In this article, I will try to answer the most frequently asked questions by my clients about pronunciation (in layman's terms, inability to pronounce letters) problems.
Why Don't the Letters Appear?
There is no single reason for not being able to produce letters (phonemes, speech sounds) correctly or at all. In some cases, more than one cause occurs simultaneously. The important and often misunderstood point here is that this problem is usually not caused by adenoids, tongue tie, teeth or jaw structure. Adenoids are a very common problem and do not prevent the production of any sounds except 'm' and 'n' sounds. The sublingual ligament does not prevent the production of any sounds other than the 'r' sound, unless it is large enough to completely immobilize the tongue. If there is such a large tongue tie, it is necessary to worry about nutritional problems first. Defects in the tooth and jaw structure often cause air leaks, popularly known as lisp, rather than the inability to produce sounds. If the client has these problems and the problem is serious, your therapist will direct you to the necessary services before starting therapy. Even if sounds cannot be produced due to one of these three reasons, simply removing the tongue tie or adenoid or straightening the teeth or jaw will not enable sounds to be produced. How to produce the sounds in question still needs to be taught by a speech and language therapist.
Is Therapy Possible Before Starting School?
This question is for us, speech and language therapists. It has always seemed strange, but we encounter this question very often. The strange thing is that we hear that even health professionals and educators give these directions to our clients from time to time. After 'advice' in this direction, there is almost always a story about 'someone you know' or the person himself not being able to say the letters until they started school. Of course, in some cases this has some truth. We do not (and should not) immediately decide to give pronunciation therapy to every client. Children who can produce sounds spontaneously over time often have a delay in language development. In such a case, if there is a change in the child's language over time, with the support of the nursery or what the parents can do on their own, If improvement can be achieved with a few minor changes, speech and language therapy is not necessary. If the child needs language and speech therapy for language development, language therapy is started first. If some letters still cannot be produced at the end of this process (which is not the case in most cases), only then does pronunciation therapy begin.
Except for a situation like the one I mentioned above, if a few years have passed since the completion of language development of a child without additional disabilities and he still cannot produce letters (except 'r'), a speech and language therapy should be applied for without waiting for the start of school. If the child has an additional disability, language development should not be expected to be completed.
Is it okay if we chew gum?
So-called methods such as chewing gum, biting a pencil, making people lick their lips, giving a mouth massage (!), and blowing a balloon are not even remotely scientifically proven. It has nothing to do with it. Far from helping to pronounce the letters, it is a waste of time, money and enthusiasm. Behind such fallacies is the misconception that pronunciation problems are only related to the mouth. However, the truth is exactly the opposite. Just as the water shortage is rarely due to a broken tap in your home, pronunciation problems are rarely due to problems in mouth structure and movement. Therefore, just as you do not try to repair the tap at home when the water is cut off, you cannot assume that the mouth, which is only the apparent source of the letters, is "broken" when the letters cannot be spoken!
The structure of the tongue, lips, teeth and cheeks and their movements other than speech have a very limited effect on pronunciation. Pronunciation problems are mainly due to current or past hearing loss, problems in language development, cognitive and phonological disorders, auditory discrimination and motor speech disorders.
Can Adults' Pronunciation Problems Be Solved?
There is no difference between adults and children in this regard. The reason why you want to solve pronunciation problems before school is that it is much more beneficial to solve the problems that the child is likely to experience during school. Therefore, except for individuals with hearing impairment, an individual's age does not prevent them from producing letters correctly. Therapy times for children and adults are similar.
This � Is There No Book of the Job?
Unfortunately, pronunciation problems cannot be solved with a book. Of course, sounds that are relatively easy to produce and whose quality is relatively insignificant, such as B, M, P, V, F, can often be produced in isolation. Children generally do not have problems with these sounds. However, the problem is not only in the production of sounds. Even if you believe that you are producing a sound very well, this may not be the truth. For example, many people with a lisp are not even aware that they have a lisp. A trained ear and phonological training are required to detect correct and high-quality versions of sounds. Pronunciation therapy does not progress at the level of "put your tongue here, baby." Therefore, it cannot be carried out with online or book information.
An individual who has an auditory discrimination problem (not hearing loss) does not know where and how to produce the sound, but because he cannot distinguish the difference between sounds (for example, 's' and 'ş' may sound the same to his ear). ) cannot produce the correct sound.
An individual with a phonological disorder may change the type of one sound group to another. For example; He/she may try to make all sounds made with the back of the tongue, such as k, g, y, as t, d, l, with the tip of the tongue. The solution here is to teach using the back of the tongue and the concept of back sounds instead of producing these back sounds one by one.
Considering many situations like these, looking for alternative "solutions" to a pronunciation problem that only a speech and language therapist can solve easily and permanently in a short time with the right analysis and technique is a risk that the person must take responsibility for.
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