The term “speech therapy” refers to the science that studies speech disorders and their subsequent correction. It belongs to the section of specialized pedagogy. Speech therapists are in-demand specialists who identify the causes of speech disorders (both oral and written), correct them, help the patient become more attentive, teach them to remember information, pronounce sounds correctly, and construct words and sentences. They can work with children of different ages as well as adults. In their work, speech therapists use various tools, including neuropsychology. Let's look at what is meant by this term and how it works.
What it is
Neuropsychology is a field of psychology that lies at the intersection of neural science and psychology. She studies the connection between the work and structure of the brain with human behavior and the mental processes occurring with him. Basically, experts study people who have suffered a head injury and lost higher mental functions. They also consider abnormalities in the central nervous system that are directly or indirectly related to psychological, cognitive, individual or emotional behavioral factors.
Also, the scope of activity of neuropsychologists includes patients whose brain activity is impaired for other reasons. For example, due to stroke, cerebrovascular injury, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, etc.
Attention: if a patient needs the help of a speech therapist and a neuropsychologist, then one specialist can work with him. But at the same time, classes are usually divided. They are carried out on an individual basis, taking into account the person’s condition, his level of development and activity.
A specialist can set various goals and objectives and solve them in parallel with each other.
How to understand that a child needs help from a neuropsychologist?
The brain is an instrument whose quality determines a person’s entire life. If a child cannot maintain rules of behavior and apply spelling rules, this primarily signals a lack of willpower and self-control, for which certain areas of the brain are responsible. There are children who show talent in mathematics, do interesting creative projects, but often make “stupid” mistakes in Russian language lessons. Obviously, this is not a matter of undeveloped intellect.
Signs of neuropsychological problems
- does not remember information well
- can't concentrate
- has poor self-control
- reads slowly
- awkward in movements,
- exhausted (no energy)
- doesn't sleep well
- writes letters in reverse
- has obsessive movements
- has macro- or micro-handwriting,
- has unformed interhemispheric interaction.*
There are no children who would like to study poorly. But there are children who cannot study well. In elementary school, simple exercises in class or in additional classes in the form of exercises or game assignments help to cope with some problems. The main thing is to understand that everything in the human body is interconnected and the success of a child depends on how well he knows how to manage himself. By the way, a common “disease” of modern parents, including the most loving and caring ones, is that they take absolutely all decisions upon themselves and literally take away self-control and self-sufficiency from the child. But without these qualities a person cannot develop.
We develop thinking, imagination, attention. Training apparatus. 3rd grade
The manual proposes a system of educational tasks aimed at the formation of cognitive universal educational actions, teaching primary schoolchildren to perform various mental operations. Students will have to work with different sources of information: texts (fiction and popular science), works of art, educational drawings. The manual is addressed to third grade students, teachers, kindergarten teachers, methodologists, parents, and can be used in the field of additional education.
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Basic mental functions
The term “higher mental functions” refers to cognitive abilities, thanks to which a person can adequately respond to events that happen to him and other people, as well as to the challenges of everyday life. Neuropsychology identifies the following functions:
- Attention or ability to concentrate. A person must be able to concentrate on a subject, object, work or action. At the same time, he should not be distracted by extraneous events or be able to prioritize. That is, a person must be capable of learning, reading, obtaining information, conducting a conversation, doing homework, household errands, driving, etc.
- Speech. It is necessary in order to communicate with other people, build communications and connections. A person must understand what exactly he is saying, what people are answering him, etc. Language is one of the main tools of the brain, which triggers the processes of thinking, memorizing, reading, etc. Speech is also important in regulating/organizing mental processes, for example, when planning, etc.
- Writing and reading. These functions directly stem from a person’s ability to recognize speech and language. If a patient has problems with aphasia (that is, with language impairment), then he will not be able to adequately perceive reality, express his thoughts, perceive written instructions, etc.
