Abstract

The purpose with this essay is to get knowledge about the consequences that speech-defects bring for children in pre-school ages. I got interested in this matter when I, during my teaching practice, got in touch with children carrying this specific disorder. I chose to apply qualitative interview as a method to investigate this and as a starting-point I used these aspects: How does speech-defects affect learning, understanding, friendship relations, and development in general?

I interviewed three pre-school teachers in two different schools. One school in a smaller district and the other one in a middle-sized town, in the middle of Sweden. From these interviews and the literature that I have read on the subject, I have learned that children with speech-defects very often have problems with friendship relations, simply because friends have a hard time understanding what these children are saying. The consistence could very well be that the children with speaking-disorders gets excluded from the rest of the group. A speech-defect can also bring consequences for learning, especially for learning to read and write. It could also become complicated in other learning situations, since these children do not always have the ability to express their thoughts and feelings. Sometimes, but not always, a speech-defect can bring consequences for the child and its development in general, in the shape of less developed mobility in other areas. These issues cause frustration, expressed as anger or introvertness and a lowered self-confidence.

Keywords: speaking, language, speaking-disorders, speech defects.