The inability to speak is a difficult diagnosis, which, however, in some cases is successfully overcome.

In this article we will talk about the main reasons why a person is mute, as well as the types of muteness.

Main causes of muteness

Deafness

Mostly muteness is a consequence of deafness. So, if a child was born deaf, he has never heard people speak, so he cannot reproduce it; This type of muteness is congenital and is called deaf-muteness.

Cases of acquired deaf-muteness are also possible. If a person loses hearing at an early age, when the vocabulary is still small (or absent), the ability to speak is lost over time.

Mental problems

Some psychological illnesses, shocks caused by tragic events in life, overexertion and stress can lead to muteness. Dumbness, which is a symptom of a psychomotor disorder, is called “mutism” and is treated using the disinhibition method.

Developmental disorders

The cause of muteness can also be profound mental retardation in development (oligophrenia), that is, deviations in the development of intelligence. In children, muteness can be caused by autism.

Brain dysfunctions

Another cause of muteness (with normal hearing and level of intelligence) is disruption of brain activity due to birth injuries or insufficient development of the brain centers responsible for speech. This type of muteness is called alalia. With alalia, a person may or may not understand speech addressed to him, but is unable to speak.

In addition, a person may lose the ability to speak in adulthood due to traumatic brain injury, inflammation, stroke or tumor. A person may also be mute due to pathologies of the vocal cords, which are responsible for the formation of the voice.

Deaf and mute people are not such a rarity in the human community. According to statistics, 0.4 percent of the total population of the Earth suffers from this defect. Much less common are mute people who hear and understand speech, but are unable to respond. And this phenomenon is much more interesting than the absence of both the ability to hear and the ability to speak.

Deafness and its associated factors

From a medical point of view, it is wrong to be interested in the mute. To put it precisely, all children are mute - they don’t know how to talk. And sounds are made by almost every living newborn. Speech is a secondary skill that develops as a result of information received through hearing. And if a child is born deaf, then as a result of its absence, over time he becomes completely numb, that is, he stops making even meaningless sounds. Thus, dumb people are not born dumb, but become dumb. But deafness can also be congenital. Moreover, even if it cannot be cured, and the hearing aid is not able to compensate for deafness, a person can still be taught to speak - there are special techniques.

Mute people: reasons for the inability to speak

We have already come to the conclusion that dumbness is always acquired. Moreover, it can overtake a person at any age. And various factors can cause it. Mute people lose the ability to speak under the following circumstances.

1. Brain damage. It can be traumatic or physiological. Most often, muteness is caused by a blow to the head in a certain area, brain cancer or hemorrhage into the brain. Patients with autism are often speechless, even though they can hear everything.
2. Defects of organs responsible for speech. These could be ligament injuries or deformations due to some disease. A variant of tongue paralysis is a real possibility - just remember Sylvester Stallone, whose tongue was partially paralyzed, but his speech was very slurred until the actor began to intensively develop it. It is probably not worth mentioning the deprivation of this organ - such an outcome is very unlikely.
3. Mutism. A psychomotor type disorder, as a result of which a person stops speaking. It is caused by severe stressful situations or concussion. Mute people understand the speech addressed to them and react to it, but they themselves are not able to overcome silence. In this case, muteness can be selective - for example, it affects only men, while a person speaks freely with women. It is treated with disinhibiting techniques.

If the ability to speak is completely lost and cannot be restored, writing and the language of the mute can help a person communicate. True, only specially trained people can understand the latter.

for non-speakers

The language of the dumb is not at all the same as the gestures that people use to communicate with foreigners. In this case, it is poor and narrowly functional, while those deprived of the ability to speak need a rich vocabulary capable of conveying both artistic images and mathematical terms.

Most of us have mastered language by ear and convey our thoughts through speech. We reproduce words and phrases in our minds and pronounce them, thus expressing what we want to say. But how do deaf and mute people communicate?

Eyes instead of ears

The human desire to communicate is very strong and can overcome any obstacle. In deaf people, the function of language learning is usually taken over by vision. Life brought such people together, and they themselves developed a special way of communication, known as sign (kinetic) language. Over time, it acquired new vocabulary and became an entire linguistic system. Of course, many of us have at least once seen how deaf and dumb people communicate.

