Discover the practical benefits that await those who embark on this transformational journey, from improved communication and heightened confidence to enhanced career prospects. We’ll also shed light on the vital role played by speech therapists in guiding individuals through this nuanced process, ensuring realistic expectations and successful outcomes. Join us as we delve into the world of accent modification, where communication becomes a powerful tool for personal growth and global engagement.

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In our increasingly interconnected and globalized world, effective communication is paramount. It not only facilitates understanding but also fosters collaboration and inclusivity. One aspect of communication that has gained prominence in recent years is accent modification through speech therapy. While accents are a rich part of our cultural diversity, some individuals may find it beneficial to modify their accents for personal or professional reasons. In this article, we delve into the world of accent modification through speech therapy, exploring its significance, the process involved, and the positive impact it can have on an individual’s communication skills.

The Significance of Accent Modification

Accents are a reflection of an individual’s linguistic and cultural background. While accents are celebrated for their diversity and uniqueness, there are situations where accent modification can be valuable:

• Professional Growth: In a global job market, effective communication is crucial. Individuals with strong accents may find that accent modification helps them be better understood and, in turn, more successful in their careers.
• Social Integration: For immigrants and non-native speakers, accent modification can aid in social integration, making it easier to connect with others and build relationships.
• Clear Communication: Clarity in communication is vital in professions like teaching, public speaking, or customer service. Accent modification can help speakers convey their message more clearly.
• Confidence Boost: Many individuals seek accent modification to boost their confidence in their language skills, allowing them to express themselves more fluently and confidently.

The Process of Accent Modification

Accent modification is a systematic process that involves various stages:

• Assessment: The first step is to assess the individual’s current accent, speech patterns, and communication goals. This assessment helps the speech therapist tailor the program to the individual’s specific needs.
• Target Sounds and Patterns: The therapist identifies specific sounds or speech patterns that need modification based on the individual’s goals. These may include vowel sounds, consonants, intonation patterns, or rhythm of speech.
• Practice and Drills: Accent modification involves targeted practice and drills to help individuals become more aware of their speech patterns and develop new ones. This includes pronunciation exercises, repetition, and listening exercises.
• Feedback and Correction: Regular feedback and correction from the speech therapist are essential to track progress and make necessary adjustments. The therapist helps the individual develop new speech habits while maintaining their natural communication style.
• Real-World Application: Accent modification is most effective when practiced in real-world scenarios. The individual is encouraged to use their newly acquired speech patterns in everyday conversations and situations.
• Continued Support: Accent modification is not a quick fix but a gradual process. Ongoing support and follow-up sessions with the speech therapist are essential to ensure sustained progress.

The Positive Impact of Accent Modification

Accent modification can bring about numerous positive changes in an individual’s life:

• Improved Communication: Clearer pronunciation and speech patterns lead to more effective and confident communication, benefiting personal and professional relationships.
• Increased Confidence: As individuals become more proficient in their speech, their confidence in their language skills often grows, leading to greater self-assuredness in various aspects of life.
• Career Advancement: Many individuals experience career advancement and increased job opportunities after accent modification, as effective communication is highly valued in the workplace.
• Enhanced Social Integration: Accent modification can ease the process of social integration, making it easier for non-native speakers to connect with others in their new cultural environment.
• Personal Growth: Accent modification is not just about changing speech patterns; it’s also an opportunity for personal growth and self-improvement.

Conclusion

Accent modification through speech therapy is a valuable resource for individuals seeking to enhance their communication skills in our globalized world. While accents are a beautiful part of cultural diversity, the ability to modify them can open doors to better communication, career opportunities, and personal growth. Speech therapists play a crucial role in guiding individuals through this process, helping them achieve their communication goals and navigate the diverse and interconnected world with confidence.

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The generation of “screen children” is starting to grow up, and the consequences of this phenomenon are already evident: delays in speech development among these kids, mental development disorders, vision, movement deficits, bad posture. Today’s parents need to realize that children’s addiction to gadgets – it’s not a problem of children, it’s a problem of parents!

Although the children of the XXI century can not imagine their life without a phone or tablet, young parents need to learn to choose the golden mean. Of course, you can not treat gadgets categorically, and try to avoid them completely. There are times when they are necessary and make our lives easier.

Set a personal example for your child.
In many families, coming home from work, Dad sits in front of the computer and starts playing “Tanks”, mom can not tear away from the social networks, and the baby hung in a tablet. It turns out that contact with family is lost, and you are slowly starting to drift away from each other. So in the first place, reduce your own time which you spend with gadgets.