- Memory. A very important function in neuropsychology, which affects the development of a person as an individual. People accumulate information, memories and experiences from birth. If in the process of life an injury is received, as a result of which the memory is erased and the person ceases to be himself. This is similar to how you format your computer's hard drive or erase data from your phone. That is, a person forgets who he is, who his parents and children are, what he does, where he lives, etc. Memory deterioration can occur without trauma. Patients may forget what happened yesterday, who they called, who they talked to, what they need to do, etc. If a person has problems with remembering, then he cannot master new subjects, remember faces and necessary information.
- Reasoning ability and other executive functions. They are needed so that a person can fully process information, perceive and analyze it. Executive functions help people perform certain actions according to an algorithm (for example, going shopping, preparing food, cleaning, etc.). They also influence awareness of the consequences of their actions. For example, if you light a match, you could burn your fingers or set your curtains on fire.
- Visual functions in neuropsychology. They also belong to higher nervous activity. They are needed in order to correctly process visual images. According to statistics, a person receives up to 85% of information visually. Therefore, the absence of such a function or its defects can be critical for patients. They must be able to perceive warning signs, read instructions, etc. In some cases, patients with visual impairment have topographic disorientation, that is, they cannot find a way out of the room, get to the right place, etc.
Neuropsychological techniques in the work of a speech therapist
Article:
“Neuropsychological techniques in the work of a speech therapist”
author: teacher-speech therapist MBDOU "TsRR-kindergarten No. 184"
Safonova M.A.
Voronezh
In recent years, it has been difficult to meet children simply with speech disorders. Even OHP in its pure form is not so common. We receive children with organic disorders who are diagnosed by neurologists with MMD, ADHD, and attention deficit disorder. This category of children, along with speech disorders, have problems with coordination, gross and fine motor skills, and perception. Children in this category are motorically awkward. They cannot throw the ball at the target and catch it, kick the ball into the goal, throw and catch the ball, or circle the object around the office, because here it is necessary to include visual control. They cannot understand and follow complex instructions. Since attention is scattered, children only catch some part. Hence, reading skills suffer in the future. The child constantly jumps from one letter to another, reads from left to right, then from right to left. It is difficult for a child to isolate the central line of the story, to sequence the plot reversal, and internal programming suffers. And children are already coming to school who cannot master reading and writing. In order for the number of schoolchildren with the listed problems to decrease (and their number is steadily growing), it is necessary to solve all these problems in preschool age. Unfortunately, a speech therapist cannot begin full-fledged correctional work before 4 years of age (this is already physiology), and two or three years before school are sometimes not enough for correction. We thought for a long time about this issue, what and how to do so that our correction would be reduced in the time period. When we turned to the work of neuropsychologists, we changed our approach to correctional work. We began to include games in our work that help the child control his motor activity and develop attention. Games for the formation of interhemispheric interactions are of great importance in this process.
We begin our work with diagnostics.
Fluent speech requires serial organization of movements. The pronunciation of each word is a series of smoothly alternating articulatory movements. Speaking involves the extraction and implementation of articulatory word programs that ensure coordination of movements in time. The construction of a sentence also requires a consistent grammatical program, where the form of the predicate depends on the form of the subject, and the form of the complement depends on it. Finally, to construct a text, a consistent semantic program is necessary, otherwise the text will be broken and incoherent.
Thus, if the immaturity of the serial organization of movements is sufficiently pronounced and extends to speech, then in the child’s speech we will see a reduction in vocabulary, poverty of grammatical structure (short phrases using the simplest grammatical structures), difficulties in constructing a detailed story (the presentation is inconsistent, the volume of texts is reduced) . It is precisely the difficulties of constructing a text that are the most persistent.
How is the formation of the serial organization of movements determined?
First of all, it is necessary to analyze how the child masters a new series of movements. For this purpose, the teacher uses the “palm - fist - edge” test, the reciprocal (mutual) coordination test and the graphic “fence” test. He looks to see whether the child can master a smooth (continuous, not element-by-element) automated execution of a movement, whether he has inertia or difficulty switching from one program to another. Repeating a series of syllables or vowel sounds can also serve this purpose.
