Speech or communication is one area where some children may falter. For some, the speech problems fade out with time while others may need therapeutic treatment. As a parent, you need to remain vigilant in looking for the signs, and seek the help of an expert if needed.
This occurs when your child leaves out certain sounds. For example, your child may say ‘I go to coo’ instead of ‘I go to school’.
This occurs when your child replaces a sound. For example, You may hear your child saying ‘I like tate’ when she intended to say ‘I like cake’. Your child has replaced the ‘t’ sound with ‘k’ sound. You may even hear children substituting the ‘l’ and ‘r’ sound with a ‘w’ sound. For example, ‘The lion roared’ may become ‘The wion wawed’.
This happens when your child is unable to pronounce the ‘S’ and ‘R’ sound properly. This is also known as lisping. For example, she may pronounce a ‘rabbit’ as ‘wabbit’, or, seven as ‘theven’ etc.
As air moves up from your lungs and vibrates your vocal cords, your voice is initiated. This process of voice formation is known as phonation. As the voice passes through the throat, the nose or the mouth, it changes. This is known as resonance. If your child suffers from voice disorders, then she may have problems related to phonation or, resonance or, both.
a. If your child’s voice sounds harsh, husky, and croaky or you hear random variations in her pitch, she is suffering from a phonation disorder.
b. If your child’s voice has a nasal tone, then she is suffering from a resonance disorder. Such a disorder occurs owing to an imbalance of the sound energy as the voice passes through the spaces of your throat, nose or your mouth.
This occurs if your child repeats, hesitates, or prolongs while speaking; it means that she is suffering from stuttering. This is an anomaly in fluency wherein the flow of speech gets distorted. You may observe stuttering in children when they are tired, or get excited, or are put into challenging situations where they may get tensed.
This is a disorder related to the nervous system. If your child’s brain has difficulty in coordinating with her body parts that help in the production of speech, then she may understand the language but find it difficult to produce it. Examples of childhood apraxia of speech include an occasional mispronunciation of words, groping while coordinating the tongue, lips, and jaw to make a sound, etc.
To treat speech disorders in your child, you may seek the help of speech therapy. Sometimes, hearing tests and physical examinations may not be able to reveal the concerns in your child. That is exactly where the role of a speech-language pathologist comes into play. Most of the speech-related treatments would partly include a consultation with a therapist, who would observe your child while she speaks, to identify the problems and accordingly plan her treatment. Treatments include breathing exercises, voice exercises, and strategies for relaxing the muscles when your child speaks. All such exercises are part of oral motor exercises.
As a parent, you can make a difference in your child’s life by giving her the confidence to fight out any disorder. So, look for the symptoms of speech disorders and take the necessary steps to remove or minimize them.