Previously, deaf people in many schools were prohibited from using gestures, while they were forced to read lips and express their thoughts in writing. But those of them who first mastered kinetic speech coped with their studies more easily and learned to read and write faster.

And what language do they think in? In their native language - sign language. Hearing people formulate their thoughts in their heads in the same language in which they communicate. The same is true for the deaf.

Many people mistakenly think that deaf people cannot speak. But as a rule, their sound apparatus is not damaged, it is simply not developed.

From the outside it seems that this is an improved pantomime, since facial expressions, body movements and the surrounding space are also actively used.

It is also called picture language because some gestures resemble the appearance of the objects they represent (for example, to show the word "house", two palms are joined to form a roof). True, both opinions are only partly correct. The fact is that most gestures do not at all resemble the objects in question. This is especially true for abstract concepts. For example, to say “thank you” in Russian sign language, you first need to touch your forehead with a clenched fist, and then your chin.

A special dactyl alphabet has also been developed - a system of hand signs corresponding to letters. If every word is transmitted with its help, then the expression of thoughts takes a lot of time.

There are kinetic languages ​​(Cuban, Portuguese, Spanish) where facial expressions play the most important role; they can even be too expressive. This is usually characteristic of those nationalities that themselves are more emotional in their psychotype. But facial expressions mainly also perform a grammatical function. With its help, you can distinguish a question from a command, from a statement.

Geographically, the areas of use of sign and spoken languages ​​do not always coincide. Russian kinetic speech is widespread in Ukraine, Belarus, and Israel. In Puerto Rico, deaf people communicate using American Signs, although hearing people use Spanish.

How do deaf and mute people from different countries communicate? After all, for someone who speaks British Sign Language, American is the same as foreign. Therefore, scientists from all over the world have developed a universal notation system, which includes approximately 1,500 concepts.

In addition to vocabulary, each kinetic language has its own grammar. For example, in its American version, as well as in Russian, the subject of discussion is indicated at the beginning of the sentence, and then something is said about it. If in oral speech the definition usually comes before the subject, then in sign language the opposite is true. The main feature of many such languages ​​is also the construction of events exclusively in chronological sequence.

Do deaf people understand written text?

Reading is very closely related to auditory memory. That is, a hearing child knows the sound of the phoneme “a,” and when the primer shows him how it is indicated in writing, it is quite easy for him to remember this connection. It is difficult for deaf people to compare graphic images with the sounds of spoken speech. The difficulty also lies in the fact that sign languages ​​have a completely different sentence structure; there are no cases or declensions. But despite such difficulties, most deaf people still master and can express their thoughts in writing.

Understanding the Deaf World

Many people mistakenly believe that deaf people are very limited in acquiring knowledge. But in fact they are not primitive, but very rich. With their help you can express thoughts of any complexity. Therefore, people who communicate in sign language can master all branches of knowledge and receive higher education without any problems. Observing how the deaf and mute communicate, we see that the lack of hearing does not prevent them from making friends, starting a family, raising children, in a word, leading a normal life.

Inherent in them to the same extent as in other people. They are deeply affected when they are considered defective or disabled.

How to communicate with deaf and mute people? For a full exchange of thoughts, you need to learn their native language - sign - or at least the dactyl alphabet. There is no other way to understand their thinking.

Vision, hearing, smell, touch - these are the qualities of the human body without which it is impossible to imagine ordinary everyday life. Going to work, hugging loved ones, shopping at your favorite store and much more, most of these actions cannot be performed without relying on the capabilities of our body. But life is unpredictable. Sometimes, as a result of illness or an accident, people are born who have limited or completely absent these capabilities. How do they cope in this world?

Deaf-blind people– one of the most difficult categories of such people. There are many patients with very different symptoms of this disease, but they can be roughly divided into four types:

Totally deaf-blind– these people are completely deprived of hearing and vision. In most cases, speech can be restored with the help of special training.

Hearing impaired and visually impaired– this category of people retains residual vision and hearing, which help them navigate in space.

visually impaired deaf– the patient is completely deaf, but retains residual vision.

Hearing impaired blind– a sick person has no vision, but there is a slight ability to hear sounds.