A test for reciprocal coordination of movements (simultaneous squeezing of one hand and unclenching of the other) is aimed at identifying the “formation” of the mechanisms of serial organization of movements and interhemispheric interaction.
Another direction of diagnostics is aimed at solving visual problems. If visual perception is impaired, correctional work should solve the following tasks:
1) development of visual attention,
2) development of “visual image – word” connections, differentiation of visual images and word meanings,
3) development of visual-gnostic and visual-mnestic processes, including different strategies of visual recognition.
Since if any of the components of visual perception is underdeveloped, the entire functional system as a whole suffers, at the first stage of work
Relatively simple tasks of a general nature are offered. These include tasks of the first methodological complex for identifying visual images. These tasks are implemented using the game “Loto” - the child finds a picture that matches the one presented. The complication of tasks occurs along two lines: gnostic and speech. Gnostic complexity increases as we move from color realistic pairs to pairs where one or both pictures are black and white, silhouetted, schematic, or stylized.
To consolidate the visual images being practiced, recognition and/or verbal reproduction tasks are used: tasks to select pictures or captions for them, remember how the pictures were arranged, etc.
Second stage of work
– finding verbalized differences. Here, plot pictures are used for comparison. At first there are few objects on them and the simplest differences: the presence/absence of details, changes in color, shape, quantity.
Finding differences from memory (the child looks at only one picture while remembering another) is the most difficult type of task in this complex.
Third stage of work
– perceptual modeling, i.e. recreating an object from parts. These tasks can vary greatly in difficulty.
The object design tasks included in this set are very useful. Unlike previous tasks, here the image of an object is divided into functionally significant parts, so adding a “handle” or “spout” and a “lid” allows you to transform the “pot” into a cup, sugar bowl, teapot. In this task, the distinctive features of objects are identified and named, which allows you to train the analytical strategy of perception and expand your vocabulary.
Fourth stage
– sensitized (increasing the body’s sensitivity to effects) tasks. Various traditional image “noise” techniques are used here. Outline images are crossed out, overlapped or incomplete.
Based on our diagnostics, we offer children certain games that a speech therapist can conduct together with a physical education instructor, educational psychologist or teacher, or independently.
Games
“Melnitsa” (physical physical education instructor)
Target:
development of attention, control of motor activity.
Game conditions
. All players stand in a circle at a distance of at least 2 meters from each other. One of the players receives the ball and passes it to another, who passes it to the third, etc. Gradually the transmission speed increases. A player who misses the ball or throws it incorrectly is eliminated from the game. The winner is the one who remains in the game last.
Note. The game can be complicated by having someone beat out a rhythm to which the players will throw the ball to each other, i.e. using auditory attention. In addition, this rhythm can change (sometimes faster, sometimes slower).
“Cinderella” (teacher-speech therapist, educator, psychologist)
Target:
development of attention distribution.
Conditions of the game.
The game involves 2 people. There is a bucket of beans (white, brown and colored) on the table. On command, you need to disassemble and arrange the beans into 3 piles according to color. The one who completes the task first wins.
" Who is faster?" (teacher-speech therapist, educator, psychologist)
Target
: development of tactile perception, fine motor skills, consolidation of the visual image of the letter.
Game conditions
. Children are asked to form a given letter out of beans or peas as quickly as possible.
It is advisable to offer this task to the child during literacy classes to change types of activities. This activity is a great way to relieve stress and switch from one activity to another within the same topic.
“Don’t miss the ball” (physical physical education instructor, teacher)
Target
: development of attention, ability to work in a team.
Conditions of the game.
The participants of the game stand in a circle and put their hands on each other’s shoulders. The driver stands in the middle of the circle, with a ball at his feet. The driver’s task is to kick the ball out of the circle. The players' task is not to release the ball. You can't separate your hands. If the ball flies over the hands or head of the players, the kick is not counted. But when the ball flies between the legs, the driver wins, becomes a player, and the one who missed the ball takes his place.
“Storks-frogs” (physical education instructor, teacher)
Target:
attention training, control of motor activity, development of auditory attention, coordination of movements.
Conditions of the game.
