Dyspraxia is a common learning disability affecting 5% to 7% of children aged 5 to 11. It affects the ability to perform certain gestures and voluntary actions. Affecting 1 to 2 out of every 1,000 children, verbal dyspraxia creates, more specifically, difficulties around speech. Let’s find out together how the speech therapist can gradually overcome the consequences of this disorder, through re-education.
Verbal dyspraxia: definition, causes and symptoms
While verbal dyspraxia focuses on speech-related difficulties, it does not mean that the child’s muscles are malfunctioning, or that they lack stimulation. This specific language development disorder results in a deficit in phonological and phonetic planning, as well as in the motor execution of speech.
In concrete terms, DYS children struggle to articulate sounds and words properly, despite their obvious efforts. He may have to pronounce the same word in different ways, a few minutes apart. For example, a boat is pronounced “dateau”, then “teau” or “pateau”. Learning seems to be a constant process.
A dyspraxic child is more likely to be able to pronounce one-syllable words such as “pot” or “hand”, whereas the combination of two syllables will be more difficult (“piment”), not to mention longer words that present a major challenge (“chocolat”).
Dyspraxia appears as early as the child’s first year, manifesting itself between 10 and 15 months of age as a lack of babbling, difficulties with breastfeeding, retching and a lot of drooling. Up to the age of 2, he still doesn’t say many words, imitates few sounds and noises and continues to drool. At pre-school and school age, as the child remains difficult to understand, he compensates with gestures and mimicry, while constantly trying to figure out how to place his mouth to form the word.
What influence does the speech therapist’s rehabilitation have?
Clinical observations tend to show that speech rehabilitation in dyspraxic children improves speech motor skills, even if progress is very slow. Speech therapists focus their sessions on:
- Motor control: voluntary, conscious and precise repetition of syllables and/or sequences of syllables. Intensive exercises improve neuromotor speech programs.
- Augmentative systems: like deaf children, we use gestures to support phonemes, such as pictographic aids.
- Melodies: the speech therapist plays sounds for the child to repeat. The professional exaggerates the tonic syllables and adapts the rhythm to the child’s skills.
- The use of written language: bringing stability to the verbal dyspraxic child, writing enables him to see the phoneme sequence, which he can’t find or loses all the time – helping to improve his pronunciation.
When faced with this learning difficulty, don ‘t hesitate to
contact a speech therapist
from the Ora-Visio platform to begin appropriate, personalized re-education to support your child’s language development!
