System of work for the prevention of optical dysgraphia in preschool children with OHP

Dysgraphia is a written language disorder. Signs and symptoms of deviation, treatment and methods of prevention - what parents of schoolchildren should know.

Children who have just started learning to write try to write neatly. However, the handwriting of most primary school children is clumsy and illegible. Many people write with errors because they do not yet know the basic rules of the Russian language. A child's written speech improves over time, but some children continue to write sloppily, changing letters in places, missing spaces and in the right places. There are a number of signs that should cause parents to become concerned and take their child to see a speech therapist, as they may be symptoms of dysgraphia.

Timely treatment of this disorder is the key to the fact that the child will have competent written speech in the future. That is why it is important to know what dysgraphia is, what its causes and main symptoms are, as well as how this deviation is treated.

Dysgraphia: general information

Dysgraphia is a writing disorder that involves crooked letter writing with multiple misspellings of words. The handwriting of a child with this disorder is illegible, and words may be written in reverse with a large number of grammatical errors. This defect is a consequence of disruption of certain parts of the brain.

Writing impairment, the causes of which lie in the improper functioning of certain parts of the brain, occurs in many children who are beginning to learn the basics of writing. Thus, among second grade students, on average, such a violation occurs in more than half of the class. In the absence of timely treatment, such a deviation entails a decrease in the child’s self-esteem, affects his academic performance, and affects relationships with peers.

Dysgraphia is often accompanied by minor problems with the speech apparatus. This violation has several types and is classified according to severity.

Formation of auditory function in children with OHP

In order for a child with ODD to successfully master writing skills, it is necessary to develop his auditory function. The child must be able to clearly differentiate sounds that are similar in sound, analyze and synthesize words, be well oriented in space, master the sound component of speech, have a good vocabulary, developed motor skills and be able to speak coherently.

When working with children who suffer from ODD, it is necessary to develop in them a whole range of linguistic means, to formulate their use in speech.

This work is aimed at the mental development of children, their memory and attention, intelligence and volitional emotional sphere. This means that it is necessary to form those qualities and functions without which it will not be possible to fully master speech behavior. We also need to help children move to the next level of speech and intelligence development - start writing correctly.

Therefore, it is better to carry out preventive measures to combat dysgraphia already in the preschool period. Without the work of speech therapists, this problem will not disappear on its own. Only competent correctional work will help to quickly overcome all the factors that lead to writing problems and a decrease in school performance.

The speech therapist must carry out the work consistently.

The first stage is preparatory in nature. It is necessary to prepare the child’s articulatory apparatus for the development of articulatory habits. It is necessary to develop in children the need for communication and the formation of a vocabulary. You also need to correct your voice and breathing.

Mechanism of occurrence, causes

Writing is a process that requires the coordinated work of the visual, auditory, speech and motor systems. By the time the child masters the basics of writing, he should have mastered oral speech well. If the lateralization of brain functions is not carried out as needed, then a disorder such as dysgraphia develops. Usually these processes are normalized by the time the child begins school.

If the delay in lateralization causes disturbances in a part of the brain, the child develops dysgraphia, which requires correction. Otherwise, the deviation may affect the child’s thinking, memory, and perception.

Causes of occurrence in children

Dysgraphia can be caused by birth trauma. The development of such deviations is provoked by various infectious diseases and improper upbringing. Also, experts do not exclude such a factor as genetic predisposition.

Dysgraphia in children may be accompanied by other concomitant diseases that were previously diagnosed.

Causes of occurrence in adults

In adults, imperfections in written speech can be caused by both internal and external factors. Main reasons for deviation:

• presence of a tumor in the brain;
• low saturation;
• stroke;
• previous brain surgery;
• poor social conditions.

Social factors include insufficient upbringing in childhood, incorrect speech of people around, and lack of communication with others.

With dysgraphia, errors in the process of writing are persistent, despite the fact that the person knows well all the rules of writing words.

Formation of sensory functions

An important task is the formation of sensory functions. It is necessary to teach the child to analyze sounds, develop his auditory perception, help him analyze and reproduce the rhythm.

