Who is a speech therapist? Goals and objectives of the work of a speech therapist

Speech therapist: who is this?

A speech therapist is a highly qualified specialist whose main job function is to study various speech defects. The speech therapist is obliged to qualitatively study the causes of these defects, as well as prescribe an effective course of treatment. Treatment may include various types of techniques, techniques and training. Contrary to popular belief, a speech therapist is by no means a children's specialist. Despite the fact that the majority of patients with whom this professional works are children, adults are also not averse to seeking qualified help.

A competent speech therapist must master the basics of psychology, pedagogy and medicine. Particularly important in the profession in question is the ability to qualitatively classify groups of people who need help. The approach to children and adults is very different. Thus, recently speech therapists have begun to be divided into children’s and adult specialists.

Speech therapist is a very important, developing and in-demand profession. What else can you tell about her?

Why are speech therapists needed?

As mentioned above, many people greatly underestimate the profession of a speech therapist. Moreover, some individuals do not even understand why this profession is needed. Citizens refer to the specialty in question as “another useless occupation” and “a craft that no one needs.”

They name it until they themselves encounter obvious problems. We are talking about those cases when, for example, a four-year-old child is, in principle, unable to speak clearly. Some people immediately blame this problem on the parents: they say they didn’t work well enough with their children. However, not all so simple. A child may exhibit extremely serious forms of illness, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and other extremely unpleasant defects. Fixing them is not so easy. This is where you need the qualified help of a competent specialist. A speech therapist is just such a person.

Introduction

Purpose of the work: To characterize the general concept of ODD, its levels, statistics, symptoms, analyze the basic concepts of the work, consider the progress of speech therapy examination of children with ODD.

Relevance of the topic: Speech for a person is the most important factor in his development and socialization. With the help of speech, we exchange information and interact with each other. But there are many people who suffer from speech disorders. There are many reasons for the occurrence of such defects: the influence of ecology, heredity, unhealthy lifestyle of parents, pedagogical neglect. And people with such problems need the help of specialists.

This problem (speech impairment) arises already in preschool age, and this stage of life requires special study, analysis and special attention from both practitioners and scientists. A child with general underdevelopment, regardless of the level of speech development, first of all faces a violation of all components of speech - this is the sound culture of speech, the grammatical structure of speech, passive and active vocabulary and coherent speech, and the specialist does not create the necessary conditions to correct this defect.

Degree of development of the problem: In science, domestic scientists (R.E. Levina, N.A. Nikanshena, G.A. Kashe, L.F. Spirova, G.I. Zharenkova) have been studying the problems of correcting general underdevelopment of speech for a long time, but the remedies are not differentiated depending on the level of speech development and need to be improved, which is why this problem was chosen for special study.

Qualities required for work

Before we begin to analyze the main professional responsibilities and functions of an employee, it is worth talking a little about what important qualities and character traits a speech therapist should have. And this is really important: children often worry and feel awkward when communicating with this specialist. A competent professional must possess certain skills and character traits in order to be able to win over children.

A children's speech therapist must possess such qualities as communication skills, openness and friendliness, tact and observation. Not every person is able to work in such a specialty. Nervous, stressed, tactless people should not even think about becoming a speech therapist. The speech therapist himself is an excellent psychologist who can recognize the temperament and character of a child in a matter of minutes, as well as find the source of speech problems.

Getting a profession

Where can I get training to become a speech therapist? Today, in almost every major city in Russia or other CIS countries, there are many higher educational institutions that are ready to provide their services for quality education of citizens. Work as a speech therapist can be obtained after training in such institutions as:

• MGPU - Moscow State Pedagogical University. Today this university remains one of the best pedagogical institutions in the world. Here you can qualitatively master the profession of a speech therapist, after which you can work in leading clinics, schools and other institutions in the country.
• Sholokhov Moscow State Humanitarian University is the country's leading humanitarian university.
• RGPU named after Herzen is another elite pedagogical university.
• Wallenberg Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology.

Naturally, there are many other universities in the country that are ready to provide a course in speech therapy.

Professional Responsibilities

It is especially important to list the main professional functions and responsibilities of the employee. It is what a speech therapist does that best characterizes the profession itself.

What are the main responsibilities here? Here are the most basic ones:

• qualitative examination of patients, during which the main features of speech development should be identified;
• making a diagnosis, identifying the main problem;
• a set of methods and methods of treatment;
• carrying out the main groups of work - so-called classes with a speech therapist (this includes conducting exercises, issuing “homework”, assistance in the development of basic speech abilities);
• evaluation of results based on the results of classes, comparison of results with initial data.

Thus, a specialist such as a speech therapist has a fairly large and structured number of responsibilities. Reviews of the work of these professionals are, as a rule, entirely positive. And it cannot be otherwise: a person has studied and practiced methods for developing human speech characteristics for at least five years. Of course, this is bearing fruit.

The main areas of activity of a speech therapist in preschool institutions

The main areas of activity of a speech therapist in preschool institutions

1. Diagnostic activity

The diagnostic activity of a speech therapist in a preschool educational institution makes it possible to determine the tactics of corrective action, the choice of means and ways to achieve set goals.

