Articulation disorders causes and treatment approaches

Articular disorder in adults and children
If children can not pronounce sounds correctly, there is probably an articulation disorder - in the jargon dyslaly. Those affected leave out sounds altogether, replace them with others or pronounce them distorted.

contents

• Missing sounds in native language
• lisp
• Problems with sound production
• How is Lispeln??
• Psychic consequences?
• Combined speech disorders
• accuracy
• The diagnosis
• Therapy for articulation disorders
• Are articulate disturbed people stupid?
• Causes of articulation disorders

Missing sounds in native language

Speech disorders treat speech therapists especially in children. But even adults make mistakes in phonetics. For example, many East Asian people can not pronounce an R because it does not exist in their languages. Many Germans can not roll the R like in Spanish, and most Central Europeans fail because of the different sounds of Slavonic languages. The click sounds of the San are extremely difficult for native Indo-European speakers.

Lispeln can be corrected more easily by appropriate exercises in children than in adulthood. (Image: Africa Studio / fotolia.com)

lisp

As a disturbance, however, is the licking of adults, so the inability to form sibilants. Unlike toddlers, who are equally stricken with sch, s and z, adult Lisplers almost exclusively have shortcomings in forming s and z: they form these sounds exclusively with the tongue between their teeth, instead of forming a soft S behind the teeth.

Lispeln can be corrected more easily by training in childhood than in old age. Many adult Lislers were not able to pronounce that correctly as children, but learned this with or without training. But they kept the wrong pronunciation of s and z, partly because a slight lisp in s or z is less noticeable in German.

Lisbling tends to increase in certain situations, such as when the person is severely agitated or unfocused, when they are under stress or consume alcohol or drugs.

Problems with sound production

This lack of making sounds is the only symptom of this disorder - unlike other speech disorders. Those who suffer from dysplasia have no problems with vocabulary, grammar, or sentence structure, and they do not lack understanding of the language.

If, on the other hand, people have problems placing sounds in the right place in words and sentences, we speak of phonetic disorders. If children under the age of five skip, substitute or mispronounce sounds, it is not a disorder. Even five-year-olds often mispronounce one or two sound groups, for example t and d or s, z, sch and ch, or f and w.

The most common distortion of articulation are errors in the pronunciation of s, z, sch or ch. These are usually pronounced with the tongue between the teeth, and many children have problems using the tongue properly.

The second most common error after the mistakes in making sibilants are the sounds k and g that many children replace with t or d.

However, if these speech defects are conspicuous, parents of five-year-olds should consult a doctor or speech therapist so that these specialists can clarify whether the articulation is disturbed.

How is Lispeln??

The technical term for lisping is sigmatism. For example, the air normally escapes only through the front teeth and we make the sound with the mouth closed. Depending on whether and how close how close we press our tongue to the front teeth or the gums in the upper jaw, the sharper the sound is.

If the air also comes out of the mouth via the lateral rows of teeth, this blurs with s and z into a tszsch, szzsch, a dschsch or the like. The supreme discipline for Sch-Lute is Russian, in which there are a total of five different beautiful sounds, from soft dj to a tschsch to a sharp tsch.

He who suffers from a strong sigmatism, pushes his tongue between his teeth and produces a sharp S. He or she says instead beautiful and rather than fast.

In "classical" lisping, on the other hand, those affected pronounce all s and z sounds like the English th in the word think.

Psychic consequences?

Slight Lispeln does not hinder even adults. However, if the lisp is very pronounced and an inaccurate pronunciation is added, then the communication suffers because other people have problems understanding the affected person.

Heavy licking may make it difficult to understand the person affected. (Image: pathdoc / fotolia.com)

For people who need to talk publicly in their professional or private life, so often serious problems arise. These can be psychological in nature, because listeners make fun of the pronunciation of those affected or even question their intelligence.

This is particularly true because lisps are often a learning error that can be corrected through training. In circles that attach importance to etiquette, this maladaptation is therefore often considered a sign of lack of education: Who lisping has then a similar reputation as someone who puts his elbows on the table when eating.

On the other hand, even politicians, business people and even pop stars are even developing a lighter sigmatism into their trademark.

Lispeln is not always due to mistakes in learning the pronunciation, but can also be conditional or promoted by the tooth position of those affected. For example, those who have crooked front teeth with large gaps in their teeth lisps automatically, and for him it is much harder to learn the correct articulation of s, z and sch than for people with straight teeth.

