Abstract:

Introduction:
The paper addresses a neglected, but serious implications of long-term prioritization of non- physiological and harmful mouth breathing in preschool children. It emphasizes the importance of an overlap in education, both in terms of the consequences that have a very negative impact on the teaching process as such, and in terms of individual educators and how they can enter the issue, prevent some impacts, or at an early stage detect them and focus on them. We outline of what teachers can focus on to prevent the development of negative consequences, points out the importance of the teacher as the fundamental observer, describing how the consequences can determine or disturb the educational process. The paper focuses on insufficient awareness and incorrect approaches of people in the child’s environment and possible prevention of often unnecessary surgical interventions.

Methodology:
The paper makes a comparison of the contrast between this insufficient awareness and subsequent examination of the child after surgery using a case report involving the approach and awareness of the family (especially the mother), kindergarten (kindergarten teacher, who is in frequent contact with the child), and manifestations of the child examined using the authors’ methodology from the perspective of a speech-language therapist. The interview with teachers focuses on their possible perception of the whole situation, and analyses ways in which they may respond and what they may to do if they notice this long-term habit in children.


Results:
The case report describes the consequences of inadequate breathing which influence the voice and speech production. The negative effects are significantly obvious in psychosocial aspects of the child everyday communication, attention, psychomotor activity etc., complicate the child efficient preschool education, resulting into challenging demands on basic knowledge of the preschool teachers in the area of physiological oral and nasal breathing and their relation to voice resonance disorders and psychological and medical consequences. The consequences also have a very negative impact on the teaching process as such – attention deficits appear, the child’s perception and performance decreases and is dominated by fatigue, apathy and inactivity, which the teacher may misinterpret as disinterest in learning or a lack of cognitive abilities. There is also a risk of transfer into pseudo-developmental learning disorders.

Conclusion:
The issue is often underestimated by the child’s surroundings, including teachers, and is not given enough attention to prevent the negative impacts. Prevention is the key issue in this respect, and teachers play an important role. If they intervene adequately, it will have a very positive impact on the child and the educational process - changes in the child’s pragmatic level of language can be expected, which will be significantly reflected in their abilities in the learning process and in the school environment. There are also changes in the child’s facial expression, appearance, voice, energy, ability to concentrate on the learning content, and duration and quality of attention. The paper provides a new insight, suggestions and recommendations in the context of preschool/school education with an emphasis on early diagnosis of possible difficulties and the importance of observation by persons in the child’s environment. The need of the interdisciplinary approach is emphasized.

Keywords:

Preschool age, preschool education, breathing, resonance disorders, speech-language therapy, special education.