# Why Is My Child Not Understood When Speaking? > Parents often come to the clinic worried, saying they cannot "understand their child when speaking"; some confess that they can "but that..." - **Author:** carlos-garcia · **Category:** Infantil - **Published:** 2015-11-15 · **Updated:** 2020-06-16 - **URL:** https://elteuespai.com/en/why-is-my-child-not-understood-when-speaking/ - _Translation pending clinical review._ --- ## The Concept of Dyslalia Parents often come to the clinic worried, saying they cannot "**understand their child when speaking**"; some confess that they can "**but that the rest of the people do not understand him, that he does not speak well**". On other occasions the concern is that "there are some sounds he does not say well" or, for example, that "he cannot say the R or the S". When they turn to speech professionals, speech therapists, this is usually where the term ***dyslalia*** appears for the first time, which is used when there is a difficulty in reproducing one or several phonemes. ### Dyslalia Dyslalia is **the difficulty or alteration in the articulation of speech**, of one or several phonemes that make up a word. The etymology of dyslalia comes from the Greek *dis,* which means difficulty or alteration, and *lalia,* which means speech. As a curiosity, the name Eulalia (popularized in Catalonia as Laia) comes from Greek and means the one who speaks well, the one who is eloquent. Depending on the causes that produce dyslalias, they are classified in the following way: ### Developmental dyslalia The child **is not able to say or repeat the different sounds correctly**, is not able to articulate the appropriate form because he has not yet acquired this ability. The child's maturity brings about the consolidation of the phonemes; when over time they are not acquired, it then comes to be considered pathological. According to various studies, each phoneme has a reasonable acquisition time; when that time is exceeded, intervention is advised, even earlier when the causes are clear and lead to predicting a late acquisition. ## Functional dyslalia It is the alteration in the articulation of sounds due to a malfunction of the articulatory organs without an organic or auditory cause. The following types exist: - **Phonetic disorders:** when the difficulties occur in production, articulation, because they are not able to reproduce the sound even though they know how to distinguish it. They always make the same error because they are incapable or imprecise when it comes to performing the necessary motor coordination. - **Phonological disorders:** The difficulties center on the perception and organization of sounds. There are errors in auditory discrimination and in the relationship between signifier and signified. The child may be able to reproduce the sound in isolation but not in a generalized way within words. The errors appear in an irregular manner. ### Audiogenic dyslalia When the problem is caused by difficulties solely and exclusively of hearing. It is understood that if the child is unable to perceive the sound correctly, with all its nuances, he will hardly be able to reproduce this sound in a faithful way. It is also considered organic since it can be produced by deafness or hearing loss. ### Organic dyslalia Organic alterations make correct articulation difficult, such as: - **Dysglossias**: Congenital or acquired malformations of the organs involved in speech (malocclusions, short lingual frenulum,...). - **Dysarthrias**: Lesions of the nervous system that make speech difficult. ## When Does It Affect Speech Intelligibility? [![Child improving speech with speech therapy](/images/blog/2015/11/mejorar-el-hablar-1.webp)](/images/blog/2015/11/mejorar-el-hablar-1.jpg)Dyslalias can present in isolation; the difficulty of producing a single phoneme is called simple dyslalia. As, for example, happens in rhotacism where the difficulties lie in correctly articulating the sound of the R. Simple dyslalias, although they can be very striking, do not necessarily have to affect speech intelligibility, but they can complicate the comprehension of the message. On the other hand, when more than one dyslalia presents at the same time, it is called multiple dyslalias, which are the inability to pronounce more than one phoneme and can clearly affect speech, since an accumulation of these will produce unintelligible speech, difficult to understand. ## How to Improve Their Speech? To improve their speech, consulting a speech therapist is recommended; this professional will make a diagnosis and will advise us whether we must intervene promptly or whether we can wait some time for it to evolve in a natural way, as in the case of developmental dyslalias. In addition, they can give us a series of guidelines to work on at home and eliminate the bad habits that can come to provoke the appearance of some dyslalia, as can be the case of prolonged use of the pacifier.