Periods of “humming” and “babbling” and their stimulation article on the topic
The period of “humbling” and its stimulation in children
Humming is the melodious pronunciation of chains of vowel sounds close to [a, y, y], often in combination with consonant-like sounds [g, m]. According to similar humming sounds, they are of laryngeal-pharyngeal-posterior lingual origin, which is reflected in the terms “humming,” “cooing,” and “humming.” The vowel-like sounds of hum are closest to the neutral e, a sound in which the tongue occupies a mid-position in the mouth. Consonant-like elements are usually palatalized, that is, they sound soft.
The sounds of humming, in contrast to screaming and crying, always arise against the background of an emotionally positive state, comfort and are not associated with organic needs. Humming is a kind of “play” of the organs of the articulatory apparatus, necessary for its development. Up to 3 months voice activity does not depend on the operation of the auditory analyzer. After 3 months pronunciation is carried out under the control of hearing. The child shows interest in his own vocalizations, listening and repeating them (the phenomenon of autoecholalia) (Mikirtumov B.E., Koshchavtsev A.G., Grechany S.V., 2001).
Thanks to the vocal reactions of humming, which gradually acquire different intonation colors, the child learns the intonation system of the language and copies the intonations of the people around him. Booming is a consequence of randomly occurring positions of the future articulatory apparatus - lips, tongue, soft palate, pharynx and larynx. Walking promotes the development of a child’s auditory attention and articulatory apparatus (Sobotovich E.F., 2003).
It is the same for children all over the world. The appearance of humming coincides with the appearance of a “revival complex” in the baby: moderately pronounced movements of the limbs, turns of the head, gaze movements, smiles and vocalizations addressed to the mother. All components of the revitalization complex are inseparable from each other, syncretic: a child in the first months of life cannot make sounds outside of general motor activity, just as he cannot move his arms and legs, remaining silent. It is also observed in deaf infants who did not have sound contact with their mother (Shokhor-Trotskaya M.K., 2006). Humming, just like screaming, is the result of the activity of the subcortical structures of the brain, i.e. the humming is involuntary (Vizel T.G., 2005; Vinarskaya E.N., 1987). Gradually, the baby establishes a connection between the melodious components of the cry (they will later be designated “humming”) and the mother’s behavior in the form of an emotional relationship with the child. At 2-3 months, the child’s need for such communication greatly increases.
Each of the humming sounds, which is the result of a complex synergy, can be stereotypically reproduced repeatedly through the mechanism of tactile-kinesthetic feedback. In the first autoecholalic phase of this period, auditory copies of tactile-kinesthetic images of humming are created, which make possible the transition to the second onomatopoeic phase. In this phase, universal emotional and expressive vowel timbres, characteristic of all children (without differences in their national and cultural background), receive nationally specific polishing, and those whose equivalents are absent in maternal speech are inhibited. Thus, sound complexes of humming, carried out while inhaling, are inhibited without receiving reinforcement. The transition to the second phase of humming is possible only in children with intact hearing.
The blossoming of the buzz falls at 4-6 months of life. Apparently, by this time the child has fully mastered the national specifics of the emotional and expressive vocalism of his native speech, which explains the following amazing fact: adult Americans, Danes and Chinese can recognize their compatriots among 6-month-old babies by the humming sounds they make.
When perceiving the mother’s speech, the child perceives only her vocalized parts, and he ignores everything that is between them. The period of humming ends with the child, on the verge of the first half of the year, beginning to recognize specific vowel timbres from unstressed syllables in which they are merged with the noise elements of the syllable. The transition to the perception of “difficult” noisy areas of maternal speech is associated with an increase in communicative-cognitive motivation.
Acquiring a nationally specific form, the child’s sound reactions acquire a sign function during the humming period. The vocal components of these reactions signify the functional states experienced by the child. Based on the vocal components of the mother’s statements, the child makes unconscious assessments of her functional states and, in accordance with these assessments, also unconsciously builds his adaptive behavior: either reaches out to her and imitates her, or turns away and shows aggressive reactions towards her.
Silent adults or adults with emotionally inexpressive vocal components of speech may not evoke indicative-exploratory behavior in a child during the booming period, and, consequently, communicative-cognitive activity.
While babbling (and at first without babbling), the child lets out bubbles of saliva. This reaction indicates the formation of differentiated innervation of the lips (Sapogova E.E., 2001). Low buzzing activity inhibits the development of speech motor and speech auditory analyzers (Arkhipova E.F., 1989).
During the humming period, the sound side of children's speech is devoid of four important features inherent in speech sounds: a) correlation; b) “fixed” localization (“stable” articulation); c) constancy of articulatory positions (there is a large and largely random “scatter” of articulations); d) relevance, i.e. the correspondence of these articulations to the orthoepic (phonetic) norms of the native language (Glukhov V.P., 2005).
The appearance of humming in the 2-3rd month, associated with the development of vocalized exhalation in the child, occurs as a certain motor base for training speech breathing is formed (holding the head, turning on the side, etc.).
Signs of speech dysontogenesis at the stage of humming
• The appearance of hooting (stages before hooting) at 3-5 months may be a sign of cerebral palsy (E.F. Arkhipova, 1989).
• Booming does not occur in response to emotional communication with an adult.
• Humming, more like a squeal.
• Absence of the second phase of humming: imitation of sounds (assessed from 4 months).
• The humming of the blind is no different from the humming of the sighted, although some blind people experience a longer period of humming.
• Humming sounds without melodiousness, short sounds.
• Absence of back-lingual sounds in humming (a sign of excessive tension in the root of the tongue).
• Low buzzing activity.
There is no need to communicate with your child too loudly or too quietly. The ear shows maximum sensitivity to sounds of medium volume.
The baby smiles, makes sounds of satisfaction if the adult speaks in a friendly, affectionate tone, and, on the contrary, screams if the adult is angry and there is an angry, irritated, dissatisfied intonation in his voice. The child does not yet understand the meaning of the speech addressed to him, but is sensitive to intonation. Children look intently at the face of the person speaking. If at these moments the adult’s facial expressions and intonation are joyful, then children clearly repeat facial movements (echopraxia) and imitate vocal reactions (echolalia) (Belyakova L.I., Dyakova E.A., 1998).
To develop the skills of walking, teachers recommend to parents the so-called “visual communication”, during which the child peers at the adult’s facial expressions and tries to reproduce them. In most cases, at the first manifestations of humming, his parents begin to talk to the baby. The child picks up the sounds he hears from the speech of adults and repeats them. In turn, the adult repeats the child’s “speech” reactions. Such mutual imitation contributes to the rapid development of increasingly complex pre-speech reactions of the child. Pre-speech reactions, as a rule, do not develop well enough in cases where, although the child is being trained, he cannot hear himself or the adult. For example, if there is loud music in the room, adults are talking to each other, or other children are making noise, the child will very soon fall silent.