Working methods are selected depending on how developed the child’s speech is. If children do not have verbal means of communication, you first need to stimulate vocal reactions, help the child imitate different sounds that are significant for communication.

The next stage is the development of primary pronunciation skills in the communication process. During this period, it is necessary to form the processes of speech communication and analysis of the sound component of speech. It is necessary to correct disturbances in articulation: relax the child’s muscles, form the strength of the voice, correct breathing, form articulatory movements and praxis.

To prevent dysgraphia in articulation, it is necessary to develop clear differentiation of sounds by ear until children begin to write correctly automatically. Therefore, it is necessary to use techniques that would allow the child to realize the difference in sound. To do this, they use methods to more clearly emphasize this difference.

Types of dysgraphia

Dysgraphia can be the result of various reasons. Signs and symptoms of the disorder may vary. The method of rehabilitation and duration of treatment also depend on the type of deviation.

Optical

It is difficult for a child to write letters correctly; he may skip them when writing words, or add unnecessary elements in the form of strokes and sticks. Due to incompletely formed visual-spatial connections, the child often misses letters, writes them incorrectly, and confuses them with others.

Acoustic

Characterized by a lack of ability to correctly recognize sounds. The patient confuses similar-sounding letters and may make mistakes in the degree of softness of the pronounced sounds.

Articulatory-acoustic

The child writes and pronounces letters incorrectly and replaces them with similar sounds. Requests from parents and teachers to pay attention to the correct pronunciation and spelling do not bring results. With this form of disorder, work aimed at auditory differentiation of the child is required. Only by carrying out such corrective work is it possible to completely get rid of the problem.

Ungrammatical

This type of violation is characterized by the fact that the child, when pronouncing and writing, confuses case endings, misses or replaces prepositions with others. This deviation is a consequence of speech disorders.

Disorder caused by defective processes of analysis and synthesis

The main symptoms of this disorder are omitting or replacing letters with others, adding extra syllables, and spelling several words in a row. Such a deviation is preceded by social, psychological, and educational factors, which become the main cause of disturbances in the analysis and synthesis of speech.

Signs of the disease

Dysgraphia is a diagnosis that should be made by a specialist. The deviation can easily be confused with a common misunderstanding of grammar that occurs in most children. With dysgraphia, the mistakes that a child makes while writing are in no way related to the level of knowledge of the Russian language. The teacher at school, as well as the student’s parents, should be wary if the child repeatedly makes the same mistakes: misses letters, confuses the combined and separate spelling of words. In addition, such a child’s handwriting is illegible, and the size of the letters constantly changes from small to large, not only in one sentence, but also in one word. The writing speed is very slow. Often, children with dysgraphia are given poor grades due to mistakes and poor handwriting, which greatly affects the child’s academic performance and self-esteem. That is why it is very important to promptly identify a violation of written speech in a child, find out the cause of the deviation in order to undergo a course of correction.

Practicing articulation

It is also necessary to work with preschoolers on the articulation of those phonemes that are most difficult for them. At the same time, it is necessary to prevent the possible replacement of sounds with similar phonetics. To do this, it is necessary to develop in children a figurative perception of the speech of other people. If kids swap syllables or skip them, this indicates that they have the prerequisites for developing dysgraphia in the future.

Already in kindergarten, a speech therapist must carefully examine children’s free speech. Correction helps create clear stereotypes of how words should be pronounced. This allows the child to master not only oral, but also written language.

The teacher can shape the child’s ability to think figuratively and spatially. After remedial work has been completed, children are tested again to determine their current level of language development.

When preparing children for school, you need to choose the right teaching methods. The most effective method of working with didactic games. This is one of the main ways to have a learning impact on children. After all, play remains the main type of activity of a preschooler at this age.

Diagnosis of dysgraphia

Only a specialist who has previously diagnosed the disorder using special studies can prescribe an appropriate course for dysgraphia correction. In addition, consultation with specialists such as a neurologist and speech therapist is necessary to make a diagnosis.

