How many times have we heard in the childhood stage that this child has a “rag tongue” , normally it tends to bring more than one smile among adults but that incorrect way of articulating one or several sounds without an obvious physical problem can become. in dyslalia from the age of 4 and a half.

Let us tell you that dyslalia is one of the most common consultations in speech therapy and one of the least serious due to the good prognosis with specialized treatment. It usually occurs during the first 6 years of a child's life and especially during the language development stage.

Broadly speaking, there are three main characteristics that are sustained over time, carefully discriminating that it is not an evolutionary dyslalia in the childhood stage. We can observe at home the following milestones in children with suspected dyslalia:

• Systematic change of one sound for another . As in the case of always changing the sound k for t .
• Confusion between sounds . The child is able to articulate s and z separately, but he confuses them as in the case of saying sapato, even though he is able to say juice. It can also say toad but instead of house it says hunting.
• Unintelligible language of the child, which requires great effort to understand what he or she wants to express.

The first step is to go to consult a specialist in the area of language, as well as a pediatrician and neurologist in order to address the issue as effectively as possible.

In any case, we leave you some tips that you can do from home to accompany the therapeutic work that you are doing with your children.

1. Avoid ear infections and colds . Encouraging the child's nasal breathing is vital for language, keeping the nose clean ensures good maintenance of the phonoarticulatory apparatus, and also promotes the non-appearance of otitis and better hearing, which usually worsens when we are completely covered with mucus. Many hot baths for proper cleaning.

2. Solid food: to strengthen the phonoarticulatory muscles and the control of all the movements that language requires, it is important that the food is as solid as possible, it is time to bite into whole pieces of fruit, sandwiches, very large pieces and as much as possible. The harder the “training” will be, the more effective it will be. Many children in these stages are still at the beginning crushed and that does not favor the correct development of language at all.

3. Avoid pacifiers or thumb sucking because they cause deformations of the palate and incorrect swallowing (swallowing food or liquids). We encounter difficulties in swallowing certain foods and even liquids, recurrent choking that is due to a weak tone of the entire phonoarticulatory apparatus and that the pacifier and thumb sucking habits do not favor its correct achievement.

4. Promote games that exercise the entire speech system. Blowing candles, whistles, balloons or noise blowers, pushing a ball with a straw, collecting water with a straw to pass it from one glass to another, blowing soap bubbles... Practicing onomatopoeia such as motorcycle sounds or making farts are exercises that will help you ease language, do not forget your friend the mirror that will help you become aware of all these exercises.

5. Music. Playing a multitude of instruments means tuning the vocal apparatus without realizing it. Blowing a melodica, a flute, a harmonica is also fantastic because whether you blow or inhale you can make it sound! Motivate the child to distinguish sounds in a playful, relaxed way and without emotional pressure so that they can pronounce them correctly, as in the case of having fun through tongue twisters or humming syllables (miiimaaamuuumoooo) and songs.

6. Letters in motion game: we can work on vowels and consonants and invent a certain posture or movement to help them associate sound with movement and encourage them to reproduce sounds while playing.

7. Vibrators: in speech therapy, vibrating elements and even rubber bands are usually introduced for the entire area of the mouth and exterior to establish the sensory foundations. At home, for example, we can use an electric toothbrush to massage the internal parts of the mouth, the tongue, even the face, lips, chin... this way we can stimulate all the receptors in the mouth and get them to work.

8. Movement: all the exploration and gross psychomotor exercises lead to the achievement of language and promote its development, get on the ground and play the cat, the tiger, the elephant, the crocodile, the monkey... through play, children encourage their language motorically and in a playful way!

We hope they help you and indirectly your little ones so that the desired language arrives soon and strong to stay and continue to evolve giving a voice to your children, we know that it is the best wish and the best battle that we can fight at your side. And so you can get away from dyslalia.

Cristina Oroz Bajo