General speech underdevelopment (GSD) - diagnosis

Characteristics of the problem

OHP is a speech impairment in which children with normal hearing and relatively good memory experience poor development of the syntactic, grammatical and phonetic components of the speech system.

This is due to the fact that all components of speech develop in a narrow relationship, and if any component has not received sufficient growth, then there is a failure in the progression of the entire speech system. The speech of children at stage 3 is limited, and the forms of words they use in everyday life are incorrect.

Preschoolers do not really understand why it is necessary to learn spoken language, since it is too difficult and at some points seems boring. Therefore, oral speech is severely impaired, with a limited vocabulary that includes a small number of adjectives and words of definition. Often it becomes incomprehensible. First-person narration, without which the material being studied cannot be fully assimilated, is a difficult task and sometimes impossible.

What are the differences between the levels?

Level 3 speech defects are among the most common among modern preschoolers. This is due to the fact that this diagnosis is often given to children at the age of 5 years. During this period of development, the baby is already mastering walking and makes many independent movements that are ingrained in memory. Now speaking becomes a priority. Due to violations of the associative series, as well as due to a general lack of understanding of simple rules in speech production, the child often speaks incoherently, with errors in the construction of verbal forms, and replacing one thing with another.

Level 1 OHP is significantly different from grade 3 OHP. The first stage of underdevelopment involves incoherent speech. Children speak exclusively in babble, sometimes simple syllables slip through. It is characterized by a small vocabulary, the reserve of which is no more than 20-25 words. The concepts of grammar, syntax and phonetics are missing.

The second level differs from the first in that the vocabulary is enriched and becomes significantly larger. However, such children still form words and their forms incorrectly. Due to the active development of the associative series, they replace some words with others as they consider correct. In addition, shortening of words, most often professions, is noticed. Children replace a long, difficult word for them with an occupation. For example: a doctor or veterinarian treats, a teacher teaches, a dancer dances. The grammatical and syntactic structure of speech is still poorly developed, and the auditory perception of words, especially unfamiliar or difficult to understand, does not work correctly. Unlike OHP level 3, the vocabulary does not yet have a sufficient number of nouns, verbs, and, especially, adjectives - they are the least of all.

Reasons for OHP

Speech underdevelopment may be due to biological or social reasons. Biological include various intrauterine influences, including fetal hypoxia, Rh conflict, natal injuries, pathology of the postnatal period (newborn jaundice, infections, injuries). For the formation of speech, the state of the central nervous system is very important, which can suffer significantly from hypoxia, asphyxia, and traumatic injuries to the skull. The causes of ANR can be organic; if we are talking about problems with the central nervous system in the past, then we talk about ANR on a residual background.

Social factors include insufficient attention to the child (often in orphanages), his upbringing by deaf-mute relatives and other circumstances that interfere with the normal formation of speech.

Classification of OHP in children

Depending on the degree of violations, there are 4 levels of ONR:

• OHP level 1: there is no speech, the child pronounces various sounds, accompanying them with gestures, but it is almost impossible to understand them.
• OHP level 2: speech contains modified words, the meaning of which can be understood. There is a lag in speech development from age norms.
• OHP level 3: the child constructs phrases, but his speech contains elements of underdevelopment that make communication difficult. Parents usually get used to and understand the child’s speech, but to a stranger it seems unintelligible.
• OHP level 4: speech is quite correct and understandable, but it contains lexical or articulation errors. The child may confuse words that are close in meaning, sentences are not always consistent, he may rearrange syllables, sounds, or make omissions in words.

Causes

During the period of growing up and development, the child begins to speak his first words. They are monosyllabic and not always constructed correctly, but even this young parents begin to rejoice at. Due to age, vocabulary is limited to a few short phrases consisting of words. Do not forget that in addition to the development of the speech apparatus, the baby masters walking skills. In the process of formation, this becomes a priority task, so spoken language fades into the background.