There is another important condition for the normal development of pre-speech reactions: the child must clearly see the face of an adult, the movements of the organs of articulation of the person talking to him that are accessible to perception (Glukhov V.P., 2005).
With the youngest children, who have no humming or very little activity, the work consists of providing him with samples of full-fledged humming to listen to. They can come from nearby children whose humming is active; Tape recordings of humming can be used, as well as imitation of it by adults, as if playing with children: “gu-agu-gu-agu-gu”... These measures are designed to evoke an early imitative reflex. The need for this from a neuropsychological position is that at a later age the brain structures responsible for the imitative reflex become inert: they are very difficult, if not impossible, to include in the work (Wiesel T.G., 2005).
Gushing in a child is caused by a gentle voice or singing. First, the child is given the opportunity to listen to the soft, pleasant sounds of the voice. Then the adult slowly pronounces the sounds a, agy, gu, etc., opening his mouth wide so that the child can see the adult’s articulation. If the child does not repeat these movements after the adult, then they passively develop an imitative reaction. Lightly stroking the child's lips, the child's mouth is opened in a certain rhythm at the moment the adult pronounces a sound.
Reception 1: repeat 4-6 times during the day (Arkhipova E.F., 1989). When stimulating humming, it is necessary to achieve spontaneous, involuntary vocalization. For this purpose, a manual vibration massage of the chest, larynx, and under the lower jaw is performed, which stimulates proprioceptive sensations, distracting the child from the act of phonation. This promotes spontaneous evocation of the voice, since during the massage the adult utters melodious humming sounds.
Reception 2: repeated 1-2 times a day. For example, the oral area is massaged to the accompaniment of calm music. To the accompaniment of rhythmic music, manipulative-objective actions are taught, for example: knocking with a rattle, clapping your hands. Music classes are held 1-2 times a week.
While talking to the baby, tickle him and stroke him. Your speech and your smile, combined with tactile-motor stimulation, will help your baby smile at you. In addition, such “inhibition” stimulates the revitalization complex.
The period of babbling. Stimulation of its development
Appears at the age of 5-6 months. and is a combination of consonants and vowels. The transition to babbling is associated with the development of rhythm and consistency of breathing and movements of the articulatory apparatus. In the middle of the first year of life, the striatal subcortical nuclei mature and the child’s motivational sphere becomes more complex. The functioning of the striatal nuclei begins gradually, which is revealed in the appearance of such emotional expressive reactions as laughter and crying (Vinarskaya E.N., 1987). With its appearance, we can talk about the beginning of the syntagmatic organization of speech - the combination of individual articulations into a linear sequence with modulation in timbre and pitch.
At first, the babbling is spontaneous. The child listens to the sounds he pronounces and tries to reproduce them. The appearance of echolalia (imitation onomatopoeia) leads to a rapid increase in the number of syllables and sounds used. The process is active: the baby looks at the adult, follows the movement of his lips and repeats what he hears.
An important role is played by the ability to control the articulatory apparatus based on visual and auditory perception. By the 8th month, the sound composition becomes more complex with the sound combinations “te-te-te”, “ta-ta-ta”, “tla”, “dla”, etc. The vowel “i” is used more often. “o” appears as an independent sound (Mikirtumov B.E., Koshchavtsev A.G., Grechany S.V., 2001).
The babbling begins to resemble a song. The ability to connect different syllables appears (the stage of verbal babble).
Studies of the sound composition of babble have made it possible to establish a number of its regularities:
1) the presence in babble of most of the sounds that are unusual for the Russian language;
2) diversity and fine differentiation;
3) replacing hard-to-pronounce sounds with similar ones in articulation;
4) the dependence of pronunciation mastery on the primary development of the vocal apparatus;
5) the dependence of the sequence of appearance of sounds on the complexity of their pronunciation.
Of the great variety of innate babbling synergies, only those that are systematically reinforced by external sound complexes remain in the child’s everyday life (Vinarskaya E.N., 1987).
At the 9th month, babbling becomes precise and differentiated. It is possible to pronounce the combinations “ma-ma”, “ba-ba” without communicating with certain people (two-syllable babble).
Increased accentuation of maternal speech addressed to the child, with an abundance of emotionally emphasized stressed syllables (Sasha, my dear), as well as episodes of passionate rhythmic appeals of a nursing mother to the baby “Butsiki, Mutsiki, Dutsiki” or “ shirt, shonka, shonka"), during which the mother caresses and kisses him, lead to the fact that stressed syllables, together with their noisy pre-stressed and post-stressed “neighbors,” receive in the mother’s speech a single sound of changing sonority: now increasing, now falling. Feeling these effects of sonority, the child imitatively reproduces them in his babbling reactions and thus begins to operationally master the sound structure of integral pseudowords, which in maternal speech are no longer correlated with syllables, but with parts of phonetic words, phonetic words and their combinations (Vinarskaya E.N. , 1987).
Observations show that the initial babbling chains of stereotypical vocalizations (a-a-a, etc.) are replaced at 8-10 months. chains of stereotypical segments with a noise beginning (cha-cha-cha, etc.); then at 9-10 months. chains of segments appear with a stereotypical noise beginning, but with an already changing vocal end (tyo-tya-te, etc.) and, finally, at 10-12 months. chains of segments with changing noise beginnings appear (wa-la, ma-la, da-la; pa-na, pa-pa-na, a-ma-na, ba-ba-na, etc.).
Length of babbling chains at the age of 8 months. is maximum and averages 4-5 segments, although in some cases it can reach 12 segments. Then the average number of chain segments begins to fall and by 13-16 months it is 2.5 segments, which is close to the average number of syllables in word forms of Russian speech - 2.3.
The sound composition of babble is the result of kinesthetic “tuning” of the articulatory apparatus according to the auditory, acoustic imitation of the speech of others (Shokhor-Trotskaya M.K., 2006).
Children who are deaf from birth do not develop either self-imitation or imitation of the speech of others. The early babbling that appears in them, without receiving reinforcement from auditory perception, gradually fades away (Neiman L.V., Bogomilsky M.R., 2001).
The sequence of mastering the sounds of babbling is determined by the patterns of development of the speech motor analyzer: coarse articulatory differentiations are replaced by increasingly subtle ones, and easy articulatory patterns give way to difficult ones (Arkhipova E.F., 1989).
