Without speech, communication is impossible. Mastering the mother tongue, the child makes a huge breakthrough in development. The correct speech understandable to others helps him to more accurately express thoughts, simplifies the process of communication. It is much easier for a kid who does not have problems with speech to adapt in the children's team.
It should be?
Normally, speech in children is formed by the age of four. At this age, certain features and errors are allowed. In case of existing violations of the appearance of speech skills, speech therapy classes for children may be needed. They will help the baby communicate more easily with peers, make contacts, join the children's team and speak at the matinees.
It is important to contact a specialist at the right time. Sometimes a timely minimum adjustment can save you from a long and difficult work in case of a running process. In addition, speech therapy classes for children are a necessary element and the main adjustment of the development of speech in preparing a child for school.
Basic goals
Consider the three most important tasks of such classes.
- The first thing a specialist should teach a child is to understand his native language, to observe and comprehend what is happening around, thereby expanding the scope of ideas about the world around him. The goal of a speech therapist is to formulate general concepts, word formation and inflection skills, and learn to use complex phrases and more detailed syntactic structures of a sentence.
- Another function that speech therapy classes have for children is the formation of the correct pronunciation, the development of phonemic hearing, and the consolidation of the skills for correctly pronouncing words. Speech therapist controls the clarity and expressiveness of speech, gradually teaches the child the basics of sound analysis.
- The third main task facing the specialist is to teach independent speech using various sentences, the ability to tell in your own words about an event, retell plots of fairy tales and paintings. A common common goal is the development of a child's communication skills.
Types and forms of classes
All knowledge gained in the classroom with a speech therapist must certainly be used in communication. It is important to teach the kid to creatively apply the acquired skills in a variety of situations and activities.
Speech therapy classes for children are frontal, in a subgroup or individual. Let's consider each variety in more detail.
The front lesson is held simultaneously with the whole group that performs lexical material. It includes sounds correctly pronounced by all children. The front lesson takes place in several stages. First, the correct pronunciation of the sound being studied is shown. At the second stage, children are taught to differentiate sounds by ear and pronunciation. In this case, it is important to educate the ability to observe the words and sounds of native speech.
Subgroup exercises with a speech therapist should go parallel to the front. They are conducted with a small part of the team, uniting children with similar disabilities. Depending on the dynamics of individual changes during the year, the composition of the subgroups changes. The course of classes in each subgroup is in accordance with the speed of setting the desired sounds using special techniques.
Individual sessions
The skills of correct sound pronunciation at individual speech therapy sessions are automated and fixed. They are carried out with those children who have the problem of pronouncing complex words, there are multiple speech pathologies, physiological disorders of the articulation apparatus.
Individual work with a speech therapist corrects phonemic processes, improves pronunciation, increases the active vocabulary of a child. She teaches children to build coherent sentences, gives exercises on the development of articulation and fine motor skills, which has a huge impact on speech and intelligence. Individual speech therapy sessions for children, the price of which when contacting a private specialist can be quite high (on average, an hour of work costs from 500 to 1500 rubles, depending on the region and qualification of a speech therapist), have the greatest potential for eliminating speech problems.
Timely resolution of such problems is the most important stage in the formation of readiness for training.
About serious problems
Among children who need speech therapy, many suffer from serious forms of sensorimotor alalia, which are accompanied by a general developmental delay, disinhibition, and even autism. In each case, a special approach is required.
In his work, the specialist relies on knowledge of the fundamentals of neuropsychology, neuro-linguistics, neurology, the theory of phased formation of actions. Other pedagogical developments are often used, for example, the Montessori system. Sometimes it is possible to help a small patient only together with a neurologist and other doctors. The diagnosis, as a rule, is confirmed and specified in the process.
How to deal with problem children
An important element, which necessarily include classes with a speech therapist, is relaxation. The child should be able to relax and feel comfortable. It is required to provide him with a homely atmosphere, to achieve emotional contact. If the baby at the reception refuses to cooperate, causing him speech is almost impossible. A variety of techniques are used to create the right atmosphere: games with sand, water activities.
Children need to explain in simple short sentences the meaning of what they are invited to do. Very desirable, and sometimes need eye contact. Talk with the baby should be slow and not too high voice, as the children do not perceive a thin voice. A child who has serious problems with speech should not be given commands: say, show. This should be convinced of the parents, who will have independent speech therapy classes at home with a child to consolidate the material.
Hyperactive and Inhibited Children
As a rule, in a problem patient 4-5 years old, there are other disorders. Most often it is a hyperactive or, conversely, inhibited child. Hyperactive children are especially hard. The task of parents and carers is to try to organize the baby's life in such a way as to completely eliminate all sources of arousal. The installation should be done on quiet developmental activities.
Inhibited children require constant motor stimulation, it is possible using improvised means: swings, toys, gurneys. It is necessary to take the child in his arms and make various movements with him. It is very useful to use music and any sounds. Musical lessons stimulate speech, reduce the degree of control in a child over their own pronunciation. Non-speaking children imitate others and get involved in the process of singing.
About the benefits of music and massage
What else can and should include speech therapy classes for children? Poems and all the same music, which remarkably stimulate hearing, the melody of speech, simultaneously improving coordination of movements and understanding of space. Cases have been repeatedly noted when, with the help of music, a speech blockade was broken. It is important to engage children with signs of autism in common games. They do not require special achievements, but in game situations, the mechanisms of communication and speech are naturally turned on. With kids who still find it difficult to remember the rules of the game, you can just sing songs - the emotional response has a huge positive effect.
A powerful tool for direct stimulation of speech can be massage, which is necessary for many children, but not all. Body contact is poorly tolerated by children with problems in the emotional sphere. A useful effect is given by the lesson on the development of tactile, visual and auditory perception. Tactile perception improves when feeling, stroking toys and various objects. Auditory perception is trained by listening and recognizing sounds and noises from various sources, and visual perception by identifying thematic pictures.