Since the child is still small, multifunctionality in tasks is difficult for him. Therefore, what is important comes to the fore. And it's not always communication. Because of this, it turns out that the baby can remain silent for a long time, devoting his attention to mastering other skills: walking, eating independently, and, most importantly, exploring this world. In such cases, parents begin to panic, because previously the child, although babbling, uttered words, but now is silent. This is not a problem at all.

Children at an early age absorb all the material that their relatives provide them, but much of it can be difficult to comprehend, so such words fade into the background. It is necessary to communicate with the baby as often as possible, describe actions, talk about objects and name them at the same time. This form of communication will help the child accumulate a certain vocabulary that he will use in the future.

Diagnostics

Most often, speech problems appear at the age of four. The specialist conducts diagnostics and identifies the main problems of speech development:

1. Late development . The child begins to speak his first words by the age of three to five.
2. Grammatical structure . In the baby's speech, there are large errors in the construction of words.
3. Speech structure . The child's speech is poorly structured.
4. Expressing your thoughts . The child expresses his thoughts poorly and cannot construct a coherent text due to a lack of understanding of the topic or question posed.
5. Speech . There are few understandable words and statements in the conversation, and the child often speaks indistinctly.

Identification of the main problems can serve as a basis for making a diagnosis. After such a check, a more accurate diagnosis is carried out, during which the level of underdevelopment is determined.

There are different categories of children who:

• There is no oral speech and its perception;
• Delay in speech development due to mental disorders;
• Pronunciation of sounds is impaired;
• The reasons for the delay in speech development are not expressed.

Often such problems can be due to improper development in the womb, and also received during childbirth, due to injuries.

GSD - general speech underdevelopment

General speech underdevelopment (GSD) is a combination of symptoms in which there is a violation of all aspects of speech without exception. This means that pathologies will manifest themselves in the phonetic and grammatical areas.

Let's take a closer look at what it is - OHP. OHP is a polyetiological pathology. Its appearance is influenced by many predisposing factors that manifest themselves during the intrauterine development of the child. Symptoms vary depending on the level of OHP. There are four of them, the specific level is determined by the doctor after a speech therapy examination.

The basis of therapy is conservative methods. The baby works with a specialist in a medical facility and his parents at home.

Distinctive features of OHP

Let's take a closer look at the concept of OHP in speech therapy and answer the question of what it is. OSD differs from other speech pathologies in the following ways:

• Impaired pronunciation of sounds, problematic expressive speech, poor active vocabulary and problems understanding the rules of grammatical structure;
• No hearing impairment, which must be checked by a doctor before diagnosis;
• Primary intelligence without deviations. This means that there is no mental retardation or similar pathologies. It is important to understand that if OHP is not treated, problems in mental development may appear.

The diagnosis of OHP is made only after 3-4 years. Before this period, each child develops differently and certain deviations are acceptable. The speed of speech formation is individual. After the age of three, increased attention should be paid to this aspect and, if necessary, contact a speech therapist.

General speech underdevelopment level 1

At this level, speech is almost completely absent. Pathology can be noticed by anyone, not only a qualified specialist.

Symptoms of level 1 OHP:

• The poverty of the active vocabulary is pronounced. The baby almost always pronounces babbling words, onomatopoeia, and the first syllables. At the same time, he strives for communication. A dog is a “woof”, a “bi-bi” is a car, an electric train, a road;
• Wide use of facial expressions and gestures. Their relevance and certain meaning are observed. They help the child express his thoughts;
• Simple sentences, if they exist, consist of a pair of babbling words that are combined in semantic content. For example, “meow di” - the cat is walking or running;
• The volume of the passive vocabulary is much larger than the active one. The child realizes that he is being told much more than he himself is saying;
• Words of two to four syllables are reduced. For example, “bus” will be “abas”. This indicates that phonemic hearing is not developed, and it is difficult for the child to distinguish certain sounds.

General speech underdevelopment level 2

The words are pronounced, but not quite correctly. Intermittent rudiments of the formation of grammatical connections between words are observed.

