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This article focuses on the problem of general speech and language disorders. Questions of categorization depending upon the intensity of speech and language disorders are analytically discussed. Groups which include children with severe speech and language impairments are described. The author characterizes the four levels of speech and language skill development in children with speech and language disorders. The aims and job description of a preschool teacher in preschools for children at speech and language development level one are pinpointed. This is the most severe level of speech and language disorders, which is characterized by a child’s inability to communicate via speech. Recommendations for language skill development and comprehension skill development may be interesting for preschool educators. A summary table for sound imitation is given. Preschool teachers can use it as a guide for the accumulation of sound imitations in children, to enrich his means of communication and activate his communicative possibilities. Variants of the expansion of children’s speech repertoire are analyzed. This article provides the speech and language models for speech and language development. Some recommendations for the development of attention, memory, and logical thinking in children with speech and language disorders are given. Also examined are techniques for interacting through play with a child with first level speech and language development to improve hearing attention, phonemic awareness, and fine motor skills.

The article deals with the question of providing assistance to kindergarten children with severe speech disorders, in particular, with the mild form of dysarthria. Preschool educational organization may include children whose speech is slurred, gibberish, accelerated and inexpressive. These children refuse to recite poetry at matinees, and show a lack of motor dexterity at music and physical education lessons. Many children who suffer from obliterated dysarthria, have a poor command of self-service skills, they are often found to have fine motor skill disorders. Thus, the defect structure in the light form of dysarthria includes not only speech problems, but also those involving the psychological and motor speech basis. The mild case of dysarthria, which is mainly manifested in unintelligible speech in preschool years, becomes complicated by written language acquisition difficulties at school age. Many teachers regard these mistakes as errors due to inattention, but these errors stem from a speech disorder – obliterated dysarthria when children are observed to articulate speech sounds in an unclear or blurred way. All this prevents them from learning their school subjects successfully. At the same time, speech therapists and specialists, kindergarten teachers and parents are in a position to help a child with obliterated dysarthria as early as in his preschool period. They can eliminate the disturbances that hamper clear and distinct speech, and remove the preconditions for written speech disorders in children. The article examines questions of how to detect nonverbal disorders and to overcome them in a kindergarten.

The article discusses psychological and pedagogical support of, and care for children with severe speech disorders, i.e. stuttering. A preschool educational organization may have to take care of a stuttering child who is receiving pre-school education inclusively in a combined (inclusive) group based on an adapted educational program. The article deals with questions concerning the time when stuttering occurred, the forms in which stuttering was expressed and the main causes of this severe speech disorder. It provides basic symptoms that are manifest in various forms of stuttering, as well as different directions in which stuttering develops. It considers a therapeutic and pedagogical complex to be recommended in order to overcome stuttering. Of practical significance to preschool center teachers and parents of children with stuttering are ‘the speech rules’ which the article offers for stuttering children. Implementation and further compliance with “the speech rules” are necessary to eliminate stuttering in children and to form a new fluent speech skill. Useful tips are also offered to teachers and parents who provide psychological and pedagogical help and support to children with stuttering during their complex remedial work. Since stuttering is one of the most persistent severe speech disorders, affecting not only speech, but also other spheres – the somatic, neurological, psychological, motor, personal and others in a child’s life, it may be concluded that stuttering is easier to prevent than to correct. Early detection and prevention of stuttering and preventive psychological and pedagogical help by teachers and doctors can stop the further progression of stuttering.

The article provides a clear-cut definition of the categories of children with disabilities, a brief description of severe speech disorders and the specifics of the development of such children. The author tried to show preschool educators the specificity of different types of severe speech disorders in preschool children. The article gives the definition and description of such speech defects as dysarthria, sensory and motor alalia, children’s aphasia, stuttering, and general underdevelopment of speech and rhinolalia. The article offers a program for correcting various speech disorders, the author’s own methods and recommendations for the content of educational programs adapted for children with severe speech disorders. At the end of the article we provide a long list of references and important online resource for parents who have children with developmental problems.

Background. The article highlights the problem of communication and socialization of older preschool children with severe speech impairments and with normal speech development, attending preparatory groups of combined kindergartens for school. In recent years, in kindergartens, groups of a combined orientation that are inclusive are increasingly functioning, which necessitates the search for effective ways of psychological and pedagogical work.

Objectives. The purpose of the work is to study the state of communication of preschoolers 6–7 years old with severe speech impairments in comparison with peers with normal speech development, in relation to indicators of their socialization in inclusive educational conditions.

Sample. In total, the study involved 60 children aged 6–7 years who attended preparatory groups of a combined orientation of Irkutsk kindergarten No. 153. Of these, 30 preschoolers had normal speech development and the same number with severe speech impairments.

Methods. The following methods were used in the study: “Studying communication and the nature of interpersonal relationships” (Aizman et al., 1994); the method of expert scale assessment of the development of social forms of behavior in older preschoolers by A.M. Shchetinina and L.V. Kirs (Shchetinina, 2000).

Results. It was found that children aged 6–7 years with speech disorders have significantly lower communication and socialization rates than their peers with normal speech ontogenesis. It was shown that studying the level of communication of preschool children can serve both as a reliable indicator of their preschool socialization and a basis for determining the conditions of psychological support for children with severe speech disorders in an inclusive environment.

Conclusions. Data were obtained on the communication of preschoolers studying in inclusive conditions. Firstly, the constant communication of 6–7-year-old children with normal speech development with peers with severe speech disorders in conditions of inclusion does not influence their communicative and social development. Secondly, despite the fact that severe speech disorders in children aged 6-7 years cause imperfection in the formation of communication skills and, in general, their socialization, an increase in the frequency of communication with peers has a positive effect on their social development for all preschoolers.