The examination of the patient includes several stages, the first of which is to assess the condition of the central nervous system, vision, and hearing of the patient. Then specialists analyze the child’s articulation and motor skills. Important stages include assessing sound pronunciation, vocabulary, and literacy level. A writing assessment is then required, with experts taking into account whether the patient is right-handed or left-handed.

For the purpose of research, the child will be asked to write down words under dictation, rewrite capital and printed letters, and perform special exercises. After analyzing the information obtained during the study, the speech therapist makes a diagnosis and gives the necessary recommendations on how to correct written speech disorders, if any.

Teaching children to write without mistakes

1) Exercise “Proofreading”. For this exercise you need a book, boring and with a fairly large (not small) font. The student works every day for five (no more) minutes on the following task: crosses out the given letters in a continuous text. You need to start with one letter, for example, “a”. Then “o”, then the consonants with which there are problems, first they also need to be asked one at a time. After 5-6 days of such classes, we switch to two letters, one is crossed out, the other is underlined or circled. The letters should be “paired”, “similar” in the student’s mind. For example, as practice shows, most often difficulties arise with the pairs “p/t”, “p/r”, “m/l” (spelling similarity); “y/d”, “y/y”, “d/b” (in the latter case the child forgets whether the tail of the circle is pointing up or down), etc.

The pairs required for development can be established when viewing any text written by your child. After seeing the correction, ask what letter he wanted to write here. More often than not, everything is clear without explanation.

Attention! It’s better if the text is not read (that’s why the book needs to be boring). All attention must be concentrated on finding the given shape of a letter, one or two, and work only with them.

2) Exercise “Write out loud.” An extremely important and irreplaceable technique: everything that is written is spoken out loud by the writer at the time of writing and the way it is written, with underlining and highlighting weak parts.

That is, “Another O-din h-rez-you-cha-Y-but-important reception” (after all, in fact, we say something like “LOOKING FOR AN EMERGENCY IMPORTANT PREMIERE”). The example is simpler: “ON THE TABLE WAS A JUG WITH MILK” (a jug of malak melted on the steel).

By “weak beats” we mean sounds that, when pronounced in fluent speech, the speaker pays the least attention to. For vowel sounds, this is any unstressed position; for consonants, for example, a position at the end of a word, such as “zu*p”, or before a voiceless consonant, such as “lo*shka”. It is also important to clearly pronounce the end of the word, since for a dysgraphic person it is difficult to finish the word to the end, and often for this reason the habit of “putting sticks” is developed, i.e. add an indefinite number of squiggle sticks to the end of a word, which at a quick glance can be mistaken for letters. But the number of these squiggles and their quality do not correspond to the letters at the end of the word. It is important to determine whether your child has developed this habit. However, regardless of whether it exists or not, we get used to consistency and gradual pronunciation, we pronounce every word we write down!

3) “Take a closer look and figure it out” (punctuation for dysgraphics and not only).

Material for work - collections of dictations (with commas already added, and check that there are no typos).

Assignment: carefully reading, “photographing” the text, explain the placement of each punctuation mark out loud. It is better (for middle and older age) if the explanation sounds like this: “The comma between the adjective “clear” and the conjunction “and”, firstly, closes the participial phrase “...”, and secondly, separates the two parts of the complex sentence ( grammatical basics: the first “…”, the second “…”), connected by the conjunction “and”.

4) “Missing letters.”

When performing this exercise, it is suggested to use the hint text, where all the missing letters are in their places. The exercise develops attention and confidence in writing skills.

For example:

Of course, no matter what, what Lariosik __to the hall is going to eat. In no way __l__ch__e m__f__t b__t__ n__ st__ro__e Petliura in__el__ig__n__n__y ch__l__we__ in__ob__e, but d__en__lm__n, p__d__i__av__iy cheerful on s__m__es__t p__t you__ya__ and p__sy__a__shchi__ __el__g__a__we in __es__es __t tr__ s__ov__, in ch__st__o__ty... M__shi__nym small__lo__ and k__ro__i__om on__lu__sh__m about__az__m b__li s__aza__y and nay-tours Colt and Al__shin brau__ing .

5) Labyrinths.

