Expressive speech disorder, also called motor alalia, characterized by a delay in the development of the child’s speech, he slowly increases vocabulary, often makes mistakes, using words, changes sounds in them, connects the syllables of different words, and others find it difficult to understand his speech.
It has varying degrees of severity, it requires prolonged correctional work with speech therapists and psychologists.
What is expressive speech?
Expressive speech - the mechanism of occurrence of verbal utterance, which can be expressed both verbally and in writing.
Initially, a person ponders what he wants to say, then builds a line in his head and only then expresses it.
Expressive speech disorder widespread in the group of preschool children - two or three children out of a thousand will have pronounced signs of a violation.
According to other data, 3-10% of preschool children face violations of expressive speech of varying severity.
The diagnosis can be made for the first time not only at preschool, but also at junior, middle or even senior school age.
Teenagers usually found soft forms of deviation, which become noticeable when it is complicated. The main part of children suffering from the disorder are boys, they have it three times more often than girls.
The intelligence of children who have speech expression is fully preserved: the violation is in no way associated with oligophore- nia and similar deviations.
Children develop fully, are able to correctly perform tasks not related to speech skills: point at the desired cubes, build toys in a certain sequence.
They support eye contact well, they quickly learn how to use objects correctly, they understand speech.
Causes of the disorder
The main reason for the development of disorders is the occurrence of organic damage to certain areas of the brain that control the formation of speech.
This damage may occur. both before childbirth and after.
In some cases, motor alalia is combined with other similar abnormalities. This occurs in cases where cerebral defects are significant enough.
Key causes of deviation:
- Prenatal adverse effects. These could be infectious diseases that a woman suffered during gestation (for example, rubella, cytomegalovirus infection, toxoplasmosis), acute and chronic toxic substances, including drugs and alcohol, lack of oxygen, rhesus conflicts (occur if the mother’s blood has a negative Rh, and the baby’s blood is positive, the mother’s immune system begins to produce antibodies that harm the fetus), traumatic injuries, severe stress, taking medications that are not recommended during pregnancy.
- Birth trauma, asphyxiation. Craniocerebral injuries and hypoxia have an extremely adverse effect on the health of the child.
Most often they occur against the background of complications in the process of labor: too slow or rapid delivery, narrow thighs of the woman in labor, suffocation of the umbilical cord, medical errors.
- Traumatic brain injury in the first months after birth. When a baby begins to move actively enough, it can roll off a flat surface and hit its head. Therefore, it is important for parents not to leave it for a long time without attention on such surfaces.
- Complications after neuroinfections. Meningitis is able to leave behind a lot of violations and slow down the development process. It is important to vaccinate the child according to the calendar and go to the hospital when the first signs of infectious diseases appear, in order to reduce the risk of meningitis. And in order to protect the growing child from encephalitis, it is important to avoid areas with encephalitis ticks or to be vaccinated.
- Intracerebral neoplasms (tumors, cysts) affecting the center of Broca: the area responsible for the motor control of speech.
- Extremely poor nutrition. This reason occurs infrequently in the developed countries of the world, but is widespread in the underdeveloped.
Lack of nutrients leads to the development of malnutrition, rickets and other diseases that can seriously slow down the development of the child.
- Unfavorable psychosocial setting. If parents often ignore the child, do not talk with him, do not make emotionally colored statements, avoid bodily contact, this will negatively affect speech formation processes. Motor alalia and other disorders are common in children separated from their mothers and growing in orphanages.
Some experts associate the development of motor alalia with heredityBut this view is not shared by all.
Symptoms
The main symptoms:
- Delayed speech development. In the most severe cases, a child with this disorder does not speak for the first few years of his life, and he reports non-verbally about his desires and needs: with gestures, with a look. In such cases, the diagnosis is set in the first or second year of life. In milder forms of frustration, children master some words and phrases, but they can make mistakes, their speech differs from that of their peers.
- Poverty vocabulary. Children slowly, with difficulty, learn new words, often forgetting previously learned ones.
