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In this article we will discuss about ‘Speech Defects in Children’. After reading this article you will learn about: 1. Meaning of Speech Defects 2. Causes of Speech Defects 3. Forms.
Meaning of Speech Defects:
Speech defects and disorders develop more prominently when the baby is just learning to speak. Speech disorders, even baby talks are serious handicaps to social adjustment of the child. Particularly when he grows up, mixes, and communicates with people, he feels inferior, anxious and withdraws from the group, society and friends.
He becomes imaginative and lives in day dream, suffers from frustration. All these lead to frustration and maladjustment in every child who has speech defects. Though he is talented, he is scared to talk to people in groups, give speeches in meetings and communicates in social gatherings.
Further a child having speech defects deviates significantly from the general standard that other children of his age show and he commits more errors. Commonly defects in speech means defects in pronounciation. But in a wider sense, it may refer to any type of speech that is incorrect.
Speech defects can be divided under three sub types:
(a) Defects in word meaning
(b) Defects in pronounciation
(c) Defects in sentence structure.
Speech disorders refer to serious defect in pronounciation in that they are caused by some defect or malformation of vocal organs or by persistent emotional tensions. Speech disorders cannot be rectified or cured by learning correct pronounciation. The real cause of speech disorder must be diagnosed and removed.
Causes of Speech Defects:
1. Malformation of speech organs, defects due to tongue tied conditions, deformed teeth or lips or jaw may be the physical causes of speech disorders.
2. Slow maturation, inadequate learning, poor environmental conditions, etc. may lead to emotional tensions or other forms of emotional maladjustments which may produce speech defects or difficulty in articulation.
3. Poor and faulty child rearing practices, one or both the parents having neurotic tendencies, poor parent child relationship, lack of congenial and warm relationship between parents, aggressive, dominant, possessive and demanding mother with high aspirations for the child, may lead to speech disorder in the child.
4. Lack of proper adjustment with family, friends and peers because of the above factors may produce speech disorders.
5. Conflict and tension in day to day life, threatening and severe punishment by parents and teachers may also produce speech disorders in children.
6. Dependency, destructiveness and aggressiveness, tempertantrum timidity and allied psychological problems are related to speech disorder.
Thus, it is clear that speech disorders are largely due to adjustmental problems and emotional instabilities because of faulty environmental feed backs.
Forms of Speech Defects and Disorder:
Some of the Common forms of speech defects and disorders are discussed below:
(i) Difficulty in Pronounciation:
Incorrect and unintelligible speech habits may be developed due to inadequate environment stimulations. Childish errors may be caused due to ommission of letters by the child and no one to correct it. Inability to pronounce a word correctly may also be due to malnutrition and physical weakness.
If the small child is exposed to incorrect grammar in the home by family members or baby seaters or neighbours, he may continue to use incorrectly the pronoun forms “I” and ‘me’ or “who” and “whom”.
Baby talk by parents either to get pleasure or because they think the child cannot understand their language leads to faulty pronounciation like when a mother or family member speaks ‘Babbal’ for chappal (shoe) ‘Pai’ for Pani (water) ‘Taibu’ for Khaibu (eating) etc.
The child is encouraged to speak like that and continue it till adulthood. Experience shows that the child is capable enough to say chappal, pani and khaibu or the correct pronounciations if encouraged to say so. Hence it is the fault of the parents and family members and adults for which the child develops wrong pronounciations.
Similarly when a woman in charge of the child constantly speaks “Suibu instead of Soibu (sleep) or Daibi instead of Basibi (sit) the child learns to pronounce the word in the same way. These faulty speech habits developed during preschool years can be rectified by consistent and constant correction in the early stage.
Speech disorders usually develop during preschool year though they may develop at any time during one’s life. During preschool years, the child’s mind is very malleable and he is just learning to speak. Speech habits are yet to be formed.
So what be hears he imitates. Once a set of pronounciations have been clearly and distinctly developed, it is difficult to give it up. At a stage when he is learning to speak, any serious emotional trouble is most likely to disturb this speech habits and pronounciations. Most of the speech disorders therefore develop during the preschool years.
Thus speech errors occur primarily due to faulty learning, baby talk by parents and others. If not corrected in due time they may persist and cause trouble in adjustment during later life. According to Mccarthy (1960) mostly the errors in pronounciation excepting those due to organic causes, occurs due to the neuroticism of parents, unhappy parent-child, father-mother relationship.
(ii) Lisping:
It is the most common defect in the preschool children. The lisper appears to find it difficult to utter certain letters correctly, particularly the letter’s. He pronounces ‘this’ as thilh or simple as thimple.
This disorder may have its origin in baby talks or due to the deformity of teeth, lip or jaw gaps caused by falling of baby tooth may cause lisping. During the beginning stage it may be cured by training. Otherwise the child requires the help of speech specialist; speech therapist for acquiring new and correct speech pattern.
If it is not due to physical defect the child can gradually be trained to overcome it. He can learn to give up baby talks and infantile speech. If adults instead of diswading the child enjoy it he is encouraged and more motivated to continue the same. So adults should be very careful about infantile speech and discourage their children from developing it.
Thus, in lisping due to some reasons stated above, children substitute ‘the’ for’s’ Z, w for ‘r’ etc. Lisping may also disappear or decrease after permanent teeth appears. If still the problem persists, the speech specialist should be consulted.
