The formation of sound pronunciation in children should be completed by 5-6 years. However, judging by the feedback from teachers, many first-graders have some kind of speech therapy problems. This significantly complicates their communication with other people, leads to the appearance of specific errors in the development of writing. How to notice a violation in your child in time? What speech defects will pass over time, and which ones should immediately contact specialists?
Sound Disorders
The baby's speech is actively formed in preschool age. For a long time, the following defects can be observed in it:
- Lack of sound. It is simply skipped (“nut” instead of “spoon”, “uchka” instead of “pen”).
- Replacing some sounds with others, lighter (“yba” instead of “fish”, “sal” instead of “ball”).
- Distortion of sound (burr, nasal).
- A mixture of phonemes that are pronounced correctly. The child says either "machine" or "masina", constantly confused.
Various defects in sound pronunciation in children can be combined with other problems: lack of phrasal speech, a small vocabulary, and the use of irregular grammatical forms. This may indicate a complex disorder in which you can not be limited only to working with sounds.
Causes of Violations
Some parents try to correct defects in the child by constantly correcting his speech and making comments. This leads to a sharp negative reaction of the baby, and sometimes to stutter. Sound correction in children is not an easy process. You need to start it not with comments, but with identifying the cause of the defects. They can be:
- Hearing problems.
- Disturbed differentiation, in which the baby does not distinguish phonemes that are close in acoustic sound (for example, “d” and “t”).
- Improper anatomical structure of the tongue, palate, jaw, various occlusion defects.
- Limited mobility of the vocal apparatus (especially lips and tongue).
- Improper upbringing when parents take too long to “lisp” with the child or, conversely, do not pay attention to him, sitting in front of the TV.
- Constant communication with people with speech defects. Problems can arise when parents speak very quickly and unclear.
- Bilingualism. The kid gets confused in the features of pronunciation, which leads to distortion of sounds in the likeness of another language.
Junior preschoolers
The baby's articulatory apparatus develops gradually. Therefore, in order to achieve the correct speech, do not forget about the features of sound pronunciation in children.
It is normal if in 3 years:
- the child softens the consonants (“l'ozitska” instead of “spoon”);
- whistling and hissing phonemes are missed, replaced, confused or pronounced vaguely;
- there are no sounds “l” and “r” in speech;
- voiced phonemes are stunned;
- instead of back-lingual sounds, front-lingual sounds are pronounced (“prenode” instead of “city”, “pencil” instead of “pencil”).
Children can clearly pronounce a sound, but not pronounce it in combination with others, rearrange syllables in words, skip consonants if they are standing nearby. Parents should be alarmed if the baby is reluctant to make contact, does not understand the simplest requests and questions, gets by with fragments (says “ma”, not “mother”, “ako”, and not “milk”).
Middle preschoolers
At the age of 4-5 years, the development of sound pronunciation in children is very active. Softening sounds almost disappear. Children begin to pronounce hissing, most have the sound "r", but their pronunciation is not yet automated. A child can say one word correctly, and make a mistake in another. At the same time, sounds are no longer skipped, but replaced by others.
Sometimes, having learned to pronounce the phonemes "sh", "p", "g", the baby inserts them into all words ("hump" instead of "dove", "toad" instead of "tooth"). But in general, speech becomes cleaner, children are less likely to rearrange syllables, almost do not shorten words. It is considered normal if the baby does not pronounce the whistling, sonorous ("p", "l") and hissing sounds incorrectly. In other cases, consult a speech therapist.
Older preschoolers
Speech therapists argue that by 5-6 years of age, the correct sound pronunciation in children should be fully formed. However, about 20% of children in speech are distorted.
They can be related:
- With insufficient automation of hissing sounds, as well as phonemes "l" and "r". In some children, the usual burr or lisp is formed.
- With stuttering and dyslalia, requiring the help of specialists.
- With a sloppy pronunciation, when the child is in a hurry, swallows the endings, clearly pronounces the sounds.
As admission to school is inexorably approaching, increased attention should be paid to work on clean speech. If in doubt, it is better to go to a speech therapist and undergo a thorough diagnosis.