More live communication. Speech acquisition happens only in live communication, when the baby responds to another person, when he/she is included in the dialogue, and is included not only by hearing and articulation, but with all of his/her actions, thoughts and feelings.

3 Play together. You must play with your preschooler and do it every day. Play is a necessary stage and a prerequisite for the proper development of the child. Role-playing, plot and object games not only satisfy his main needs, but are also a prerequisite for the birth and development of speech.

Involve your child in family life. One way to distract your child from his addiction to gadgets is to involve him in socially useful work. Ask your baby to help you. It doesn’t matter what he has to do, as long as he feels the importance of his contribution to the family cause.

Walking in the fresh air. Staying outdoors should be at least 1 time a day in virtually all weather – and this is an undeniable fact, which also has a beneficial effect both on the speech development of the karapuz, and on his health in general.

Dinner – off-line. If possible, at least in the evening get together at the family table, do not turn on TV, put away your tablets and phones, tell them how your day was, ask your children what interesting happened in kindergarten or school.

A bedtime book instead of a “shooter” Gadgets before bedtime are a sure way to insomnia and depression. The blue glow of the screen and electromagnetic radiation all reduce the production of melatonin, which is responsible for a restful sleep. For a smooth transition to sleep, the best option is a book.

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What to do? A friend advises to wait for 3 years, then he will talk, my grandmother assumes: “He will outgrow it,” and a neighbor says, “In kindergarten he will talk!”

If you do not want to wait until everything forms by itself, then there are some useful tips to help you solve this problem.

Tip 1- Choose a place for activities, most moms transform the high chair for this purpose.

Tip 2- Allocate time for activities. Schedule them in the general schedule of the day, it is better that they took place in the first half. Remember that only regular exercise with your child can bring a positive result.

Tip 3 – Read more. Accustom your child to read books every day. While reading, before the last word, make a pause to finish the sound, syllable or word, look at pictures together, ask your baby questions (if the kid is silent, answer them). Bedtime story acts like a magic pill.

Tip 4 – Do not simplify. You don’t need to talk to your baby in his language. After one year, try to talk to your baby as an adult.

Tip 5 – Repeat many times. New and unfamiliar words must be heard several times (from 10 to 120!), in order for the word to appear in his active speech.

Tip 6-Use parenthesis, a form of speech that is attractive to the child’s ear. Parents all over the world speak to their children using a high-pitched voice and tuneful vowel sounds.

Tip 7 – Create special situations. Make up situations more often that will stimulate your baby to pronounce words. For example, at lunchtime give your toddler a bowl of soup without a spoon.

Tip 8 – Remove the pacifier! Speech therapists are against such artificially created devices, because babies who suck the pacifier tend to start speaking later.

Tip 9- Develop your baby’s breathing. Blow soap bubbles, inflate balloons, play with a pipe, blow cotton disks off the handle, use a juice tube to make a “storm in the glass,” blow out candles. On a walk, blow the fluff off dandelions.

Tip 10- Sew a “magic bag. Take a bright little bag and put a few beastly toys and, taking them out one by one, show only the head, suggesting that the child name the animal. Do not forget about the adjectives, it is important to describe not only who and what he did, but how he looks, because the descriptions make the language richer and stories more entertaining.

Tip 11-Recall the finger games.

Tip 12 – Combine speech with movement. Use nursery rhymes for this.

And remember that teaching a child to speak – it’s hard work, but the effort is always rewarded. Be patient! Your love and acceptance of your child’s individual rhythm of development will help your child best.

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How to understand in what situations and at what age you need to pay attention to the speech development of your baby, and when you should show your child to a speech therapist?

So let’s find out when it is necessary to see a speech therapist.

Most specialists agree that all speech problems need to be solved before school. However, it is important to note that many speech therapists and pediatricians recommend that a child be examined at age 3 to find out if his or her speech is age-appropriate.

There are certain reasons for seeing a speech therapist at an early age, from 1 to 3 years old.

Reason 1. An unfavorable pregnancy or childbirth.

Reason 2. You have a child who gets sick often.

Reason 3. Your baby is missing humming and babbling (sounds like “khhh,” “hum,” “aguh,” “aguh,” then repeating the syllables “didi,” “hygi,” “booboo”) until one year of age.

Reason 4. At the age of 1, babbling words and sound imitations.

Reason 5. At 1.5 years, there was no index finger gesture to the object of interest.