It would seem that these people are doomed. And history often confirms with facts from life how such people became semi-idiots, whom the family hid in the farthest corners of the house, caring for them until the end of their lives. But no one tried to take their place.

Deaf-blind people are the loneliest people in this world. If a person sees, all colors are available to him, if he hears, then people can talk to him, but if he does not see or hear, then he is almost completely isolated from our life. In order for him to have the opportunity to develop and live, he needs to be provided with access to information that is owned by sighted and hearing people, helped to adapt to the feelings that he has, and taught to communicate.

How is this possible? After all, a person does not see what is shown to him and does not hear what is said to him. But he can touch the necessary object with his hands, examine its smell and taste it. We just need to help him readjust.

Any person gets used to relying on sight and hearing in life, sometimes forgetting that he has other possibilities. After the loss of the main senses of one’s own body, the psyche is disoriented; without the necessary support, a person stops developing, speaking, and problems arise with the vestibular apparatus. In this case, with the help of special training, he can be taught to communicate using sign language, taught self-care skills based on the senses he has, even read and write using the Braille system. Some people, with the help of a teacher, were able to relearn how to speak and understand what others were saying by placing their hands on the throat and lips of the interlocutor. The human body retains the ability to learn throughout life, as long as there is a teacher who is ready to open the doors to another world for his student.

The presence of residual feelings complicates this learning. It's one thing when a person has completely lost his hearing and... Then he can, using previous life experience, adapt to other feelings. But when there is residual hearing or vision, the body subconsciously tries to rely on them, ignoring the fact that they are no longer enough for a full life. With the help of a teacher, you can overcome this resistance and teach a person new possibilities. And then the residual, once main feelings, will not become a hindrance, but a pleasant addition to such an unusual way of life.

But what about those who were born deaf-blind?? Such children do not know what human speech is; for them, objects do not exist at all as we imagine them. Their world is a world of darkness and silence, where there is nothing and no one.

But such children can also be helped. It is only important to start the learning process on time, not until the child grows up. As practice has shown, an adult is no longer able to absorb as much information as a child can understand. And such a person is doomed to live an animal existence, and lifelong dependence on other people...

Deaf-muteness should be understood as congenital absence of hearing or loss of it in early childhood. In the deaf and mute, muteness is not a consequence of a defect in the speech organs, but the result of a lack of hearing.

Rarely are children in whom defective development of the central nervous system causes lack of hearing and speech.

The cause of deafness and subsequent muteness is most often the underdevelopment of the sound-perceiving apparatus in the embryonic period or in a later period of intrauterine life, or after birth due to infectious diseases (cerebrospinal meningitis, , , , ). Thus, a distinction is made between congenital and acquired deaf-muteness.

The predominance of acquired deaf-muteness over congenital, according to the statistics of most authors, can be considered established. Living conditions and intoxication (alcoholism, syphilis, etc.) play a role in the etiology of congenital deaf-muteness.

Injuries during childbirth, compression of the head with a narrow pelvis, pathological childbirth, and the application of forceps can affect the central nervous system and the ear.

The development of deaf-muteness is influenced by a number of infectious diseases, of which epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis ranks first. With this disease, the sound-receiving apparatus is affected ( , ), and otitis media with cerebrospinal meningitis is not the cause of meningitis, but a concomitant disease. The next place is occupied by infections such as measles, , mumps and scarlet fever, in which the lesions are localized in various parts of both the sound-conducting and sound-receiving apparatus.

With acquired deafness, remnants of speech are sometimes preserved in the form of individual words; with congenital deafness this is completely excluded.

Pathohistological changes in the sound-receiving apparatus are characterized by obvious cell disintegration with the destruction of non-pulp nerve fibers.

Diagnosis of deaf-mutenessshould be as early as possible, since muteness can largely be eliminated by appropriate articulatory training (lip reading).

Observing the development of a child from the moment of his birth, parents or caregivers may note the lack of reaction to sounds, that is, the lack of so-called auditory attention. A hearing child slows down his movements when there is a sound, which is what reveals “auditory attention.” Along with this, one can observe the absence of “vestibular attention”, i.e. the child does not respond to changes in position or motion sickness. It should be noted that in deaf and mute people the function of the vestibular analyzer is often reduced.