All players walk in a circle or move around the room in a free direction. When the leader claps his hands once, the children should stop and take the “stork” pose (stand on one leg, arms to the sides). When the leader claps twice, the players take the “frog” pose (sit down, heels together, toes and knees to the sides, hands between the feet on the floor). After three claps, the players resume walking.
Note. You can come up with other poses, you can use a much larger number of poses - this makes the game more complicated. Let the children come up with new poses themselves.
“Colored palms” (teacher-speech therapist, educational psychologist, teacher, physical education instructor)
Target:
development of attention, ability to act according to instructions, development of volitional regulation.
Game conditions
: The teacher, together with the children, cuts out three silhouettes of a child’s hand from multi-colored cardboard: red, yellow, green. Then all participants in the game agree that when the leader (first an adult, and then one of the children) raises his green palm - a “chant” - you can run, shout, jump; yellow palm - “whisper” - allows you to move and talk in a whisper; at the “silent” signal - a red palm - children must freeze in place or lie down on the floor and not move. The game should end with silence.
“Ring Bros” (teacher-speech therapist, educator, physical education instructor)
Target:
consolidate the ability to select words for a given sound, develop the ability to work in a team.
Game conditions
. The child is asked to choose a word that matches the given sound and hit the cone with the ring. If the game is played in a team, then the one with the most words and hits in a certain period of time wins.
The game helps to activate the vocabulary. Here we can, in a playful way, reinforce the concept of sound, the ability to choose a word for a given sound, the ability to hear ourselves and control our friends. Since the task is performed in a playful motor form, children do not get tired and their interest in learning increases.
“Let's play with pictures” (speech therapist teacher)
Target:
development of attention, its volume, stability, concentration, development of visual memory, automation of sound.
Game conditions:
A series of pictures on a certain topic are laid out in front of the child. The child explains what is depicted on them and what it is intended for. Then the instruction is given that the child must look carefully and remember in what sequence they are located. After this, the pictures are removed from view and posted only after being named by the child.
“Find the sound” (teacher-speech therapist, educator, physical education instructor)
Target:
development of phonemic perception, auditory attention
A game to develop phonemic awareness in motion. Work is progressing well on determining the presence of a sound in a word.
Game conditions:
Children stand in a circle and are given instructions about what sound we are looking for in a word. The game is played with a ball. If the word has a given sound, then the child hits the floor with the ball; if not, then he throws it up and returns it to the leader. The game becomes more complicated by increasing the pace or by making the child the leader.
“What object did I wish for?” (teacher-psychologist, educator)
Target
: development of visual attention, orientation in space, consolidation of the use of prepositional constructions in speech.
Game conditions:
Objects are laid out at different distances from each other. The child, depending on his ability, is given instructions. For example, go to an object that is to the right of the ball, but closer than the doll. Or go to the object that is closest to you, farthest from the ball. Then you can ask where the doll, ball, etc. is located. In this way, we strengthen the child’s ability to navigate space, listen carefully to instructions, and correctly use prepositional constructions.
“Monkeys” (teacher-psychologist, educator)
Target:
interaction of eye movements, tongue, arms, legs as a single well-functioning mechanism.
Game conditions:
The child is asked to open his mouth, eyes and palms at the same time upon a signal, and close his hands at the same time at a signal.
“Snowball” (teacher-speech therapist, educator)
Target:
development of attention, memory, overcoming impulsiveness, expanding vocabulary on a certain topic.
Conditions of the game.
The theme of the game is selected: cities, animals, plants, names, etc. players sit in a circle. The first player names a word on a given topic, for example “elephant” (if the topic of the game is “Animals”). The second player must repeat the first word and add his own, for example, “elephant”, “giraffe”. The third says: “elephant”, “giraffe”, “crocodile”. And so on in a circle until someone makes a mistake. Then he drops out of the game and makes sure that the others do not make mistakes. And so on until there is only one winner left.
Note. In a similar way, you can come up with a “Detective”, putting together a plot one word at a time. For example: “Night”, “street”, “steps”, “scream”, “blow”, etc. You can allow children to prompt each other, but only using gestures.
