Pakistan Journal of Special Education (PJSE) Vol. 8, 2007
© Department of Special Education, University of Karachi
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Zohra Begum, Ph. D., Assistant Professor, Department of Special Education, University of Karachi
ABSTRACT:
The Study has been designed to investigate the speech and language problems in general school’s children. The target population was general school’s teachers. A questionnaire was used as the instrument of the study. The general school children have many speech and language problems but they are ignored or the teacher does not have clear idea about the nature of the problems. School management did not coordinate with speech language therapy centers for assessment and remediation of the problems. Consequently, these problems become more serious when the child grows older. Among the speech disorders such as stuttering and pronunciations problems are noticed as general speech problems. The major reason for such problems is the lack of knowledge about the nature of the problems and its remediation techniques. The general school management should coordinate with speech therapists and must provide guidance to their teachers.
INTRODUCTION:
Speech and language are the basic tools of communication and play a very important role in the education. In curriculum content at any stage of child’s education, speech and language skills have high importance and a teacher is the key source for developing effective communication skills in children.
Children found in general school may seem to be normal yet there are children who are obviously experience some problems in learning speech and language skills at school. According to crystal (1984) around 10% of all pre-school and school age children have speech and language problems. Another research reports that as many as 5% of children with speech and language problems are often in danger of being overlook if their particular difficulty is not understood. As the result, these children face many complex problems later in their life Weiss and Lilly white (1981) suggested that if these children are not given help at appropriate time, the over all effect may be that their communication skills may be late, incorrectly or not at all.
It is generally observed that in most of the general school children having speech and language problems are often neglected because even their teachers do not have clear idea about the nature of the problems, not only the school managements and teacher do not take interest in remediation of speech and language defective children but most of the parents also ignore the child’s problem. They usually think that the child’s speech/language problem is temporary and it will be overcome as the child will grow older, but these problems become more serious when the child grows older.
By realizing the need this study is designed to focus on speech/ language problem in general school children. This paper will highlight the basic problems of speech and language in general school children.
Speech is the behavior of forming and sequencing the sounds of oral language. It is the most common symbol used in human communication. Speech disorder is an impairment of voice, articulation of speech sound and fluency. Children in general school may suffer various speech disorders. These disorders may be observed in the transmission and use of oral symbol system and can be classified as follows:
· Voice disorders
· Articulation disorders
· Fluency disorders
VOICE DISORDER:
A person’s voice quality, pitch or loudness differ from these of other persons of similar age, sex, cultural background, or geographical location:
- Use of inappropriate pitch: Monotonous or stereotype speech or loudness i.e. too soft or too weak voice.
- Under satisfactory voice quality: Many terms have been used to describe various deviations from normal vocal quality, i.e. rough, harsh, breathy, hoarse and nasal etc.
- Loss of Voice: It involves a dysfunction within the larynx.
- Disorder of Resonance: It is dysfunction of oral or nasal air passageways.
- Articulation Disorder: Articulation refers to the movement of the articulators (tongue, Lips & soft Palate). Articulation disorders refer to the problems if the individual cannot or does not understand how to articulate produce the speech and sound.
Type of Articulation Disorder:
Omission: In this problem only part of the words are pronounced. At the initial position of the word and the child pronounce “ i.e.” for “tie”.
Addition: When an extra sound is inserted into a word for example saying “corp” instead of ‘Cup’.
Substitution: Replace one speech sound (Phoneme), word, Phrase, or clause with another.
These problems are commonly observed in general school children in verbal communication.
Distortion: Producing a speech sound in a substandard manner.
Fluency Disorder: Speech can be described as the flow, or rhythm of speech. These disorders can be defined as disturbances in normal flow or rhythm of speech.
Types of Fluency Disorder:
· Stuttering
· Cluttering
Stuttering: It is characterized by repetition of word symbols and dysfluent block at the start of the words, symbols or sentence.
Cluttering: Very rapid, often unintelligible speech characterized by omission of speech sounds or entire word.
AIM OF THE STUDY:
The basic aim of the study is to investigate the general speech language problems in general school children and to explore knowledge of general school teacher about speech language disorder.
METHOD:
Sample:
The universe of the study includes 10 general schools from different areas of Karachi city. A sample of 50 general school teachers (language teachers) was selected. Purposive sampling method was used for selecting the sample.
