Tachylalia: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, correction methods

General information

Tachylalia, like bradylalia (slow speech rate), is a non-convulsive disorder and is a violation of the rhythmic organization of speech. In this condition, the speech flow is very fast, which makes it much more difficult for others to understand what is being said. With tachylalia, the speed of all mental processes increases: the child speaks very quickly and writes unintelligibly, experiences motor restlessness, cannot maintain attention and instantly switches from one task to another.

Tips for teachers on working with children suffering from poultern and battarism

When planning classes with problem children, it is advisable to give preference to the following forms of work:

• Retelling a passage of text, reciting with and without gestures, telling a story, reading texts in roles, reading a phrase one word at a time, exercises for expressive speech, reading through a slot.
• Interactive games to develop logical thinking and come up with options for plot situations.
• Exercises to overcome inner speech defects, answers to questions, drawing up an answer plan, mathematical problems, tests.
• Development of auditory attention: memorization of heard proverbs, quatrains, and later - small passages in prose.
• Work on the tempo of speech: movements under the count, counting accompanied by movement; pronouncing syllables with tapping, reading with a metronome.

Of course, working with a speech therapist will bring results much faster. However, parents do not always have the opportunity to find a specialist. Don't despair. If the child does not have serious health problems, then parents can try to correct the speech rate themselves. We strongly recommend contacting specialists.

Reasons for the development of tachylalia

There are several theories about the possible occurrence of the disorder, but there is no reliable information yet. Experts consider the following factors as the cause of the development of tachylalia:

• heredity (if someone in the family had or currently has problems with the formation of speech processes, there is a high chance that the offspring will have similar problems);
• various brain lesions (neuroinfections, cancer, traumatic brain injury, neurosurgical interventions);
• injuries and infectious diseases suffered during fetal development or in the neonatal period;
• speech breathing disorders, which can be caused by chronic diseases of the nasopharynx and other problems with the ENT organs;
• mental and neurological disorders, for example, schizophrenia, epilepsy.

An important role is played by social education, the conditions in which a child grows and develops. Very often, an accelerated rate of speech becomes a consequence of conscious or unconscious imitation of the manner of parents, idols, and other adults to speak quickly and confusedly.

Often the reason is the lack of relationship between the speech apparatus, perception and thinking, which is often observed in children prone to increased excitability, hyperactivity, and restlessness. Unbalanced, overly emotional children are not able to control the functioning of the articulatory apparatus, which is why speech speeds up, and the quality of pronunciation does not allow others to correctly understand the meaning of what is being said.

The cause of tachylalia can also be a lack of proper verbal communication, when the child is not given education at all or too little time is given. A child, left to his own devices, is forced to independently master speech skills, and examples can be cartoon characters whose pronunciation is deliberately distorted, peers suffering from various forms of speech disorders, and adults with diction disorders.

Complications

With competent and planned work on speech impediments, serious complications can be avoided. If you leave the problem unattended or devote insufficient time and effort to it, or work with a speech therapist irregularly, a patient with cluttering runs the risk of becoming asocialized. Due to the disease, the communication function suffers; the child and adult cannot establish contact with others, receive a full education, work in the public sphere or work closely related to verbal communication. A person with cluttering is perceived with caution by society and may become an outcast in the class or work collective. It is especially difficult for children when cluttering is combined with stuttering.

Due to difficulties with learning and lack of communication, the intellectual sphere of sick children suffers, isolation and self-doubt develop. Cluttering is rightfully considered a disorder of personal development.

Classification

In speech therapy, there are three main types of tachylalia:

• simple form, when the child speaks very quickly, but without making grammatical, lexical or other errors in oral and written narration;
• battarism (paraphasia), in which children seem to be “choked” by speech and cannot finish the sentence they have started, often making mistakes in the construction of vocabulary;
• half-turn or stumbling, when the baby has difficulty expressing his thoughts, stuttering, making unnatural pauses, quickly going through words, repeating previously spoken words and syllables several times.

Polturn, in turn, can be caused by different mechanisms, and depending on the characteristics of the disorder, the following types of stumbling are distinguished:

• with motor disorders, which is associated with errors in the operation of the articulatory apparatus;
• with sensory impairments that are caused by problems with auditory and visual attention;
• with difficulty in selecting the necessary verbal forms;
• with difficulties in transferring mental images into verbal form.

The formation of each type of disorder is based on the predominance of excitation processes over inhibition processes in the brain.

Symptoms of tachylalia in children

Experts divide signs of pathology into two groups: speech and non-speech disorders.

Speech manifestations of tachylalia include:

• rapid speech flow, when in just a second the child reproduces up to 30 sounds;
• slurred pronunciation of syllables and words with hesitations, repetitions, rearrangements, inappropriate pauses, “swallowing” of endings;
• unnatural intonations;
• increased emotionality, expressiveness of speech;
• rearrangement of letters, syllables and words when writing;
• replacing symbols and individual words with graphically or acoustically similar ones;
• violations of vocabulary and articulation.