Symptoms of level 2 OHP:

• One word is always pronounced incorrectly. Apple constantly sounds “lyabako”, regardless of the context;
• There is a poverty of active vocabulary. The baby does not say words that indicate the characteristics of an object;
• There is no skill in combining words into groups. For example, a frying pan, a mug, a fork are utensils;
• Significant lag in sound pronunciation. Many sounds are poorly pronounced by the baby;
• The beginnings of grammatical changes in spoken words depending on number. This is observed only when the stress falls on the ending (stands - stands). The process is unstable and not permanent;
• Simple sentences are often used in speech without word coordination. For example, “mama drinka” - mom has come;
• Prepositions are sometimes missed or mispronounced;
• Manages to string together several sentences and tell a short story. In this case, you need the help of an adult (he asks related questions) or drawings. The coherent story is very limited and is formed from two-syllable, inconsistent sentences “Guyai goka. Ipiy seika. Go now." (Walked on a hill, made a snowman, threw snow);
• Irregular syllable structure in long words. There is a distortion of syllables due to errors in pronunciation, their rearrangement or simply removal (“dog - “baka”).

OHP level 3

The lag in the general underdevelopment of speech at level 3 is expressed in phonemic and grammatical problems. The activity of expressive speech, the ability to construct detailed phrases, and the use of a large vocabulary of words are noticeable.

Symptoms of level 3 OHP:

• Communication with strangers is possible only with the help of family members who play the role of translators;
• Instability of sound pronunciation, unclear sounds;
• Replacing difficult sounds for pronunciation with easier ones. Typically, difficulties are observed in the pronunciation of affricates, whistling, sonorant, and hissing. For example, “s” replaces many sounds (“owl” - “word”, “saplya” - “heron”, “sopot” - “whisper”);
• A noticeable increase in active vocabulary. But the child does not utter rarely used words. Usually he speaks using everyday words that are constantly spoken in the house;
• The grammatical communication is quite poor, but the baby tries to construct complex sentences. “Mom wrote and gave Sasha a candy bar, just as Sasa was drying herself.” - Mom came and gave Sasha some candy, BECAUSE Sasha obeyed. That is, the composition of a complex structure is already there, but there is no grammatical agreement of words yet;
• Compose a story from the sentences discussed above. So far, only a certain sequence is described, but there are no longer problems with composing phrases;
• Inconsistency of grammar errors. The child sometimes matches words correctly, sometimes incorrectly;
• Difficulties in agreeing nouns with numerals. For example, “two dogs” - two dogs, “many birds” - many birds;
• Errors when pronouncing difficult words (“gynastka” - gymnast). It is also difficult for a child to come up with words starting with a certain letter. This makes it difficult to prepare for school.

General speech underdevelopment level 4

Pathology is expressed only in individual difficulties and mistakes. They prevent children from learning to write and read. Therefore, at level 4, timely contact with a specialist for correction is necessary.

Symptoms:

• Sound pronunciation is correct, but there is poor articulation, slurred and inexpressive speech;
• There are errors in the syllabic structure of the word (“shelves”, not “ceiling”), rearrangement of sounds, replacement of syllables;
• Incorrect use of words that denote a feature of an object. The girl is “long”, not “tall”;
• Difficulty in composing words using suffixes (“scarf”, not “dress”);
• Agrammatisms are rarely observed. Typically, difficulties are observed when agreeing nouns with adjectives (“I draw with a red pen”) or in the use of plural nouns (“We saw birds on the street”).

It is worth understanding that it is rare that all disorders occur at once with level 4 OHP. If the child is asked to choose two answer options, and he makes the right choice, then this indicates the presence of criticality towards speech and the approach to eliminating the pathology.

Speech correction

Corrective education for children who have the third stage of speech deviations includes:

• Further improvement of speech, teaching vocabulary and grammar;
• Improved articulation;
• Studying phonetics;
• Studying the child’s syllables and associative series;
• Improving speech literacy.