Combined speech disorders

Articulation and phonological disorders can not always be separated from one another in practice. Anyone who replaces lute, for example, instead of embarrassing embarrassment instead of pocket cup, often also has a phonological disorder.

Speech therapists now examine the entire articulation of the person concerned. For example, if someone substitutes sounds that can correctly form individual sounds such as sch, s, or z, then it is not primarily a malfunction during articulation, but a problem in the right place to form the correct sounds.

If affected children have additional problems, for example, if they breathe exclusively with their mouths, if they constantly run out of saliva from the corners of their mouths or if they can not properly coordinate the movement of their facial muscles, this is not a purely articulation disorder.

In addition, we distinguish primary from secondary articulation disorders. These are a disorder in language development. Secondary articulation disorders, however, follow different baseline complaints.

For example, those who are hard of hearing often develop pronunciation disorders because they do not properly understand the sounds. Especially the sibilants are difficult to distinguish when hearing problems. Furthermore, oral disorders can be the cause that the affected people neither learn nor apply the pronunciation properly. These include, for example, the cleft lip and palate, popularly called the harelip. Even a slight muscle tension in the mouth prevents the correct pronunciation.

accuracy

Most articulation problems arise in lutes that are very similar in form and only subtly different from each other. "Roof" sounds like, for example, inaccurate pronunciation like "day".

For articulation problems, parents should practice correct pronunciation with their child early. (Image: JenkoAtaman / fotolia.com)

Here it is up to the parents to practice the right pronunciation with the children early on. Most articulation disorders arise because children learn a wrong phonetic pattern. But as we automate speech patterns, the longer the child uses that language, the harder it is to correct the mistakes.

Most articulation disorders are not caused by organic complaints, but are simply because children pronounce sounds inaccurately. They are therefore particularly common in children who are learning to articulate language, ie between the ages of 4 and 6.

The diagnosis

Speech therapists use tests, screenings, comparisons and game simulations in which children speak spontaneously to see if they have problems articulating.

Essential to distinguish an articulation from an understanding disorder is the so-called phonemic discrimination ability, simply said, the test of whether the children can distinguish the content of the sounds. For example, do you know the difference between cup and bag and paw or cat and cash register?

In addition to the speech therapist and the ear, nose and throat specialist is in demand. He checks if there is a hearing impairment. This test is particularly important today: many hearing-impaired people suffered because teachers and parents considered them stupid or disobedient in their childhood, because they did not hear what they were saying and therefore had problems making sounds themselves.

Therapy for articulation disorders

Speech therapy depends on the individual and their age, interests and abilities. The affected children are actively involved, meaning that they should assess the pronunciation of others and their own.

The speech therapist first trains listening. Then, using different methods, the children first learn to form the faulty sounds in isolation. If successful, use sch, s and z or d and t in syllables, words and sentences.

In speech therapy special exercises and playful learning are used to correct articulation disorders in children. (Image: Dan Race / fotolia.com)

The most effective therapy is when the children learn by playing. Very important is the motivation of those affected. The parents are asked to pick up the thread, and implement what they have learned in a common game.

Are articulate disturbed people stupid?

Disturbances in the sound production are no indicator of lack of intelligence. In all age groups and in all schools people with articulation disorders show the same benefits as peers.

One third of those affected, however, have psychic abnormalities that are believed to promote articulation disorders. Typical are disorders of concentration and attention such as motor restlessness. These are deficits that generally lead to problems with differentiated learning. For example, those who can not concentrate tend to generalize because they only keep the headings of a text. Those who are inattentive confuse terms, words and topics that only arrive as fragments in their long-term memory.

A correct articulation depends on the differentiation: The affected confuse especially letters that are pronounced very similar. That is true, to put it bluntly, but also for people who confuse Karl Marx with Karl May or develop a diffuse world view that consists of associations with what they have "picked up" here and there ".

Causes of articulation disorders

There are still few verifiable meta-studies on articulation disorders. Presumably, it is primarily a delayed speech development due to disorders in the central nervous system. It is not a psychosomatic disorder as many stutterers and only limited to lack of support in school and home. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Specialist supervision: Barbara Schindewolf-Lensch (doctor)