MICRO-ANOMALOUS DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN WITH GENERAL UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF SPEECH

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the prevalence of minor developmental abnormalities among children with general underdevelopment of speech compared to their healthy peers. Material and methods: 126 children with the general underdevelopment of speech at the age of 5-7 years and 130 children of the same sex and age without speech impairment were visually estimated on the presence of dysontogenetic stigma signs in the area of the face, head, torso, extremities. Results of the research have established that at children with the general underdevelopment of speech frequency of minor abnormalities of development significantly surpasses such at children of control group, it concerns bodies areas and systems of various localization. The average number of development abnormalities per a child in the experimental group is twice as high as the control values. For children with speech disorders, the most typical are such stigma of dysontogenesis as disturbed occlusion, irregular tooth shape, auricles deformation, narrow high palate, short curved little finger, sandal shaped slot, focal changes in skin pigmentation. Three categories of dysplasia are particularly characteristic: 1) the face area (oral cavity), 2) the distal parts of the extremities (hands and feet), 3) melanin distribution disorder (pigment spots on the skin and uneven irises coloring). Children with general underdevelopment of speech differ from healthy peers also in the unequal development of signs on both sides of the body. Thus, asymmetry of the skull, face, auricles, chest, feet and uneven irises coloring are 2 to 4 times more common in children with speech disorders than in healthy peers. The established facts of excess of frequency of occurrence of minor development abnormalities in children with general underdevelopment of speech in comparison with normally developing peers can indirectly testify to the presence of psychophysical dysontogenesis manifested as asynchrony, more exactly retardation of maturing of the speech functional system.