Speech therapy for young children at risk for speech underdevelopment

Abstract

The relevance of the article is due to the need to create special conditions for the speech and mental development of children at risk for General speech underdevelopment at an early age. The age from 1 to 3 years is sensitive for speech development, however, a large percentage of children do not attend preschool educational organizations, so they do not receive continuous speech therapy, which makes it necessary to organize and determine the content of targeted complex psychological and pedagogical work. The purpose of this study is to develop, test and evaluate the effectiveness of speech therapy programs for the prevention of General speech underdevelopment in children at risk of 2-3 years. To conduct an empirical study, a method was developed that allows diagnosing the level of cognitive, motor and speech development of young children. The study involved 60 children aged 2-3 years who attended short-term groups of preschool educational institutions. In the course of the ascertaining experiment, 15 children (25%) with a low level of speech development were identified, which we classified as children at risk for ONR. The organization of complex work based on the method of sensory-integrative Logotherapy with children at risk for ONR at the age of 2-3 years allowed us to track the effectiveness of the approved speech therapy program. There were significant changes in the level of their cognitive development (p ≤ 0.02), motor development (p ≤ 0.02) and speech development (p ≤ 0.001). The research materials can be used in the preparation of bachelors and masters studying in the field of defectology, as well as for practicing specialists of psychological and pedagogical support in the organization and provision of correctional and developmental work with this category of children with disabilities in the conditions of short-term stay groups.