The diagnostic activity of a speech therapist at a preschool educational institution involves:

1) Early identification of children with developmental problems, that is, examination of pupils of general developmental preschool educational institutions (groups) and identification of children among them who need preventive and correctional speech assistance. The result of the diagnostic work is the preparation of materials for PMPK for the purpose of completing specialized groups for children with speech disorders and individual lessons with a speech therapist.

2) Initial speech therapy and psychological and pedagogical examination of children, which involves studying the level of speech, cognitive, social, personal, physical development and individual typological characteristics of children in need of speech therapy support, determining the main directions and content of work with each of them.

The purpose of such an examination of children is to establish the causes, structure and severity of deviations in their speech development, which makes it possible to formulate an objective speech therapy conclusion and outline individual programs of correctional and pedagogical work for the long term (academic year).

3) Collection of medical and pedagogical anamnesis, information about early development.

4) Dynamic observation during the learning process, intermediate sections. Goal: analysis of the effectiveness of the correctional pedagogical process.

2. Corrective and developmental activities

The speech therapist teacher is the coordinator of correctional speech work in a preschool educational institution, organizes the integrative activities of all participants in the correctional educational process, the main subjects of which are: a child with special educational needs, the teaching staff of the preschool educational institution, and the parents of the speech-language pathologist child.

The correctional and developmental area of ​​work of a speech therapist within a speech therapy group includes:

• Classes of a speech therapist with children to improve different aspects of speech.
• Joint activities with a teacher-psychologist to stimulate the psychological basis of speech.
• Joint activities with teachers.
• Joint activities of a speech therapist and music director to develop the tempo-rhythmic organization of speech.
• Joint activities of a speech therapist and a physical education teacher to develop children’s gross motor skills.

The correctional work of a speech therapist with children is aimed at overcoming speech and psychophysical disorders by conducting individual, subgroup, and frontal speech therapy sessions.

In frontal classes on the development of lexical and grammatical categories, work is carried out to expand and activate children's vocabulary with the names of objects, their parts, qualities, actions, and to correctly correlate the word with the image of the object. Generalizing concepts are introduced and clarified. The word-formation function of speech and inflection are formed and developed.

In subgroup classes on the development of coherent speech, children learn to compose various sentence models, retell and compose stories based on demonstrations of actions, a series of plot pictures, a plot picture, personal experience, descriptive and creative stories.

In classes on the sound culture of speech and preparation for learning to read and write, children learn to correctly pronounce the sound being studied, differentiate it by ear and in pronunciation, perform sound-letter analysis and synthesis of syllables and words.

In individual lessons with children the following is carried out:

1. Breathing exercises (formation of a long, strong, smooth air stream for the correct pronunciation of sounds);

2. Articulation gymnastics (various exercises to develop the muscles of the articulatory apparatus);

3. Finger gymnastics (exercises and games to develop motor skills of the fingers);

4. Correction of sound pronunciation in different ways;

5. Automation of sounds in speech;

6. Differentiation of sounds in speech;

7. Enrichment of vocabulary;

8. Consolidating the knowledge acquired by children in fontal and subgroup speech therapy classes.

All of the above classes improve motor skills, coordination, spatial orientation and constructive praxis. This work is linked to the development of speech skills and the formation of relevant concepts. It is based on the formation of in-depth ideas and real knowledge of children about the world around them. The development of their speech is built on this subject base. The results of speech therapy work are noted in the child’s speech record at the time of graduation and are brought to the attention of the teacher, kindergarten administration and parents.

3. Advisory and educational work with parents and teachers

The educational activities of a speech therapist within a speech therapy group involve joint holding of parent meetings, at which they talk about the developmental characteristics of children in the speech therapy group, risk factors, the main directions of correctional and developmental work, and also give practical recommendations.

Promotion of speech therapy knowledge - increasing the level of professional activity of teachers and parents' awareness of the tasks and specifics of speech therapy correctional work. It is carried out through pedagogical councils, methodological associations, parent meetings, individual and group consultations, conversations, seminars, open classes, a speech therapy stand for parents and educators with replacement materials.

The advisory work of a speech therapist at a preschool educational institution is advising parents, educators, and related specialists on the problems of teaching and raising children with speech disorders. It is carried out in the form of individual and group consultations, conversations, open classes, and seminars. The main areas of advisory and educational work of a speech therapist with parents are:

• Formation of positive motivation to interact with the teacher, activation of interest in classes on the development and correction of speech, preparing children for learning to read and write, correction of written speech disorders.
• Developing an adequate attitude to the peculiarities of children’s speech activity.
• Formation (increase) of competence in matters of speech development (ontogenesis) of children of different age groups and speech disorders (expressive and impressive speech, writing and reading).
• Training in basic techniques of correctional and developmental work (articulatory gymnastics, some types of speech therapy games, basic rules (algorithms) for completing written assignments, etc.).
• Familiarization with various types of teaching aids and literature on organizing and conducting developmental classes at home.

