.

Advice from a speech therapist

Advice from a speech therapist will not be superfluous and will be useful to parents of children of different ages, especially since speech problems are currently quite common.

Speech therapists have noted the following pattern: children with speech problems have no appetite. Eating an apple or a carrot becomes a real problem. This is explained by the fact that the jaw muscles of such children are underdeveloped, which actually slows down the development of the articulatory apparatus. In order to develop the jaw muscles and the articulatory apparatus, it is necessary to teach the child to chew crusts of dried bread, even crackers, whole vegetables and fruits, small pieces of meat. To develop the muscles of the tongue and cheeks, you can teach the child to puff out his cheeks and roll air from cheek to cheek.

It is important to develop fine motor skills, the child needs to move his fingers as much as possible, for example, press the keys of the phone, fasten buttons, lace shoes. Such finger training should be done regularly. As the motor skills of the fingers develop, the child's speech is formed and becomes clearer.

Modeling helps develop motor skills. But you need to make sure that your child doesn't put plasticine in his mouth.

Many parents do not give scissors to their children. There are special scissors for children on sale that eliminate the possibility of injury. Cutting with such scissors will be an excellent training, developing the motor skills of children's fingers.

Few people know that speech sounds are formed by a stream of air that comes out of the lungs into the larynx, through the pharynx and oral cavity.

Normal sound formation is possible due to correct speech breathing, which creates the conditions for normal speech volume, maintaining smooth speech, expressiveness and intonation. Impaired speech breathing can be the result of general weakening of adenoid growth, all sorts of diseases of the cardiovascular system. Insufficient attention of adults to the development of the child's speech provokes such speech breathing disorders, irrational use of exhalation, incomplete renewal of air reserves. A child with weakened exhalation-inhalation has obvious difficulties with the volume of speech, pronunciation of phrases.

Irrational use of air disrupts the fluency of speech, since the child needs to take a breath in the middle of a phrase. Very often, a child with such problems may not finish words and at the end of a phrase switch to a whisper or, finishing a long phrase, the child speaks on an inhale, while the speech will be convulsive, unclear, with choking. A short exhalation does not allow the child to make a logical pause in speech and he speaks quickly.

When developing speech breathing in a child, first of all, it is necessary to form a correct, sufficiently strong, smooth exhalation through the mouth. This exhalation should be gradual. The child needs to be explained the need for a gradual exhalation and economical use of air.

It is very important to develop the child's ability to direct air flows in a certain direction. This can be practiced during games with the child. At the same time, it is necessary to constantly monitor the correctness of the child's breathing.

Correct inhalation is preceded by correct oral exhalation. Exhalation is done by taking in a full chest of air through the nose. You need to exhale air smoothly, without jolts. When exhaling, you need to fold your lips into a tube, without squeezing or puffing out your cheeks. You need to exhale air through the oral cavity, exhaling air through the nose is not allowed. To make the child feel how the air comes out through the oral cavity, briefly pinch his nostrils. The exhalation should be complete, until the air is completely exhaled. Make sure that while talking or singing, the child does not take in air with frequent short breaths.

When playing games that develop the child's breathing, keep in mind that the child may become dizzy. Therefore, it is necessary to limit the time of such games or alternate them with other developmental exercises.

Of course, the role of parents and close people in the speech development of the child is significant. In some cases, it is enough to focus the child's attention on the correct pronunciation of sounds, and he will repeat these sounds with pleasure. If difficulties arise in pronouncing sounds, additional development of the articulatory muscles is necessary with the help of special gymnastics. If pronunciation has not improved after a month of classes, a consultation with a speech therapist is necessary. Further unprofessional classes with the child can contribute to the development of incorrect pronunciation or the child's general unwillingness to do anything.

Parents of a baby need to watch their speech, because they are a role model and the child hears his first words from his parents.

Parents need to communicate with the child as an equal. Distortion of pronunciation such as "lisp", "babbling" intonations, and imitation of the child's speech are also excluded. The parents' speech should be clear and moderate.

When communicating with a child, do not use difficult to understand expressions and phrases and difficult to pronounce words. Your speech should be as simple as possible for the child to understand.

The meaning of unfamiliar words and expressions should be explained to the child in a form that is accessible and understandable to him. Imitation or irritated correction of the child's speech is excluded, and under no circumstances should the child be punished for mistakes in speech.

There is great benefit in reading age-appropriate poems to a child. The development of auditory attention, mobility of the articulatory apparatus, fine motor skills of the hands, of course, contribute to the correct development of speech.

As a rule, communicating with peers, provided that this is a normal language environment, can have a positive effect on the child's speech development. But a child is not always able to solve speech problems on his own. Quite a few adults have speech defects - this is evidence of this. Therefore, it is very important if a child has speech disorders to consult a speech therapist. Successful speech correction largely depends on the timely start of correction of these disorders. Identifying a problem in speech development at an early stage guarantees in most cases a successful result. Parents need to remember that effective correction of a child's speech depends on communication and games at home and consolidation of knowledge gained in classes with a speech therapist.

Children with obvious speech defects need qualified help from a speech therapist, but we should not forget about adequate help from parents. The main advice of a speech therapist, first of all, is to carefully communicate with the child and promptly seek the services of a specialist when speech disorders are detected.