Techniques for Enhancing Language Development among Children with Articulation Disorders

The most important factor in enhancing language development among children who have articulation disorders is to create and maintain a positive classroom environment where children are encouraged to communicate and where any problems in communication are dealt with in a sensitive, caring manner. The classroom teacher should not embarrass the child who is having difficulty with a particular sound or draw the attention of the rest of the class to this child’s difficulty.

Children who do not have articulation difficulties will often notice when their peers’ speech exhibits articulation irregularities. Under no circumstances should children in the classroom be allowed to tease or make fun of a child who has articulation difficulties. A teacher can also explain to the class that some children are learning how to make specific sounds or explain that the child does not hear all of the sounds that others may hear. In large groups, activities with unison responses (e.g., reciting an action poem, song, or refrain from a predictable book) provide children with articulation problems an opportunity to participate verbally in a nonthreatening setting. Regardless of the activity, it is important for the classroom teacher and all of the children in the classroom to respond positively to the child’s attempts to communicate and to focus on the meaning of the communication rather than on the difficulties the child is having.

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I'm not certain if Thailand has law for disabled people but I know there are not many facilities and services provided for them here. There are no public transports, such as bus, taxi and train, designed for them to be accessible. It is difficult for them to go to shops or anywhere alone. I used to go to America. They treat disabled people very well and there are many more services provided for them than in Thailand, we can notice from the signs in public places. However, it doesn't mean Thailand has no services for them at all. We have some restroom and reserved parking area for wheelchair users in the mall or signs on the pathway for people who have sight problem. But I think these are not enough to eliminate 'Disability discrimination'. I don't blame the government on this. I know government tries to improve many things in Thailand. But when somebody points the problem that may be forgotten by government, they should find the solution. This is a relatively big problem in Thailand. Government should provide not only public services for disabled people but also make normal people in the society realize equal human rights. I know this cannot happen overnight, it needs time. Therefore, government should start to plan for it.

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Guillermo Wells, Venezuela
Because of my disability i had to abandon my country in which I used to live painfully ever since I was born 35 years ago. Venezuela is a country in where there's no education about this topic. Even though I could get into University and get my law degree as one of the best students, then had a master degree in Diplomacy, became a Diplomat and worked for the former President Rafael Caldera until Chavez and his partisans destroyed my life. I could even live alone in Europe for the past 4 years, traveled into Africa on my own; get along the way with plenty of challenges. Handicap is in your mind, that's what I know and everybody in this world should think that way. There are no limits to achieve a goal whatsoever. The only limit I find at all times is ignorance from people who do not want to make a simple effort. The only excuse is ''that would be expensive''. My question is: What do we work for in this planet that we belong to. I know the answer: We work just to make richer just a few human beings. I have learnt that by working for the International Law Commission of the United Nations in Geneva. Well, hopefully some parts of the world like Latin America won’t take longer than Europe in achieving a good level of understanding as Europe.

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Is it possible to repair cleft lips and cleft palates? The only way cleft lips can be repaired is trough plastic surgery. But repairing the lip is not an emergency operation. Babies can learn to eat quite satisfactorily with the cleft lip. In fact will usually be better for the baby's health if he is permitted to gain weight and get a good start before he undergoes an operation. Sometimes it is not possible for the surgeon to achieve the desired result with the first operation and he will recommend a second operation on the child's lip at a later time. The purpose of first operation is to bring together the separated parts of the lip in as good a relationship as possible. The objective of the secondary operation is to improve the appearance of the lip by correcting any unevenness which might remain after the first operation.

Parents are usually anxious to have the child's palate repaired as soon as possible. Actually it is better to give the child a chance to grow before closing the palate. In some cases the specialists may decide they can close the palate when the child is only a few months old. In other cases, they may decide to wait for a few years. Sometimes the specialists feel it would be difficult to obtain a satisfactory closure by surgery at any time. For this children? It is possible to remedy the cleft palate through dental procedures.