Reason 6. There is no emotional reaction to appearing in the field of vision of adults, emotional communication with the child is difficult (the baby does not look at the face, communicates by shouting), the child is bad at making contact.

Reason 7. Does not respond to the name, does not turn around when called. However, make sure that the baby hears you before you do this.

Reason 8. At two years, does not understand addressed speech: “Where’s mom? Does not fulfill the requests: “bring me a spoon” or “give mommy a ball”.

Reason 9. If the child at the age of 2 does not have simple sentences

Reason 10. At the age of 2.5, speaks up to 10 words or does not speak at all.

It is also often the case that boys begin to speak a little later than girls – this is a fact!

If at least 1 out of the 10 listed fits your child, don’t panic. All children are different and their development is uneven. However, if you are still worried about whether your baby is developing correctly, consult a specialist, and let your children speak correctly!

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There are practically no children who are absolutely ready or not ready for school. Each child perceives the new social position of a schoolboy in his or her own way, not like others. You can only talk about the degree of readiness or unreadiness for school life and the new social status.

Painless adaptation to the new social conditions is possible if the child is able to act together with others in children’s society, is able to give in, has a sense of camaraderie, and is willing to make the effort to do what the teacher requires. The future schoolchild should be able to defend his point of view, and at the same time listen to the opinion of others. By the end of preschool age the child is able to set a goal, make a decision, outline a plan of action, execute, overcome obstacles and evaluate the result.

Existing programs, their mastering will demand from the child an ability to compare, analyze, generalize, draw independent conclusions, require sufficiently developed cognitive processes, but a sufficiently high level of cognitive activity the preschooler reaches only if training is directed to active development of thinking processes.

What should parents of future first graders pay attention to?

Does the child have a desire to learn,
The correct pronunciation of all speech sounds,
The grammatically correct form of speech,
Sufficient vocabulary,
The development of coherent speech,
The ability to communicate with children and adults,
The ability to argue their point of view,
The ability to do tasks independently.

For a child who goes to school, his whole life changes completely – now it is subordinated to the schedule of lessons, which means that the child has to get used to the new rules and a different daily routine. To make it easier for the child to get used to the changes, try from the very beginning to structure the day of your first grader according to the new schedule and not to deviate from it.

Put your child to bed on time,
Start lessons with written assignments, then move on to oral assignments,
Rotate classes and take 10-15 minute breaks,
Finish studying 1.5-2 hours before going to bed,
Encourage your baby more often,
Do not take away from the child legitimate days of summer vacation – it is important that the child sat at his desk full of energy, and not squeezed like a lemon.

In general, just talk to your child more often, read books together, learn poems, draw and make applications. Use the remaining time usefully and then the first grade will be a pleasant and long-awaited event for your child!

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A distinctive symptom of dysarthria is that the problem is not with the pronunciation of certain sounds, and affects all of the pronunciation of speech. This is observed limitation of mobility not only verbal but also mimic muscles. The child’s speech is not fluid, it is indistinct and blurred, and its rate can be accelerated or slowed down. Voice also suffers, which can be harsh, or vice versa, silent, deaf and weak.

The severity and severity of this condition depends largely on the nature of the damage. Despite the fact that dysarthria as a speech disorder has been known since ancient times, even the current methods of therapy do not always allow to fully correct it.

The possibility of recovery depends on a variety of factors. Successful correction of dysarthria requires a comprehensive approach consisting of speech therapy classes, medication, therapeutic exercise and physiotherapy.

Most cases of dysarthria occur in young children. In most cases, this disorder is associated with cerebral palsy. Organic brain tissue damage occurs during fetal development or against the background of various adverse factors that the baby was exposed to before the age of 2 years.

The most common cause of cerebral palsy, which leads to the development of dysarthria in children, is pregnancy pathology such as:

• Fetal hypoxia;
• Toxicosis;
• Rhesus conflict;
• Severe course of childbirth;
• Nuclear jaundice of newborns;
• Asphyxia during birth;
• Prematurity;
• Somatic diseases.

In most cases, children have a mild form of dysarthria – starettia. The degree of severity of this speech impairment is in close correlation with the existing motor disorders. It is known that with double hemiplegia (the most severe form of cerebral palsy), dysarthria is found in the vast majority of children.

Causes of dysarthria in children without cerebral palsy are damage to brain tissue from neuroinfections, severe intoxication, purulent otitis media, craniocerebral trauma, and hydrocephalus.

