Did you know that, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), nearly eight percent of American children have a communication or swallowing disorder? Fortunately, speech therapy can make a huge difference for these kids and their families.
Today’s blog post focuses on what speech therapy entails and how to know if it’d be helpful for your child.
To start, speech therapy is the treatment of communication, feeding/swallowing, and voice disorders by a certified healthcare professional. A speech-language pathologist (SLP) receives a master’s degree in speech-language pathology and specializes in diagnosing, treating, and even preventing these disorders. An ASHA-certified SLP also passes a national exam and undertakes an ASHA-accredited supervised clinical fellowship.
Many people don’t realize that speech therapy treats more than speech delays or struggles. Seven common reasons that a child may require this treatment include:
- Language disorders: A child may have difficulty understanding and/or using language as a communication tool. It may affect vocabulary development and grammar usage as well as their ability to share their feelings, answer questions, follow directions, and more.
- Speech sound disorders: Here, a child struggles with the production of sounds and how to combine them into words.
- Social communication disorder/pragmatic language disorder: A child may struggle with understanding social cues, taking turns, initiating and/or maintaining conversation, and respecting personal space. This disorder often makes it challenging to form lasting friendships. Children with this diagnosis may also have a concurrent diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
- Voice disorder: Children may have different voice qualities, like too hoarse or too nasal.
- Cognitive-communication disorder: Here, a child faces memory troubles, reasoning and problem-solving issues, and more, all of which negatively impact their ability to communicate with others.
- Stuttering or fluency disorder: Here, kids struggle with adopting a smooth flow of speech. They may repeat sounds within words, prolong parts of words, and/or have prolonged pauses in their speech.
- Feeding/swallowing disorder: Yes, this diagnosis is treated with speech therapy as well! A child may have difficulty with chewing, sucking, and/or swallowing food or even liquid.
So how do you know if speech therapy is the right fit for your child?
The most obvious sign that a child requires speech therapy is if they don’t meet expected speech and language milestones as they mature. If you have any concerns, talk to your pediatrician about a referral for evaluation. An evaluation may include observation as well as standardized and non-standardized testing in an effort to diagnose a speech or language disorder.
Other signs that may point to a need for speech therapy include:
- No babbling by six or seven months
- Difficulty with feeding and/or swallowing
- No words by one year of age
- No combination of words or phrases by two years of age
- Speech that is hard to understand
- Difficulty understanding spoken language or following instructions
- The omission of syllables or sounds
- Repeated speech errors
- Smaller vocabulary than expected for their age
- Stuttering
- A change in voice quality
- Social struggles with their peers
- Hearing loss
- A cleft lip or palate
If you think speech therapy may be helpful for your child, don’t hesitate to contact us to learn more.
At the Center for Rising Minds, we’d love to help you and your family with your mental health care needs! Please reach out to us today to inquire about our services or join our waitlist.