The most intense process of accumulation of babbling sounds occurs after the sixth month during the seventh month, then the process of accumulation of sounds slows down and few new sounds appear. The process of intensive accumulation of sounds in babbling coincides with the period of myelination, the significance of which lies in the fact that its onset is associated with a transition from generalized movements to more differentiated ones (N.A. Bernstein). From 7-8 months to one year, articulation does not expand particularly, but speech understanding appears. During this period, semantic load is received not by phonemes, but by intonation, rhythm, and then the general contour of the word (Arkhipova E.F., 2007).
By 10 months, a higher level of communicative and cognitive activity is formed. All this stimulates a leap in the child’s motivational sphere. Carrying out emotional interaction with the child, the mother systematically turns her attention to various objects of the surrounding reality and thereby highlights them with her voice and her emotions. The child assimilates these “emotional labels” of objects along with the corresponding sound images. Imitating his mother and using the chains of babbling segments already available to him, he reproduces the first babbling words, the form increasingly approaching the sound form of the words of his native language (Arkhipova E.F., 2007).
The period of babbling coincides with the formation of the child’s sitting function. Initially, the child tries to sit down. Gradually, his ability to hold his torso in a sitting position increases, which is usually fully formed by six months of life (Belyakova L.I., Dyakova E.A., 1998). The vocal stream, characteristic of humming, begins to break up into syllables, and the psychophysiological mechanism of syllable formation is gradually formed.
Babbling speech, being rhythmically organized, is closely related to the rhythmic movements of the child, the need for which appears by 5-6 months of life. Waving his arms or jumping in the arms of adults, he rhythmically repeats the syllables “ta-ta-ta,” “ha-ga-ha,” etc. for several minutes in a row. This rhythm represents the archaic phase of language, which explains its early appearance in speech ontogenesis. Therefore, it is very important to give the child freedom of movement, which affects not only the development of his psychomotor skills, but also the formation of speech articulations.
After 8 months, sounds that do not correspond to the phonetic system of the native language gradually begin to fade away.
By about 11 months, chains with a changing noise onset appear (va - la, di - ka, dya - na, ba - na - pa, e - ma - va, etc.). In this case, any one syllable is distinguished by its duration, volume, and pitch. Most likely, this is how stress is laid down in pre-speech means of communication (N.I. Zhinkin).
IN AND. Beltyukov identified the sequence of appearance of consonant sounds in babbling according to the principle of reducing the contrast of a group of consonant sounds when they appear in babbling: oral and nasal, voiced and voiceless, hard and soft (forelingual), lingual (stop and fricative).
Some babbling sounds that do not correspond to the phonemes of the speech heard by the child are lost, and new speech sounds similar to the phonemes of the speech environment appear.
There is also a third stage in the development of babbling, during which the child begins to pronounce “words” formed by repeating the same syllable like: “baba”, “ma-ma”. In attempts at verbal communication, children at 10-12 months of age already reproduce the most typical characteristics of the rhythm of their native language. The temporal organization of such pre-speech vocalizations contains elements similar to the rhythmic structuring of adult speech. Such “words,” as a rule, do not correspond to a real object, although the child pronounces them quite clearly. This stage of babbling is usually short, and the baby soon begins to speak his first words.
Stages of development of babbling (according to V.I. Beltyukov):
Stage 1 - a hereditary program of voiced articulatory movements, implemented regardless of the hearing of children and the speech of others;
Stage 2 – formation of the autoecholalia mechanism;
Stage 3 – the appearance of combinations of sound-syllable complexes, physiological echolalia and the transition to active speech
Pronouncing these sounds is pleasant for the child, so his babbling sometimes continues throughout his waking hours (Mukhina V.S., 1999).
Oddly enough, the quality and activity of babbling are largely related to how the child is fed, namely, whether full sucking movements are performed in acts of feeding, or whether they are in the right volume. Artificial children, of whom the majority are now suckling, often lack such action: the lips and tongue do not gain sufficient strength, and most importantly, mobility and differentiated (the ability to act in different parts separately). This can play a negative role in speech development. If natural feeding is not possible, then spoons with small holes are needed. A child must work to get food until there are beads of sweat on his forehead. Children whose tongue muscles have gained sufficient strength and mobility love to play with it. They stick it out, lick their lips, chew it with toothless gums, turn it to one side and in different directions (Wiesel T.G., 2005).
Babbling is necessary to train the connections between pronunciation and hearing in order to develop auditory control over the pronunciation of sounds (Isenina E.I., 1999). An infant is capable of perceiving a smile, gesture, or word only addressed to him personally. Only to them does he react with appropriate animation, a smile, and sound (Tikheeva E.I., 1981).
Signs of dysontogenesis babble
• Late onset of babbling (after 6 months) (the appearance of babbling after 8 months is one of the signs of intellectual disability, cerebral palsy);
• Absence of babbling or any of its stages.
• Poverty of the sound content of babbling (limiting it to the sounds: ma, pa, ea, ae).
• Absence of syllable sequences in babbling: only individual syllables are represented.
• Absence of autoecholalia and echolalia mechanisms in babbling.
• Absence of labiodental, anterior, middle, and posterior consonants in babbling.
• A sharp predominance of labial and laryngeal sounds in babbling.
Techniques for stimulating babbling
• Moments of absolute silence are created when the child can listen to an invisible but close source of sounds (human speech, melodic chanting, playing a musical instrument). To induce speech imitation, you should be in the baby’s field of vision, teach the child to voluntarily pronounce first those sounds that are in his spontaneous babble, and gradually add new sounds and syllables that are similar in sound. It is useful to include the child in a group of babbling children (Borodich A.M., 1981).
• The baby extracts the material for babbling from the environment himself, which is why he needs sounding toys so much. In addition to them, children also benefit from those that “ring, knock, moo, whistle, hiss...” He will listen to their sounds and from each sound extract something of his own, which is reflected in babbling (Wiesel T.G., 2005).
• The unhindered development of the entire motor system has a huge impact on the development of the child’s language (Tikheeva E.I., 1981).
• Play with your baby while sitting face to face.
• Repeat after your child the sounds he makes. Pause to give him the opportunity to respond to you.
• Imitate baby babble. Try to fully maintain the pace, timbre and pitch of the child’s speech. When pronouncing labial sounds and syllables, draw the child's attention to your mouth. Pause, giving your child time to repeat the sounds.
• Use a combination of chains of movements with chains of syllables: when pronouncing syllables, for example, ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma, jump with the child. To do this, you can sit the child on a large ball, another springy surface, or simply on your lap.
• Playing with a pacifier can be recommended to stimulate the lips. The adult “takes” it from the child so that the baby follows with his lips.