At an early age, dysarthria may develop against a background of other types of CNS lesions.

The human brain is a highly complex structure, so this speech impairment in different children does not follow the same scenario. Depending on the localization of the damaged area, the following types of dysarthria are distinguished

bulbar;
Pseudobulbar;
Ectrapyramidal;
cerebellar;
cortical.

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“Speech activity affects the shape of the dental arch and structures of the upper jaw, especially the arch of the palate,” states Professor Rudolf Slaviczek. I think this statement by the internationally renowned gnathologist and author of his own theory of occlusion is not questioned by anyone. The tongue is a rather strong muscular organ, putting pressure on the dental arch with a weight of about 500 g. Consequently, in the case of a pronounced dysfunction of the tongue, the point of application of this force shifts, which causes changes in the bite.

Speech activity disorder, of course, refers to tongue dysfunction. Why? Because this defect means that the tongue has little flexibility and is in the wrong position (low, interdental or interdental), either when speaking or when not speaking. In this case, we are talking about a medium to low degree of speech activity. In turn, in none of the above-mentioned positions, the tongue has the function of supporting the palate, which causes its deformation.

So what should be understood by speech activity?

First, the beginning of the emergence of speech. The norm is considered the first words in a child at 1 year, and the beginning of phrasal speech (child speaks in sentences, not words) at about 1.5 years. If a child has a delayed onset of speech (at age 3 or later), he or she will be at risk of orthodontic problems. Bite pathology is almost inevitable!

Second, speech activity can also be viewed from a psychological perspective. In short, introverts are more likely to get a bad bite than extroverts. As a rule, speech is always a matter of one’s own initiative, of having a need for self-expression. If the child has problems in the implementation of the statement, parents should know that these features in the communication can be corrected.

Third, the level of language proficiency is taken into account. Defective pronunciation of sounds, difficulties in selecting the appropriate word or expression for the situation, fears of being misunderstood, sometimes lead to a decrease in self-esteem, and the child turns into a silent person of secondary nature.

This is the bouquet of speech and psychological problems that can affect the aesthetics of a bite. Early contact with a speech therapist will allow you to “talk” your child and prevent unwanted complications!

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Parents of children with speech disorders know firsthand what a speech therapy massage is. With his help, you can not only activate the muscles of the speech apparatus, but also teach your child how to correctly articulate sounds. If the speech organs are ready to work, and complex sounds become easier to pronounce. Moreover, these exercises are good help in cases where children are difficult to pronounce a large number of sounds.

It makes a speech therapist. The list of speech disorders in which the massage is assigned is quite extensive. With delayed speech development and the right approach, it is possible to completely eliminate the problem, if there are no other abnormalities. If the child’s speech lag is significant, parents should be prepared for the fact that it will take a long time to bring the speech to normal.

Logopedic tongue massage helps cope with the following tasks:

Correction of correct sound pronunciation.
Normalization and formation of breathing (diaphragmatic, not upper or clavicular).
Improvement of the condition and quality of the voice and vocal cords.
Strengthening of pharyngeal reflexes.

Normalization of the correct trajectory of the articulation organs.
Parents should be aware that there are a number of contraindications. They are of a temporary nature, and require the occupation to be postponed for some time.

For example, children’s speech therapy massage is not recommended under the following circumstances:

• Elevated temperature;
• Cold or acute respiratory illness;
• Inflammation of the gums;
• Stomatitis;
• Conjunctivitis;
• Lymphatic drainage disorders;
• Enlarged lymph nodes;
• If there is blood in the feces;
• Herpetic infection.

There are other contraindications, but they are all avoidable. As a rule, the massage is simply postponed until they are eliminated.

Peculiarities of the procedure
Before starting the procedure, the speech therapist examines the state of mimic, articulator muscles, general, hand motor skills. He or she determines their condition: whether they are tense or passive, whether there are twitching, asymmetry in the muscles, and, depending on this, selects the appropriate set of exercises. During the massage session, the specialist talks to the parents in detail and shows them the ins and outs of the procedure.

Massage for the development of speech is recommended to do in several cycles, each of which includes 10 sessions. The sessions are done either every day or every other day. The interval between cycles is 1-2 months. If there is no possibility of frequent visits to a speech therapist, it is allowed to increase the distance between sessions.

It is practically meaningless without simultaneously conducting classes for the correction of existing speech disorders. For example, I give speech therapy massages free of charge as part of individual lessons in the correction of pronunciation.