INSTRUMENT / APPROACHES:
A structured questionnaire was developed as the instrument of the study. The questionnaire covered the areas such as characteristics of respondents, concept of speech/ language problems, speech problems in school children and coordination to speech language centers.
DATA ANALYSIS:
After collecting data, it was tabulated and analyzed by percentage method.
TABLE 1
Age Group of the Sample
| Description | Frequency | Percentage |
| 20-25 years | 5 | 10 |
| 26-30 years | 20 | 40 |
| 31-35 years | 15 | 30 |
| 36 and above years | 10 | 20 |
Table 1 shows the age group of the respondents. The highest number of teachers i.e. 20 (40 %) ranges in the age group by 26-30 years. A small number falls in age group of 20-25 years (10%) whereas other 15 (30%) and 10 (20%) age range (31-35) (36 and above) years respectively.
TABLE 2
Educational Level of the Respondents
| Description | Frequency | Percentage |
| Inter | 5 | 10 |
| Graduation | 30 | 60 |
| Master | 15 | 30 |
Table 2 indicates the educational level of the teachers. Majority of respondents were graduate 30 (60%), whereas 5 (10 %) and 15 (30%) had intermediate and master respectively.
TABLE 3
Work Experience
| Description | Frequency | Percentage |
| 0-1 Year | 4 | 8 |
| 2-3 Year | 16 | 32 |
| 4-5 Year | 20 | 40 |
| 6 and above | 10 | 20 |
Table 3 indicates that majority of teachers have work experience in between 4-5 Years (40%). The other higher group has work experience of 2-3 Years. (32%). Whereas other respondents have experience of 0-1 Years (8%) and 6 and above Years (20%) respectively.
TABLE 4
Concept of Speech/ Language Disorder
| Description | Frequency | Percentage |
| Correct | 10 | 20 |
| Partially correct | 15 | 30 |
| Incorrect | 25 | 50 |
Table 4 indicates that most of the respondents do not have clear understanding about speech/Language disorders25 (50%). A small group of teacher has clear concept about the speech disorder (20%). Whereas some of them have partially understanding about the problems (30%).
TABLE 5
Nature of Speech / Language Disorders
| Description | Frequency | Percentage |
| Articulation | 25 | 50 |
| Fluency | 10 | 20 |
| Semantics | 15 | 30 |
Table 5 describes the nature of speech/language disorders. Majority of respondents reported articulation disorders in children (50%). Some children have fluency disorder (10%). Whereas (30%) of them have problems in semantics.
TABLE 6
Coordination to Speech / Language Centers
| Description | Frequency | Percentage |
| Yes | 10 | 20 |
| No | 40 | 80 |
Table 6 indicates that a small number of respondents coordinate to speech/language center (20%) A higher number of respondents do not coordinate with speech/ language center to remediate the problems (40%).
CONCLUSION:
The study was designed to focus on general speech / language problems in normal school children. The information collected by teachers indicate that most of them have partially correct concept about speech / language problems.
It is concluded that speech disorders (Pronunciations) are noticed by the teachers as language disorders among the speech disorder such as “Stuttering” and pronunciations problems are noticed as general speech disorder.
Information about the concept/ understanding of articulation disorder, fluency and voice disorder indicate that only few teachers have clear concept. A variety of incorrect responses obtained for articulation disorder. Whereas most of the teacher considered fluency disorder. As “broken speech. It is also noticed that language skills are not taught in proper manner. Even the majority of the teachers do not have any knowledge about the assessment of speech and language problems. In general schools the speech/ language problem are not only common in children but also there are some children who face problems in acquiring or learning the language rules (form, content use) children with language disorders also have problems in learning language skill i.e. reading and writing. Semantics (word meaning) problems are observed in children who use or understand a little number of words. This limited vocabulary found in specific areas such as adjectives, adverbs, preposition or pronunciations. The major reason for such problems is lack of knowledge about the nature of the problems and its remediation technique.
RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTIONS:
- Basic Knowledge about normal speech/ language development and components of language should be provided to normal school teachers.
- With the collaboration of speech language pathologists a comprehensive teachers training program should be conducted for school teachers.
- There should be coordination between general schools and speech therapy centre on regular basis so that the children who seek speech language problems should be refers to these centers.
- In schools extra classes should be arranged for speech/ language disorder children.
- General schools should organize guidance and counseling programs to guide the parents how they can use remedial strategies for child’s speech/ language disorder at home.
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