4. Methodological activity

The methodological activities of a speech therapist at a preschool educational institution include:

• development of methodological recommendations for speech therapists, educators and parents on providing speech therapy assistance to children;
• long-term planning;
• studying and summarizing best practices;
• participation in the work of methodological associations of speech therapists;
• exchange of experience (conferences, seminars, open screenings, etc.);
• searching for the best means of correcting children's speech;
• study and implementation of variable forms of providing correctional assistance;
• self-education;
• production and acquisition of visual and didactic material on the development and correction of speech.

5. Analytical activities

Analytical work will allow the speech therapist to track the effectiveness of the ongoing correctional and developmental activities, i.e. highlight all possible positive and negative aspects of this activity, and also track the dynamics of the development of each child. It includes:

• Carrying out control sections and test tasks (if necessary).
• Conclusion of the PMPC on the issue of releasing children.
• Graduation interviews (final events).
• Summing up the work for the academic year. A digital report is an analysis of the work done by a speech therapist teacher.

Features of the profession

The profession of a speech therapist has many interesting and surprising features. Some of them are worth talking about separately.

A speech therapist must have incredible patience. It is probably no longer a joke to say that the best speech therapist would be some soulless robot. After all, you need to love your job very much in order to give the same recommendations time after time, in a calm manner, to not the most assiduous children (and even some adults). Excellent speech therapists are people who can convince even a child how important it is to be able to speak beautifully and clearly. But, unfortunately, not everyone can create the necessary motivation in a patient.

A speech therapist must be an excellent psychologist. Each patient must have an individual approach. If this is a child, you need to remember the basics of developmental psychology, critical and lytic periods; if this is an adult, mature person, it is worth remembering that he may have various kinds of complexes and mental disorders.

Basic concepts of speech and its components

The term speech is understood as a historically established form of communication between people through linguistic structures created on the basis of certain rules. The process of speech involves, on the one hand, the formation and formulation of thoughts by linguistic (speech) means, and on the other hand, the perception of linguistic structures and their understanding.

The development of children's speech begins from the very first days. By development we mean a directed, natural change in a phenomenon or process, leading to the emergence of a new quality.

By components of the speech system we mean:

• phonemic hearing,
• sound pronunciation,
• dictionary,
• grammatical structure of speech,
• rhythmic-syllable structure of speech,
• coherent speech.

Each component of this system is an important link in the structure of speech.

So phonemic hearing is a person’s ability to analyze and synthesize speech sounds, the correct pronunciation of which contributes to the formation of a person’s communicative abilities.

Sound pronunciation is the process of formation of speech sounds, carried out by the energetic (respiratory), generator (voice-producing) and resonator (sound-producing) departments of the speech apparatus under regulation by the central nervous system.

The rhythmic-syllable structure of a word is the correct sequence of sounds and syllables in a word.

Full development of speech is impossible without a sufficiently rich vocabulary (active and passive). An active dictionary is a set of words that a child uses when constructing statements. A passive dictionary is a set of words that a child understands but does not use in speech.

The grammatical structure of speech plays a certain role - this is the structure of words and sentences inherent in a given language, without which the existence of the following speech system - coherent speech - is impossible.

Coherent speech is a statement that presupposes the presence of a certain internal (semantic) and external (linguistic), constructive (structural) connection of its individual parts.

Thus, all components of the language system are interconnected and complement each other, and distortion or insufficient development of one of them determines a speech defect.

For example, insufficient development of the grammatical structure of speech entails agrammatisms - a violation of the psychophysiological processes that ensure the grammatical orderliness of speech activity. [3]

Income

Another important topic that should be touched upon is the salary of speech therapists. In the Russian Federation, as you can already guess, this is not the best situation. Thus, the average salary of a speech therapist in the country is a little more than 20 thousand rubles. Of course, we are talking about the public sector - schools, kindergartens, hospitals, etc. In private clinics, salaries may be slightly higher.

It becomes somewhat sad if you start comparing the incomes of Russian speech therapists with the incomes of foreign ones. Thus, in European countries, as well as in the USA, a speech therapist is a very important and necessary specialist for society. Accordingly, the income there is many times higher. And this despite the fact that in Russia at the moment there is an acute shortage of this kind of specialists: in many schools and kindergartens there are simply no speech therapists, as a result of which individual speech work with children is not carried out at all.

Plan of educational and preventive work for teachers and speech therapists

Statistics show that there is currently an increase in the number of children with speech defects. In this regard, the need for joint work between a speech therapist and educators to prevent speech disorders in preschool children increases.

The educational activities of a speech therapist teacher in a speech therapy room at a preschool educational institution are organized with the aim of increasing the level of professional activity of teachers and the awareness of parents (legal representatives) about the tasks and specifics of speech therapy correctional work.

It is carried out through pedagogical councils, methodological associations, parent meetings, which talk about the characteristics of children’s development, risk factors, the main directions of correctional and developmental work, and also provide practical recommendations, individual and group consultations, conversations, workshops, master classes, open organized educational activities, information stand for parents (legal representatives) and teachers with replacement materials.

The advisory work of a kindergarten speech therapist includes consulting parents, educators, and related specialists on the problems of teaching and raising children with speech disorders.

It is carried out in the form of individual and group consultations, conversations, open organized educational activities, seminars - workshops, master classes.