• Place your index finger on the upper lip, make stroking movements towards it from the nose (Solomatina G.N., 2004).
• During this period, it is advisable to encourage the adult to pronounce simple syllables. It is recommended to chant simple syllables and words:
• Ma-ma-ma-ma, mommy! Pa-pa-pa-pa, daddy! Ba-ba-ba-ba, grandma! Moo-moo-moo, little murochka! Ki-ki-ki-ki, little kitty!
• Conduct passive articulatory gymnastics.
• Stimulate the ability to localize sound in space not only to sound stimuli, but also to the child’s name. Gradually introduce sounds that differ in pitch, strength, and duration.
• During activities with a child, they attract his attention not only to toys, but also to his surroundings. They strive for the child to recognize the mother, to become wary at the sight of the mother’s unexpectedly changed face, for example, putting on a mask or throwing a scarf over her face. During this period, specially selected toys, different in size, color, shape, moving, and sound, become important. They strive to attract attention to the toy, to manipulate it, they hide toys in order to evoke an emotional attitude towards each toy individually, to highlight the toy that is most interesting and loved by the child.
• Stroking the fingertips with a stiff brush continues for some time. Brushes should be bright and different in color.
Literature
Belyakova L.I., Dyakova E.A. Stuttering. Textbook for students of pedagogical institutes in the specialty “Speech Therapy” - M.: V. Sekachev, 1998. - 304 p.
Vinarskaya.E.N. Early speech development of a child and problems of defectology: Periods of early development. Emotional prerequisites for language acquisition. - M.: Education, 1987 Sapogova E.E. Psychology of human development. - M.: Aspect Press, 2001 - 460 p.
Wiesel T.G. Fundamentals of neuropsychology: textbook. for university students. - M.: ASTAstrel Transitbook, 2005. - 384 p.
Glukhov V.P. Fundamentals of psycholinguistics: textbook. manual for students of pedagogical universities. - M.: ACT: Astrel, 2005. - 351 p.
Mikirtumov B.E., Koshchavtsev A.G., Grechany S.V. Clinical psychiatry of early childhood. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2001. 256 p.
Arkhipova E.F. Speech therapy work with young children: a textbook for pedagogical students. universities - M.: AST: Astrel, 2007. - 224 p.
Neiman L.V., Bogomilsky M.R. Anatomy, physiology and pathology of the organs of hearing and speech: Textbook. for students higher ped. textbook institutions / Ed. IN AND. Seliverstova. - M.: VLADOS, 2001. - 224 p.
Borodich A.M. Methods for developing children's speech. - M.: Prochveshchenie, 1981. - 256 p.
Isenina E.I. Parents about the mental development and behavior of deaf children in the first years of life. - M.: JSC IG "Progress", 1999. - 80 p.
Tikheyeva E.I. Speech development in children (early and preschool age). – M.: Education, 1981
Solomatina G.N. Stimulation of speech development in children with congenital cleft lip and palate.//Speech therapist. – No. 2. – 2004.
Sources: https://logomag.ru/blog/ontogenez/136/
https://logomag.ru/blog/ontogenez/137/
https://www.theplace.ru/photos/photo.php?id=308561
Genesis of vocalizations in the preverbal period
Mishina G.A., Chernichkina Yu.D. Bulletin of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University. Series 4: Pedagogy. Psychology Issue No. 23 / 2011
Many researchers from various fields of science have studied the concept of vocalization. Hence, there is no unambiguous definition of the concept of “vocalization”. Some researchers call vocalizations all the child’s vocal reactions that are not endowed with a specific meaning (words) (I.N. Gorelov, E.I. Isenina, etc.). Other researchers classify as vocalizations only the communicative sounds of a child that are not related to verbal speech (G.V. Kolshansky, S.L. Rubinstein). The authors also disagree regarding the nature of vocalizations. When considering the concept of vocalization, some authors are adherents of the biological theory of speech ontogenesis, suggesting that the language ability is innate (T.V. Bazzhina, A.N. Gvozdev, N. Chomsky, S.N. Tseitlin, etc.). This opinion is supported by empirical data that cry is present in all infants, even deaf ones (T.V. Bazzhina, V.I. Garbaruk, I.V. Dmitrieva, I.E. Isenina, etc.). The absence of pauses in the cry indicates that the child does not expect an answer, which also confirms the non-communicative nature of the cry at the initial stage (J. Bruner). It is difficult to identify the structure of such a signal (T.V. Bazzhina, E.N. Vinarskaya, S.V. Grechany, A.G. Koshchavtsev, J. Linda, B.E. Mikirtumov, H. Trali, etc.); and this is its similarity with animal signals, which are also structureless (N.I. Zhinkin). The first month of life for all children is characterized by the predominance of crying with passive detached intonations and, in general, there is no big difference in crying between groups of children raised in different social conditions (in the family and in the orphanage) (N.Ya. Kushnir, Solomatina T.V. ). Other authors lean more toward social theory, believing that the ontogenesis of speech is the result of mental development and social influence (S. Büller, J. Piaget, etc.). Examples of Mowgli children are given as evidence.
In our study, we proceeded from the position of L.S. Vygotsky about the unity of biological and social factors in the mental development of a child: the prerequisites for speech are biologically determined, but at the same time, the social factor of the child’s development plays a great role. In our opinion, when a child’s cry, as an unconditionally reflexive act in the process of development of brain structures and under the influence of the social environment, becomes a conditioned reflex and acquires intonation shades of resentment or dissatisfaction, we can already talk about the manifestation of the directionality of vocalizations. Up to 6 months, according to research by physiologists, vocalizations are completely biologically determined and are unconditional and conditioned reflex reactions in the structure of the first signal system (L.O. Badalyan, M.M. Koltsova). In the first months of life, all sensations that the child receives from the external environment are merged. According to physiologists (L.O. Badalyan, M.M. Koltsova), the more often the same stimuli are re-excited, the faster the child’s reflex-type response is formed and improved, and, consequently, the child’s sensations will become more differentiated . Thus, in the process of regular contact with an adult, the infant develops a conditioned reaction of a social nature. From 2 months of age, a child is characterized by various ways of displaying emotions: peace, satisfied humming, dissatisfied whimpering, crying, intonation of joy in the structure of the revitalization complex, intonation of reproach, demand and surprise. By 6 months, due to the development of the acoustic zones of the brain and as the main process of myelination is completed, the child already becomes able to perceive and differentiate individual words, the second signal system begins to develop (L.O. Badalyan, M.M. Koltsova, I.P. Pavlov ). At the same time, the role of an adult in the child’s speech development remains leading and decisive: if in the first half of the year the child did not receive proper social contact and communication with an adult, then the development of the second signaling system may be delayed or disrupted.
