Caused by a variety of disorders and ailments, difficulties with speech can affect a child’s education and social life. Whether your child’s speech is affected by hearing, autism spectrum, early childhood trauma, or another cause, proper treatment by a speech pathologist can help children improve their speech and language.
So how can you tell if your child needs speech therapy? Their faces and bodies are still developing. They’re losing and growing new teeth. They’re still learning how to speak. How can you know if your child has speech delay or simply still learning? Thanks to the research and conclusions of speech pathologists over the last few decades, it’s known that children on average have fairly standard levels of comprehension and word production at different ages. If a child is lagging in these areas for their age group, their parent should consider making appointments for a hearing testing and counselling with a speech pathologist.
A child with undiagnosed hearing impairment will often suffer from other developmental issues due to their loss of hearing. Because they cannot understand when spoken to at a conversational level, they often do not obey instructions from you or their teachers. A young child with severe hearing impairment may become frustrated at not hearing their parents’ voices and act out so that their parents will speak more loudly. Because they cannot clearly hear how words and syllables are supposed to sound, they can develop problems with speech. All of these issues, if left undiagnosed and untreated will affect the child’s education and social growth.
What is autism spectrum
Speech and comprehension impairment may be early warning signs that your child has autism, Asperger Syndrome, or some other disorder in the autism spectrum. Children who fall under any of these diagnoses are said to have ASD (autism spectrum disorder). People and particularly children with ASD often have problems with communication, both verbal and non verbal. According to WebMD, speech therapy is the first and foremost important therapy to help children with ASD to communicate with their parents, peers, and teachers [1]. With proper diagnosis and early treatment, these children can often learn to speak and listen normally.
With children suffering from speech and comprehension problems related to ASD, a speech pathologist’s job is not just to teach the child how to speak, but also how to use language, how to hold a conversation. For these children, focusing and understanding verbal and non verbal cues from others is not natural. They often have trouble making eye contact and looking at other people at all, let alone paying attention to the cues that others are giving with body language and facial expressions. A speech-language pathologist trained in treating children with issues related to hearing loss or autism can do much more than teach the child how to overcome a lisp or other speech impediment. The speech-language therapist does not only work with the autistic child, but also with their family, school, and other therapists and doctors. If the child is nonverbal, their speech therapist’s goal may not be to get the child speaking, but to get him or her to communicate in whatever way possible [1].
A famous and inspiring story about a non verbal child with autism learning to communicate is Carly Fleischmann. Carly went through her childhood unable to communicate with her family until she taught herself to type. Carly has done so well with her typing communication that she has just started college, living in a dorm just like any normal, verbal student. Thanks to support from her family, her own determination, and aid from speech-language therapists and other experts, Carly has accomplished more than anyone ever thought possible for her [2].
The work of speech pathologists and speech therapists continues to help children and adults on many levels, from simply how to form words to more complex communications problems. As a caring parent, you can look out for warning signs and consult with professionals to make your child’s life better.
Results focused speech therapy
ENT Clinic have created comprehensive speech pathology resources, that together with our speech pathologists consultation, can be used to create a customised treatment plan. This will ensure that you will experience results focused, effective speech therapy!
To make an appointment with a speech pathologist, Contact Us Today!
We see children and adults for all areas of speech therapy.
References
[1] WebMD. “Benefits of Speech Therapy for Autism”.
[2] Fleischmann, Carly. About Carly | Carlys Voice.
Carly Fleischmann | Facebook.
