Ekaterina Mikhailovna Pashkina
Chief physician of the Central Clinical Hospital of Omsk
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Article last updated: 01/13/2019
Today, the number of children with problems in speech maturation is growing rapidly. The reasons for this may vary. A slowdown in speech development is not a particularly dangerous deviation if it is caused by early detection and is not neglected. Responsibility for this factor falls entirely on the parents, since it is extremely important not only early detection, but also the referral of the child for diagnosis, as well as the selection of qualified specialists in this field.
Age-related features of speech development
Many, especially new and inexperienced parents, ask the question: at what age should a baby begin to delight them with his first words? There are no strict limits, however, there are some norms.
During the first year of life, a baby needs to learn about a dozen words and be familiar with 200 objects. By the age of 2 years, the vocabulary should increase to 50–100 terms; the baby should be able to reproduce phrases or short sentences. Upon reaching 3 years of age, the baby needs to clearly pronounce sentences, answer questions, learn the names of animals, household items and other objects.
In order to identify deviations, it is enough to conduct a simple experiment: the baby needs to talk to a person he does not know. If the listener understood more than 75% of the conversation with the baby, then everything is in order with the formation of speech.
Difficulties begin at an older age. From the age of 4, you should show interest in your child’s conversations; if he lags behind the norm, you should seek the help of a specialist. If this is not done in time, the baby may experience problems related to communication skills, and attendance at a preschool institution or school will be in question.
Causes of speech delay
Speech retardation implies exclusively difficulties with conversation, the thought process and physiological formation are within normal limits. The little family member fulfills the requirements and comprehends what adults tell him. Deviations in psycho-speech maturation are a much more serious problem, since in this case there is an inhibition of the development of intelligence.
Up to 4 years of age, the conclusion “delayed speech development” is extremely rare. However, after 5 years, the baby may begin to slow down in mental maturation. Therefore, the first diagnosis is directly related to the second.
The main factors of speech delay:
- Severe pregnancy;
- Childbirth with complications;
- Infection of the fetus during pregnancy;
- Increased intracranial pressure;
- Prematurity;
- Kidney or heart disease;
- Rickets;
- Advanced hearing or vision damage;
- Insufficient or excessive attention from parents;
- Frequent exposure to stress;
- Constant TV operation;
- Communication within the family in several languages;
- Unintelligible speech from parents or others, etc.
It should be remembered that the disease does not appear out of nowhere; it is a consequence of disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system or brain. Causes may also include disorders at the genetic level or mental disorders. In the case of severe illnesses in the first three years of life, such as hearing loss or head injuries, the baby may be susceptible to speech inhibition.
Symptoms of speech delay
Today, the issue of inhibition of speech development by psychologists is identified as an extremely important problem in psychological and pedagogical activities. From the age of 4 years, parents are recommended to visit a specialist when there are obvious problems with speaking function: the child slurs words, speaks too slowly or quickly, and is unable to form phrases or sentences. Additional signs include increased salivation and difficulty chewing or swallowing food.
Children with problems in psycho-speech maturation experience difficulties in collective communication, developmental activities and play activities. Such kids are often absent-minded, their attention is poorly developed. The emotional state of a little person is subject to changes; at the slightest failure, a child with disabilities can withdraw into himself. The perception of surrounding information is distorted, mental activity is reduced.
Self-test for speech delay
At the age of 6 years, a preschooler should already speak fluently, know several poems and songs by heart, and clearly formulate his thoughts and questions. Many children of this age have already mastered the basics of reading and writing.
It is possible to check whether your child is lagging behind his peers using a few simple tests:
- A 6-year-old child should know how to count to 10 and be able to perform basic mathematical operations. In a playful way, invite him to count how many objects he sees by placing three cubes in front of him. Then hide one behind your back and ask them to answer how many are left in sight and how many you hid.
- The child must clearly distinguish the concepts of one - many, big - small, know geometric shapes, letters of the alphabet and numbers.
- Know all the colors and shades.
- Be able to engage in various types of creative activities: sculpt, draw, make appliqués, assemble construction sets. Moreover, his works should resemble the creation of an adult, drawn people should resemble people, sculpted dogs and hedgehogs should resemble animals, and constructed houses and cars should resemble real ones.
If the baby is not able to answer your questions about counting, or still cannot identify colors, or, having reached the age of 6 years, draws solid abstract pictures, this is a pretty good reason to turn to specialists.