The main areas of advisory and educational work of a speech therapist with parents (legal representatives) are:

1. Formation of positive motivation to interact with the teacher, activation of interest in educational activities for the development and correction of speech, preparing children for learning to read and write.
2. Developing an adequate attitude to the peculiarities of children’s speech activity.
3. Formation (increase) of competence in matters of speech development (ontogenesis) of children of different age groups and speech disorders (expressive and impressive speech).
4. Training in basic techniques of correctional and developmental work (articulatory gymnastics, speech therapy games, etc.).
5. Familiarization with various types of teaching aids and literature on organizing and conducting developmental activities at home.

Diagnosis of the speech development of preschool children, work on the additional education program for the development of phonemic hearing in children 5-7 years old “Learning to speak correctly” are preventive measures among children with a risk factor for speech pathology and with children suffering from speech disorders, necessary for prevention and early diagnosis of speech disorders.

It is necessary to pay attention to the following types of prevention that help reduce the number of speech disorders:

• Primary prevention.

Prevention of speech disorders.

• Secondary prevention.

Prevention of the transition of speech disorders to chronic forms, as well as prevention of the consequences of speech pathology.

• Tertiary prevention.

Socialization of children with speech pathology.

Speech therapy work in preschool educational institutions includes several areas:

1. Overcoming existing speech disorders in children;
2. Prevention of possible secondary speech disorders;
3. Prevention (propaedeutics) of speech disorders before they occur;
4. Improving various aspects and qualities of speech in the absence of violations;
5. Parallel correction and development of mental functions, such as auditory-speech and visual attention, visual and speech memory, verbal and logical thinking.

In the developmental aspect of the activity of a speech therapist teacher, not only specific tasks for the development of speech processes in children are solved;

pupils with speech impairments, but also such tasks as

• development of motivation to learn;
• prevention of violations of written and oral speech, preparation for learning to read and write;
• development of self-control over one’s speech;
• development of mental processes that are interconnected with the development
• speech function: visual and auditory-verbal attention, memory, perception; sensorimotor coordination, spatial orientation;
• visual-figurative thinking, elements of verbal-logical thinking.

Thus, conditions are created for the subsequent successful adaptation of preschool children to the conditions of school education. To ensure high effectiveness of correctional and developmental work of pupils in the process of correction and development of speech in children, modern correctional and speech therapy technologies are used, aimed at the sound and semantic aspects of speech, as well as speech-related processes:

• gaming technologies in speech therapy correction
• art-pedagogical technologies in special education
• speech motor rhythm technologies
• technologies for correction of psychomotor development
• technologies of speech therapy, phonetic and speech motor rhythms (N. Yu. Kostyleva, M. Yu. Kartushina); - information and communication technologies;
• health-saving technologies.

A speech therapist teacher creates a developing subject-spatial environment in a speech therapy room, taking into account ergonomic, pedagogical, psychological, sanitary and hygienic requirements.

Consultation with a speech therapist teacher is organized:

• individual counseling for parents (legal representatives) and teachers
• group counseling for parents (legal representatives) and teachers
• consulting on requests from parents (legal representatives) or teachers with the development of appropriate recommendations.

At individual consultations with parents of pupils studying in a speech therapy room, the speech therapist teacher reports the results of a diagnostic examination of children’s speech, gives answers to parents’ requests regarding the organization of the upbringing, education and development of a child with speech disorders.

Parents are constantly informed about the child’s achievements in speech development. Recommendations are given for the correction and development of children's speech.

Upon request, consultations are also carried out by the speech therapist teacher for parents of other kindergarten students who do not attend the speech therapy room. The range of issues concerns the prevention of oral speech disorders, differentiation of age and individual in the development of speech of a particular child. Recommendations are given for the development of children's speech.

Consulting of teachers is also carried out in individual or group form. As a result, common approaches to working with a particular student and his family are developed.

Promotion of speech therapy knowledge is a condition for successfully solving problems in the correctional and developmental direction of a speech therapist teacher’s activity. It is carried out in the work of a speech therapist in interaction with teachers and parents (legal representatives). Interaction with preschool teachers

The development of children's speech is a common task of the entire teaching staff. Inconsistency of adults' demands for children's speech, inadequate choice of method of communication with a child can become factors that trigger or aggravate his speech problems. Achieving a positive result from the work of a speech therapist in the speech therapy room of a preschool educational institution is achieved by implementing an integrated approach in the activities of kindergarten specialists: a speech therapist, educators, a music director, a physical education instructor, and a teacher-psychologist.

Only systematic interaction of preschool educational institutions specialists on the problems of prevention and correction of speech disorders makes it possible to individualize the process of accompanying a child, taking into account the following indicators: psychological age, the specifics of the stage of speech development, identified speech and non-speech symptoms of disorders, the characteristics of the educational and social conditions of development of a particular pupil.

An integrated approach to the prevention of speech disorders in kindergarten students involves organizing the interaction of teachers, which creates conditions for the optimal speech development of the child.

