LANGUAGE DISORDERS IN CHILDREN'S SPEECH DEVELOPMENT

Rizal Rifkiyanto (19381031189)

1
English Department, Faculty of Tarbiyah, IAIN Madura University, Panglegur, Tlanakan District,
Pamekasan, East Java 69371, Indonesia
2
English Department, Faculty of Tarbiyah, IAIN Madura University, Panglegur, Tlanakan District,
Pamekasan, East Java 69371, Indonesia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The problem in this article was about the language disorder
in the speech development of children. The language
disorder, language,
disorder on the speech development of children were one of
development, speech,
the type of communication disorder that indicate the
children
children who experience the disorders process to use any
symbols in language. The language disorder on speech
development of children was happened cause there was a
Article History: disorder on nerves system or abnormalities in related organ
Received: dd/mm/yyyy that related to the process to use the language and to
Accepted: dd/mm/yyyy childrens' speech which occurs due to injury or trauma
Available Online: when they were in prenatal, natal and postnatal. Beside that
dd/mm/yyyy
it could be also caused by the environment at the age of the
development of the childrens' language and speech they
were did not got a good stimulus. The childrens who
experience those difficulties were late in having language
development skills. This things could occur in phonology,
semantics, and syntax problems so that the childrens was
experience the difficulties in transformation that were highly
required in communication activities. The handling goals
that can be done for the children who had the language
disorders in speech development was speech therapy, oral
motor, and melody intonation.

A. Introduction writing. Humans must master these four

Language is a means of communication
between humans in the form of symbol of
sound produced by human speech. Language
is considered the most perfect and capable
tool bring thoughts and feelings, good about
things that are concrete nor abstract. In line
with the development of science and Human
technology is required to have good language
skills good. Someone who has good language
skills will easier to absorb and convey
information, both orally and in writing.
Language skills consist of four aspects, namely
listening or listening, speaking, reading, and
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aspects in order to be skilled in language. One
aspect of language that must be mastered is
speaking, because speaking skills support
other skills (Tarigan, 2008: 86). This skill is not
a skill that can be passed down from
generation to generation, although basically
naturally every human being can speak. In
line with the development of abilities and
physical maturity, especially those related to
the speech process, the communication is
increasing and expanding. The development
of the language always increases according to
the increasing age of the child.
 Early speech development in children,
namely mumbling and parrot. A baby from
day to day will experience the development
of language and speech skills, but of course
each child is not exactly the same attainment,
some are quick to speak some are not takes
some time. To help the mother's
development help provide adequate
stimulation tailored to the uniqueness of each
child. Parents should always pay attention to
these developments because at this time, it
really determines the learning process. This
can. This is done by setting a good example,
motivating children to learn and so on.
In this modernization era, we are often
faced with various cases of language
disorders or disorders, one of which is speech
disorders. These disorders are experienced by
some small children who are still relatively
toddlers. These disorders are often
considered normal and normal. However, few
parents are aware that the child has a speech
disorder, and only realized after growing up.
Various disturbances that appear usually
occurs at the age of less than 5 year. When
his peers have can say certain words he still
mumbled like a breath. As For example, a
child can say a few words, but at a certain age
they disappear, including babbling from what
was previously active to being passive and
quiet. Speech disorders consist of problems
with articulation, voice, fluency (stuttering),
aphasia (difficulty in using words, usually due
to brain injury) and delays in speech. Speech
delays can be caused by a variety of factors
including: environmental factors or hearing
loss. Speech disorders too closely related to
other areas that support the process such as
functions oral muscles and hearing function.
Delays and glitches can start from simple
forms such as sound an "abnormal" voice
(nasal, hoarse) to the point of being unable to
understand or use language, or the inability of
the oral motor mechanism in its function to
speak.
If parents don't understand about child's
activity, there will be a speech delay which
will be very fatal. Usually parents will consider
things it's normal despite speech
development each individual is different.
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However, must Watch out if the child has a
speech impediment. Therefore, from the
explanation in this article, the following points
will be presented: (1) the stage of language
development (speaking) of children in general
and (2) speech disorders in speech
development in children. The purposes of
writing this article are: (1) to determine the
stage of language development (speaking) of
children in general, (2) to find out the causes
of speech and language disorders, (3) to find
out the symptoms and how to treat speech
and language disorders.
..……………………………………..
B. Method
In this method we can use qualitative
research methods, because this study uses
non-numeric research data. Qualitative
methods pay attention to natural data or
reality, data related to the context of their
existence. It is these ways that encourage
qualitative methods to be considered as
multi-methods. Because research in turn
involves a large number of relevant social
phenomena.