“Hello finger” (teacher-speech therapist)
Target
: development of fine motor skills, differentiation of sounds, formation of interhemispheric connections, concentration of attention. This task is good for differentiating mixed sounds.
Game conditions
. We invite the child to connect the fingers of his right hand, pronouncing syllables with the consonant “Ш”, and of his left hand, with the consonant “S”. The work becomes more difficult when the teacher gives different syllables.
Literature:
1. Collection ed. P.N. Loseva, Correction of speech and mental development of children 4-7 years old. - M., 2005
2. Kiryanova R.A. Comprehensive diagnostics of preschool children. - S-P., 2002
3. Lalaeva R.I. Speech therapy work in correctional classes. - M., 2004
4. Efimov I.O. Modern neurophysiology of speech and hearing.-S-P., 2009
5. Semenovich A.V. Neuropsychological correction in childhood.-M., 2011
6. Zabramnaya S.D., Barovik O.V. From diagnosis to development. - M., 2004
7. Current problems of childhood neuropsychology: Textbook / L. S. Tsvetkova, A. V. Semenovich, S. N. Kotyagina, E. G. Grishina, T. Yu. Gogberashvili; – M.: 2001. – 272 p.
8. Luria A. R., Tsvetkova L. S. Neuropsychology and problems of teaching in secondary schools. – M.: 1996. – 64 p.
Do traumas affect behavior and emotions?
Practice shows that a person’s character and style of behavior directly depends on his emotional and affective aspects. It is on them that the desires, feelings, needs of the body, etc. depend. If a patient receives a brain injury, he may develop pathologies of behavioral regulation and problems with controlling his actions. The person may become impulsive, aggressive and irritable, and may lose interest in work or life.
Some patients develop a general indifference to everything that previously interested them (hobbies, work, family), they may refuse to eat or take hygiene procedures. Some people experience depression and may not be able to control their emotions. Infantilism often develops, that is, the patient’s activities and interests do not coincide with his age). There is also general disinhibition. For example, they may become overly talkative but still lack control over their words and expressions. Often such people do not comply with the rules of subordination, cannot monitor interpersonal relationships and maintain distances where necessary.
Should you involve your family?
If a person has been injured and has problems with higher nervous activity, then the process of correction and correction is developed individually by a speech therapist and a neuropsychologist. Usually tests are carried out first, and then various exercises that help normalize the process.
Involving family and friends shows good results. Patients recover faster and the rehabilitation period lasts less. Therefore, be sure to consult with a specialist - it is quite possible that he will offer you participation in group classes to increase productivity and efficiency.
Attention: neuropsychology implies an integrated approach to the recovery process. Therefore, in addition to family therapy, you may need physical exercises and exercises that strengthen the connection between the hemispheres of the brain.
Note that the family can work with the patient at home. To do this, you need to get specialist advice and strictly follow it. This advanced approach will help you recover faster.
Causes of speech underdevelopment
Speech underdevelopment refers to a polyetiological defect, which can be either an independent pathology or as a consequence of more complex defects, including alalia, dysarthria, rhinolalia, etc.
Figure 1. Structure of a speech defect. Author24 - online exchange of student work
A pure speech defect includes unformed sound pronunciation and phonemic perception, a limited vocabulary and imperfect grammatical structure of the language.
The reasons for general speech underdevelopment may be:
- lack of correct conditions for the formation of a child’s speech in the family - lack of communication, deaf parents, a foreign nanny who does not speak Russian well;
- speech underdevelopment of children raised in orphanages;
- the use of different languages in the family and in preschool;
- unfavorable social conditions.
The reasons for general speech underdevelopment are biological and social in nature.
Among the biological factors may be maternal intoxication during pregnancy, group incompatibility of the blood of mother and fetus, pathology of the natal period, brain injuries in the first years of the child’s life, etc. A persistent variant of general speech underdevelopment is underdevelopment due to early organic damage to the brain, moreover, this is the most difficult defeat.