(iii) Slurring:
When the child is not able to pronounce any word clearly it is called slurring. Thus, slurring results from running words together, sometimes in the form of mumbling jorgon and indistinctiveness, slurring usually occurs in the preschool age. Slurring may occur due to several reasons.
Due to inactivity of lips, paralysis of vocal cords, fear, excitement, stage frightness, fear for strangers, the speech of the child becomes indistinct. A shy, introvert, withdrawal type of child may feel very nervous and tongue tied in the presence of strangers. He might be very interested to talk, he might be knowing the correct reply but he finds difficult to say whatever he wants to say, so he speaks rapidly.
Rapidity of speech interferes with clear and distinct pronunciation as he cannot give adequate time and space to all the letters. A normal child may slur when emotionally upset, excited or anxious. Because when the tries to rush through the letters/words, they loose their clarity.
Unless it is due to paralysis of the vocal cord or any other physical reason, slurring can be managed to be corrected by asking the child to open his mouth and give emphasis to each word he utters, to speak slowly but distinctly. It the child opens his mouth while speaking so that sounds can came out, slurring can be rectified by means so speech therapy and continuous practice to speak slowly, but distinctly.
Unless there is any organic difficulty, slurring can also be removed if the children learn to control the slurring tendency by perseverance and determination. Parents should take extra care to speak clearly, slowly and fluently and they should also advise the child to imitate them.
(iv) Stuttering and Stammering:
Among all the speech disorders stuttering and stammering are most serious type. Stuttering is a type of hesitant repetitive speech, defects in articulation caused by emotional problems anxiety, frustration, fear for authority, insecurity, fear for failure, over protection, during early childhood. Stuttering and stammering occur because of failure of coordination of speech muscles, spasms of throat muscles and disphragme.
In stammering there is a check in speech, then no speech, then sudden speech and then again no speech. It creates the inability to produce sound. Between age 22 to 3 years stuttering may occur due to talk of coordination between thought and language. He has a lot to speak, but has not the capacity for the same. So he tries to speak as fast as possible and suffers from stuttering.
While stuttering the child is under serious mental and emotional strain. Parents should not give over attention to it and consider it a serious problem so that it would disappear automatically.
But if parents make it an issue and try to correct him when he stutters or rebuke and ridicule him it may aggravate stuttering. By suitable social and home adjustment stuttering also decreases. Sometimes stuttering is accompanied by a dead locking of speech and temporary inability to produce sound.
Stammering is also a type of stuttering. When the opening letter of a word is prolonged it refers to stammering like eeee—error-c-c-c-cat. Stammering occurs when a child cannot get a word out. There appears difficulty in producing any spcech sound.
The stammerer gasps, hesitates, gasps again and then mouths the word with spasmodic movements and facial grimaces efforts to articulate. Some children stammer only with certain consonants and not others. Stuttering and stammering may differ from place to place in the same person and also from person to person.
In one situation he may stutter & stammer while in another situation he may not. He may stammer while trying to utter some and not in others.
However, for the cure of stuttering and stammering the underlying emotional causes are to be brought to the sources and released, although stammering does not cause any handicap for use of intellectual capacities and many stammerers have reached high position in life. Studies show that primitive uncivilized people do not stutter.
Some say the causes are hereditary and run in families. Stammering and stuttering may also occur because of defective speech muscles. In a study, West and others examined 204 stammers and 204 normal children (without stammering) and found lat this disorder may be due to hereditary factors. Johnson opined that children start stammering when they are called stammerer.
Moncur found that if parents overprotect their children, criticise them, take excessive care and have high aspirations about their children, put a lot of pressure on them to excel in every sphere from early childhood, they stammer.
Psychoanalysts opine that fixation of the libidinal energy in the oral stage of psychosexual development lead to stammering and stuttering. Davis was of view that when a small child is not able to integrate his speech properly, he starts stuttering. When he becomes habituated in speaking it disappears. Hence the stammer should speak as much as possible.
Sometimes when the child becomes conscious while speaking, becomes highly excited after observing his own behaviour and tries to catch attention of others, he starts stammering. Most people say that stammering is a learned behaviour psychological in origin resulting from environmental pressures.
Nervousness, emotional instability, anxiety, confusion, fearfulness, over-protection, anxiety, are common causes. Perfectionistic, dominating, over anxious parents pressure on the child to learn two languages at a time leading to stuttering. Besides other techniques and precautions mentioned above, stutters and stammers should be treated by specialists and speech therapists for all the best.
(v) Cluttering:
Cluttering is otherwise known as rapid, jumpled, mistaken and confused type speech. Cluttering is caused due to delayed motor control and speech developments. Children whose speech development is delayed they usually show this speech disorder. Cluttering is more or less similar to stuttering.
It creates more errors in speech. Speech errors made by normal people are exaggerated by the clutterers in their speech. The speech of clutterers can be improved by concentration, attention and by becoming cautious and aware before speaking. Sufficient love and understanding, warm relationship with the child can prevent their speech disorders and defects.
Almost all speech defects and disorders are due to emotional disturbances excepting those having I physical causes. Proper handling of the child by parents and due attention during his language development period is extremely urgent to avoid future complication in language development.