Sound pronunciation examination in children
Starting the diagnosis, a speech therapist will carefully check the structure of the speech apparatus of a small patient. The baby will be asked to perform various movements with the jaw, lips and tongue. So their mobility is revealed.
In order to study the features of sound pronunciation in children, they are asked to pronounce the sound in isolation. Checks how fast articulation switching is. Toddlers repeat syllables (pak-kap) or chains of them (mna-mnu-mno).
Then the pictures are shown. In the name of the objects depicted on them, there is an investigated sound. He stands in different positions and combinations. If the child is distorted, the speech therapist asks him to repeat the word after him, to pronounce syllables with a problem sound. It is important to select not only easy, but also polysyllabic words for the examination.
Sometimes the baby pronounces the names of pictures correctly, and in ordinary speech replaces one phoneme with another. Checking this helps pronouncing cleanliness, nursery rhymes, where the studied sound is often found, conversations on plot pictures.
Phonemic Hearing Examination
In addition to diagnosing sound pronunciation, the ability to distinguish phonemes is tested in children. Attention should be focused on the following pairs of sounds: "hissing + whistling", "hard + soft", "deaf + voiced", "p + l". The following types of tasks are used:
- repeat the speech syllables for the speech therapist ("ri-li", "uch-razh");
- reproduce a series of 3-4 elements ("vlya-plya-blah-for");
- perform a movement (clap, jump) upon hearing a given syllable;
- select those pictures whose names begin with the specified sounds;
- explain the meaning of words similar in sound (for example, “varnish-cancer”) or show the desired picture.
Sound pronunciation in children
Speech therapy work includes three stages. We list them:
- Preparatory stage. The child is taught to distinguish hearing formed phoneme. The muscles of the lips and tongue must master new movements for them. To do this, use articulation gymnastics, exercises to form the correct air stream. The child is engaged in front of the mirror, all movements are done at a slow pace. If difficulties arise, you can help the tongue with your hands (for example, lift it or turn it into a tube). Parents can take up this part of the work by consulting with a speech therapist or by reading the appropriate books.
- Setting sounds. It is better to entrust this part of the work to a speech therapist who is familiar with special techniques. In a playful way, he will teach a preschooler to pronounce the required sound in isolation from others.
- Automation of phonemes in speech. For the sound to be pronounced on the machine, it needs to be repeated many times. First, the baby pronounces it in syllables of various types, then in words, and various positions are practiced. Only then can we move on to sentences, short verses and pure phrases. They should not contain sounds that the child does not yet know how to pronounce. At the last stage, retelling of short stories, description of plot pictures are used.
Sometimes children, having learned to pronounce a sound, stubbornly mix it with another. In this case, work is being done to differentiate them. The kid is invited to find differences in articulation when pronouncing each of the sounds. Then phonemes are practiced in syllables, similar words, and, finally, in tongue twisters.
Organization of classes
Raising sound pronunciation in children is not a quick process. Especially if distortion of a large number of phonemes is revealed. You have to put them gradually, starting with the lightest. At the same time, sounds should not be practiced, during the pronunciation of which the organs of speech occupy the opposite position. For example, “c” requires a broad tongue with the formation of a groove in the middle. It should not be put together with the sound "l", for the pronunciation of which a narrow language is required.
Classes with a speech therapist should be carried out systematically, 2-3 times a week. To interest preschoolers, toys, pictures, board games (lotto, dominoes) are widely used. However, work on sound pronunciation should continue at home. A speech therapist usually gives parents homework. Most often this is a complex of articulatory gymnastics, which is recommended to be performed daily. For the formation of proper speech breathing, it is useful to sing vowels, blow paper from the tongue, blow bubbles.
The development of speech function is inextricably linked with the formation of fine motor skills. Therefore, if your child has problems with sound pronunciation, get acquainted with finger games. Try to sculpt, draw, cut paper figures, make bead jewelry, assemble mosaics or designers every day.
Sound pronunciation in preschool children should be given the closest attention. After all, shortcomings, rooted in early childhood, are subsequently corrected with great difficulty. To warn them, parents should carefully monitor their speech, clearly pronounce all the sounds and not postpone the visit to a speech therapist when alarming symptoms appear in the baby.