Note 2
Thus, the causes of speech disorders are quite complex and diverse. Typical manifestations of general speech underdevelopment are observed with alalia and dysarthria. With rhinolalia and stuttering, manifestations of speech underdevelopment are less common.
Figure 2. Levels of speech underdevelopment in children. Author24 - online exchange of student work
Additional goals
If we talk about what goals, in addition to the main ones, neuropsychology has, we can highlight:
- The ability to detect serious psychoneurological diseases in the early stages of their development. We are talking about diseases such as Alzheimer's, dementia, etc. Accordingly, the specialist will be able to develop appropriate rehabilitation or stimulation programs to curb the disease.
- Determining the level of brain injury and the appearance of cognitive impairment. Such studies are carried out in situations where the patient has suffered as a result of the actions or inactions of others. Based on the research, claims can be drawn up in order to obtain fair compensation for damage to health. These studies are often practiced in the legal field.
- Studying the patient and his cognitive abilities to determine whether there is damage to brain activity. Such studies are carried out in order to find out exactly when the disorders arose and whether they exist, or whether the patient exaggerates their presence or simply feigns them.
- Making a differential diagnosis. Neuropsychology allows us to understand whether the symptoms observed in a patient are acquired as a result of brain injury, or whether they developed earlier due to a psychological condition. Often diseases develop earlier, and trauma intensifies them and makes them visible.
Please note: Both the patient and family benefit from these studies and interventions. They are also necessary for third parties who are participants in the events preceding the injury.
Method components
Neuropsychological diagnostics and behavior correction in childhood are conventionally divided into two inextricably linked components:
- Motor correction;
- Cognitive or educational correction.
The first component, already described above, serves to stimulate the regulation of movements, improve interhemispheric interaction and the development of children’s spatial representations.
The second component, cognitive correction, is aimed at developing cognitive skills and overcoming the child’s learning difficulties.
To create stable and positive motivation in a child, neurocorrection classes are conducted in a playful way.
The course of motor correction includes at least 25 lessons. One lesson lasts from 40 to 60 minutes, depending on age. Make an appointment Addresses and telephone numbers of branches in Moscow Ask a question Reviews
Features of the study
Let's look at the process of neuropsychological examination and subsequent correction. First, the specialist assesses the patient’s condition and conducts a detailed diagnosis. It helps to understand exactly what disorders are present, why they arose, what consequences may occur in the future, whether treatment is possible, and what the general prognosis is from the actions taken.
After collecting anamnesis and diagnostics, the neuropsychologist develops an individual program taking into account the patient’s characteristics. It includes various rehabilitation activities for therapeutic purposes. After the program is completed, the specialist evaluates the result and draws appropriate conclusions. He focuses on what goals have been achieved, what the patient’s status is, whether correction needs to be continued, etc.
In order to understand what exactly happened to a person and whether he needs help, a neuropsychologist uses several different methods. He talks with the patient, his loved ones and family, obtains the necessary information from medical records and records, conducts a variety of tests, and also observes the victim in various situations. At the same time, he should not provoke him, but simply observe and draw conclusions.
Methods and methods of treatment
Neuropsychological rehabilitation involves the use of classical and innovative methods of clinical psychology. At the same time, they are adjusted to the specific patient, taking into account his characteristics, level of development and severity of injury.
Additionally, various therapeutic procedures are used, which are based on basic neuropsychological methods, based on the fact that problems of the central nervous system should not prevent a person from living and developing fully. Using them, you can return the patient to social life.
For example, if a patient’s memory has deteriorated as a result of an injury, the specialist makes appropriate correction and helps improve it. If treatment does not produce results, the doctor recommends that the person use compensation mechanisms, in particular a diary or diary. If all important events and tasks are recorded in them, the patient will be able to live a full life.
Correctly carried out neuropsychological correction will lead to the fact that the intact parts of the brain will help the patient restore cognitive abilities in one way or another. They can take over the functions of damaged parts, replenish them or compensate for loss. But for this to become a reality, you need to contact only competent specialists. They will be able to recognize pathologies, create an individual rehabilitation program and implement it in such a way as to provide real help.
