A child with cerebral palsy who has a language disorder will not be able to communicate normally and will have a psychological impact on the child. Therefore, when rehabilitating children with cerebral palsy, it is important to grasp the language training, that is, the language rehabilitation training for children with cerebral palsy. In this regard, how to conduct language rehabilitation training for children with cerebral palsy?
I. Control the abnormal movement of the whole body
Children with cerebral palsy have abnormal muscle tone, so it is difficult to control their body movements and postures. For example, when they start to practice pronunciation, they often have abnormal facial expressions or even twitch their whole body, which may affect their breathing and pronunciation, making their voice short and blurred. Children with low tone cerebral palsy tend to keep their heads down and bend their backs, so their mouths cannot be fully opened and their thoracic cavities are compressed, which makes it difficult to talk about pronunciation skills. Therefore, effective control of the whole body of children with cerebral palsy is the prerequisite and foundation of language training.
In order to effectively control the abnormal posture, we must start training from the large motor muscles such as head, neck and shoulder, and gradually transition to the fine motor muscles such as jaw, mouth, lips and tongue. Before training, it is necessary to eliminate the psychological anxiety of children with cerebral palsy, especially children with strong muscle tone cerebral palsy, otherwise the effect will not be obvious.
Training of articulatory organs
Due to the abnormal oral muscle tone and abnormal body movements, children with cerebral palsy cannot control their phonatory organs, lips and tongue flexibly, which seriously affects their vocalization. The training of oral movements should start with the feeding function, using the eating method to train children with cerebral palsy to suck, chew and swallow correctly, thus increasing the control of the jaw, mouth, lips and tongue. The specific methods are as follows:
l. Breathing training: blowing feathers, blowing windmills, blowing toy horns, blowing whistles, blowing balloons, etc. Practice the apparatus from small to large, from light to heavy.
2, tongue training: the use of children like to eat lollipops, ice cream, etc., let them eat with their tongues, which can train the tongue flexible stretching, increase the facial muscles and tongue motor function. At the same time, teachers can also make up some tongue gymnastics, as a way to train students.
3, sucking training: first use a short thick tube to suck in the cup and is the child’s favorite drink, the students can easily suck; then use a long thin tube to suck the drink in the bottle, so that the training gradually increase the difficulty. Using this method can quickly make the students’ breathing ability to strengthen.
4, chewing training: chewing action requires the participation of all the organs of the oral cavity, which is the most primitive and effective way to train the organs of sound composition. This is the most primitive and effective way to train the phonetic organs. You can give students difficult food to chew for practice, such as sweet potato fries, etc.
Pronunciation training
The traditional method of practicing vowels and rhymes and then words and sentences should be abandoned when training occurs.
When training, you need to have the correct posture, provide normal muscle tone, and make your breathing deep and slow. The child should first practice with games or singing to relax the nerves and adjust the muscle tone to the best state. It is best to start with onomatopoeia because it is fun and easy to pronounce. Choose the most common sounds in the environment to practice, such as the sound of a car or a barking dog, and then gradually practice words, phrases and sentences. When practicing sentences, it is best to choose children’s songs with simple lyrics, so that they can sing and practice in a joyful atmosphere.
Fourth, language communication training
The ultimate goal of language learning is to communicate, and improving the ability of children with cerebral palsy to use language to communicate is the most important and complicated part of language training. It requires a lot of preparations and joint efforts between school and family, and we should give full play to the important role of family in language training for children with cerebral palsy. The family is the environment in which the child with cerebral palsy lives and is the best place for language practice. All members of the family can participate in the training process, not only can they be taught individually on a one-to-one basis, but they are not limited by time and space. However, schools need to give parents the necessary guidance on how to do this:
1. Cognition
The cognitive ability of children with cerebral palsy is necessary for language development, but most children with cerebral palsy have varying degrees of visual, auditory, and tactile impairments, which can hinder various learning. This is the prerequisite for children with cerebral palsy to use language to communicate.
2. Increase the amount of speech and activities
Don’t lose confidence because they don’t speak correctly, and take every opportunity to talk to them whether they understand or not. When playing games, do breathing training and vocal training together with the child, so as to teach and entertain the child and arouse his interest in training.
3. Encourage children with cerebral palsy to vocalize
When they vocalize, talk to them immediately and respond to them. Even if they can’t speak, nod and show them what they want to say, and teach them repeatedly. Praise or praise more often, avoid too much criticism and blame, so that they can build up confidence in learning to speak. Use their various requests and desires to encourage them to be vocal.