Prevention of Speech and Language Disorders in Preschool Children

Abstract

Article „Prevention of Speech and Language Disorders in Preschool Children” is devoted to reveal content and directions of the work with preschool children in the so called group of risk. Speech and language pathologists are working with children in Latvia mostly starting at the age of 5, but sometimes time is lost and specic problems are present. There are specialists of early intervention but their activities are not obligatory and mostly they are available in private kindergartens or in developmental centres. It is necessary to speak about prevention because this issue is as a topic in many countries in Europe and in the whole world, but there are no many countries where it is determined by legal acts. Speech and language pathologists are speaking about three levels of prevention: primary, secondary and tertiary, where each level has its main goals and objectives. When speaking about preschool children at the age of three, mostly it is the primary prevention which should be organized and carried out. There are statements about the categories of children which are included in the so called group of risk and what are duties of preschool teachers to help speech and language pathologist to think about children and to carry out some specic activities such as articulation exercises, breathing and blowing exercises, exercises to activate movements of ngers and tasks to promote phonological awareness. Physical impairments such as cleft lip, cleft palate and tongue-tie are not described in this context because in this case intensive speech therapy is needed. The aim of the study is to give a theoretical framework of content and tasks of prevention of speech and language disorders in preschool children. Methods include an analysis of theoretical literature. Although many articulation errors are developmental in nature, some are related to phonological processing disorders. Children with these disorders are at a very high risk for later learning disabilities (problems in reading and writing) and therefore should be taken into account and treated as early as possible.