What are the three main attributes of speech? What factors may be related to children's unclear speech?

Author: Ma Lian, chief physician at Peking University Stomatological Hospital

Reviewer: Wang Lixiang, Chief Physician, Third Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

The 10th Chairman of the Science Popularization Branch of the Chinese Medical Association

Speech is essentially a sound, which is a sound wave emitted by humans through their mouth, nose and other vocal organs to convey information, express emotions and conduct social interactions. Speech is the basis of language. Without speech, verbal expression of language cannot be achieved.

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1. How do humans make speech?

The production of speech consists of three main parts.

First of all, there must be energy. When speaking, the airflow exhaled from the lungs becomes the power source of pronunciation. After the lungs inhale air, there must be an output pipe, which is the trachea. When the airflow passes through the trachea through the throat, the vocal cords close and open, causing the vocal cords to vibrate. The vibration is transmitted to the pharynx and nasal cavity, and finally passes through the oral cavity, causing the air to vibrate and produce sound. In other words, the oral cavity, nasal cavity, and pharynx finally shape and shape the sound.

The sound produced by the vibration of the vocal cords resonates through the oral cavity, nasal cavity and other pronunciation organs. Different cavities have different resonance peaks, so different timbres and tones are formed. The tongue, lips, teeth and other pronunciation organs cooperate with each other to adjust the sound, forming different phonemes and syllables, which in turn cause various different sounds.

The tongue is the largest and most flexible articulator in the oral cavity, along with the upper palate, teeth, and mandible. These articulators play a very important role in articulation. If there is a problem with the articulatory organs, the pronunciation will be unclear and the speech will be unclear.

2. Voice has three major attributes

The first is social attributes. Voice is part of language and has clear social meanings. Different voice combinations can express rich semantic content. Voice is meaningful, but it requires a certain social environment. For example, when people from different countries do not speak the same language, the voice they produce is meaningless to you. It has social attributes.

The second is physiological properties. The production of speech is closely related to the physiological structure of the vocal organs. The differences in vocal organs of different people lead to individual differences in speech, that is, the physiological and anatomical structure determines speech.

The third is physical properties. Speech has four basic physical properties: pitch, intensity, duration, and timbre. Pitch determines the height of the sound, intensity determines the strength of the sound, duration determines the length of the sound, and timbre is the characteristic of the sound. After the sound is emitted, it must propagate in the air and be received through the vibration of the eardrum. If it is in a vacuum, without a transmission medium, and without physical properties, it is impossible to complete the communication chain.

3. What factors are related to children’s unclear speech?

Children's unclear speech may be related to these factors.

The first is the abnormality of the articulatory organs. Any abnormality in the articulatory organs may affect the child's pronunciation ability. For example, the most important pronunciation organ in the mouth is the tongue. Some children are born without a tongue or with a small tongue; some are born with cleft palate and poor development of oral muscles, which may cause children to speak unclearly. Of course, in the process of language development, unclear speech may be transient. If there are still problems with pronunciation at the age of seven or eight, the most common cause is that the tonsils are too large and there is not enough space in the pharynx.

There is a close relationship between IQ and language ability. If the intelligence is not good, there will be problems with communication, because only through communication can one learn a language. If there is a problem with intelligence, there is no way to talk about speech. He does not know how to use speech to express his language. There may be no problem with the structure of the articulatory organs, but he does not know what the word means, so the speech will not be clear due to low intelligence. Therefore, when a child speaks unclearly, parents should also consider whether there are intellectual factors and consult a professional doctor for evaluation in a timely manner.

Hearing is the basis of language learning. Children with hearing impairments cannot accurately receive external sound information, so they naturally cannot effectively imitate and learn language. In a silent world, children cannot hear other people's voices, so they cannot learn to speak. Therefore, hearing impairment is also one of the important reasons why children cannot speak clearly.

The language environment is also a very important factor. If children in the critical period of language development are exposed to multiple languages ​​for a long time, such as dialects and Mandarin, it is easy to confuse their memory and lead to unclear speech. In addition, the parent's education method and the frequency of communication with the child will also have an impact on the child's language development.

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When parents try to induce their children to pronounce, first of all, one person should communicate with the child, and avoid multiple people talking or asking questions at the same time, so that the child does not have time to think. This is not advisable. Second, do not ask questions. For example, if you want to say a color, just say what color it is. If you want to induce the child to say a word, let him read it with you. This is the best way. Do not ask him. In addition, the most important thing is to let the child speak actively. Do not point to something and give it to him, and do not let the child speak.

If the child cannot explain clearly, do not force him. Just give him correct input, tell him stories, show him cards. Don't keep asking him what this is. In fact, he is practicing the wrong thing. Tell him that this is a big tree. It is important to give him correct input.

In addition, children should go to kindergarten early, at around two and a half years old. Children have their own language, and only with this environment can they communicate and interact with each other.