Child Speech Therapist
There is a whole variety of conditions that a child could suffer from which will affect their speech.
When your child has a speech impairment and when you take them to a child speech therapist, then you may be wondering what types of conditions can be addressed and handled properly.
There are a few different things that you need to understand about speech and language disorders in children so that you can understand your child’s own problems and how they can be addressed.
To begin with, speech disorders are broken into four different categories:
- Language – This refers to the child’s ability to learn words and use them to express wants and needs. Additionally, this can include the child’s ability to understand the words that other people are using.
- Fluency – This refers to a child’s ability to talk fluently. In other words, the child may have fluency problems if their speech is easily interrupted, if they take long pauses in the middle of sentences, and if they breathe strangely during sentences.
- Articulation – This has to do with a child’s ability to pronounce words. Common articulation problems are lisps, in which the child has trouble pronouncing the letter “R” or the letter “L”.
- Voice – This has to do with the child’s pitch, tone and diction. They may have strange pitches to their voice or they may be too loud in certain situations.
These four sectors will be the root of your child’s speech and language problems. The actual issue that your child has will be addressed accordingly by the right child speech therapist.
Common signs of a speech or language impairment
When you hear your child talk, can you pinpoint the speech problem that they are having? Here are some of the common signs of speech or language impairment:
- The child cannot pronounce a certain letter
- The child is inappropriately loud without realizing it
- The child’s voice seems raspy
- The child has a stutter
- The child stops in the middle of sentences for long, quiet pauses
- The child repeats themselves over and over in the same sentence
- The child gets tense when trying to communicate
- The child confuses word meanings easily
- The child prefers to use one word commands instead of sentences
- The child does not form sentences properly
Understanding what the child speech therapist will address will better help you understand your child and their disorder.
