Child's slurred speech

Some parents find that their children speak unclearly and it is often difficult for others to understand what they are saying. It is normal for a one or two year old child to have unclear articulation, as children at this stage are still learning how to pronounce words. Children over three years old can pronounce most words accurately, but there may be a few individual words that are still not pronounced clearly. If a slightly older child has difficulty speaking clearly, he or she can go to the hospital for examination.

1. What causes children to have slurred speech?

Language is an interactive learning activity. Any language develops from simple to complex, from easy to difficult.

1. Generally speaking, children can call dad, mom or babbling before they are one year old.

2. Around two years old, although the pronunciation is not correct, the child can already say simple words and short sentences gradually appear, such as "go home" and "drink water".

3. At the age of three, children can pronounce most of the Chinese Pinyin sounds, with only a few sounds being pronounced incorrectly.

4. In addition, the learning of the four tones of Chinese also has a certain development process, and the practice of these four tones should be completed at around the age of two.

Based on the above analysis, if a child is still unable to speak simple short sentences at the age of three, and the pronunciation of the four tones is still maintained at the first tone stage, parents should be alert and check whether the child has hearing impairment or articulation problems, and help him develop correct language skills in a timely manner.

2. Generally speaking, children’s unclear speech can be analyzed from two aspects: one is “whether they can hear completely”; the other is “whether they can speak completely”.

A simple test can be done to determine whether a child’s hearing is normal: ask him two similar pronunciations. If the sounds are the same, he will nod, and if they are different, he will shake his head. For example, if you ask him to distinguish the pronunciations of "bed" and "boat", it will be easy to understand whether he can distinguish them clearly. If there is no problem with "listening", whether the child can pronounce words or not depends on the quality of his or her articulation ability. Articulation problems are related to the development of the sensory-motor functions of the brain. Because the sensory motor function controls the organs of pronunciation, including the movements of the chest, abdomen, vocal cords and the assistance of the lower jaw, and the coordination between the tongue, teeth and lips. If these parts are not coordinated correctly and are not flexible, the pronunciation will not be clear.

We found that all babies do not speak clearly when they start, but as they grow older, the pronunciation organs (mouth, teeth, tongue, and lips) controlled by the "sensory-motor function" become more and more flexible in coordinating with each other, and the pronunciation becomes clearer.

There is another situation. Some parents attribute the reason for their children's inability to speak or unclear speech to a short frenulum. In fact, after a period of training, the tongue of a child with a so-called macroglossia will become more flexible. It can be seen that their unclear speech is not due to a large tongue, but to poor ability to control the tongue. In fact, if a child is found to stick his tongue out from the outer edge of his lips, his tongue becomes heart-shaped, and the tip of his tongue is sunken, then it means that his frenulum is too short or too tight, which may affect the manipulation of the tongue. This phenomenon should be diagnosed by a doctor before deciding whether surgical treatment is needed.

Many people do not have a long tongue tie, but their pronunciation and articulation abilities are not bad. At the same time, not everyone who is talkative can speak well. This shows that if the frenulum of the tongue is not too short, surgery is not necessarily necessary. If there is poor pronunciation and unclear speech, it should be because the sensory motor ability of the brain is not mature enough, so that the pronunciation organs cannot be properly operated. The solution should also start from these aspects.