At the same time, the passive dictionary practically does not suffer: children understand well the speech addressed to them.
- Mistakes in the pronunciation and use of words. There are various speech disorders: for example, a child can replace or lose syllables, sounds in words, replace letters with similar sounds (“b” turns into “n” and so on), combine syllables of different words, incorrectly combine words.
- Difficulties when trying to build a coherent phrase. The sentences that children with this disorder line up are short, simplified, do not conform to the rules of grammar: alliances and prepositions may fall out, often there is no agreement on time, case, or words may be incorrectly chosen. It is also difficult for a child to repeat a sentence or word at the request of an adult.
- Behavioral disorders. Other abnormalities are often found in children with motor alalia: increased aggressiveness, impulsivity. They are either overly active, or inactive, calm. Prone to emotional lability, anxiety, tearfulness, sleep poorly. Fine motor skills are underdeveloped, coordination of movements can also be impaired.
Other cognitive dysfunctions are also often observed: children with alalia remember the information worse, their thinking is less flexible, it is difficult for them to concentrate on something for a long time. Their speech abnormalities impede the process of adaptation in groups and learning.
Diagnostics
It is important to show the pediatrician to a child with any speech impairments: he will examine him, ask questions to the parent and direct him to narrower specialists: pediatric neurologist, otolaryngologist, speech therapist, psychologist.
The main purpose of the survey is to determine the causes of the disorder, to distinguish it from similar disorders and to determine the optimal treatment strategy.
The diagnostic process consists of:
- General survey. Experts talk with parents, study history, find out whether there were any violations in the process of carrying a child and during childbirth. Reflexes are also checked. After that, the child is sent for additional examinations, the list of which depends on the findings of specialists. As a rule, this list contains electroencephalography, MRI or CT of the brain.
- Examination speech therapist. The speech therapist determines how deep the speech disturbances are, using tests, talks to the child, notices how well he owns his own articulation apparatus, how he uses words and builds sentences.
- Diagnostics of the mental sphere. Checks are carried out by a child psychologist in the form of a game. He monitors the behavior of the child, communicates with him. The child also passes tests that determine the degree of development of his cognitive abilities and IQ.
After a comprehensive examination is diagnosed. The sooner the correction is initiated, the more favorable the prognosis will be.
Methods of treatment and correction
The basis of the correction of expressive speech disorders is continuous work with a speech therapist and psychologist.
The child also undergoes physiotherapy courses, takes medications that improve the functioning of the brain (cerebroprotectors, vitamins, minerals).
In the presence of sleep disorders are selected means possessing sedative and hypnotic effect (preparations based on melatonin, herbal sedative medicines).
It is important for children with speech disorders to undergo training in specialized kindergartensIn which there are experienced speech therapists, teachers and psychologists. The highest efficiency will be shown by the correction, which will be started at an early preschool age (up to three years).
In the process of speech therapy, the child is more active builds vocabulary learns to build sentences correctly, in the process of corrective games, he begins to understand better how to keep the conversation going, how to react to certain situations.
Speech therapist helps him get rid of errors in the process of using words, teaches the ability to formulate phrases mentally, correctly use the articulation apparatus.
Work with a psychologist shown in the presence of behavioral disorders, emotional lability.
It is important for parents to keep in touch with speech therapists and psychologists, listen to their recommendations, and do exercises at home.
Strictly not allowed blame the child, scoff at him: it will negatively affect his psyche and significantly slow down the process of correction.
If the mother or father feels internal discomfort, depression after a diagnosis, they should consult a psychologist.
The prognosis depends on the severity of the disorder, the quality of the correctional work and the age of the child. Soft forms of motor alalia easy to correct, they can be quickly eliminated completely.
Heavier ones require complex and long-term treatment, but they can also be successfully adjusted if parents and speech therapists make enough effort.
If the diagnosis was made with a significant delay, the forecast is more likely unfavorable.
What is alalia? Find out from the video:
