Biopsychosocial Model of Psycholinguistic Mechanisms of Speech Communication Skills Development in Children

The study is an attempt to build a biopsychosocial model (hereinafter - BPSM) of psycholinguistic mechanisms of speech development based on the synthesis of modern scientific data on the early stages of speech development obtained in natural and human sciences, including the authors’ research. In this model, the process of acquiring communicative-speech skills by a child is considered as the formation of an adaptive form of socially oriented behavior in the context of certain individual intents and real relationships with people, in which the child is the subject of these relationships. The formation of the functional speech and language system (FUSLAS) coincides with the acquisition of speech communication experience. During the first three years of life, a child’s FUSLAS changes and restructures not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. Thus, it is reasonable to distinguish between transitional versions of the FUSLASr in children and the final, mature version of the FUSLASr in adults. The unique thing about the FSNRF is that the communicative pragmatics block has a lot of weight. In children, this block is what helps them understand the communication situation, separate the adult’s speech (word choice), and connect it to the referent. This is needed for both communicating and teaching themselves correct speech. The study deals with the formation of FSNRR mechanisms including five blocks: the block of communicative pragmatics, the block of programming/decoding utterances, the semiotic block, the regulation block and the block of operational support. It is shown that the mechanisms of speech development are diverse, heterogeneous and change at different stages of child development. As is characteristic of any functional system, these mechanisms interact and mutually modulate each other. In the struggle for cognitive resources, components of speech activity compete with each other. This interaction takes place at three levels: psychophysiological, psycholinguistic and socio-psychological. The proposed BPSM seems promising for studying both norms and pathologies of speech development.