The existing periodizations of speech development of a child in the first year of life were developed depending on the approach in the light of which vocalizations were considered - psychological, linguistic and psycholinguistic, phonetic, semiotic (T.V. Bazzhina, E.N. Vinarskaya, L.S. Vygotsky, A. N. Gvozdev, I. N. Gorelov, N. I. Zhinkin, E. I. Isenina, G. V. Kolshansky, A. R. Luria, S. L. Rubinstein, M. E. K. Halliday, S. N. Tseitlin, F.Ya. Yudovich, etc.).
Traditionally, linguistic periodization of speech is used, highlighting the following stages of the pre-speech period of development: screaming, humming and hooting, babbling. Most researchers from different fields of science use this periodization. The phonetic approach (T.V. Bazzhina, V.I. Beltyukov, A.N. Gvozdev, etc.) allows us to consider vocalizations mainly from the acoustic side. Psycholinguistics considers speech utterances from the point of view of the patterns of their generation and perception (N.I. Gorelov and others). Psychology studies speech from its “internal” side. Speech is considered both from the point of view of reflexes and from the point of view of its internal organization, with particular importance in determining vocalizations given to communication. The semiotic approach allows us to consider vo-signs as part of a broader sign structure - a combination of signs of a proto-language - and thereby include gestures, actions and situation objects in the linguistic structure.
However, even within the framework of one approach to the study of vocalizations, different researchers can characterize each period of speech ontogenesis differently. For example, according to T.V. The bazzhin cry cannot be interpreted as one of the stages of preparation for speech, since the cry develops in the direction of increasing the total sound time of the cry period, and from the point of view of the principle of saving effort, speech sounds should develop in the direction of reducing the sound time. In addition, the vocal cords do not take part in the production of a cry; the production of a cry is associated with the work of the respiratory apparatus (E.N. Vinarskaya). T.N. Ushakova believes that the function of a cry contains the germ of a future verbal sign. According to the author, from the first days a child is able to convey his internal psychological state through screaming.
When studying babbling, some authors (E.I. Isenina) believe that babbling is an expression of not only emotional expression and attitude towards the speaker, but also conveys the child’s attitude towards surrounding objects and characterizes the communicative type of utterance. And others (A.N. Gvozdev, S.N. Tseitlin) believe that babbling is not a sign, i.e. does not convey information, does not reflect thought and therefore cannot be regarded as a means of communication.
I would like to separately highlight the periodization of speech development proposed by E.N. Vinarskaya, since the author considers the process of speech ontogenesis from the position of the unity of biological and social factors. The researcher distinguishes 2 periods of pre-speech development of the child: the period of pre-phonetic universals and the period of phonetic images and gestures (paralinguistic means of emotional expressiveness). According to the author, at the beginning of the period of pre-phonetic universals, self-regulation of the newborn’s body is carried out on the basis of a defensive reflex, which is expressed in the form of an emotionally negative reaction of the child - a cry. Further, throughout infancy, under the influence of a close adult, the child’s communicative and cognitive development occurs, the basis of which, instead of a defensive reflex, becomes an indicative and exploratory one. The author considers humming and babbling, as emotionally positive reactions, to be signs of paralinguistic means of emotional expressiveness that serve the purposes of communication and cognition, and not defense, like screaming. Thus, as the child develops, vocalizations, being initially biological, unconditionally reflex reactions, gradually, under the influence of contact with an adult, turn into socially conditioned conditioned reflex reactions, and become means of communication of the child with the outside world.
It is important to take into account the social factor when considering dysontogenesis of speech. In the course of analyzing the process of speech development and its dysontogenesis, not all authors take into account, along with the physiological (sensorimotor) factor of the problem, the social factor, as one of the leading factors in the structure of the disorder. When identifying dysontogenesis of speech development and determining its causes, it is very important to take into account the state of all prerequisites for speech development, and not just cognitive and neurophysiological ones.
Over the past few years, we have conducted an experiment that was aimed at studying the ontogenesis of speech in the preverbal period. The vocal production of infants in the normal group and in cases of complicated development was studied. 16 children aged from 2–4 months to 3 years took part in the longitudinal study. During the first 3 years of the child’s life, once every three months, an hour-long filming of each subject was carried out during his natural behavior at home. The state of vocal manifestations and their direction were recorded. As a result of the analysis of the obtained material, a number of conclusions were made. It was noted that, starting from the 2nd month of life, children’s vocalizations manifest themselves in both communicative and non-communicative situations: non-communicative vocalizations accompanied the child’s actions, were an indicator of the child’s emotionally positive state, and were not aimed at communication; communicative vocalizations had various purposes, realized in the process of communication with surrounding adults.
Depending on the approach to considering vocalizations, researchers identify various functions. A number of researchers distinguish two functions in a cry: service-physiological and conditionally commutative (informative) functions (T.V. Bazzhina), while the cry acquires communicative meaning only for an adult; With the development of the child’s body and his psyche, the cry acquires an expressive function, gradually transforming into crying. And crying is already a communicative means; a means of influence, and a targeted one, on an adult, i.e. is communication with goal setting.
Other authors (E.I. Isenina) do not assign screaming any functions at all, saying that screaming only accompanies the child’s desires, but does not express them. In foreign literature, the most developed classification is M.E. K. Halliday, including such functions of vocalizations as: instrumental, informative, regulatory, interaction, personal, heuristic, imagination. On this basis, a periodization of the development of vocalization functions in the preverbal period was created (E.I. Isenina).
Within the framework of the model of the speech-language mechanism, such functions as the function of symbolization, representation, expression are identified, while the expressive function is considered as the main one and manifests itself in the form of intentions - intentions to highlight hidden mental contents in the external plane (T.N. Ushakova, S.S. Belova ). The following groups of intentions and the time of their appearance were identified:
1) object intentions (desire to receive or reach an object - 5–6 months, desire to perform an action with an object - 10 months, urging an adult to do something with an object - 14 months, expressions of regret in an unsuccessful attempt to get an object - approximately 10–11 months, expression of pleasure when receiving an object - from about 10–11 months);
2) social and communicative intentions (the desire to be held by an adult - 1–7 months, pleasure from communication, requests, drawing attention to oneself, anxiety about the absence of an adult, etc.); - intentions of protest or refusal (stopping the actions of others, demonstrating a negative attitude towards what is happening - 13 months); - intentions to attract an adult to joint activities (in situations of play, reading and other activities);
3) commenting intentions (in the situation of playing, walking, repeating words after an adult, reading, etc.) - 11 months. However, according to the results of data processing, only two intentions received reliable temporal localization: “the desire to receive an object” and “the desire to return an absent adult” (S.S. Belova).