Diagnosis and treatment of abnormalities
If a child exhibits signs indicating a delay in speech development, it is necessary to visit several specialists:
- defectologist,
- speech therapist,
- psychologist
- psychotherapist.
- neurologist
The Bayley scale, IQ test and others are used for the study. The doctor may order an EEG or MRI of the brain to determine abnormalities in functioning. All these studies are necessary to detect delay factors and construct a rational correction or treatment.
A general assessment of a child’s speech maturation includes the following criteria:
- History of development at an early age;
- Speech formation;
- Memory, ways of thinking;
- Perception (of colors, shapes, objects, etc.);
- Level of attentiveness;
- Game activity;
- Availability of skills and their execution;
- Communication skills.
A comprehensive study also involves testing hearing, vision, and facial motor skills.
Corrective work on speech development involves the following actions on the part of parents:
- Pronouncement of all actions performed by the baby or parent;
- Organization of a favorable environment for speech development;
- Individual creative activities, reading;
- Correct selection of speech material.
The tasks of specialists are somewhat different: correction of the mental state, social adaptation of the baby, correction of previous upbringing mistakes, improvement of memory, intelligence and attention.
If the cause is a disorder of brain activity, in addition to corrective work, the baby is prescribed massage, magnetic therapy, and drug treatment. Magnetic therapy has no limitations; this technique allows you to influence the area of the brain that is responsible for diction, intellectual abilities and memory. During drug therapy, neurotropic drugs and vitamins may be prescribed. It is extremely important that all medications are prescribed and taken exclusively under the supervision of a specialist.
Curiosity should be developed in a child as early as possible, and from early childhood, children should be taught activities related to fine motor skills and creativity.
There are several types of speech deviations from the norm:
- Articulation impairment. In this case, the baby understands everything that is told to him. According to external and physiological indicators, he is completely healthy, but the reproduction of words is unclear, even mom and dad can barely understand him.
- Expressive tardiness. In such a situation, the baby’s speech lags significantly behind the normative indicators; the baby speaks little or does not speak at all.
- Receptive disorder. The baby does not understand what is said to him, but no hearing impairment was detected.
- Combined violation. All the previous factors combined.
If treatment is not carried out before the age of 7, the child will lag behind his peers. Treatment should not be neglected under any circumstances, as more serious problems may arise in his later life: the child will not be able to adapt to the team, and there will be a need to transfer to a specialized school for children with disabilities.
Prevention of speech delay
The earlier parents begin training exercises with the baby, the less susceptible he is to delays in speech and mental development. From an early age it is necessary to develop the child, engage in drawing, modeling, read fairy tales to the baby, describe objects, teach music and creativity. In addition, we should not forget about full physical formation. From the age of 3, a child needs games such as construction sets, puzzles, various cubes, pyramids, and sorters. Using special cards, you need to teach your child colors, shapes and numbers.
In case of psycho-speech delay, massage is indicated; parents can perform restorative movements, and professional massage should be entrusted to a specialist. Any of the listed activities requires systematicity, so they need to be carried out on a daily basis. Each lesson should be conducted in a playful way and in no case forced. It is necessary to motivate the child to study, to arouse his desire and interest in games of this kind. It must be remembered that delayed speech or mental maturation is not a death sentence, and during the period of therapy the child needs the support of his parents, their care and understanding.
In the process of teaching and raising a child, it is necessary to take into account that unconditional (external) inhibition is most strongly expressed only in children under 3-4 years of age. N/r, if a 3-year-old child wants to step in a puddle, it is useless to tell him “You can’t!” But if you show him a beautiful flower or pay attention to a bird, the child can easily forget about what he wanted to do. Therefore, external inhibition is an important means of developing useful habits and skills in children in the first years of life.
Internal inhibition acquires leading importance only by the age of 6-7 years. It is especially important to teach a child to restrain (slow down) reflex activity, to teach him to wait. Such training of inhibitory processes is the basis for instilling in a child the rules of behavior in society; it will teach him to take into account not only his own desires, but also to respect the demands of others.
Internal inhibition (differentiation) is of great importance for teaching a child to write, read, draw, etc.
Inhibition provides us with a subtle correction of our activity in accordance with environmental influences, “erasing” already unnecessary, biologically inappropriate conditioned reactions and promoting the formation of new ones.
Age-related features of conditioned reflex activity.
