We continue with this fascinating world of Dyslalia, this language disorder is so common in our children. Before going into detail about the types of dyslalias, we would like to clarify a type of developmental dyslalia which is very common at this stage of language acquisition and is clearly distinguished from the types of dyslalia that represent a disorder and require specialized treatment.
The developmental childhood dyslalia is the one that takes place in the phase of children's language development, in which the child is not able to repeat by imitation the words he hears and does so incorrectly from a phonetic point of view. It has several phases within the development of the child's language and finally ends when the child learns to pronounce all the phonemes correctly. It is characterized by certain difficulties in the language acquisition of the child within the stages of development. These difficulties are usually overcome before the age of four or five. If this doesn't happen, the dyslalia is likely caused by something other than a simple delay, and we are faced with one of the following dyslalias.
The Childhood Dyslalia as a language disorder It presents very varied types among which we distinguish: functional, organic and audiogenic dyslalias.
1. Functional dyslalia: It differs from other types of dyslalia because the child shows a functional disability, without being able to explain the alterations in speech due to any organic cause. This alteration can affect the auditory discrimination, which involves an alteration in the perception of phonemes (phonological disorder or phonological dyslalia); or motor coordination, which represents a problem in production (phonetic disorder or phonetic dyslalia).
It is the most frequent and is characterized by a malfunction of the articulatory organs. The child does not know or incorrectly performs the point and manner of articulation of the phoneme. He does not know how to vibrate the tongue to pronounce the phoneme correctly. RR, and usually replaces the S by the Z, wave R by the D because it is not able to make the tongue vibrate.
2. Organic dyslalia: causes the child to have difficulty articulating certain phonemes due to organic problems. It occurs in children when they have alterations in the brain neurons, when they have some malformation or abnormalities in the organs of the vocal apparatusThis type of dyslalia causes a difficulty in language, which focuses on specific phonemes.
3. Audiogenic dyslalia: It is characterized by difficulties caused by issues auditoryThe child feels unable to pronounce phonemes correctly because he or she has poor hearing. In some cases, children may need to use hearing aids.
The dyslalia it's a language disorder This is relatively easy to diagnose in a child. When a child over 4 years old mispronounces words, failing to correctly articulate syllables, it is easily noticed by the child's family and educational environment.
At first, many will try to help by correcting the child's speech. However, without targeted and specialized treatment, it is very difficult to solve the problem at home. Childhood dyslalia is usually detected in the child's early years, and even if it is not serious, it is advisable to correct it as soon as possible to avoid conduct and behavioral problems in children.
An early diagnosis of this speech difficulty in a child is extremely important because other children often laugh at the articulation or pronunciation defect and mockingly imitate the speech of a child with dyslalia.
This can aggravate the child's problem, causing personality disorders, insecurity, low self-esteem, communication problems with their environment, and other difficulties that can alter their school learning.
Cristina Oroz Bajo