In early childhood, it is difficult to resolve the issue of muteness, since children who are deaf from birth, like those who are hearing at birth, scream the same way, and their baby babble is the same. However, later, due to the absence of auditory sensations, the speech impulse disappears, since speech belongs to the category of cortical-associative functions of the cerebral hemispheres.

In a normal child, vocal reactions in the form of the appearance of laryngeal consonants begin at 3-3.5 months. This is followed by sounds pronounced briefly: labial and labio-nasal, dental and dento-nasal. As the child develops, depending on age and individual characteristics, sounds that are pronounced over a long period of time appear: hissing, whistling. The absence of vocal reactions in the presence of hearing can also occur in cases of late development of speech ability.

The diagnosis of deafness should be based on medical history and a special examination of the ear in early childhood.

Functional research of the auditory and vestibular analyzer is of a special nature and depends on one or another period of the child’s development. Using various research methods from the sound of a bell, a tuning fork, an electroacoustic device to the technique of conditioned reflexes, it is possible to determine the presence of hearing in early childhood; more detailed data can be obtained at an older age.

The following symptoms have some diagnostic significance: auro-finger reflex - the appearance of reflexive blinking and auro-pupillary reflex - narrowing and dilation of the pupils in the presence of auditory perception.

Observing the gait of children at an older age may also have diagnostic value: deaf and mute people have a shuffling gait, depending on the lack of auditory control.

The voice and speech of deaf-mutes are characterized by monotony and monotony. This happens because speech can develop correctly only if the child hears normally. If there is no or significant hearing loss, the child does not receive sound signals coming from external stimuli, or receives them in a distorted form. This leads to a delay in speech, to its uniformity and monotony.

Prevention of deaf-muteness. It is important to follow a certain regimen during pregnancy. Therapeutic and preventive advice that pregnant women receive in consultations is aimed at introducing the expectant mother to harmful etiological issues. It is necessary to combat alcoholism, drug addiction and sexually transmitted diseases, since poisoning the body with alcohol, nicotine or other poisons is undoubtedly harmful, affecting the proper formation and development of the fetus.

Prevention of acquired deafness (deaf-muteness) should consist of sanitizing the upper respiratory tract and middle ear in young and older children, improving the environment and fighting infections, and therefore, those ear complications that can cause deafness.

The main goal of treating deaf-mute children- this is to make them speaking, give them appropriate upbringing, education and attract them to a socially useful life on an equal basis with hearing people. With this formulation of the question, the facial-gestural method has lost its significance, since it distinguishes the deaf-mute from other people: only the deaf-mute can communicate with each other in this way. Previously, compulsory education for deaf and mute children was introduced so that when they entered a special school they would already have some preparation. In order for the deaf and dumb to be understood by the hearing and vice versa, in the past the articulatory method of pronouncing whole words, etc. was introduced. In the past, the analytical-synthetic method of teaching was adopted in special schools.

To select a teaching method, one should distinguish between deaf-mute people with complete deafness and deaf-mute people with some remaining hearing. There are a number of known variants of the lip reading method. For example, some authors recommend an analytical method of teaching, in which learning begins with the pronunciation of individual sounds, syllables, then words; others propose a synthetic method - a method of pronouncing whole words, etc.

If we take into account that only 4-5% of deaf-mutes have lost their hearing completely, and 95% have some remnants of it, then it is advisable to systematically exercise these remnants of hearing with musical instruments and radios. The presence of a labyrinthine function, in a certain sense, can be considered a favorable sign in practical terms for activating hearing and vice versa.

Combined training of deaf-mutes with the help of oral speech and at the same time with the help of sound stimuli gives the voice of a deaf-mute a brighter color and brings it closer to the voice of a normal child.

A type of deaf-muteness is hearing-muteness: the child hears sound, but does not understand words. He repeats well-known words without understanding their meaning - this is a “hearing mute.” His hearing organ is normal, but there are lesions in the parts of the cerebral cortex related to hearing and speech. Thus, hearing-muteness is dumbness without deafness. The forms of hearing-muteness are different: 1) motor (the child understands the question asked to him, but answers with facial signs, not words); 2) sensory (the child hears speech, but does not understand the meaning of the words); 3) motor-sensory (a combination of the two indicated forms).