Stage I – Thoracic.
Conditioned reflexes begin to develop on the first day after the birth of a child. However, they are formed with difficulty, after several dozen reinforcements, and are unstable. N/r, touching the cheek of a newborn causes the head to turn in the direction of the touch and the appearance of sucking movements. On days 10-14, tactile-labyrinthine conditioned reflex (when picking up a baby in the feeding position, he turns his head and makes sucking movements). The conditioned orienting reflex is formed at 2-4 months. However, all conditioned reflexes of the first 3 months, due to the immaturity of the cerebral cortex, are formed very slowly, after many reinforcements, and they are all unstable. By the end of the year, conditioned reflexes to time, situation, and environment appear.
Unconditioned inhibition of conditioned reflexes is present from the first days after birth, and conditioned inhibition is developed gradually. However, all types of conditioned inhibition up to 6 months are very unstable. All conditioned reflexes are easily inhibited due to unconditioned inhibition.
Stage II – nursery.
In the 2nd year of life, a child begins to move freely in space, and the foundations of speech are laid. Unconditioned orienting reflex “What is it?” during this period of life it manifests itself as “What can be done about this?” The rapid development of a child leads to the formation of a large number of new conditioned reflexes. The child develops images of objects. The formation of images is possible only as a result of the child’s mini-pulsations with objects, during which he learns the entire complex of stimuli characteristic of a given object (for example, a Christmas tree, its appearance, smell, pricks of pine needles create an image of a Christmas tree that is different from all other objects). You cannot limit a child in his manipulations with objects, otherwise there will be impoverishment in the development of conditioned reflexes and a slowdown in the formation of imaginative thinking.
On the basis of images, concepts begin to form, i.e. generalization of similar images (doll, cube).
During this period, the first imitative conditioned reflexes and extrapolation ones are developed. So, a child can calmly look at a dog standing far away, but gets scared if the dog starts to approach him.
For the first time, dynamic stereotypes begin to be developed, and their breaking is accompanied by a pronounced negative biological reaction.
Stage III - preschool.
During this period, a solid base of conditioned reflexes is already created. The child asks a huge number of questions, tries to penetrate into the essence of phenomena and objects. At this time, reflexes of higher orders (up to 6th order) are easily formed. Imitative reflexes are greatly developed. One of the features in the formation of conditioned reflexes is the speed of their formation - faster than at any other stage of development.
Conditioned inhibition is developed with difficulty.
Stage IV – junior school age.
A characteristic feature of this stage is the formation of various complexes and systems from previously developed conditioned reflexes. A large number of dynamic stereotypes are formed. By the end of the differentiation stage, they form easily and become strong.
Delayed braking towards the end of the stage is developed quite easily. At this stage, conditioned reflexes are developed quickly, easily, and become persistent and resistant to unconditional inhibition. Due to the strengthening of inhibition processes, cortical inhibitory control over emotions and the implementation of unconditioned reactions is well developed due to the development of inhibitory conditioned reflexes. All this is important for raising the correct behavior of children.
In children, conditioned inhibition develops quite early. Internal inhibition is developed and formed in the process of individual life. The formation of internal inhibition is a complex nervous process that requires great nervous tension. The formation of an inhibitory conditioned reflex passes through the so-called “difficult state” (P.K. Anokhin), which arises as a result of non-reinforcement of a previously established reflex. The earliest forming type of internal inhibition in a child is “fading,” a striking example of which is, for example, the extinction of the reflex “to the position under the chest.” This “fading away” occurs because the child was often picked up in the “position under the breast”, but was not fed, but talked to, walked around the room, etc. Therefore, the previously formed conditioned reaction in the form of sucking movements to the “position under the breast” breast" fades away as irrational. Instead, a more precise adaptation to environmental conditions is formed. For example, a child has developed the habit of taking away another child’s favorite toy with impunity. If an adult takes this toy from the child and gives it to the offended person, the child will cry loudly and become excited. If a child knows that a toy that has been taken away will never remain with him, then he will stop taking it away - the desire to take the toy away is inhibited. Thus, in the process of child development, many previously formed reflexes fade away, being replaced by others that are more appropriate to the new living conditions. When raising young children, this ability of “fading” is often used when it is necessary to wean the child from some negative habit, for example, motion sickness. Previously cultivated positive forms of behavior may also fade away. For example, a previously formed skill of cleanliness may fade in a hospital if this skill is not maintained. The need for communication may also fade if the child’s requests do not receive positive reinforcement from