We continue with this fascinating world of Dyslalias , this language disorder so present in our children. Before going into detail about the types of dyslalias, we would like to clarify a type of developmental dyslalia that is very common at this stage of language acquisition and that is clearly distinguished from the types of dyslalias that represent a disorder and require specialized treatment.

Developmental infantile dyslalia is what occurs in the phase of child language development , in which the child is not able to repeat by imitation the words he hears and does so incorrectly from a phonetic point of view. It has several phases within the child's language development and finally ends when the child learns to pronounce all phonemes correctly. It is characterized by certain difficulties in the child's language acquisition within the stages of development. These difficulties are usually overcome before four or five years of age. If this does not happen, it is likely that there is another cause that produces the dyslalia rather than a simple delay and we are faced with one of the following dyslalias.

Childhood Dyslalia as a language disorder presents very varied types among which we distinguish: functional, organic and audiogenic dyslalias.

1. Functional dyslalia: It differs from the rest of the types of dyslalia because the child shows a functional disability, without being able to explain the alterations shown in speech due to some organic cause. This alteration can affect auditory discrimination , which involves an alteration in the perception of phonemes (phonological disorder or phonological dyslalia); or motor coordination , which represents a problem in production (phonetic disorder or phonetic dyslalia).

It is the most common and is characterized by poor functioning of the articulatory organs. The child does not know or incorrectly performs the point and mode of articulation of the phoneme. He does not know how to vibrate his tongue to pronounce the RR correctly, and he usually replaces S with Z , or R with D because he is not able to make his tongue vibrate.

2. Organic dyslalia: causes the child to have difficulties articulating certain phonemes due to organic problems. It occurs in children when they present alterations in the brain neurons , when they have some malformation or anomalies in the organs of the speech apparatus . This type of dyslalia causes a difficulty in language, which focuses on specific phonemes .

3. Audiogenic dyslalia: it is characterized by difficulties caused by hearing problems . The child feels unable to pronounce the phonemes correctly because he or she does not hear well. In some cases, it is necessary for children to use prostheses.

Dyslalia is a language disorder that is relatively easily diagnosed in a child. When a child over 4 years old mispronounces words, not achieving correct articulation of the syllables, the child's family and educational environment easily notices it.

At first, many will try to help you, correcting your speech. However, without targeted and specialized treatment, it is very difficult to solve the problem at home. Childhood dyslalia is usually detected in the child's first years, and although it is not serious, it is advisable to correct it as soon as possible, to avoid behavioral and behavioral problems in children.

An early diagnosis of this difficulty in the child's speech is extremely important because, very often, other children laugh at the defect in articulation or pronunciation, and imitate, in a ridiculous and mocking way, the way of speaking of the child with dyslalias.

This can aggravate the child's problem, causing personality disorders, insecurity, low self-esteem , communication problems with their environment, and other difficulties that can alter their school learning .

Cristina Oroz Bajo