OCR Text |
Show SPEECH DIFFICULTIES IN CHILDREN In children, difficulties in speech may arise at the time of the initial learning of language or may arise several years after the child las begun to use spoken language. There i..ay be disorders in tie articulation of sounds, in the pit:h or timbre of the voice, in the fr;e flowing rhythm of. the words whih are used, or slowness in the begii-ning begii-ning of speech. The reasons for these problems are multiple and varied. Sometimes there is a physical factor behind them, such as defective hearing, growths or infections of the nosj I or throat, or structural abnormalities. abnormali-ties. The question of organic dis ' order should always be explore! and corrected as far as possibl; when a child is having troublt learning to speak intelligibly. Severe illness, ani especially illnesi involving the throat or mouth, experienced ex-perienced at the time when th( child would ordinarily be learning to talk can have a very discouraging discourag-ing effect on the development ol speech. It is also true that attitudes atti-tudes of parents such as encouraging encourag-ing "baby talk", anticipating the1 child's needs without encouraging him to use words, not allowing him the very essential period of infant "babbling", or insisting that he use long words or connected words before he is ready, can have an adverse effect If the child can grt what he needs without intelligible intelligi-ble speech, or if, on the other hand, too much is expected of him in the way of speech, he is unwilling un-willing to try. Attempts to change a child from the left to the right hand may cause difficulty in speaking too. The part of the brain which controls con-trols our choice of hands is the same area of the brain which controls con-trols our speech. Inasmuch we do nut learn all of our letters at the same time, parents should not be discouraged if their child has not learned all of his more difficult letters such as "S", "L", or "B." by the time he enters school. By far the most common of speech problems is that of stuttering stutt-ering or stammering. The causes of stuttering are multiple and not easily discovered without intensive studv. Mrict hiimfin hpinp-s will, i times when they are flooded with excitement or other strong emotions, emo-tions, have periods when they hava difficulty manipulating their speech. Especially is this true of children whos mastery of speech is still precarious at best. Parental attitudes play a big part in determining deter-mining whether thiE remains an occasional thing or develops into a patterning of response that becomes be-comes a source of continuing pain and embarrassment to the child. If the parent reacts with impatience, im-patience, annoyance, or shame to his child's stuttering or if the parent overprotects his child by prompting, substituting words, speaking for him. or, by avoiding situations where heiis required to speak, the child will accept what he considers to be his parent's estimate of himself as a person with a shameful defect which must be hidden away and consequently his stuttering will become worse. Early stuttering should be handled in a matter-of-fact and unemotional way with no issue being made of it whatever. At the same time, since emotions play a great role in stuttering, the child should be relieved of as much emotional stress as possible. After the stuttering has continued to the point where the child develops secondary ways of controlling it by spasms, head jerks or other devices it becomes very difficult ;o treat. Unfortunately, the emotional emo-tional problems behind the stutter- ng are then increased by the locial penalities arising from the stuttering itself. Speech therapy :ndor psychiatric treatment be-Omes be-Omes quite essential at this point |