adults. At the end of the 3rd or 4th month, another type of internal inhibition is formed - differentiation, for example, for color - distinguishing two colors (for example, green and yellow from red). It is also possible to form differentiation early on based on the shape of an object, for example, to distinguish a cube from a sphere. Recognition of the mother in contrast to other people's faces is the formation of visual differentiation, recognition of the mother's voice is auditory differentiation. Both are observed in the 5th month of life. At first, the child distinguishes objects that are sharply contrasting in their external qualities, later the differentiation becomes more and more subtle. If a child was given a bitter medicine from a teaspoon, then after several doses he screams and turns away at the mere sight of this spoon, although the child reaches for the dessert spoon from which he received food. In the 1st year of life, a third type of inhibition appears - “delay”, i.e. the conditioned reaction does not occur immediately, but with some delay. An example would be the following behavior. When switching to simultaneous feeding of two 7-8 month old children, at first both of them open their mouths at the sight of a spoon, expecting food. Subsequently, each child does not immediately open his mouth, but waits until the spoon is pointed directly in his direction. Gradually this type of internal inhibition develops. For example, children can restrain themselves and not eat candy (even though they really want to) until they have eaten the whole lunch; patiently wait until the music worker comes up and offers to knock on the tambourine. The ability to temporarily slow down and restrain one’s desire, if for some reason it cannot be fulfilled at the moment, is of great importance in developing a child’s character and behavior. This ability must be developed and nurtured, but it should be remembered that a child can wait, that is, delay a reaction, only for a very short time. So, for example, a 9-10 month old child can calmly wait until the teacher gives 2-3 spoons of food to another child, but he cannot wait until she gives it to a third child. Therefore, children of this age need to be fed only two at a time. In children, it is also possible to develop internal inhibition, called “conditional”, i.e., a delay in a previously developed reaction under some additional condition, which in this case has an inhibitory effect. For example, in the presence of the father, the child restrains his desire to play with an object that the father forbids him to take, but with which the child can play in the absence of the father. The presence of the father is a brake. Very early on, the word “no” can become such a brake. If the word “impossible” is always accompanied by the adult’s cessation of the action started by the child, then it becomes a brake on the prohibited reaction. Along with these four types, there is also “higher” inhibition (P.K. Anokhin) - the inhibitory effect of the cerebral cortex on subcortical activity. The importance of internal inhibition when raising a child is very great. This type of inhibition provides a subtle adaptation to the current situation and eliminates activities that are inadequate to the surrounding conditions. So, in early childhood, both positive and negative inhibitory conditioned reflexes are formed, which are the physiological basis of many skills, actions, and the education of various rules of behavior.
Conditioned inhibition is also called acquired and individual or internal, since it is localized within a given conditional. Conditioned reflex inhibition is a means of streamlining and improving conditioned reflexes. Thanks to internal inhibition, conditioned reflexes are continuously refined and improved. The interaction of conditioned and unconditioned inhibition provides flexibility and subtlety. There are several types of conditioned inhibition:
Extinction inhibition , it occurs after the cancellation of the conditional, the rate of extinction of the conditioned connection is inversely related to the intensity of the conditioned stimulus, strength and biological significance. Increased internal inhibition can lead not only to inhibition of the extinguished reflex, but also of all reflexes close to it.
Extinction inhibition is a very common phenomenon and has great biological significance. It is not difficult to imagine the state of an animal in which all the conditioned reflexes that have ever been formed would be preserved. The brain is freed from outdated and unnecessary conditioned reflexes through their extinction.
A number of conditioned reflexes are formed as a result of random coincidences of an indifferent signal with unconditioned reflexes. Therefore, they must slow down. The same thing happens with those existing conditioned reflexes that cease to fulfill their role.
Extinction inhibition also develops depending on age, health status, as well as the type and strength. Conditioned reflexes in children fade away the faster the more often this extinction occurs. Newly formed conditioned reflexes fade faster than old ones. In people of the weak type they fade away faster than in the strong ones, and recover more slowly. In children 11-12 years old, reflexes fade more easily than in children 8-10 years old, because the latter have less developed internal inhibition. Conditioned food reflexes in children of preschool and primary school age fade away after three or four non-reinforcements. In children with dominance, extinction occurs more slowly than in balanced children. An extinct conditioned reflex, after being reinforced by an unconditioned one, is restored. In healthy children, it takes 10-15 minutes to restore the conditioned food reflex, in sick children – more.