Due to the adjectives that have appeared in speech, there is a great chance of improving the quality of sentence construction and their quantitative composition with the help of definitions. The child is helped in studying the style of sentences so that when listening, he can identify what kind of adjectives are in the text, as well as distinguish the endings in words of the feminine, masculine or neuter gender.

After classes on the construction of ordinary sentences, they move on to working on the construction of complex forms in which the conjunctions “and” and “a” are used. Children are taught to correctly determine the sequence of events and give verbal formulations. During classes on composing complex sentences, it is recommended to do question-answer type tasks. Pictures and activities can be used for more effective learning.

The materials for work should contain only those verbs, nouns and adjectives whose meanings are known to the child. Children learn to remember a sequence of actions and apply the acquired knowledge in practice, using previously mastered lexical and grammatical forms.

For subsequent lessons on improving speaking through storytelling, tasks on composing different stories are used. If the level of speech development is almost normal, then tasks for different retellings are used: selective and short, and creative tasks are also given.

When learning to retell, it is recommended to give various tasks to improve the quality of speech. These include:

• First person narration;
• Use of epithets in certain forms of words;
• Conduct a story taking into account time: future, present or past;
• Use degree of comparison in adjectives;
• Use diminutive words and other word forms.

Work to increase the number of words in a child and teach syntax and competent speech construction is closely intertwined with training tasks to improve articulation, as well as work to improve the pronunciation of sounds. Children are taught to recognize words of different lengths by ear, memorize them and form syllables from correctly pronounced sounds.

Exercises for home practice

In addition to classes with a speech therapist, it is recommended to practice at home. With the help of small lessons you can significantly improve your speech in a short period of time. It is important not to overtire the child, since at preschool age he is restless. Such activities will help develop patience, which will be useful when entering school.

Cards and games improve a child’s visual perception and develop speech. It is best to choose pictures with definitions of specific actions and movements. The child must learn to identify certain objects by their characteristics. Good exercises:

1. Parts of my body . The child will learn new definitions and also learn what parts of the body are called. To better understand the topic, parents are advised to clarify what each part is for and what function it performs.
2. Items of clothing . The baby expands his horizons and learns about what clothes are available. To develop the topic, you can explain to the child on which part of the body a particular item of clothing should be worn.
3. Household items . The child learns new words and remembers everyday objects. In order to build an associative series, you should explain to the baby what certain things are for.
4. Such different animals . The game and cards with animals will help the child remember what animals exist. It is important to divide the game into 2 groups: domestic animals, wild animals.
5. All the colors of the rainbow . The baby will be able to learn the color scheme.
6. The game “I, you, we, you, he, she, it, they . Helps the child learn pronouns and use them correctly.
7. What are they doing? The child will learn new verbs and will be able to use them correctly in oral speech.
8. Fruits and vegetables . Flashcards with pictures will help you enrich your vocabulary with nouns and learn fruits and vegetables. The child will learn to determine by sight the name of a particular product.
9. Funny family . It develops speech well and helps to remember family members, as well as build associations with all relatives.

OHP level 3 is not a problem. Thanks to qualified specialists and individual lessons on speech development, the child will be able to quickly cope with speech defects and get rid of them. It is important to identify deviations in time and pay attention to treatment.

ONR: what is it?

This abbreviation means general speech underdevelopment.
This is a disease characterized by symptoms such as an unformed function of the sounds made by the child and the meaning that he wants to convey with their help. In addition, with it, pathologies of lexico-grammatical and phonemic processes are noted; the baby cannot coordinate words, pronounce certain letters, etc. However, the characteristics of children with OSD are not just speech defects, which are to one degree or another characteristic of many in preschool age, but also deep types of pathology, which, if not addressed, can lead to more serious disorders - dyslexia and dysgraphia, in which the child will not be able to master writing techniques.

Also, the disease should be distinguished from such a phenomenon as phonetic-phonemic underdevelopment. OHP itself often manifests itself against the background of such syndromes as:

• alalia (complete or virtual absence of speech);
• rhinolalia (problems with articulation and voice formation);
• dysarthria (impaired pronunciation);
• aphasia (when the already formed speech function disappears).