Logopedia Silesiana 11.1(2022)

The article presents speech therapy used in work with children with autism spectrum disorder, starting from the essence of the actions taken, the scope and forms of interactions, and the co-organization of the supportive process. The specificity of the problem of acquiring linguistic competencies of children with autism, the variety of determinants (including age and progressiveness and/or regression of development), as well as the individual acquisition of this skill are the pivotal elements in shaping the therapy model. The organization, technical support, and the environment (its level of involvement) are important elements supporting and sometimes determining the achieved effects of therapy.

Echolalia is a natural phenomenon in the development of child speech. After 30 months of age, echolalia becomes a pathological phenomenon, most often associated with deficits in the ability to initiate and sustain social interaction. Researchers argue about the role of echolalia in the acquisition of language and communication skills of people with autism spectrum disorder. They are trying to answer the question of whether echolalia is an inhibiting factor in language acquisition or whether it can also be one of the main predictors of further speech development. The distinguishing of echolalia and echolalic speech in the communication of people with autism, proposed by Jacek Błeszyński, makes it necessary to revise the existing definitions of echolalia and present this phenomenon from the perspective of communication theories, among others, in the context of the concept formulated by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson.

This article is the second part of a study concerned with vocabulary in autism spectrum disorders. It presents a qualitative description of vocabulary in people with autism, and more precisely – its content aspect. After a short presentation of theoretical and methodological assumptions, the author proceeds to characterize the categories of things and events and their lexical exponents: nouns and verbs. The analysis of the research material, appropriately selected literature, shows that in the language of people with autism, as in the language of people with typical linguistic development, the categories of things and events are clearly represented. There are analogies, similarities, but also differences within specific semantic subcategories and lexical exponents. The research results are highly varied, and the author tries to explain the reasons for this variation. She also determines how the analysis carried out paves the way for further studies on vocabulary in autism.

The presented paper concerns the diagnostics and therapy of dysarthria in the course of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, sclerosis lateralis amyotrophica, SLA, Charcot disease), one of the incurable neurodegenerative diseases. On the example of a 46-year-old patient, the characteristic symptoms of the disease were analyzed in relation to the speech therapy literature. The article was presented in the form of a case study due to the small number of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The incidence of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SSLA) is on average 1.9 per 100,000 per year in both Europe and North America. The incidence of SLA is estimated to be about 7 out of 100,000 in the general population. The study used the “Ocena stanu dyzartrii” [Assessment of dysarthria status] by Izabela Gatkowska was supplemented with an interview with
the respondent and available medical documentation, and then a therapy plan was proposed.

The aim of the presented analysis is to show the articulation tendencies of the deformations of the consonant cluster /st/ in the speech of children with specific language impairment (SLI). The research material consisted of 30 words containing the consonant cluster /st/ in three word positions. The study group consisted of eight children (two girls and six boys) diagnosed with SLI aged between 4–5 years. The words were analyzed for the presence of such phonetic and phonological processes as: fortition (strengthening), lenition (weakening), reduction, metathesis, epenthesis, articulation splitting, etc. The article concisely presents the development process of consonant clusters in the ontogenesis of speech.

The theoretical aspect of the article presents dysphagia and dysphonia in children with vocal fold paralysis caused by surgical interventions – the causes, symptoms, diagnostic possibilities, as well as initial therapeutic recommendations. In practical terms, the authors would like to show methods of examining the voice and swallowing disorders in toddler patients who participated in the experimental-clinical trial at the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow. The article discusses two case studies which were to be used to develop a standard of neurological therapy dedicated to this type of patients. The authors focused on presenting the relationship between the functional/ myofunctional diagnosis, and the diagnosis of the prelingual and linguistic skills in children in terms of the development of linguistic and communicative competence. In this approach, myotherapy is to form the basis of activities necessary in the framework of early therapeutic intervention, which are to stimulate the speech development in children. In conclusion, the article specifies the therapeutic recommendations that have been developed on the basis of the research procedures presented.

Among Polish language users, the numerous phrases used to describe both people with disabilities and deaf people are often meaningless. However, not everyone realizes that some of the terms used turn out to be very hurtful for the deaf people. However, to know the reason why some terms turn out that way, it is essential to know the community and the rules that govern it. The article emphasizes the importance of being aware of Deaf Culture, a cursory knowledge of which is necessary to understand the issues addressed in the text.

Obstructive sleep apnoea is an increasingly frequent lifestyle disease which affects both children and adults, affecting more than 10% of the adult population. The risk factors include unhealthy lifestyle, older age, structural and functional changes in the orofacial area as well as spinal cord injuries. Presently, there is no specific treatment of this disorder. One of the options for supportive treatment to alleviate the occurrence of apnoea during sleep is orofacial myofunctional therapy. The aim of the research presented in the article was to identify speech-language therapists’ awareness of the application of myofunctional therapy as a treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea and their awareness of the therapeutic methods in patients under supervision of a speech-language therapist. The aim of the paper is to emphasize the possibility of using myofunctional
therapy among patients with obstructive sleep apnoea.

Logopedia Silesiana 11.1(2022)