From the explanation above, it can be
concluded that the qualitative method is a
method that is often used in reality analysis.
Because in qualitative research many use
searches in the form of direct observation of
the field, theory from an expert, opinion from
a witness, or stories that can be analyzed. In
the acquisition or search of data through
qualitative methods can be in the form of
interviews, observations, documentation, and
others.
C. Results And Discussion
 As we already know, language meaningful word or word fragment by
process begins with encoding semantics, chance.

grammatical encoding, and encoding b. Stadia/Stage One Word/Holophrase

phonology. Semantic encoding and encoding
At this stage the child uses one word
grammar takes place in the brain, while the to express complex thoughts, whether in the
phonological encoding starts from the brain form of desires, feelings or findings without
clear differences. For example, the word
then continued its implementation by speech
sitting, for children can mean "I want to sit",
tools that involve the system brain nerves or the word chair, can also mean "mama is
(neuromuscular). Therefore, it can be said sitting". Parents can only understand and
understand what the child means if we know
that language is a process bring out thoughts
in what context the word is said, while
and feelings (from brain) orally in the form of observing the facial expressions of movement
words or sentences (Chaer, 2009:146). and other body language. In general, the first
word anointed by the child is noun, after
1. Stages of Language Development in some time followed by a verb.
Children
c. Telegraphic Stadia/More than One Word
Language development is divided into Stage
two major periods, namely: period
The two-word stage appears in
Prelinguistics (0-1 years) and Linguistics (1-5
children around 18 months of age. At this
years). This linguistic period start the child's
stage the child is able to make simple
desire to say words the first, which is the
sentences consisting of two or three words.
most amazing for parents. according to
The sentence sometimes consists of a subject
Fatmawati (2015:70-71) stadia early speech
and a predicate, sometimes a sentence
development in children divided into 3 stages,
subject with an object with incorrect
namely: (a) stadia naming or phase one word
grammar. After two words, three-word
(holophrase), (b) telegraphic stage/phase of
sentences appear, followed by four words
more than one word, (c) transformational
and so on. In this period the language used by
stage and morphemic/differentiation phase.
children is no longer egocentric, from and for
Next Natsir (2017:2-27) explains that the
themselves. Start communicating with other
stages Children's language acquisition is
people smoothly. Parents began to ask
divided into four, namely: (a) the babbling
questions with children in a simple way.
stage (babbling stage), (b) one word one
Children also begin to be able to tell stories in
stage phrase (holophrastic stage), (c) stage
their own simple sentences.
two word one phrase, (d) stage resembling
telegram. d. Transformational and Morphemic Stadia
(Differentiation Stage)
a. Stadia/Babbling Stage
The last stage of toddlerhood which
At this stage the child is about six
lasts between the ages of two and a half to
months old, he begins to babble. In this stage
five years. Children's speaking skills begin to
the child utters a number of meaningless
run smoothly and develop rapidly. In
word sounds and a small part resembles a

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speaking, children not only increase their
amazing vocabulary, but children begin to be
able to pronounce word for word according
to its type, especially in the use of nouns and
verbs. The child has been able to use the
personal pronoun "I" to refer to himself, able
to use words in the plural, prefix, suffix and
communicate more smoothly with the
environment. Children begin to be able to
criticize, ask, answer, command, tell and
other forms of sentences that are common
for an adult "style" conversation.
2. Influencing Factors Children's
Language Development
Early language recognition is needed to
acquire good language skills. Yusuf (2014:153-
158) says that language development is
influenced by 5 factors, namely: health
factors, intelligence, socioeconomic status,
gender, and family relationships. In detail, a
number of factors that influence language
development can be identified as follows.
a. Cognition (Process of Acquiring
Knowledge)
The level of individual cognitive abilities
will affect the speed of individual language
development. This is relevant to the previous
discussion that there is a significant
correlation between thoughts and one's
language.
b. Communication Patterns in the Family
In a family whose communication
patterns are multi-directional, accelerate the
development of the family language.
c. Number of Children or Number of Families
A family that has many family
members, children's language development is
faster because there is a variety of
communication compared to those with only
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one child and no other members other than
the nuclear family.
d. Birth Order Position
The language development of a child
whose birth position is in the middle will be
faster than that of the eldest or youngest
child. This is because the eldest child has a
downward communication direction only and
the youngest child only has an upward
communication direction.
e. Bilingualism (Use of two languages)
Children who are raised in families
who use more than one or more languages
are better and faster in language
development than those who only use one
language because children are accustomed to
using languages in a variety of ways. For
example, at home he uses the local language
and outside the home he uses Indonesian.