These conditions include:

• speech environment containing examples of the correct use of language as a means of communication and cognition;
• organization of such forms of children's activity in which the functions and processes that are at the basis of speech development are activated: psychomotor, cognitive, emotional;
• enriching the content of children’s activities themselves, which forms the basis of the content of speech;
• systematic development of the prerequisites for speech development;
• development of the prerequisites for educational activity: the ability to complete tasks at a general pace, resist distractions, maintain the adult’s task during the lesson; follow a single work plan, make volitional efforts to achieve a goal, achieve results, interact with peers in the process of completing tasks, and exercise self-control of their activities.

The objectives of an integrated approach in the work of preschool teachers to speech correction are:

1. Consolidation of speech skills;
2. Overcoming secondary disorders caused by problems in speech development;
3. Improving the quality of educational achievements of students.

Technology for implementing a plan for preventive and educational work of a speech therapist in a speech therapy room at a preschool educational institution

The technology for implementing the plan for preventive and educational work of a speech therapist in a speech therapy room at a preschool educational institution includes three interrelated stages.
Stage 1.
Preventive Objective: providing conditions for the prevention of speech disorders in children of primary preschool age during their transition from the conditions of family education to the conditions of preschool education.

Age of pupils: from 5 to 7 years.

Coordinator-consultant: teacher-speech therapist.

Participants in the correctional pedagogical process: music director, physical education instructor, teacher.

Contents of the stage

A microsociety is created, which is the basis for the speech development of children. Its creation involves the implementation of the following areas: - creating conditions for emotional comfort and enriching the child’s life with positive experiences; - enrichment of the child’s sensory experience;

• development of the prerequisites for higher mental functions, primarily intellectual, the formation of which at a given age is ahead of the development of speech functions;
• development of non-speech mental functions that form the analytical basis of speech development;
• development of the speech functional system.

The group environment changes variably taking into account the needs of children's speech development. Its multifunctionality ensures stimulation of the need for verbal expression and provides ample opportunities for its satisfaction and development.

Stage 2. Diagnostic and developmental

Objective: to provide conditions for dynamic diagnostics of speech development of children of primary preschool age in the process of its purposeful formation. At the same time, preventive tasks continue to be solved.

Age of pupils: 5 - 7 years.

Participants in the correctional pedagogical process: speech therapist, music director, educator.

Contents of the stage

In the process of interacting with children in specially organized activities, the teacher-speech therapist, together with the educator and music director, provides two main areas of work.

Firstly, the development of the prosodic side of speech, namely the development of the ability to arbitrarily use the strength of the voice, the pace and rhythm of speech, intonation, pausing to convey expressive images, learning to understand and use a variety of speaking intonations:

interrogative, declarative, exclamatory.

Secondly, the speech therapist teacher ensures the development of children’s articulatory, respiratory and phonemic abilities, which form the basis for children’s development of correct oral speech. In the process of forming these aspects of speech, problems of speech development become noticeable, which at an older age will become the subject of activity of a speech therapist.

Stage 3. Corrective and developmental stage

Objective: providing conditions for the correction of speech disorders in pupils, optimizing their speech development.

Age of pupils: 5-7 years.

Leading specialist: teacher-speech therapist.

Participants in the correctional pedagogical process: music director, physical education instructor, teacher.

Contents of the stage

In the process of various types of children’s activities, teachers ensure the development of speech skills and their introduction into the independent speech of pupils both in everyday communication situations and in situations of specially organized educational activities, entertainment, and leisure.

Each teacher solves a range of tasks that correspond to the tasks of his professional activity and his professional methodological means.

Characters are introduced that are used not only by the speech therapist teacher, but also by various teachers in the process of conducting educational activities and organizing leisure time.

Ensures children's awareness of linguistic phenomena. To do this, children are introduced into an imaginary situation and act according to its laws. Personification of game characters is widely used, for example, Zvukoeshka, which is associated in the minds of children with certain speech exercises. With their help, not only a game situation is created and thereby the motivation of students is increased, but also the skills of self-control of speech are formed, and methods of self-correction are mastered.

The plan for the preventive and educational work of a speech therapist in a speech therapy room at a preschool educational institution includes the following sections:  Diagnosis of problems in the speech development of pupils;

• Prevention of speech disorders in pupils aged 5-6 years;
• Promotion of speech therapy knowledge among parents (legal representatives) and teachers.

Expected Result

implementation of the plan for preventive and educational work of a speech therapist in the conditions of a speech therapy room at a preschool educational institution: compliance of indicators of speech and mental development with the age norm, formation of the prerequisites for educational activities.

Plan of preventive and educational work of a speech therapist for the 2019-2020 academic year

History of the profession

Logos - speech, Paideia - education. This is how the name of the craft in question can be translated from Greek. Speech education is a short but capacious description of the profession of a speech therapist.

The profession of speech therapist was born not so long ago - in the 17th century. The best teachers in Europe tried to combat hearing impairment in children. Devices of varying degrees of whimsy were developed, and special techniques and methods of treatment appeared. However, over time, speech therapy only grew, absorbing more and more different problems and disorders. As the 20th century approached, speech therapy became relatively similar to what it is today: the work of correcting speech defects.

By the 21st century, speech therapy includes a great variety of different theories, methods and methods of treatment. Any speech therapist in a kindergarten for children, at a school or in a simple clinic has a rich range of knowledge and skills.