A study conducted by E.I. Isenina, showed slightly different time periods for the manifestation of similar linguistic functions of vocalizations: - interaction, personal, instrumental (2 - 6-7 months); — informative, regulatory, imagination (8–9–12 months); — heuristic (12–24 months).
As noted by N.I. Zhinkin, speech is not only a manifestation of language, speech has its own structural and functional features. The classification of speech functions is widely represented in psychology (L.S. Vygotsky, A.R. Luria, S.L. Rubinstein, F.Ya. Yudovich). S.L. Rubinstein wrote that speech exists only where there is semantics, meaning that has a material carrier in the form of sound, gesture, visual image. Meaning is a function of speech as an activity. Consequently, speech is speech when it has a function. L.S. Vygotsky identified the following functions of speech: nominative, indicative, regulatory and significative functions.
S.L. Rubinstein believed that speech has one main function - communication. The function of communication or message - the communicative function of speech - includes the following functions: emotional, expressive (expressive) and impactful (motivational). Speech in the true sense of the word is a means of conscious influence and communication carried out on the basis of the semantic content of speech.
The functions of vocalizations, as well as the vocalizations themselves, appear and develop gradually in the process of general ontogenesis, i.e. go through their own development path. And the process of communication between a child and others directly influences the development of vocalization functions. If the social development of a child is distorted, disrupted, or delayed for any reason, then this has a direct impact on the genesis of the functions of vocalizations.
Determining the level of development of vocalization functions during the diagnostic process allows us to give an objective and more complete assessment of the preverbal and verbal period of speech development of a child of infancy and early age. Our research has shown that in the process of diagnosis and correctional work with a child, it is important to take into account not only the physiological, sensorimotor, cognitive factors of the child’s development in general and his speech in particular, but also the social factor; It is necessary to take into account not only the physiological stages of development of linguistic means in the 1st year of a child’s life, but also the nature of the semantic content of these means.
Bibliography
1. Badalyan L.O. Child neurology. – M., 2001. 2. Bazzhina T.V. Psycholinguistic analysis of some stages of pre-speech development/ Formation of speech and language acquisition by a child. - M., 1985, p. 6–20. 3. Beltyukov V.I., Salakhova A.D. Babbling of a hearing child // Questions of psychology, No. 2, 1973. 4. Vinarskaya E.N., Bogomazov G.M. Age phonetics. - M, 1987. 5. Vinarskaya E.N. Early speech development of a child and problems of defectology. – M., 1987. 6. Vygotsky L.S. Psychology of child development. – M., 2004. 7. Gvozdev A.N. Issues in studying children's speech. - M., 1961. 8. Gorelov I.N., Sedov K.F. Fundamentals of psycholinguistics. - M., 1997. 9. Zhinkin N.I. Mechanisms of speech. - M., 1958. 10. Isenina E.I. Psycholinguistic patterns of speech ontogenesis (Preverbal period). - Ivanovo, 1983. 11. Isenina E.I. Preverbal period of speech development in children. - Saratov, 1986. 12. Kolshansky G.V. Paralinguistics. - M., 1974. 13. Koltsova M.M. The child learns to speak. - M., 1973. 14. Luria A.R., Yudovich F.Ya. Speech and the development of mental processes in a child. - M., 1956. 15. Mikirtumov B.E., Koshchavtsev A.G., Grechany S.V. Clinical psychiatry of early childhood. - St. Petersburg, 2001. 16. Piaget J. Speech and thinking of a child. - Moscow, 2008. 17. Child’s speech: problems and solutions. Ed. Ushakova T.N. - M., 2008. 18. Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. – St. Petersburg, 1999. 19. Khomskaya E.D. Neuropsychology: 4th edition. - St. Petersburg, 2005. 20. Tseytlin S.N. Language and the child. Linguistics of oral speech. - M., 2000.
Ontogenesis of speech activity 2
QUESTION 11
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STATE OF COMPONENTS OF A CHILD’S LANGUAGE SYSTEM AT THE PREPARATORY, PRE-SCHOOL AND SCHOOL STAGES OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT
The process of formation of speech activity (and, accordingly, the acquisition of the native language system) in ontogenesis in the concept of “speech ontogenesis” by A.A. Leontief is divided into a number of successive periods or “stages”.
1st - preparatory
(from the moment of birth - up to one year);
2nd - pre-school
(from one year to 3 years);
3rd - preschool
(from 3 to 7 years);
4th - school
(from 7 to 17 years old).
The first stage of speech formation covers the first three years of a child’s life. is divided into three main stages:
1) pre-speech stage
(the first year of life), in which periods of humming and babbling are distinguished, 2) the stage of
primary language acquisition
(pre-grammatical) - the second year of life and 3) the stage
of grammar acquisition
(the third year of life). A.A. Leontyev points out that the time frame for these stages is extremely variable (especially closer to three years); In addition, acceleration occurs in the development of children's speech - a shift in age characteristics to earlier age stages of ontogenesis.
The child is born, and he marks his appearance with a cry. A cry is a child's first vocal reaction. Both the cry and the crying of a child activate the activity of the articulatory, vocal, and respiratory parts of the speech apparatus.
At one and a half years, the volume of children's vocabulary is 30-50 words, by the end of the second year - at least 80-100 words, by three years - approximately 500-600 words.
In pre-school
During the period of speech development, children exhibit a variety of phonetic disorders: they skip many sounds of their native language (do not pronounce them at all), rearrange them, and replace them with simpler ones in articulation. These speech defects (defined by the concept of “physiological dyslalia”) are explained by age-related imperfections of the articulatory apparatus, as well as an insufficient level of development of phonemic perception (perception and differentiation of phonemes).
By the end of the preschool period, children communicate with each other and others using the structure of a simple common sentence, while using the simplest grammatical categories of speech.
Preschool stage
“speech ontogenesis” is characterized by the most intensive speech development of children. The child begins to actively use all parts of speech;
after three years, children with a good level of speech development communicate freely not only using grammatically correct simple sentences, but also some types of complex sentences; speech utterances are already constructed using conjunctions and allied words (so that, because, if, that... which
etc.):
In the preschool period, there is a fairly active development of the phonetic side of speech. With the transition to preschool age, the emergence of new types of activities, new relationships with adults, differentiation of functions and forms of speech occurs.
by the age of seven, the child masters speech as a full-fledged means of communication (provided that the speech apparatus is intact, there are no deviations in mental and intellectual development and the child is raised in a normal speech and social environment).