The ability of learning children to develop extinctive inhibition is of great biological significance. It frees them from the need to respond to those irritations that cause reflexes that have already lost their meaning due to their transition to older age. It is also important for repressing the child from those experiences, memories of which are not only unpleasant, but also aimed at disrupting his nervous activity. Thanks to this inhibition, people have the opportunity to free themselves from those views that no longer correspond to their new life conditions. In addition, extinctive inhibition is the physiological basis of forgetting, getting rid of unnecessary skills, habits, knowledge.
Differential braking , this is a subtle discrimination of the signal stimulus, which occurs as a result of non-reinforcement of extraneous stimuli that are close in their parameters to the unconditional signal. Differential braking eliminates unnecessary conditioned reflexes. It develops when stimuli that are close to the reinforced signal are not reinforced, which allows the brain to “distinguish” between a positive (reinforced) signal and negative (non-reinforced, or differentiating) stimuli. Differential inhibition is aimed at “not confusing” similar stimuli. According to the physiological mechanism, differentiation is negative learning - in response to the signal “not to perform a reaction.” Differential inhibition, unlike extinctive inhibition, deals with similar signals, which causes differences in their development. Development of differential braking is carried out in three stages:
- Against the background of a developed conditioned reflex, a new stimulus causes, which causes external inhibition of the conditioned response.
- The indicative reaction to a similar stimulus disappears, and the reaction to both stimuli becomes equal.
- The reaction to a non-reinforced differentiation stimulus dies down.
EXAMPLE : We train the animal to respond to an auditory stimulus with a frequency of 1000 Hz (food, as a positive reinforcement) and not to respond to a stimulus with a frequency of 1500 Hz (electric shock). Or teaching a child to write “I” and “R».
Differential inhibition develops depending on the proximity of the stimuli: the closer the differentiation is in its value to the positive stimulus, the more difficult it is to develop. For example, an ellipse is easy to differentiate from a circle. But if you change the shape of the ellipse, adjusting it to the shape of a circle, then such a change will occur when the changed shape will be difficult to differentiate, and for children it may even be impossible. Consequently, the closer the signal and differentiation are in quality to it, the stronger the inhibition should be.
Differential inhibition makes the body's responses to existing stimuli more accurate, which contributes to its better adaptation to changing environmental conditions. In children of primary school age, stimuli are differentiated more easily than in preschoolers, but worse than in children of senior school age. Differentiation of conditioned stimuli is developed in an experiment in children 7-9 years old for 10-11 non-reinforcement, in 10-12 year olds - for 4-6 non-reinforcement. In excitable children, differentiation is more difficult to form than in balanced children.
Differentiation inhibition underlies widespread pedagogical techniques - juxtaposition, comparison, choice. The comparison method is constantly used by the teacher in teaching academic subjects: addition is contrasted with subtraction, pressure in a letter is contrasted with a straight stroke, a phenomenon of inanimate nature is contrasted with a living one. The use of the choice method is a frequently encountered need in teaching practice. Students have to learn many rules that they will not always or to the same extent need in the future. The use of differentiation allows you to isolate what is needed and actively participate in the constant preservation of only the necessary fund of temporary connections. Differential inhibition is also the physiological basis for the formation of new concepts and the ability for analytical activity in schoolchildren.
Delayed braking , it is formed during the development of delayed trace conditioned reflexes, when the conditioned signal significantly advances the reinforcement. In this case, the reflex reaction can be timed to coincide with the moment of presentation of the reinforcement and gradually shifts closer and closer to the moment of presentation of the reinforcement. At first glance, it may seem strange that the same conditioned stimulus first acts with a “+” sign (that is, it is exciting), and then with a “–” sign (inhibitory). However, in the second case, a new factor appears - time. Time forms a simultaneous complex with the conditioned stimulus. In the inactive phase of the conditioned reflex, time forms a negative complex stimulus with a positive signal, since there is no reinforcement in this phase. In the active phase, time forms with it a positive complex stimulus, which is reinforced. As a result of the temporal relationships between the stimulus and reinforcement, UR occurs only when the time for the transition of the stimulus to a positive complex approaches. The properties of delay inhibition reflect the dual role of the conditioned stimulus, which over time forms either a positive or a negative complex stimulus.