Only man has the greatest gift of nature - speech. But it is not an innate ability. Speech is the most important mental function of a person. By mastering speech, a child acquires the ability to generalize the surrounding reality, to understand, plan and regulate his behavior.

Speech is formed along with the development of the child under the influence of the speech of adults gradually and largely depends on several factors: sufficient speech practice, upbringing and training, as well as on the normal speech and social environment, which stimulates speech development and provides a speech model. And all these factors are important for a child from the very first days of life. Each child’s speech acquisition occurs at different times and in different ways, since this is an individual process that depends on many factors. The reasons for this process can be both the pathology of pregnancy and childbirth, and the action of genetic factors. Damage to the hearing organs and a general lag in mental development, as well as insufficient communication and education can also be reasons for the lag in speech acquisition. For the formation of speech, the development of analyzers, such as speech motor and speech auditory, is extremely important. But all this largely depends on the environment. New vivid impressions and an appropriate environment contribute to the development of movements and speech. If this is not the case, then the child’s mental and physical development is delayed. His psychophysical health is of great importance for the development of a child. From the state of his higher nervous activity, from his attention, memory, imagination and thinking, i.e. higher mental processes, and the somatic or physical state depend on the development of speech.

The active participation of adults in the healthy development of a child’s speech, i.e., the education of speech in normal conditions for it, is the main point of prevention. Unfortunately, this moment in the development of speech, as well as the importance of full speech, is still underestimated in the family and school.

According to statistics, the number of speech disorders has tended to increase in recent years, so great attention must be paid to the prevention of speech disorders - this proves the relevance of my chosen topic.

The purpose of the work is to study the main directions of prevention of speech disorders.

Unlike oral speech, written speech is formed only under conditions of purposeful learning, that is, its mechanisms develop during the period of learning to read and write and are improved during all further training.

When analyzing speech disorders, speech activity should be considered as a complex multi-level functional system, the components of which (phonetic, lexical, grammatical aspects of speech, phonemic processes, semantics) depend on one another and condition each other. By interacting, they make their own specific contribution to the formation of language skills and the flow of the speech process.

Reading and writing disorders (dyslexia and dysgraphia) are the most common forms of speech pathology in primary schoolchildren, especially in children with general speech underdevelopment.

As practice shows, many children entering first grade have a limited vocabulary, poorly developed fine motor skills, and persistent speech impairments. The speech therapy service at the school was created to provide special assistance to students who have impairments in the development of oral and written speech and in mastering educational programs.

In order for the work of a school speech therapist to become more effective, he needs a close connection, first of all, with a primary school teacher. Both of them strive for a common goal - to provide quality education to schoolchildren. To do this, the teacher needs each student to have a sufficiently high level of general (including speech) development.

Tasks of a school speech therapist:

1. Timely identification of children with oral and written speech disorders.

2. Correction of violations in the development of oral and written speech of students.

3. Timely prevention and overcoming difficulties in students’ mastering educational programs.

4. Explanation of special knowledge in speech therapy among school teachers and parents (legal representatives) of students.

In turn, the teacher continues the child’s speech development, relying on the skills and abilities he has acquired, i.e. there is an integration of speech therapy work and the educational process.

The main directions of speech therapy work in school

The formation of full-fledged educational activity is possible only with a sufficiently high level of speech development, which presupposes a certain degree of formation of linguistic means, as well as skills and abilities to freely and adequately use these means for the purpose of communication.

It is quite obvious that deviations in speech development complicate communication, interfere with the correct formation of cognitive processes, and complicate the acquisition of reading, writing and, as a consequence, other school skills and knowledge. The problem of impaired writing and reading occupies one of the leading places in the practice of school education, which prevents the formation of full-fledged educational activities in children.

In recent years, among students entering the primary grades of our school, the number of children with various deviations in speech development has increased significantly. With the beginning of literacy training, such children are found to have a persistent impairment in the formation of written speech, manifested in the form of dysgraphia. When examining speech disorders in children, mixed dysgraphia is noted, the structure of which includes such writing deficiencies as a violation of language analysis and synthesis, acoustic and articulatory-acoustic dysgraphia, elements of agrammatic and optical dysgraphia. With mixed dysgraphia, errors are multiple and varied. Diagnostic studies show that mixed dysgraphia is almost always caused by a general underdevelopment of the child’s speech. Such children, as a rule, experience difficulties in mastering the Russian language program, have difficulty remembering and applying grammatical rules in practice, their vocabulary is reduced, and the lexical side of speech suffers. This is a complex set of disorders, manifested not only in violations of written speech; in most cases, insufficient formation of such higher mental functions as attention, memory of various modalities, as well as disturbances in the emotional-volitional sphere is revealed.

Timely organization of remedial education in preschool age would significantly reduce the number of children with speech disorders. Therefore, at primary school age, the school speech therapist needs a longer period of establishing speech sounds. Which in turn allows us to minimize the defect at the level of oral speech.