During school period
speech development, the improvement of coherent speech continues. Children consciously learn grammatical rules for the design of free statements and fully master sound analysis and synthesis. At this stage, written speech is formed
The age period during which speech is mastered “without effort” is usually called the critical period
, since outside of this period a child who has no experience of verbal communication becomes unable to learn. The length of the critical period is defined differently by different researchers: most often, two options are distinguished - from birth to 9-11 years or: from two years to puberty.
QUESTION 12
SPECIFICITY OF THE PRE-VERBAL PERIOD OF SPEECH ACQUISITION
The formation of speech in a child of the first year of life is
conditioned reflex process. Conditional signals of the first signal
systems from all analyzers are already mediated by speech in early childhood
sounds, words, combinations of words.
In order for the child to become
say, he must reach a certain level of development as
speech motor and auditory-speech analyzers, as well as articulation organs.
The first year of a child’s life is considered as the pre-speech period.
divided into four
stage:
Stage I (0-3 months) is characterized by the development of emotional
expressive reactions;
Stage II (3-6 months) - the time of appearance of vocal reactions, humming,
babble;
Stage III (6-10 months) - the beginning of the development of speech understanding, active
babble;
Stage IV (10-12 months) - time of appearance of the first words
2. Specifics of a child's cry
The initial stage of pre-speech development is considered to be a reflex cry
a child who by 2-3 months of life becomes more and more
modulated and reflects various shades of discontent, being the
the most means of communication with others.
Up to two months
vocal expressions are differentiated due to different intonations
voices (screaming, crying). In combination with expressive facial movements, an intoned cry and modulated sounds are a means of expressing the child's state.
The period of humming, its main characteristics
Humming is the melodious pronunciation of strings of vowels
sounds close to [a, у, ы], often in combination with consonant-like sounds
[g, m]. The vowel-like sounds of humming are closest to the neutral [e] - a sound in which the tongue occupies a mid-position in the oral cavity. Consonant-like elements are usually palatalized, that is, they sound soft.
The sounds of humming, in contrast to screaming and crying, always appear in the background
emotionally positive state, comfort and are not associated with
organic needs. Humming is a kind of “play” of organs
articulatory apparatus, necessary for its development. Up to 3 months
voice activity does not depend on the operation of the auditory analyzer. After 3
months pronunciation is carried out under the control of hearing. The child shows interest in his own vocalizations, listening and repeating them
(the phenomenon of autoecholalia).
The blossoming of the buzz falls at 4-6 months of life.
With normal child development, “booming” at 6-7 months
gradually turns into babbling. At this time, children pronounce syllables like ba-ba,
dyad-dya, de-da, etc., correlating them with certain surrounding people. IN
In the process of communicating with adults, the child gradually tries to imitate
intonation, tempo, rhythm, melody, and also reproduce rows
syllables; the volume of babbling words that the child tries to expand
repeat after the adults.
QUESTION 13
PHENOMENON OF ECHOLALIA AND AUTOECHOLALIA
Babbling (according to V.I. Beltyukov) is congenital
process, that is, the result of known historical accumulations.
speech motor reactions of a person, inherited by the child, and
consists of three stages: Stage I - inherited program
articulatory movements are realized regardless of the child’s hearing in the form
humming, babbling; Stage II - autoecholalia mechanisms are included in babbling; III
stage - echolalia mechanisms are included in babbling.
Physiological echolalia, manifested in the repetition of syllables, and
then words, precede the understanding of words and their pronunciation.
Autoecholalia
(autoecholalia;
auto-
+
echolalia
) - repeated monotonous repetition by a child of individual words or sentences of his speech.
Immediate echolalia
Immediate echolalia means that a person is repeating what he just heard. For example, parents say: “It’s time to wash in the bathroom,” the child can repeat: “Wash in the bathroom.”
Delayed echolalia
Delayed echolalia is the repetition of someone else's phrases after a long period of time, for example, a few minutes or a whole year could have passed since the phrase was heard. These phrases can be repeated at any time and anywhere.
There are three possible causes for delayed echolalia.
1. Self-stimulating behavior
Delayed echolalia is sometimes a self-stimulating behavior whose sole purpose is the pleasure of the speaker.
2. Mood communication
delayed echolalia is often an impressionistic way of communicating one's mood. If my son says the phrase, “The pool is closed today,” it means he is disappointed, and this phrase is his way of conveying a feeling of disappointment.
3. Summing up the day
Delayed echolalia may also be a way to process memories that are haunting you. My son used to come home from kindergarten and repeat phrases and sentences he heard throughout the day: the good, the bad and the ugly.
Question 15 SYMPTOMS OF RISK OF SPEECH DISORDERS IN THE EARLY STAGES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT
To prevent severe forms of general speech underdevelopment in preschool age, early diagnosis of speech development disorders in children and timely medical and pedagogical assistance provided to them are important. The risk group includes children in the first two years of life who are predisposed to the appearance of speech development disorders. Timely identification of such children and implementation of appropriate corrective measures can significantly accelerate the progress of their speech and mental development.
In order to prevent OHP, the mother should be aware of the influence of emotional communication with the child on the development of his speech.
For diagnosis, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the basic patterns of preverbal and early verbal development. The following stages of child development are distinguished from birth to 18 months.
First stage
, lasting from birth to 8 weeks (2 months), is characterized by reflexive crying and reflexive sounds. Sounds accompany mainly the child's somatic reactions. Assessing a child's cry has important diagnostic significance. In children with organic damage to the central nervous system, who later develop speech disorders, the cry may be shrill or very quiet, in the form of isolated sobs or screams, which the child usually makes while inhaling, or may be absent altogether.
Second stage
characterized by a qualitative change in screaming, the appearance of humming and laughter. In children with organic lesions of the central nervous system, the cry usually remains monotonous, without intonation expressiveness.
Starting from 12 weeks, in most healthy children, the frequency of screaming decreases, the primitive sounds of grunting, etc. disappear, and an initial hum (“hooking”) appears. Symptoms of the risk of speech disorders in children with early organic damage to the central nervous system at this stage are the absence or insufficiency of intonation expressiveness of screaming and humming; monotonous, rare and quiet sounds of humming, accompanied by chaotic movements in the limbs; lack of laughter; predominance of nasalized cry sounds.
A special role is given to classes to activate vocal reactions, which should be carried out 20-30 minutes after awakening. Before classes, it is necessary to create an emotionally positive mood in the child.
Third stage
characterized by the appearance of babbling.