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Without exception, all parents are waiting for the moment when a child starts to speak mommy and daddy. Many people think that children’s speech begins its development on the day when the baby utters the first word. In fact, to make it happen, it takes a long time to prepare the organs of articulation, their coordinated work, the ability to switch, mobility of the lower jaw, lips, tongue, soft palate. It is impossible to say exactly those sounds that make up the first words if the child can not distinguish them from phonemes similar in sound, such as words like cat-kit, hill-crust and others.

In simple terms, speech is produced during the fetal period when the organs of hearing, articulation, and brain structures are formed. These processes are influenced by heredity, diseases that the mother had, the presence or absence of her bad habits, lifestyle of the baby’s parents. The course of birth and the health of the infant are important factors in its successful debut as a person who speaks and thinks.

The age at which a baby should start speaking is individual, but ranges from 8 to 14 months.

Immediately after birth, intensive development of the brain structures begins and new connections between neurons are established. At the same time, the organs of hearing and articulation develop, and physical and phonemic hearing is formed. Without adequate hearing, children cannot learn speech, since the distortion or absence of sound signals to the brain makes it impossible to form speech skills.

In the first weeks and months of life, it is the speech of others that stimulates the initial phase of speech development. The baby listens to the speech of loved ones, he is quiet for a while when he hears his mother’s voice, the impulsive movements of the arms and legs stop for a while. After some more time, he begins to turn his head toward the source of the sound.

Not all moms and dads talk to newborns and infants in the first months of life. They think it is unnecessary because the baby doesn’t understand anything yet. Such one-way “conversations” between parents and babies that accompany bathing and waking develop auditory concentration and a desire to respond. Attentive parents may notice how the child tries to move his lips as if he wants to say something. Even better, if parents often call the baby by name, show him toys and call the child, not moving away from the crib.

These sounds still sound vague and spoken involuntarily. These skills indicate the first stage of speech development – humming. In addition, the baby’s cry at 1-3 months is quite expressive. By the intonation, mom can tell if the baby is bored, wants to eat, or it is time to change a wet diaper, that is, he began to master the intonation.

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There is a significant difference between infantile and adult alalia – in adults there is a disintegration of already formed speech, while in children it occurs due to lesions of the speech cortical areas (Broca’s zone). Such changes occur during intrauterine development or early childhood.

The severity of alalia depends on when the brain is affected. The most severe lesion occurs during intrauterine development, in the 3rd-4th month of gestation. Causes of lesions of the speech areas:

• Maternal intoxication;
• Toxicosis of pregnancy;
• Incompatibility between mother and baby by blood type and Rh factor;
• Birth trauma, asphyxia during intrauterine development and at birth;
• Neuroinfections;
• Profound prematurity;
• Craniocerebral injuries at an early age;
• Consumption of alcohol and nicotine by a pregnant woman;
• Hereditary predisposition.

The bottom line is that organic damage to the brain slows down the process of maturation of nerve cells. This factor contributes to a decrease in the excitability of neurons and reduces the conduction of nerve impulses.

Motor alalia
The fact that both hemispheres of the brain are affected in motor alalia is evidenced by the fact that this pathology is not compensated spontaneously, without special corrective work and medical support. Complex encephalopathic disorders of the cerebral cortex and subcortical structures lie in the ontogenesis of the disorder.

The disease belongs to the third group of clinical types of general underdevelopment of speech, occurs in about 1% of preschool children, 0.6% of school-age children. An officially recorded diagnosis is grounds for disability.

Characteristic signs of alalia are an underdevelopment of absolutely all aspects of speech:

Phonetics;
Vocabulary;
Syntax;
Morphology.

It is called motor (expressive) alalia because it is based on the insufficiency of the motor part of speech. Electroencephalopathic examination of children with motor alalia diagnoses local lesions of cortical tissues as well as hypothalamus, subcortical ganglia, optic ganglion, brainstem. In most cases, there is dysfunction of the midbrain structures.

In motor alalia, the child may have an extensive passive vocabulary, but has difficulty naming even familiar words. Children cannot repeat even simple words after an adult, even though they have a developed articulatory apparatus. In words, they rearrange and replace syllables, omit sounds. These replacements are not stable, in some circumstances, children perform a syllable replacement, in others – replace sounds in the same word.

It is especially difficult for them to pronounce words expressing abstract concepts and generalization words. Children with alalia are aware of their deficiency. A child with high intelligence is more critical about his or her speech and he or she replaces words with facial expressions and gestures when communicating with others.

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