HomeSpeech therapy is thought of as the avenue to help teach children how to say their speech sounds correctly. However, speech therapy goes way beyond just teaching speech!! And, way beyond just teaching children!
Speech therapy consists of techniques and activities aimed at improving overall communication by addressing delays and disorders in expressive/receptive language, articulation, oral motor dysfunction, apraxia of speech, social language, fluency (stuttering), feeding and swallowing, and cognitive skills.
Our trained speech therapists, work closely with your toddler or child to assess their ability to speak and understand others properly before creating customized therapy sessions based on the kid’s specific speech and language goals.
Why Would My Child Need Speech Therapy?
Speech therapy can help with so many more skills pertaining to communication, both oral and written. This specialized therapy can assist with relationship building, and brain development, and can improve the overall quality of life.
Additionally, speech therapy may be necessary for a child who has experienced speech impairment due to an illness or injury. There are a variety of reasons why a child may need speech therapy. If you notice that your child is not on par with their peers or developmental milestones for their age, ongoing or intensive speech therapy sessions may be beneficial to the child.
Here are some of the lesser-known areas that speech therapy can help to address for your child.
Improved Communication
Speech and language therapy is not just about speech; it also includes language. Many people have a misconception that speech therapy is just about speech but it is so much more than that.
Speech therapy can help a child, beginning at the most basic level, to simply communicate their needs and wants. This communication may be nonverbal such as through gestures or facial expressions, sign language, or using a picture exchange system; or taught to use simple sounds or approximations to request what they want or need if they aren’t yet able to say full words.
Speech therapy continues to help improve communication abilities over time. At a higher level of communication, individuals who have difficulty having conversations can be taught how to interpret and respond to questions and statements and how to keep this conversation going.
We depend on communication as we navigate the world and interact with others. By giving a child along any stage of development the ability to communicate, speech therapy can open up so many opportunities and help the child become more independent as he or she grows!
Social Skills
Speech therapy can support children with their social skill development. First, it can help teach skills such as matching emotions to faces or how to carry on a conversation; it also addresses more abstract skills like identifying and understanding others’ nonverbal body language as well as learning the expected ways to communicate in a variety of settings or with different communication partners (i.e. think talking to one’s peers vs. talking to a teacher).
This support can help a child to build stronger connections with other people and more fulfilling, lasting relationships. Why? Individuals who have a hard time with social skills (whether it be the effect of their social behaviors on others or difficulty reading people and their behaviors) often struggle to build these social connections and relationships that typical children are able to build effortlessly.
This can lead to loneliness and even depression. With speech therapy focused on social skills, children can learn this area of pragmatic communication that doesn’t always develop easily for everyone, make and keep friendships, and really blossom into happier, more connected kids!
Social skills can be used with video modeling, role-playing, specific therapy apps, social stories, and other various strategies and tools. The use of aided communication with these strategies to work on improving these social skills is an important aspect of speech therapy.
Helps with Reading
Speech delay can cause problems listening, reading, and writing. Reading and literacy skills can significantly aid in communication. When you can spell, you can communicate freely. Teaching these essential skills can be the key to better communication with others.
Speech therapy is a treatment that can help improve communication skills. Many people think that speech therapy is only for kids with speech disorders that affect pronunciation. But it also helps kids who struggle with spoken and written language. That includes those with language disorders and reading challenges. A speech therapist will start by identifying what kind of speech or language problem a child has. Then they determine what’s causing it and decide on the best treatment.
Enhances Alternative Communication Methods
Work on other communication strategies to aid communication such as gestures, sign language, approximations, vocalizations, and/or other means of communication. As humans, we communicate with a total communication approach. We communicate via speech, facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, writing, typing, and many other forms of communication.
Teaching on how to communicate in other ways in addition to a formal means of aided communication (e.g. use the sign for “bathroom”, “eat” and “drink”, tap on a person’s shoulder to get their attention, etc). For example, if a child can say “ha,” use that for “help”. For the approximation, “ba” you might use that for “book” if that is important to that specific individual.
Looking for more tips and questions? Contact us!
At Southern Pediatric Therapy Clinic, we provide speech therapy sessions customized to your child’s needs. We love speech therapy! call us today and schedule an appointment!
