Overcoming the difficulties children face in their phonological development is the first step towards the child’s future well being. Find out how parents can help children to deal with speech and language problem.Parents are often seen concerned about the speech and language skills of their children and wonder how well the development is going on. Everyone of us knows that for any child’s future well being, communication skills are very important. Discovering any problem early improves the chances of learning communication skills in better way for the child.
Children start making sounds from the time they are a month old and so parents also need to start spending time
talking to their infants whenever possible. It has been observed that parents who spend lot of time with their infants and toddlers, have less difficulties making their children understand things and speak clearly.
Facts on Communication Problems
Parents of children facing difficulties in their
phonological development should get in touch with speech-language pathologist, who is specially trained to help children and adults having communication problems.
- One of the facts all parents should understand is that communication problems are not uncommon. Almost 8 – 10% of children have speech, language or hearing problems.
- Approximately 4% of preschool children have significant speech and language problem.
- Stuttering is one of the most common speech problems and studies have revealed that men stutter more than women.
Difficulties Children Face During Phonological Development
There can be considerable variation between children during different phonological processes, the simplification processes are quite simple and are observed in children from all parts of the world, no matter what language they speak. Child with phonological difficulties finds hard accessing the check because he or she has not yet mastered the phonological skills that are required for speech development.
Possible Issues
If a child makes errors it becomes really difficult to understand whether they are because the child does not understand the phoneme or the child is unable to say that. You can consult a speech-language therapist to understand the specific difficulties your child has.
Children with phonological difficulties may require more time to practice and produce their responses. Make sure there is no time constraint for this.
Children can have problems with non-words. They will need extra care and attention in this area.
The Outcome of the Test
Some children who have phonological difficulties may show knowledge of the speech sounds that they usually use in the correct manner. However, the awareness skills of the child’s speech and phonological development can be more clearly explained by the therapist.
Children have different types and levels of phonological difficulties depending on the nature and degree of the difficulty. They have problems with
- Differentiating between the sounds they hear
- Grasping the sound in their working memory, which will make them face difficulty breaking the sounds and remember to blend them together
- Mixing phonemes
- Producing speech sound dusters
- Higher level pieces of phonics even though he produces sounds of single vowels easily
Visual approaches and programmes can benefit children having phonological difficulties. In this method educators and therapists use gestures and signs to interact with the child. These children may find difficulty in reading and have common spelling errors.
When should you visit a speech-language pathologist?
You should visit a speech-language pathologist if your child
- Does not show any reaction to sound in the first three months
- Does not make any sound by 10 months
- Does not show or point or opt for any gesture to get something within 12 months
- Does not understand simple commands by 18 months
- Does not speak any word till 21 months
- Is unable to understand simple concepts by 24 – 36 months
- Is difficult to understand at the age of three
- Shows other communicational problems that alarms you
Finding any kind of speech and language problem early in the child will help him or her to understand speech and sounds better. Early intervention and right management of such issues is important.
What common phonological problems do children face? How can parents help children deal with phonological problems? How does a speech language therapist help in treatment? Discuss here.