In children, retardation develops more slowly than in adults, and it is especially difficult to develop in excitable individuals. The development of this type of inhibition has important pedagogical significance, because helps to instill in students endurance, patience, and the ability to wait. The ability to develop this type of internal inhibition best ensures a high degree of adaptation of the body to the environment. An example of such an adaptive reaction is the conditioned separation of gastric juice. Within a few minutes of exposure to natural signals of food intake (smell, appearance), the glands of the stomach do not secrete juice. Only after this do stimuli begin to stimulate juice secretion. This delay is determined by the time it takes for food to be chewed, swallowed and enter the stomach. Inhibition of retardation prevents the useless, and perhaps even harmful, filling of an empty stomach with acidic gastric juice. The emerging “ignition” juice, thanks to delayed braking, digests the incoming food on time and with the greatest completeness. The biological significance of this type of inhibition is that it protects the body from premature waste of energy.
Conditional brake develops if the conditioned signal in combination with any agent is not reinforced, and the isolated action of the conditioned stimulus is reinforced, then the conditioned stimulus in combination with this additional agent ceases to cause a reaction due to the development of the conditioned inhibitor. Any stimulus can be made a conditioned inhibitor to any signal. Depending on the strength of the conditioned brake, it will, to a greater or lesser extent, reduce the magnitude of the conditioned reflex, up to its complete delay. The properties of the conditioned inhibitor are determined by the fact that the excitatory and inhibitory processes are played out on the same cortical neurons - the neurons of the main conditioned stimulus. The conditioned stimulus itself causes excitation, and the additional agent causes inhibition.
The ability to stop any action, to suspend a reaction, is realized through a state of inhibition in nerve cells. When the reaction is delayed, the spread of nervous excitation stops, as the cells enter an inactive, so-called inhibitory state. Scientists argue that excitation and inhibition are only two phases of the same excitatory nervous process. However, during a state of inhibition, the state of cell membranes changes.
There are two main groups of inhibitory conditions:
External, or unconditional, inhibition. This is a biologically determined inhibition inherent in the very nature of the functioning of nerve cells, their ability to be either in an excited (active) or inhibitory (inactive) state. It cannot be controlled by consciousness and is an innate quality. Types of external braking are: protective inhibition, meeting of two excitations And dominant;
- internal, or conditioned, inhibition is formed mainly after the birth of a child under the influence of environmental conditions. This state requires the active participation of consciousness, since it is based on the expediency of delaying the reaction.
In humans, internal inhibition is an obligatory component of complex social behavioral acts.
Internal inhibition is divided into the following types: extinction, differentiation, delay, conditioned inhibition, higher inhibition.
Types of external braking
Protective inhibition is divided into transcendental inhibition and sleep. Scientists have found that extreme inhibition occurs, firstly, when demands are placed on a cortical cell that exceed the limit of its performance, i.e., when a super-strong stimulus falls on the cell, and, secondly, when a stimulus, albeit of optimal strength, acts in a debilitating manner for a long time. Since in a small child the limit of performance of the cells of the central nervous system is small, a state of extreme inhibition occurs relatively easily. Thus, a loud shout of “Come here now” can completely slow down the movement. If you force a child to repeat the same action over and over again, the same effect will occur; at some point it will be impossible for the child to perform this action (for example, string rings on a pyramid). Corporal punishment easily leads a child into a state of extreme inhibition.
In pedagogical practice, when implementing educational influences, one should not use a state of extreme inhibition. On the contrary, we must try to ensure that this condition occurs as rarely as possible, since when it occurs frequently, there is some depletion of nervous energy and a disturbance in the excitability of the cortex.
During sleep, the energy potential of the cells of the central nervous system is partially restored. This is the protective meaning of sleep. A person's sleep is very dependent on social conditions (the habit of falling asleep in a certain position, reading before bed, etc.). In a child, social conditions very early begin to influence the nature and quality of sleep (sickness, sleeping in the arms of an adult, etc.). The task of an adult is to ensure the protective function of sleep as fully as possible. The child should sleep in a darkened room where there is no noise. It is very important to ensure sufficient daytime sleep (in accordance with age). It is harmful from the point of view of protecting a child’s health to prematurely transfer him from two daytime naps to one or even deprive him of daytime sleep.