A lot of children come to our school who do not attend kindergartens and no work has been done with them on the formation of phonetic-phonemic processes and the lexical-grammatical structure of speech. Insufficient development of phonetic, phonemic and lexico-grammatical means of the language, due to the diagnosis of general speech underdevelopment, prevents the successful learning of written speech; violations of the sound-syllable structure of words create great difficulties in mastering phonemic analysis and synthesis. The limited vocabulary of children manifests itself in the form of difficulties in mastering the semantics of words, which results in errors in understanding and using words.

The experience of teaching these children indicates the need and relevance of work on the prevention and correction of dysgraphia and dyslexia during primary schooling.

MAIN AREAS OF WORK WITH STUDENTS

Diagnostics of students

• examination of oral speech of 1st grade students;
• examination of written speech of students in grades 2-4;
• in-depth examination of the speech of children in the speech therapy group;

Staffing speech therapy groups

• with general speech underdevelopment (GSD);
• with phonetic-phonemic speech underdevelopment (FFSD);
• with reading and writing disorders caused by OHP;
• with reading and writing impairment caused by FFND;

Advisory assistance

• primary school teachers;
• teachers of Russian language and literature;
• teachers of compensatory education classes;
• parents (legal representatives) of students;
• speech therapists of city preschool institutions;
• students with defective pronunciation of sounds;
• future first-graders and their parents (legal representatives);

Areas of work:

• overcoming problems with sound pronunciation;
• development of phonemic awareness;
• development of sound analysis and synthesis;
• development of the lexical and grammatical structure of speech;
• development of coherent speech;
• development of spatial perception.

In conclusion, we can say that timely identification of children with speech disorders, properly organized work in close cooperation between teachers, psychologists, parents and speech therapists are of great importance in a secondary school.

First group of job benefits

Like any other work activity, the profession of a speech therapist has a number of “spiritual” and “material” advantages. If we talk about the intangible component, then the only thing worth highlighting is usefulness. The point is that, despite not the smartest opinions, the profession of a speech therapist is still very useful and necessary for society.

Every person wants to speak clearly, competently and clearly. There are probably no people in the world who would like their own speech impediments. A speech therapist comes to the rescue here.

Second group of job benefits

It was not difficult to understand the “spiritual” component of the profession. What if you pay attention to something material? The more “down-to-earth” advantages of the profession include:

• Opportunity to constantly develop. If you establish yourself as a high-quality and competent specialist, about whom many people know, you can try to increase your status (and, accordingly, your income) by moving to private institutions.
• High “geography” of employment. Today, the profession of a speech therapist is considered very important and necessary for society. A speech therapist at school or in kindergarten is not a common occurrence. It's simply not there. A speech therapist should definitely not have problems finding employment.
• Speech therapists do not have the concept of “retirement age”. You can work as much as your health allows.

Disadvantages of the profession

Like any other professional field, the work of a speech therapist also contains a number of certain disadvantages. It is worth noting:

• Huge power costs. A speech therapist spends a lot of energy working with just one patient. It’s good if a professional has significant experience, and therefore experience. In this case, a certain habit and some skills of working with “problem” patients should be developed (certain tasks of a speech therapist, suitable for age, character, etc.). But it will really be difficult for young and inexperienced workers.

• A large amount of documentation. Almost every employee has this problem today. What can we say about doctors: recently, the entire burden of maintaining various kinds of paperwork has fallen on them. And this, as a consequence of the cuts, is a completely abnormal phenomenon.
• Small salary. The income of a specialist has already been discussed above. A speech therapist in a kindergarten, school or other budget institution really receives very little money.

Thus, a speech therapist is a very original, special specialist. His activities cannot be confused with anything.

Speech therapy work in kindergarten, its methods, goals and objectives

Speech therapy work with preschoolers is based on speech therapy - special work. pedagogical science on preventing and overcoming speech imperfections. This work distinguishes between two systems. One of them is used in special kindergartens for children with severe speech disorders - in normal kindergartens.

The subject of the latter is primarily the age-related characteristics of children's speech, and to a much lesser extent, shortcomings of pathological origin, which do not interfere with the upbringing of a child in a normal kindergarten.

Speech therapy uses both generally accepted methods of speech development and its own specific methods for correcting speech deficiencies. The specificity of these special techniques appears most clearly in pathological cases.

The purpose of this work is to help the normal formation of a preschooler’s speech, and consequently, the full development of his thinking.

The goal is to help prevent speech disorders, help the child’s natural desire to overcome age-related and sometimes pathological speech deficiencies, develop and improve methods of speech therapy work in accordance with the capabilities, needs and interests of the preschooler.

1. The name “speech therapy” consists of two Greek words “logos” - word, speech and “paideo” - teach, educate.

2. “Imperfection” of speech and synonyms of this term (“shortcomings”, “distortions”, “flaws”, “shortcomings”) we call any deviation in the development of children's speech from the normal speech of adults - age-related or pathological. For age-related characteristics of children’s speech, the term “originality” of speech is also used. In pathological cases, the following terms are used: “violation”, “disorder”, “anomaly”, “defect”, “pathological defect”.

To master speech therapy, you need to know your native language well, especially phonetics, and have certain information from the physiology and psychology of speech and from medicine. Language occupies an extremely important place in the development of a child. Only through his native language does a child enter the lives of the people around him. A child needs a good knowledge of the Russian language to study other subjects, to master the kindergarten curriculum, and subsequently school.

