Speech Therapy
Speech Therapy treats delays and disorders in the areas of speech, voice, language communication, social pragmatics, swallowing, feeding, and cognition. A speech therapist will use a variety of treatment methods to improve a child's ability to communicate wants and needs, understand others, improve fluency of language, articulation, and improve memory and retention. A speech therapist can also evaluate and treat children with feeding and swallowing concerns to safely manage liquids and foods as well as increasing variety in their diet.
- PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) by Deborah Hayden
- "Social Thinking" concepts by Michelle Garcia Winner
- LAMP: Language Acquisition Through Motor Planning
- Low-, Mid-, and High-Tech Assistive Technology Supports and Devices
- Hanen's "It takes Two to Talk"
- Executive Functioning Therapy
- SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) Approach to Feeding
How long will a typical therapy session last?
A speech therapy treatment session will last 30 minutes depending on the child’s attention and endurance. During a typical treatment session, the therapist will plan fun and play-based activities geared towards each child. Activities may include flashcards, board games, turn-taking, snack time, reading books, drawing, and games in the mirror.
Who can benefit from speech therapy?
Children who can benefit from speech therapy may have been diagnosed with:
- Hearing impairments
- Cognitive disorders
- Developmental delays
- Poor oral motor skills
- Cerebral palsy
- Birth defects (cleft lip and cleft palate)
- Autism spectrum disorders
- Motor planning (Apraxia)
- Swallowing disorders
- Traumatic brain injuries
How long can I expect my child to need therapy?
Every child is different. Some children benefit from a short period of therapy sessions to address concerns with language fluency and articulation. Some children may benefit from a longer duration to help them effectively communicate and better interact with the world. Therapy is beneficial as long as the child enjoys it and is gaining or improving skills based on development.
Some common signs that your child may benefit from a speech therapy evaluation are:
- Difficulty communicating needs and wants
- Language is unintelligible to most people
- Stuttering or language production is not fluent
- Pronounces sounds incorrectly
- Frequent ear infections and has required pressure equalizing tubes
- Limited play skills
- Uses a new word and then does not use it again
- Does not point to objects in books (you say, “where is the cat” and the child disregards the question)
- Repeats rote phrases or words that are not appropriate to the conversation (you say, “would you like to go to the park to play” and the child responds, “the park to play”)
- Difficulty drinking from a cup or straw
- Problems with drooling
- High palate
- Speech does not change much month to month
- Any of the above diagnoses