Labyrinths are good for developing gross motor skills (movements of the hand and forearm), attention, and continuous line. Make sure your child changes the position of his hand, not the sheet of paper.

Dictations must be written!

1. Extremely slow!
2. The text is read in its entirety. You can ask what spelling/punctuation this text is based on. Most likely the child will refuse, will not be able to do this, so remember and lightly point out them yourself, find out whether the concepts of “unstressed vowels” and “participial/adverbial phrase” are known. Then the first sentence is dictated. Ask your child to name the number of commas in it and try to explain them. Do not insist, suggest, encourage the attempt to give the correct answer. Ask them to spell one or two difficult (or simply long) words. Only then (after reading it twice, or even three or four times).
3. The sentence is dictated in parts and written down with all the pronunciation features and punctuation marks spoken out loud.

Speech therapist Polya Yana Borisovna of the Center for Natural Development and Child Health

Methods for correcting dysgraphia

The method of correction depends on the severity of the child’s written language impairment. In addition, the method of treating the deviation is influenced by the degree of neglect, as well as the characteristics of the patient. Correction is a long and complex process that requires persistence on the part of teachers and parents, patience, endurance and a positive attitude of the patient. If you follow all the necessary recommendations, dysgraphia can be completely cured. It is better if the disorder is diagnosed at an earlier age, since the course of correction for older schoolchildren is longer due to the presence in most cases of additional speech and writing disorders. In this case, the time required for rehabilitation will take more. There is also a high risk that the violation cannot be eliminated completely.

It is impossible to get rid of dysgraphia on your own. This process requires the participation of many highly specialized specialists, for example, a psychologist, a neuropsychologist. However, the main work falls on the speech therapist, who will have to select a rehabilitation program appropriate to the severity of the disease and the individual characteristics of the patient. The specialist individually selects the necessary sound pronunciation exercises. Classes are aimed at improving motor skills, developing the patient’s lexical and grammatical structure, as well as improving phonemic speech recognition.

Methods for correcting dysgraphia, which are among the most effective:

• Exercises through which the patient learns to correctly understand sounds, words, and letters.
• Tasks aimed at training memory, improving thinking, and developing perception.
• Exercises necessary for the patient to learn to correctly recognize letters that are similar in appearance.
• Proper production of sounds, work on speech automation.
• Educational games to improve sound analysis.

In some cases, specialists include drug treatment, physiotherapy, massage, and exercise therapy in the rehabilitation course. This often applies to patients whose dysgraphia was caused by organic causes. It is important to know that drug treatment should be prescribed exclusively by a qualified specialist.

Speech therapy correction

Auditory differentiation of sounds is what needs to be achieved initially when treating dysgraphia. If a child cannot distinguish sounds, then further exercises will not be effective. The rehabilitation period is determined individually and depends on many factors. Classes with a speech therapist are possible both in a group with other children and individually. It depends on the wishes of the child and his parents.

During classes, the speech therapist gives the child verbal and visual exercises, as well as practical lessons, during which correctional work takes place.

Exercises you can do at home

Since it is impossible to get rid of dysgraphia on your own, experts, in addition to basic classes, recommend doing additional exercises at home to consolidate the results obtained with a speech therapist.

Exercises that can be done at home should also be agreed upon with a speech therapist. It is important that parents supervise the technique and regularity of classes. The simplest but most effective exercises that you can do at home with your parents include:

1. Labyrinth. The child draws a line on a piece of paper, moving only his hand. You cannot make breaks or change the position of the sheet.
2. Search for objects or pictures. The child searches for and paints the objects found.
3. Exercises aimed at developing attention. The child must read the text and look for missing letters or words, writing them in the right places.
4. Improved articulation. The child learns songs, rhymes, and tongue twisters.
5. Logorhythmics.

To get a positive result as quickly as possible, home exercises should be performed regularly. This will significantly shorten the rehabilitation period.

Formation of articulatory and acoustic dysgraphia

To eliminate factors that contribute to articulatory and acoustic types of dysgraphia, you need to follow these tips.

