Functionality of oral and articulatory praxis in older preschool children with logopathology

Abstract

Background. The purpose of this study is to identify the current state of neuromotor functionality of oral and articulatory praxis, which affects speech readiness for schooling, in older preschool children with logopathology. Materials and methods. Research methods are aimed at studying the kinesthetic and kinetic oral and articulatory praxis. Kinesthetic oral praxis is studied during the diagnosis of static articulatory motility. Kinetic praxis was evaluated when investigating dynamic articulatory switching from one movement to another. The study of kinesthetic articulatory praxis takes place during the diagnosis of sound speech. To evaluate the results of the task, all sounds are conditionally divided into groups: whistling, hissing, sonorous, iotated sound combinations and all other sounds. To study the kinetic articulatory praxis, we investigated the sound-syllabic structure of the word. Results. The results of the experimental study give a clear idea that there are significant differences in the formation of neuromotor functionality of oral and articulatory praxis between the groups of children with logopathology and those with normotypical psychophysical development. In older preschool children with speech disorders, low abilities were found when performing tasks of kinesthetic and kinetic praxis: oral (problematic switching of the articulators; long search for an articulatory posture, incomplete range of motion, deviation from configurations, presence of synkinesis, hyperkinesis), articulatory (defect of all sounds of groups; replacement, mixing, distortion or absence of individual sounds during their isolated pronunciation; distortion of the sound-syllabic structure of words). Children are passive during classes, they need constant support from the teacher. Conclusion. The revealed unformed state of neuromotor functionality of oral and articulatory praxis in older preschool children with speech disorders affects the development of their speech skills. This will lead to the difficulties during their mastery of educational material in institutions of general secondary education.

Keywords

• children of older preschool age
• kinesthetic
• kinetic praxis
• oral praxis
• articulatory praxis
• logopathology