By five to six months, a healthy child begins to pronounce combinations of labial and lingual consonants with vowels (baaa, maaa, taaa, laaa
). which is the repeated pronunciation of syllables under auditory control. Therefore, with congenital deafness, a child may experience initial vocalization at the humming stage, but characteristic is the gradual fading of sounds and the absence of babbling.
Fourth stage
- the blossoming of babbling, or the stage of canonical vocalization. It is during this period that the sounds of babbling begin to resemble the sounds of the native language in their acoustic characteristics, and parents often confuse them with the beginning of speech development itself.
Fifth stage
covers the period from 9 to 18 months. At this stage, babbling sounds are very diverse.
By the beginning of this stage - by 8-9 months - qualitative changes occur in the child’s mental development: memory is intensively formed - recognition of a situation familiar to the child, and therefore he reacts vividly to a new environment. When he sees a stranger, the child clings to his mother, turns away, from time to time glancing curiously at the new face. At this stage, he reacts extremely painfully to separation from his mother. At the same time, persistent reactions of fear and protest to unfamiliar surroundings and new people are especially pronounced in children with lesions of the central nervous system, increased nervous excitability, congenital childhood nervousness (neuropathy), and minimal brain dysfunction. The persistence of such reactions can contribute to delays in speech development.
Early diagnosis of speech development is the basis for the effectiveness of therapeutic and pedagogical preventive measures.
QUESTION 16 CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMMING SOUNDS
All normally developing children have a certain sequence in mastering the sound form of language and it begins with humming.
The period of walking is observed in all children. Already at 1.5 months, and then at 2-3 months, the child exhibits vocal reactions in the reproduction of sounds such as a-a-bm-bm, blb, u-gu, boo
etc. It is they who later become the basis for the development of articulate speech. Humming (according to its phonetic characteristics) is the same among all children of the world.
A child gurgles when he is dry, well-rested, fed and healthy.
In most cases, at the first manifestations of humming, his parents begin to talk to the baby. The child picks up the sounds he hears from the speech of adults and repeats them. In turn, the adult repeats the child’s “speech” reactions. Such mutual imitation contributes to the rapid development of increasingly complex pre-speech reactions of the child.
By the age of 6 months, the sounds produced by children begin to resemble the sounds of their native language
After 2-3 months, the child’s speech manifestations acquire a new “quality”. A peculiar equivalent of the word appears, namely, a closed sequence of syllables, united by accentuation, melody and unity of articulatory organs. Pseudowords do not yet have a subject reference (the first and main component of meaning
full-fledged word) and serve exclusively to express one or another “vital” need or not yet fully realized “evaluative” attitude towards the outside world.
QUESTION 17 PHONETIC CONTENT OF BABBL
With normal child development, “booming” at 6-7 months gradually turns into babbling. At this time, children pronounce syllables like ba-ba, dyad-dya. de-yes
etc., relating them to certain surrounding people. In the process of communicating with adults, the child gradually tries to imitate intonation, tempo, rhythm, melody, and also reproduce series of syllables; The volume of babbling words that the child tries to repeat after adults expands.
At 8.5-9 months, babbling already has a modulated character with a variety of intonations. But this process is not unambiguous for all children: with a decrease in auditory function, the humming “fades out”, and this is often a diagnostic symptom
At the age of 10-12 months, the child uses all nouns (which are practically the only part of speech represented in the child’s “grammar”) in the nominative case in the singular. Attempts to connect two words into a phrase ( Mom, give me!)
appear later (at about one and a half years).
Then the imperative mood of verbs is learned (Go, go! Give, give!).
The “suspension” of phonetic development during this period of “speech ontogenesis” (for a period of 3-4 months) is associated with a significant increase in the number of words in the active vocabulary and, most importantly, with the appearance of the first real generalizations. A linguistic sign appears in the child’s speech. The word begins to act as a structural unit of language and speech.
A child’s assimilation of the sequence of sounds in a word is the result of the development of a system of conditioned connections. The child imitatively borrows certain sound combinations (sound pronunciation options) from the speech of the people around him.
According to a number of studies, phonemic hearing is formed at a very early age (T.A. Chistovich, M.I. Shvachkin, etc.).
Pedagogical observations show that children do not immediately master the correct reproduction of language signs: The simpler a word is in sound and structure, the easier it is for a child to remember. During this period, a combination of the following factors plays a particularly important role:
a) imitation (reproduction) of the speech of others;
b) conditions
in which the child is raised (psychological situation in the family, attentive attitude towards the child, a full-fledged speech environment, sufficient communication with adults).
QUESTION 19
FACTOR DETERMINING THE ACQUISITION OF THE PHONETIC SIDE OF A CHILD’S SPEECH
Hearing plays a leading role in the formation of sound speech.
At first, sounds, syllables and words of others are perceived undifferentiated (the difference between them is not realized), i.e. unclear, distorted. Therefore, children mix one sound with another and poorly understand speech.
A weak critical attitude and auditory attention to the speech of others and to one’s own inhibit the development of sound differentiation and their stability in the process of perception and reproduction. That is why children do not notice their shortcomings, which then take on the character of a habit that is subsequently overcome with considerable difficulty.
Expressive speech develops based on imitation of adults. This is the easiest way, since when imitation, new connections are formed as a result of the work of an adult, under the influence of his example. The skill is directly acquired by directly repeating the speech of others. From the stage of the unconscious and little-conscious, imitation gradually passes into the conscious.
Initially, under the influence of stimuli from the internal environment of the body, along with various body movements, the baby experiences muscle contractions in the speech organs, resulting in the formation of sound (humming, babbling). These unconditioned sound reflexes, gradually improving, are first included in the first signal system, and then from the second year - in the second, already as elements of speech.
As the child ages, imitation becomes more and more conscious: the preschooler strives to speak “like adults.” Complex conditional connections operate here, largely depending on the child’s previous experience. This experience sometimes promotes, sometimes inhibits, and sometimes corrects imitation.
Due to the interaction of motor and auditory stimuli, the child, when pronouncing a sound, feels articulation and at the same time hears what is being said, which clarifies the articulation. Therefore, whoever hears speech well, as a rule, speaks well, and vice versa, whoever hears poorly speaks poorly. Since visual perceptions are also associated with auditory-motor perceptions, they also contribute to the development of pronunciation.
An important position put forward by A.N. Gvozdev: the determining, main role that complicates the formation of sound pronunciation in children is played by insufficiently developed speech motor skills. At the same time (in the third year), the child’s hearing is already sufficiently developed for subtle sound perceptions. Thus, hearing is the leading analyzer in the assimilation of the speech of others. At the same time, he also becomes a controlling regulator of his own pronunciation, which enhances the development of phonemic hearing.
