Is your child suffering from speech-language disorder?

Is your child suffering from speech-language disorder?

Babies start trying to speak as soon as they are 10 or 11 months old. However, some children do not speak properly even after they grow up. His voice is not clearly understood even when he tries to speak a little bit. Such a problem is called Speech-Language Disorder. In such a situation, parents should not be disturbed. Rather, the child's speech-language therapy should be done. By this the child's problem will go away and he too will start speaking like normal children.

discussed with speech therapist

What is a speech-language disorder?

A child with speech-language disorder has every difficulty in speaking. While talking, such children face problems in necessary pronunciation, voice etc.

Two types of speech-language disorder

Apraxia

In apraxia, the child has trouble moving the tongue, lips, or jaw. The child knows what he wants to say, but the brain is not able to keep pace with the muscle needed to speak. With this, he is unable to speak clearly.

Dysarthria

Dysarthria is a more complex condition than apraxia. In this, the child is able to try to speak slowly. Speaks wrong and the voice is stuttering. In addition, there seems to be a hypernasal, that is, a sound coming out of the nose completely. Apart from this, there are speech-language disorder like stuttering, lisping etc.

Treatment for speech-language disorder

Speech-language therapy is the treatment of speech-language disorder. Which is done by the speech-language therapist. The child has to go to a speech-language therapist. Therapist teaches to speak with exercises and drugs to the child.

How is speech-language therapy?

This is done by speech-language therapist. First of all, speech therapist examines the child and try to understand that exactly what kind of disorder is the child having. On the base of this, therapist decide that what kind of exercise to do to the child. The therapist will understand the weakness of the child and will treat him accordingly. In this therapy, the therapist performs exercises that strengthen the lungs and tongue of the child. Such as whistling, tongue twisting, learning to swallow food, many types of words are called, lips are used to learn to speak with tongue.

Symptom of speech-language disorder

Symptoms of a child's late speaking depend on his or her ability to speak with increasing age, which can be as follows:

By the 12 months of age – As we have already said that by the age of one year, every child learns to pronounce at least one or two syllable words (eg: mumma, papa, paani, doodh, etc.) . At the same time, children who cannot even speak a word properly or try to speak it, but due to the lack of clear pronunciation, no one can understand what they are speaking, then it is delayed by a child of one year. Speech may be considered a symptom.

By the 18 month of age – By the age of 18 months, children learn to pronounce many words with one to two letters. Early speaking children usually begin to speak or understand about 73 words on average at this age. At the same time, children who have difficulty in speaking even about 15 words at this age or are unable to speak clearly, then it can be seen as a symptom of delayed speaking. Such children may also have difficulty speaking and identifying the names of body parts. At the same time, children may also feel difficulty in understanding the gestures of the face and hands. Therefore, such children try to reveal their point by crying instead of speaking to explain their point.

By the age of 24 month – Generally in completing the age of 24 months, children start speaking and understanding an average of 154 words. At the same time, they also start to speak short sentences by mixing two or three words. In such a situation, children who have knowledge of less than 133 words at this age and children too can barely speak. Also, it is difficult for them to speak by adding words. This condition can be seen as a symptom of delayed speaking in children up to 24 months. In such a situation, children repeat the same words over and over again to explain their point. It is possible that he does not immediately respond to the parents' talk or gestures. For this reason, a sense of sadness can also be seen in them.

Completing the age of 3 – Generally at the age of three, children start to understand and speak two to three lines of speech. The names of all the things near them start to speak. Starts using words like uper, niche, aage, peeche etc. besides these words they start speak mein, tum, aap, mujhe etc. On the other hand, if the child is not able to speak at this age, then it can be seen as a sign of delayed speaking at the age of three years.

Causes of speech-language disorder

• Born prematurely - Children born prematurely do not develop fully. Because of this their physical and mental development is slower than normal. Therefore, such children learn to speak and walk slowly.
• Having twins – According to research, in the comparison to normal children, twin’s ability to speak is developed slow.
• Ear infection – Experts says that ear infection is one the main cause. Ear infections (such as otitis media) affect hearing ability in children. Because of this reason, children cannot listen properly. Therefore, they take more time to speak in the comparison of normal children.
• Talking more of older siblings - A research by the New York University on the development of children's speaking assumes that older siblings may be over-speaking due to delay in speaking for younger children. Actually, older children go to school and are skilled in speaking. Therefore, he talks more to younger children than he can. At the same time, many times use English along with Hindi. Because of this, young children find it difficult to understand language and words. Due to this, they may face delay in speaking.
• Focus on other activities – According to experts, Children whose focus is more on doing other activities than speaking or they do not focus on speaking more. Such children may take longer to learn to speak than normal.

• Brain damage - The mental development of the child is affected due to the mental damage caused by the injury. Children may find it difficult to learn to speak due to poor brain development
• Cleft palate - Due to a cleft palate, children may have difficulty in speaking. This is confirmed by a research in the Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery. Research has assumed that due to the cleft palate, the air used in utterance cannot flow properly. In such a situation, the child may have difficulty in speaking. Also, hearing ability is affected due to severed palate
• Fragile X syndrome - It is a gene related disorder in which the mental development of the child is not done properly. Because of this, children have difficulty speaking and understanding words.
• Cerebral Palsy - It is a disorder related to the brain, in which the brain is not able to develop normally. Due to this, many developmental activities of the child are affected, including reading and talking.
• Amniotic Fluid – Experts say that sometimes Amniotic Fluid is also the reason for late speaking in the child. They say that when the child is in the process of coming out of his mother's womb, Amniotic Fluid goes into his mouth. If that fluid is not cleaned properly from the child's mouth at that time, the child speaks late.
• Working parents – When both the parents are busy at their work and spend very less time at home with their kids, the bond that the children have with their parents suffer. As the kids grow up, this gap may become the reason of delay speech.
• Intellectual disabilities - Intellectual disability is also the main cause of speech delay. If your child isn’t speaking, it may be a brainy issue rather than an inability to form words.
• Tongue tied – Due to the tongue tied, children cannot move their tongue (in upward direction) and some of the sound children cannot make properly like T,D, DH,L,TH, R.

• Microcephaly – Microcephaly is the condition in which child has lesser brain size than usual, a craniologist will help you more in that.
• Hydrocephalus – Hydrocephalus brain condition in which child has larger brain size due to high CFS in brain.
• Stammering - Speech can be delayed due to stammering. If the child scared more, the child start stammering.

Benefits of speech therapy

• Speech-language therapy enables children to learn to speak correctly.
• Children get confidence and they like to speak more and more.
• After speech therapy, children become strong on a social and emotional level. They also consider themselves equal to their people
• Those children who have hearing problem with speaking also get benefit. They learn to read books and listen to different sound.
• If the child has speech-language problems, then getting treatment from a young age is beneficial soon.
• Providing speech-language therapy will prove positive for the child.

By Chhavi Aggarwal