The essence of the type of external inhibition “meeting of two excitations” is that when two excitation systems meet, a stronger and more significant stimulus for the body inhibits a less significant reaction. This type of inhibition underlies the action of antagonist systems, for example, if the system of arm extensor muscles is excited, then the system of flexor muscles is in a state of inhibition. The same principle applies to the acts of breathing and swallowing.
In the ontogenesis of a child’s higher nervous activity, this inhibitory state has the peculiarity that any excitation that causes an indicative reaction is stronger than another, objectively even more significant for the organism. Thus, the child stops eating if someone enters the room, although he is still hungry. This property is the basis for the baby’s tendency to distraction, which occurs more easily the younger the child. By showing a new toy, a picture, or drawing attention to something (“Look, the bird is flying”), you can slow down negative emotions in a child (for example, crying, protest). The physiological basis of such a reaction is a very strongly expressed orienting reaction in the child, a relatively small ability to concentrate the process of excitation.
In the first year of life, it is advisable to use distraction to stop negative emotions (crying, screaming, etc.) or unwanted activities, since at the level of speech it is still impossible to convince the baby of anything or persuade him not to cry. At an older age, this reaction can be used as an “ambulance” reaction (for example, a child who has visited kindergarten for the first time cries; to calm him down, the teacher shows him a toy and talks to him). It is often inappropriate to resort to distraction, since with age, due to the improvement of the system of higher nervous activity, the possibility of more complex verbal communication with the child becomes possible, and simply distraction does not teach anything and does not contribute to concentration.
Dominant- this is a special condition of the central nervous system, in which a very persistent focus of excitation arises, and nearby parts of the brain are in a state of inhibition. Any additional irritation further enhances the excitation in the dominant focus, while even wider cortical zones come into a state of inhibition. This is expressed in human behavior: for example, a person enthusiastically reading a book may not pay attention to the fact that someone has entered the room. A child playing intently does not hear the words of an adult addressed to him.
In raising children, it is very important to be able to recognize that a child is in a state of dominance, since on this basis concentration of attention, concentration, and the ability to do one thing for a long time are formed. If you still need to stop this activity of the child (for example, he is playing intently, but he needs to go to lunch), then you need to invite him to eat last, and before that, calmly repeat several times that it is time for lunch, i.e., a new attitude should gradually arise. activity. You can, of course, abruptly stop playing, but in this case, diffuse stimulation of the cortex occurs against the background of a negative emotional state. The child will cry and protest sharply, and this will not bring him any benefit.
Types of internal braking
Fading- this is a type of inhibition that is like a bridge between external and internal inhibition. Its basis is the lack of reinforcement. So, if the developed conditioned food reflex to the bell is no longer reinforced with food, then after some time the conditioned reflex salivation will stop and the reflex will fade away. It will fade away, and not disappear completely, since if during initial production it was necessary, say, to combine sound with food ten times, then when the reflex is restored after its extinction, only five such combinations are required. The phenomenon of extinction can be observed already in the first month of a child’s life. But the developed conditioned reflex can fade away. If the mother stops picking up the baby for feeding, then the “under-the-breast position” reflex fades away, but if you again begin to give the baby this position while eating, the reflex is quickly restored. In the normal life of a child, many reactions fade away due to their uselessness in a changed situation, or with age, less perfect reactions are replaced by more perfect ones. For example, the reaction of crawling is replaced by walking, babbling is replaced by words, etc. In a children's institution, it is necessary to ensure in every possible way that the child's need for communication does not fade away, since this impoverishes the development of his personality. However, if a child, turning to a teacher, does not receive an answer, i.e., positive reinforcement, then he will stop turning to him, and the child’s need to communicate with an adult will fade away.
When raising a child, sometimes you should consciously use the factor of non-reinforcement in order for the child’s bad habits or unwanted actions to die out. So, if he uses swear words (without yet understanding their meaning), you should not react to this. The absence of any reaction, i.e. reinforcement, will lead to the fact that the child will soon be uninterested in pronouncing these words, and the undesirable reaction will gradually fade away.
Differentiation, or the ability to distinguish, appears in the third month of a child’s life. Scientists have proven that at this age it is possible to obtain visual, auditory, tactile, and taste differentiation. Experts conducted an experiment during which they developed visual differentiation by color in children in the fourth month of life. Two colored cardboard cylinders (blue and red) were taken. A bottle of milk was lowered into the red cylinder, and an empty bottle into the blue one. After a certain time, when the baby saw a red cylinder, conditioned reflex sucking movements appeared, but when he saw a blue one, they did not appear.