Some things that support the potential of
children to speak are as follows.
a. Speech maturity
The ability to speak also depends on
the maturity of the speech apparatus. For
example, the throat, palate, the width of the
oral cavity and others can affect the maturity
of speech.
b. Readiness to speak
Mental readiness of children is very
dependent on the growth and maturity of the
brain. This readiness usually starts from the
age of 12-18 months, which is called the
teachable moment of speech development.
At this time the child is really ready to learn to
speak the truth.
c. There is a good model for children to
emulate
 Children may need a certain model to
be able to pronounce the word correctly so
that it can be combined with other words so
that it becomes a meaningful sentence. The
model can be obtained from other people,
such as parents or siblings, from the radio
that is often listened to or from TV, or movie
actors who speak clearly and meaningfully.
d. Opportunity to practice
Children who don't get speaking skills
practice will be frustrated and often even
angry whose causes are not understood by
their parents or their environment. In turn,
children lack the motivation to learn to speak,
which is generally called "this child is slow" in
speaking.
e. Motivation to learn and practice
Motivating and training children to
speak is very important because it fulfills their
needs and utilizes children's potential.
f. Guidance
Guidance for children is very
important to develop their potential.
Therefore, parents should like to provide
examples or models for children, speaking
slowly which is easy for children to follow.
Such guidance should always be carried out
continuously and consistently.
Furthermore, the steps to help children's
language development are described are as
follows.
a. When parents read, point to the picture in
the book and say the name of the picture
aloud. Ask the child to point to the same
picture as the one mentioned earlier. Make
reading activities fun and interesting for
children and do it every day.
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b. Introduce new words to the child every
day, it can be the names of plants, the names
of animals or the names of the food prepared
for him.
c. Try not to finish the child's sentence. Give
him a chance to find the right words for
himself.
d. Talk to your children every day, and look at
them when you talk or listen to them. Let
them know that they are very important.
Here are some ways to stimulate your
toddler's speech development to be more
fluent and he likes to talk.
a. Tell me about your busy life.
Say aloud what you're doing and ask
toddlers questions. "Keep talking even if you
look silly because toddlers can't answer."
b. So 'role models'.
If your toddler says “grandchildren”
for milk, use the correct pronunciation when
you respond, “This is your milk.” Improve
your language skills by adding new words, for
example, “Your milk is white, it's delicious.”
This strategy will not only increase the
number of vocabulary but also teach you how
to combine words.
c. Acting "stupid".
Give your toddler a chance to ask for
and express his needs before you give it to
him. For example, during play, he rolls the ball
and you know he wants you to return the ball
to him, pretend you don't understand, put on
a confused expression and ask, "What do you
do?" Pauses like this will encourage him to
communicate.
d. Stay real.
 Avoid saying excessive words or
speaking in slang or social language that
toddlers aged 1-2 years do not understand.
Parents are required to speak in regular
sentences and in the correct language, which
will help the child understand how to
combine words into meaningful sentences.
3. Delays and Disorders in Children's
Speech Development
The level of speech development of a
child is below the level of quality of speech
development which can generally be seen
from the accuracy of the use of the child's
vocabulary (language) when with his peers
conversing/talking. Speech delays not only
affect a child's academic and personal
adjustment, the most serious effect is on the
ability to read at the beginning of the child
entering school. Many causes of speech delay
in children, generally are: (1) low level of
intelligence that makes it impossible for
children to learn to speak as well as their
peers, whose intelligence is normal or high;
(2) lack of motivation because children know
that they can communicate adequately from
the encouragement of parents/adults; and (3)
limited opportunities to practice speaking due
to strict limits on how much they are allowed
to talk at home.
One of the most common and most
serious causes is undoubtedly the inability to
encourage/motivate a child to speak, even
when the child begins to chatter. If the child is
not given stimulation (stimulation) is
encouraged to chatter, this will hinder the use
of good and correct language/vocabulary.
This lack of encouragement is a serious cause
of speech delays in children, it can be seen
from the fact that if parents not only talk to
their children, but also use a wider and varied
vocabulary. children from the more or middle
class whose parents are eager to tell them
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(children) to learn to speak earlier (faster) and
better. Very less likely to experience speech
delays in children. Children who come from
lower classes whose parents are not able to
provide such encouragement for them, do
they lack time/because they do not realize
how important speech development is in
these students.
4. Language Disorders (Speaking)
Language disorders are often also
referred to as disorders of speech
development and expressive language.