I. P. Pavlov gave a natural scientific basis to the doctrine of language. Language, according to him, not only replaces the direct action on the brain of all internal and external stimuli, but also abstracts and generalizes them, and is thus an instrument of the highest level of thinking.

Speech is an extremely subtle, complex and accurate form of reflection of objective reality in the human brain and is, in the words of I. P. Pavlov, “the highest regulator of human behavior.”

Consequently, the native language is a means of communication, expression and formation of thoughts and, thus, serves as “an active, powerful means of comprehensive development of the child’s personality” (A. I. Sorokina).

All this places great demands on the quality of our speech. That is why the main task of a kindergarten (the comprehensive development of preschool children) necessarily includes the development of full speech in a child. An indispensable condition for the normal development of speech is the timely prevention and elimination of all kinds of shortcomings (burr, lisp, stutter, etc.).

The more clear and expressive a child’s speech is, the easier it is for him to express his thoughts, the deeper and richer his ability to understand reality. The more perfect a child’s speech, the more correctly his relationships with children and adults will be formed, that is, his behavior, and therefore his personality as a whole.

Age-related speech imperfections in early childhood (from 1.5 to 2.5 years) generally correspond to the mental and physical development and intimate relationships of the child with the mother and with other family members, with his needs and their satisfaction. But in the future, due to imperfect speech, certain inconveniences and difficulties in contact with others gradually arise and increase.

Already from the age of 4-5, more developed children themselves begin to notice the shortcomings of their speech and often experience them painfully. They are embarrassed to speak, avoid words with sounds that they pronounce incorrectly, become irritable and are reluctant to go to kindergarten, and subsequently to school. They develop a feeling of inferiority, a fear of “corrections” and ridicule from children.

Guided by dialectical-materialist philosophy and the teachings of I.P. Pavlov on the development of conditioned reflexes through education and training, Soviet psychology and pedagogy proved that language develops as a result of learning - a child learns from the examples of adults, imitating their language, following their instructions.

From the above, it becomes obvious that teaching preschoolers, to the best of their ability, pure pronunciation, correct speech structure and eliminating the speech pathology that sometimes occurs in them should be one of the important tasks of the kindergarten.

Timely prevention and elimination of child speech deficiencies is an urgent task for all our kindergartens.

The most favorable age for speech therapy work

It is best to teach correct speech and overcome its shortcomings in preschool age. The following characteristics of a preschooler contribute to this.

1. High plasticity of the brain, i.e. the ability to quickly and easily switch to new circuits and also overcome the consequences of their violations. This explains the increased imitation of adult speech in children and the easy alteration of speech sounds. The flexibility of the child’s brain lays the foundations for overcoming the child’s speech imperfections through pedagogical influence (exercises, repetitions; however, it is necessary to take into account the rapid fatigue of young children).

2. The ability to turn everything into a game. Children willingly play various games using speech and thereby achieve faster success in it.

3. Children's love for speech sounds and the desire to master them. Children play with sounds and mechanically repeat them many times. They are early aware of phonetic norms and try to master them (A. N. Gvozdev).

Children love to work on improving their speech, especially on the purity of pronunciation; they show great interest and persistence, watch each other, suggest to each other sounds or the required positions of the tongue and lips. They willingly play with sounds, notice the differences between them, memorize words, nursery rhymes, and poems. Having mastered the correct pronunciation of a particular sound, children rejoice, are proud of their victory, demonstrate the new sound to others and wait for approval. They stop being shy and become more sociable.

4. Fragility of erroneous speech skills. Temporary connections in the cerebral cortex have not been strengthened and are therefore easily inhibited.

So, in children of three and four years of age, the relative development of the brain in general, hearing and speech-motor apparatus, in particular, allows them to master correct pronunciation by the end of their stay in kindergarten. The flexibility of the kindergarten regime makes it possible to devote enough time to this.

The role of the teacher, doctor and parents

A kindergarten teacher first of all has to deal with the natural age-related features of speech for a child, in other words, the phonetic (pronunciation of individual sounds and their combinations) and musical (rhythm, tempo, intonation, modulation, strength, clarity of voice) originality of children's speech.

Overcoming such shortcomings does not present any particular difficulties, since the teacher, using the correct teaching methods, only helps the natural process of the normal development of children's speech, accelerating it. This makes it easier for the child to master such complex activities as speech and promotes earlier mental development. Only in very rare cases does a teacher have to deal with pathological speech defects (for example, burr due to a short frenulum of the tongue, poor speech due to hearing loss, stuttering, nasality). In such cases, they resort to the help of a doctor. He treats, operates, and prosthetizes the speech organs, thereby creating favorable conditions for the development of correct speech.

But this is not enough to get it. The child must be taught the correct speech skills, that is, the correct conditioned connections must be developed in his brain. The leading role here belongs to the teacher. In severe cases that are difficult to correct, for example, nasal sounds due to cleft palate, children are sent to special kindergartens.

A teacher in a normal kindergarten still sometimes has to help such children form correct speech, involving a speech therapist.