Children with a form of stumbling (polturn) often have problems with voice formation, when the voice changes in timbre, there is not enough breath to pronounce a full phrase, and children divide long sentences into short ones, while losing the meaning of what was said or read.

Non-speech symptoms of tachylalia may include:

• excessive gestures when speaking;
• excessive facial activity;
• rapid, impetuous movements, which is especially evident in fine motor skills;
• motor restlessness, not only during the day, but also during night sleep;
• quick switching of attention;
• emotional hyperexcitability, when a child, even at the slightest excitement, argument or conflict, begins to blush, sweat, while his heartbeat quickens and a feeling of fear arises;
• problems with remembering and reproducing auditory, visual and motor information.

Children with this disorder are often unrestrained: they are able to interrupt their interlocutor, answer without even listening to the question and without understanding its meaning, which affects social behavior in general and becomes the cause of conflicts both with peers and with adults.

Exercises to do with your child

Here are some exercises that parents can do with their child while playing:

• To restore breathing: Take a comfortable position, inhale through your nose, filling your stomach and chest with air. Exhale also through your nose, repeating the movements at least 5 times.
• To hold your breath . Perform breathing according to the technique of the first exercise, first holding it for 2, 3, 4 and 5 seconds.
• Moo . Take in more air into your lungs and, as you exhale , say any phrase or nursery rhyme, sing vowel sounds and words syllable by syllable, sharply release the air with the sound “HAAAA”, etc.

There are many speech therapy games that can be done at home. You can independently master games for fine motor skills, to develop a sense of rhythm, correct inhalation and exhalation, to expand the range of your voice, and develop the tempo of speech.

Only a specialist can recommend games and give recommendations for a specific child. Don't self-medicate .

Note: the effectiveness of classes will increase if they are carried out with light musical accompaniment in a calm environment. Classes must be conducted regularly.

Diagnostics

Examination of children with tachylalia includes examination by a neurologist, psychologist and speech pathologist.
A neurologist evaluates the functioning of the central nervous system, identifies possible disorders, and conducts the necessary diagnostic studies (EEG, MRI, Echo-CG) to determine the cause of the pathology. A psychologist works with psycho-emotional characteristics, assessing behavior, level of self-control, state of the sensory, cognitive and emotional-volitional spheres.

A speech therapist analyzes the functionality of the speech apparatus by examining:

• features of sound pronunciation, lexical and grammatical structure of speech;
• tempo-rhythmic characteristics of speech;
• speed of oral and written reproduction of information received aurally or visually;
• features of the placement of pauses, stress in words;
• timbre changes in voice when speaking;
• quality of speech breathing.

An important role in diagnosis is played by a careful collection of anamnesis, which includes features of intrauterine development and the first years of a child’s life, previous injuries, diseases and surgical interventions, environmental conditions and social upbringing.

Correction of tachylalia

In modern practice, a comprehensive therapeutic approach is used in relation to neuropsychiatric disorders, which includes:

• medication support;
• physiotherapeutic procedures;
• speech therapy classes;
• psychological consultations.

The main emphasis is on speech therapy techniques, the purpose of which is to develop the skills of calm, smooth speech with a certain rhythm and adequate emotional coloring. Classes are conducted in the form of individual lessons and collective trainings, with an emphasis on joint therapy. Interaction with other patients of the same age with a similar disorder helps children learn self-control and discipline each other, which has a beneficial effect on therapy as a whole. The methods are:

• speech exercises;
• role reading;
• logorhythmic exercises, in which the child needs to speak or read at a certain pace, focusing on sound or visual signals;
• question-and-answer form of conversation;
• verbal presentations to other therapy participants;
• listening to samples of correct speech.

Correction of tachylalia is a rather slow process, requiring from 4 to 12 months of systematic training. In case of relapses, a repeated course of therapy is prescribed.

Prevention

If you follow the recommendations of observing specialists and adequate work by parents at home, the disorder can be significantly reduced.
The outcome of therapy largely depends on the form of tachylalia, the presence of concomitant neurological diseases, the child’s environmental conditions and other individual factors. There are no methods for preventing speech disorders that guarantee 100% protection.

Measures to prevent tachylalia include:

• prevention of intrauterine infections, birth injuries, bruises and brain damage;
• mandatory vaccination against diseases that can lead to neuroinfection;
• adequate speech education;
• timely treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.

You can find out in more detail what tachylalia is in children and register your child for diagnostics in Moscow at the SM-Doctor clinic.

Preventive measures

It is important for parents of children to promote the correct formation of speech. Children imitate the speech of adults, so it is important to maintain a calm pace of conversation with them. It is important to monitor the correct pronunciation and speed of word reproduction.

Prevention for adults consists of timely and complete treatment of emerging pathologies. This applies to neurological diseases and neuroinfections. As for mental disorders, in such cases it is difficult to correct them. With timely consultation with a doctor, it is possible to reduce the severity of symptoms and the risk of complications.