Language disorders or disorders are one type
of communication disorder with an indication
that someone is experiencing a disturbance in
the symbolic process. This difficulty causes a
person to be unable to provide symbols or
symbols that are received and vice versa
unable to change the concept of
understanding into symbols that can be
understood by others. If someone cannot
communicate with each other perfectly, they
can be said to have a language disorder or
disorder. Language disorders can occur if a
person's communication deviates far from the
language used by normal children.
5. Causes of Language Disorders
The causes of speech and language
disorders are many and extensive, all
disorders ranging from the process of hearing,
transmitting impulses to the brain, brain,
muscles or organs that make sounds. Several
studies have shown that the cause of speech
disorders is a dominant hemisphere disorder.
According to Efendi as quoted by
Nurhidayati, etal (2013: 4) there are several
causes of speech disturbances or delays are
as follows.
a. Medical Factor
 The medical factor that most plays a
role in language learning difficulties is the
absence or lack of functioning of the central
nervous system caused by injury or bruising.
In this connection, it is known as aphasia,
which is the loss of the ability to speak due to
disturbances in the central nervous system.
Injuries or bruises to the brain can occur due
to various events such as trauma when the
mother is pregnant, excessive drug use,
premature birth, physical impact, receipts,
and poisoning.
b. Physiological Conditions
What is meant by physiological
conditions is the ability of the organs involved
in carrying out their functions to support the
fluency of children in pursuing the task of
developing speech and language. These
organs include the nervous system (senso-
motor nerves), the condition of the hearing
organs and speech organs.
c. Environmental conditions
The family environment should create
a conducive situation, to make a positive
contribution to the development of children's
speech and language. The active role of
parents or families in providing verbal
stimulation can encourage children to further
improve the quality or quantity of speech and
language skills.
6. Forms of Language Disorders
Language disorder is a form of
abnormality or disturbance in communication
with an indication that the client has difficulty
or loss in the symbolization process. This
difficulty in symbolizing causes a person to be
unable to provide symbols that are received
and vice versa unable to change the concept
of understanding into symbols that can be
understood by others in their environment.
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According to Tarmansyah quoted by
Nurhidayati, et al (2013:5-10) "there are
forms of language disorders including delays
in language development and aphasia".
1. Delay in Language Development
Is a form of language disorder
characterized by the client's failure to reach
the stages of language development in
accordance with the language development
of normal children his age. The delays in
language development include intellectual
mental retardation, deafness, congenital
aphasia, nutism, minimal brain dysfunction
and learning difficulties. Children who
experience the difficulties mentioned above
are late in language development skills, can
occur in phonology, semantics, and syntax, so
that children experience difficulties in the
transformation that is needed in
communication activities. In addition to the
disturbance of transformation and
symbolization, it is also accompanied by
behavioral disorders. These behavioral
disorders greatly affect the language
acquisition process, including lack of attention
and interest in the surrounding stimuli,
shifting attention, poor concentration,
seeming easily confused, and giving up
quickly.
2. Aphasia
Aphasia is a type of language disorder
caused by damage to the language centers in
the cerebral cortex. The presence of lesions in
the language centers of the cerebral cortex
causes the client to have difficulty and/or lose
the ability to symbolize either actively or
passively. When examined clinically, aphasia
can be divided into several types, namely
sensory aphasia, motor aphasia, conductive
aphasia, and amnesic aphasia.
a. Sensory Aphasia
 This disorder is characterized by
difficulty in providing the stimulus it
receives. Spontaneous speech is
usually fluent but sometimes less
relevant to the conversation situation
or the context of communication.
b. Motor Aphasia
Another term for motor aphasia is
expressive nonfluent aphasia, or
Broca's aphasia. Clients who
experience motor aphasia have
difficulty coordinating or arranging
thoughts, feelings and desires into
symbols that are meaningful and
understood by others. One thing to
note is that they understand and can
interpret the stimuli they receive, just
to express their difficulties. This type
of motor aphasia can occur, namely
he has difficulty in writing / graphics,
this type is called agraphia. As
described above, this disorder can be
experienced by both children and
adults. This occurs because of
damage to Broca's center in the
interior temporal lobe, interior
parietal lobe or posterior frontal lobe.
c. Conductive Aphasia
Another term for conductive aphasia
is dynamic aphasia, or ranscortic
sensory aphasia. This client is
characterized by difficulty in imitating
repeated language sounds. Generally
the ability to understand stimuli is
relatively good, but sometimes there
is interference. At the time of
speaking quite fluently, especially in
short sentences, but in longer
sentences the fluency was disturbed.