The first differentiation in a child's life is recognition of the mother.
As the baby develops, he differentiates objects that are sharply contrasting in their characteristics, and then he develops more and more subtle differentiations. On the basis of differentiation, sensory education is carried out (the ability to distinguish color, shape, size is formed). The ability to differentiate is important throughout a person's life. Early physiological periods of development of differentiations indicate the need for their timely formation, since this stimulates all the cognitive activity of the child.
Delayed inhibition is a type of internal inhibition. It occurs when reinforcement is given late. In the natural conditions of animal life, such inhibition can be observed, for example, in a cat that lies in wait for a mouse or bird. A cat in an ambush can sit motionless for many minutes, not exhibit a motor conditioned reflex, or rather, inhibit it. This reflex occurs as soon as prey appears.
In children, this type of inhibition can be developed from 7-8 months of life. This is very clearly evident when feeding children at the same time. For example, if two children aged 8 months are sitting at a table, at first, when they see a spoon with food, both open their mouths at the same time (this is a previously developed reaction), but then the child to whom the spoon with food is directly directed opens his mouth, and the second waits for his turn , i.e., it delays the reaction until a more appropriate moment for its implementation. However, in the first three years of life, the ability to delay a reaction without a negative emotional state is still very limited due to the low endurance of the cells of the central nervous system. It grows gradually. You cannot feed three children aged 7-10 months at the same time; the third child will behave restlessly: fidget, bang on the table, cry. At 11-12 months you can already feed three people at the same time.
Like all other reactions, the ability to actively delay an action requires some training. In the second year of life, you should not use the feeding process for this, since after a year, relying on the digestive system, you need to develop the skill of independent feeding. It is more correct to use an indicative reaction - to invite the child to wait to watch the picture if another child is watching it.
In the third year of life, you can train this ability, continuing to use the indicative reaction, but at this age you can again return to some organic needs. The child can wait until the other children at the table have eaten soup, and then everyone will be given a second, etc. On the basis of delayed inhibition, many volitional personality traits are formed, so the teacher’s task is to develop these properties in the child, but at the same time, one must ensure that so that negative emotions do not appear, because in this case the desired effect will not occur.
A more complex form of inhibition is the so-called conditioned inhibition, which requires a certain level of maturity and functional activity of the cerebral cortex. In early childhood, this type of inhibition can be developed starting from the end of the first year of life.
In the ordinary life of children, many conditions can have an inhibitory effect if they are associated with the prohibition of something. This often manifests itself in the absence of unity of requirements in raising a child. If the grandmother allows you to touch things on the father’s table, and the father categorically prohibits this, then the father’s coming home becomes a conditional brake. The same thing happens if two educators make different demands - one prohibits something, and the other allows the same thing. For a person, the universal conditioned brake is the word “impossible.” When used correctly, it becomes a conditioned inhibitor very early on, and this helps the child develop adequate behavior without unnecessary negative emotions.
Higher inhibition, as defined by P.K. Anokhin, is the inhibitory effect of the cerebral cortex on subcortical activity. This is a specific quality of the human brain. The formation of higher inhibition is a complex nervous process that requires great nervous tension. The formation of an inhibitory conditioned reflex passes through the so-called “difficult state”, which arises as a result of non-reinforcement of a previously established reflex.
In humans, the highest inhibition in its extreme expression is manifested when a person sacrifices his life in the name of other people or high moral ideals. In everyday life, all those human actions in which he denies himself something for the sake of the interests of another have elements of higher inhibition. This type of reaction can be stimulated in a child starting from the end of the second - beginning of the third year of life, i.e. from the time when the child is already able to understand that other children also need affection and attention, that it is necessary to help a crying baby, not to offend him , give your toy, etc. In order for higher inhibition to fulfill its role in the formation of the most adequate social behavior, to be a regulator in a person’s relationships with other people, one must constantly pay attention to the encouragement of all forms of behavior associated with it.
The deep neurological basis of a person’s high motives that guide his behavior is that social motives are stronger and therefore can inhibit all other behavioral acts that are unwanted or incompatible with human morality. Callousness, selfishness, and disregard for the interests of other people may be the result of insufficient educational influences in this direction.
All types of internal inhibition must be purposefully formed in accordance with the child’s age-related capabilities.