In the process of developing the differentiation of sound pairs by ear, the most important thing is that the child can emphasize the differences between the sounds in question. He must make sure that he hears two different sounds, not just one.

Since the child is not able to distinguish sounds by ear, hearing in this system becomes a very weak link. Therefore, you need to rely on something stronger - for example, vision. After all, any sound pair differs not only in how it sounds, but also in how the articulatory organs are located during the pronunciation of sounds.

Since these organs have different positions, this results in different sounds. Therefore, it is necessary to initially draw children’s attention to how the organs of articulation are positioned when pronouncing each sound.

The next task is to very clearly emphasize the difference that exists in the sound of different sounds. To do this, you can first identify these sounds with those that often sound in nature. The teacher should pronounce natural sounds for a long time and exaggeratedly.

You can also describe the differences verbally. For example, if a child does not distinguish between the sounds Zh and Z (Sh and S) by ear, then a sonorous letter can be identified with ringing, a buzzing letter with a buzzing sound, and a dull letter with a rustling or whistling sound. Sometimes the child is helped by funny phrases that demonstrate exactly how certain sounds sound.

Then you can play “bug and mosquito” with the children. The mouth needs to be covered with a screen so that the child cannot visually perceive what you say through your lips. The teacher buzzes or squeaks. And the child must determine which insect is “sounding” now.

The same applies to other sound pairs.

After the differences in the sounds of these pairs have been explained and demonstrated to the child many times, the remaining pairs will be much easier for him to assimilate, because the ear has already tuned in to the process of differentiation.

Then you need to move on to distinguishing speech sounds, which is more accessible and understandable for children.

But teaching children to differentiate by ear only sounds pronounced in isolation is not enough. It is imperative to teach the child to feel the different sounds that make up a word. This will be useful to him both in oral statements and in writing.

Then you need to conduct didactic games to develop in children the ability to accurately identify any mixed sounds in a verbal composition.

Forecast, preventive measures

The prognosis for the treatment of dysgraphia depends on a number of factors: the timeliness of the measures taken, the severity of the deviation, its form, the reasons that provoked the formation of the written speech disorder, as well as the individual characteristics of the patient. Only through the well-coordinated work of specialists, the patience and perseverance of parents, as well as the positive attitude of the child, can a positive result be obtained in the end. The problem associated with impaired written speech can be completely corrected in more than 80% of cases.

Parents of a child who has been diagnosed with dysgraphia should be aware that the lack of a timely response can lead in the future to:

• Poor academic performance, which is fraught with intellectual retardation in the development of the child.
• The appearance of suspiciousness and anxiety.
• The emergence of problems with peers.

In addition, an advanced form of dysgraphia is the cause of a child’s deviant behavior and low self-esteem.

For a child with an advanced form of dysgraphia, the need to write something will always cause discomfort. This leads not only to poor academic performance, but also to a complete lack of desire to learn and master new material.

Prevention of dysgraphia

Experts cannot name the exact causes of dysgraphia. In addition, it is believed that such a violation of written speech cannot be prevented. However, there are known risk groups whose representatives more often suffer from the presence of such a deviation. This:

• Bilingual children;
• Patients with mental retardation
• Children who were retrained to write with their right hand
• Hyperactive children
• Children who started learning too early

Prevention measures include training memory and attentiveness, increasing vocabulary. It is important to know that if a child constantly makes the same mistakes when writing words, there is no need to postpone visiting a speech therapist until later. If a child has a written speech disorder, the sooner correctional work is started, the faster and easier it will be to get rid of the problem, which is fraught with serious consequences for the child in the future.

How to find out if a child has disorders?

Diagnosis of dysgraphia is carried out on the basis of the conclusions of a speech therapist, neurologist, ophthalmologist, and otolaryngologist. The child is asked to write a short dictation, rewrite text from a book, describe a picture, or read. The specialist evaluates the nature of the errors and, based on age, determines or does not determine the disorder.

Before 8–9 years of age the diagnosis is not made. From 6 to 8 years old, a student only masters writing skills and learns the rules. However, the prerequisites for dysgraphia can be visible much earlier, even in preschool age. Timely prevention helps prevent future violations.