This aphasia is caused by damage to
the arcuate fascius and the inner
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supramarginal gyrus in the superior
temporal lobe.
d. Amnestic Aphasia
Another term for amnestic aphasia is
also called nominal aphasia, or
anomia. This client is characterized by
difficulty in selecting and using the
right symbols. Generally the symbols
that are difficult to choose are those
related to names, activities, situations
related to life activities. This aphasia
occurs because of damage to the
angular gyrus in the temporal lobe of
the left hemisphere. In addition to
delays in language development and
aphasia, there are also several
sections regarding the location of
nerve damage in children with
language difficulties.
3. Speech Organ Disorders
These abnormalities include a short
tongue, deformity of the teeth and mandible
(lower jaw), cleft lip deformity
(palatoschizis/cleft palate), deviated nasal
septum, adenoid or laryngeal abnormalities.
In short tongue there is difficulty sticking out
the tongue so that it is difficult to pronounce
the letters [t, n, and l]. Deformities of the
teeth and mandible result in wheezing sounds
such as [f, v, s, z, and th]. Cleft lip
abnormalities can cause resonance deviations
in the form of rhinoliaaperta, namely nasal
sounds (nasal) in high-pressure letters such as
[m, n, ny, ng, s, k, and g].
4. Hearing Loss
Children who have hearing loss are
less able to hear the conversation around
them. Hearing loss should always be
considered when there is a speech delay.
There are several causes of hearing loss, could
be due to infection, trauma or congenital
abnormalities. Infection can occur if you have
repeated infections of the organs in the
auditory system. Congenital disorders are
usually due to genetic disorders, maternal
infection during pregnancy, drugs consumed
by the mother during pregnancy, or if there is
a family history of deafness. Hearing loss can
also occur when the baby has a severe
infection, brain infection, use of certain drugs
or heavy jaundice (hyperbilirubin). Treatment
with the installation of hearing aids will be
very helpful if this abnormality is detected
early. In children who have hearing loss, but
normal intelligence, language development
up to 6-9 months seems normal and there is
no deterioration. Then the mumbling will go
away followed by the loss of another voice
and the child seems very quiet. The presence
of this setback is also often suspected as a
degenerative neurological disorder.
5. Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Speech disorders are usually
accompanied by minimal brain dysfunction,
the symptoms that occur are so minimal that
they are not easy to recognize. Usually
accompanied by learning difficulties,
hyperactivity, unskilled, and other subtle
symptoms.
6. Autism
Severe speech and language disorders
can be caused by autism. Autism is a
pervasive developmental disorder in children
characterized by disturbances and delays in
cognitive, language, behavior, communication
and social interactions. In the book Children
With Starving Brains by Jaquelyn Mecandless
mentions that autism is a genetic problem of
the digestive and immune systems, the
invasion of viruses, fungi and other
pathogenic bacteria.
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7. Handling in Distraction speak
Handling of speech disorders begins
with patient identification (Sastra, 2011:30)
such as, medical history, speaking skills,
listening skills, cognitive abilities, and
communication skills. Then the treatment is
continued with the diagnosis of the disorder
experienced by the patient. After the results
of the diagnosis are obtained, then
appropriate therapy is applied to the patient.
a. Speech Therapy.
Speech therapy usually uses audio or video
and mirrors. Children's speech therapy usually
uses play approaches, puppets, role playing,
pairing pictures or cards. Adult speech
therapy usually uses the direct method,
namely through practice and practice.
Articulation therapy in adults focuses on
helping patients to produce sounds properly,
including how to position the tongue
properly, shape the jaw, and control the
breath to produce sounds properly.
b. Oral Motor Therapy.
This therapy uses exercises that do not
involve speech, such as drinking through a
straw, blowing a balloon, or blowing a
trumpet. This exercise aims to train and
strengthen the muscles used for speech.
c. Melody Intonation Therapy.
In our melodic intonation therapy, we can
apply it to stroke patients who have language
disorders. The music or melodies used are
usually slow, lyrical, and have different
stresses.
D. CONCLUSION
 From the description above, it can be
concluded that language and speech
disorders are one of the types of
communication disorders which are indicated
to have disturbances in the symbolic process.
The causes of language and speech disorders
are extensive. This can be caused by
disturbances in the nervous system or
abnormalities in organs related to language
and speech processes that occur due to injury
or trauma during prenatal, natal, and
postnatal. In addition, it can be caused by the
environment where at the age of speech and
language development the child does not
receive a good stimulus from the
environment. Children who experience these
difficulties can occur in phonology, semantics
and syntax. Thus, children who have difficulty
in transformation really need communication
activities. One of the symptoms in children
with language and speech disorders is that
there are pronunciation errors, both in the
movement mechanism of the articulation
point and in the pronunciation. Handling that
can be done for children who have language
and speech disorders is to do speech therapy,
oral motor, and melodic intonation.
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