Martinez TracyIf a child does not speak well enough in the year before school, it is unlikely that he or she will be able to cope with the elementary school program on his or her own. If he or she hardly speaks at all, it is a very serious problem.
The period from birth to 5 years is considered the most important period in the development of speech: at this age the functions of the brain are formed and all of its structures are developed. As we know, the central nervous system is best trained during its formation. If there is no influence, the immature function can stop in its development.
All of this fully applies to speech – correction of its underdevelopment by a speech therapist should begin after the age of 2.5. If a child is 6 years old and does not speak, then it is a big problem, because it is unlikely that he will cope with the elementary school program until the correction work is done.
Perhaps the speech development defect is so complex that it is impossible to give a prognosis for learning in an educational institution. Simply put – the material that you will have to master for a long time at 6 years old, 2-3 years ago you could have mastered with much less effort, and you should only regret the lost time.
Nevertheless, in cases not complicated by neuropathological symptomatology, even at 6 years can make significant progress in improving children’s speech.
To assess the degree of deviation from the age norm, you need to know how developed the child’s speech at 6 years. In 1-2 years before school it reaches a certain perfection, if the adults paid special attention to it.
Speech skills of 6 year old children are normal:
The vocabulary is large enough, the child uses words of different parts of speech, he has a sufficient stock of knowledge about objects and phenomena of the surrounding world.
Grammatical errors (use of prepositions, agreement of nouns with numerals, case changes, agreement of words by gender and number, etc.) are rare.
Sentences are composed of compound and compound sentences.
All native speech sounds except “R” are pronounced clearly and correctly.
He can control the tempo and volume of his speech and uses intonation appropriately.
He answers questions with detailed phrases, can retell a story, compose his own story, fairy tale, make up a story based on pictures.
Can classify, generalize concepts, find extra objects.
Possible causes of speech disorders
The range of speech impairments of a poorly spoken child at age 6 is large, and the structure of the defect is extremely varied.
If a child speaks poorly at age 6, we may be talking about the following speech disorders:
- Dyslalia;
- Motor and sensory alalia;
- Aphasia;
- Rhinolalia;
- Dysarthria;
Only a qualified specialist, such as a child neurologist, psychoneurologist, speech therapist, can make a diagnosis based on the results of the examination. They will also offer recommendations for medication and pedagogical correction of the speech defect.