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M D Ryan - United Kingdom
Disabled people are often disadvantaged economically, so accessing services is only part of the answer. For laws on eliminating “disability” discrimination, resources have to be available to fund improvements and be implemented with a degree of commonsense. What’s the point spending so much money improving the infrastructure carte blanche; ramps to all banks, shops, etc., etc., and then deny a decent pension to enable people to live independently? Too much choice doesn’t always improve living standards. Less bureaucracy and tax incentives aimed at encouraging people to fend for themselves and families is perhaps more appropriate. It's important to remember people are disabled by the environment around them - not necessarily whatever their condition or impairment is. Better understanding from others around them, building design and other access means people aren't 'disabled' - they are enabled to use services like everyone else already can. A man got to the moon in 1969 - it will be 2020 before disabled people in Britain have legal access to all transport systems... why is this? Disabled people should be able to use shops, banks and schools. Disabled people should be able to do what they want when they want

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Provision for the young handicapped child. The importance of early special education is gaining recognition and specialists now consider that some educational help should be available from soon after birth in addition to medical and social support. It is possible for local education authorities to provide special education from the age of two. In recent years many authorities have been making arrangements for young children particularly those with impaired vision and hearing and with severe mental handicaps. The use of home visiting teachers is established in the field of handicap and is developing in the field of the severe mental handicap.

Teachers help parents to create a program of activities for their child and with other services provide support. Such a service ensures early attention to the child's special needs. Young handicapped children may also attend play groups and day nurseries supervisor by social services. In these situations they are associated with ordinary children.

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Lipreading.

A number of methods for the teaching of lip reading have been devised. When giving children lip reading practice, the teacher always speaks aloud. The teacher's articulation should be natural. She should face the light. The teacher will help her pupils to take full advantage of facial expressions, gestures, as well as interpreting what the lips "say". In order to prepare children to lip read in real-life situations where there will be background noise, the teacher introduces other sounds during lip reading practice.

Auditory training. This training systematically develops the child's discrimination of:

1. Gross sounds including environmental noises

2. Rhythm patterns of speech and music

3. Easy speech sounds in words - the vowels

4. Difficult sounds in words the consonants

5. Speech in noisy situations

Auditory training is the improving of a child's listening skills. The audiologist recommends a hearing aid for a particular child.

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What's all this about stem cells? America is trailing it, Barack Obama is about to endorse it, Scottish doctors think it could cure a form of blindness, and a toddler is going all the way to China for it. Over the last month, it's been hard to miss all the news stories about stem cell therapy. We know that therapies based on stem cells are likely to be extremely beneficial to all sorts of disabled people in the future, but where are we with it all right now? I think it's time for a bit of a recap...

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells - lacking qualities that make them different or unique - which are capable of developing into any of the 200 different types of cell in the human body. They are derived from embryos, from the umbilical cord or, with greater difficulty, from the scarce stem cells in adults or children.
Stem cells can be used to grow tissues for transplantation - for example, heart muscle or brain cells or liver cells. They can also be used as models for disease, which can then be used in research - meaning better knowledge or less reliance on animal experimentation. This has recently been achieved for spinal muscular atrophy.

People who have diseases or impairments which are caused by tissue damage or degeneration can potentially be helped by stem cell therapy. For example, people with diabetes, liver disease and Parkinson's, maybe even people with spinal cord injury.

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The system of modern special education appeared straight after the World War II, when the education became compulsory and many European countries started to take care about children with special educational needs. Mainstreaming or integration tends to be the guideline for all special establishments like residential and corresponding special schools. It means that children with SEN are not taken as non-educative children. They are offered the specific type of educational service which includes an adjusted curriculum, methods of instruction and special equipment.
In European countries special education goes along with the compulsory education.

In Denmark there are special residential schools for emotionally disturbed children, special schools for mentally retarded children. For other disabled children there are special schools within ordinary comprehensive schools.
In Norway all special and residential schools for children with SEN have been eliminated since 1990s. And now there are individual programs for disabled children which are being practiced within ordinary schools.
In France children with SEN are not segregated from normal children. They all study together in ordinary schools. Such classes are called "classes of school integration".

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Stuttering is a learned behavior which can appear under certain circumstances in individuals who are psychologically and emotionally normal. Stuttering varies from day to day, more boys than girls stutter. Stuttering tends to run in families but is probably not an inherited phenomenon. Three all these factors must be taken into consideration when we try to understand the nature of this complex disorder. The treatment of the child who stutters should be directly geared to the nature of the problem. Some of the things that can be done may be grouped under the general topic of speech adjustment techniques. The basic element here is to give the child the opportunity to enjoy oral communication. The most direct way to help the child enjoy talking is to accept and enjoy his communication. Many times parents and teachers have been told to ignore his stuttering. It is important to accept his way of talking.

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