Many of us have heard of speech therapy or a speech therapist (aka speech-language pathologist or SLP) but oftentimes it’s hard to know exactly what a speech therapist does and why a child might benefit from seeing one.
Let’s start with answering this question, “What is speech therapy?”
According to the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, speech therapists, also called speech-language pathologists, “work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults.”
Let’s break that down a bit to discuss how we serve children using these areas. Here are some areas that speech therapists support and treat:
Speech:
Speech is what happens when our mouth makes sounds that are formed together to make words. For example, speech is our ability to make the -r- sound instead of a -w- sound when we say the word “red”.
All children have to learn these sounds (hence why toddlers don’t say the -r- consistently), but some children need help from a speech therapist to train their mouths to make those sounds once they get past a certain age.
Language:
Language is broken down by what we say and what we understand. This is our ability to form sentences, to ask questions, to understand questions, to understand directions, and so on. Language is complex and children may need support with understanding language OR communicating as they grow.
Literacy:
It is hard to imagine that young children may need literacy support before they begin to actually read. However, reading and writing is an extension of speech and language. A child’s ability to understand what letter makes a sound starts at a young age.
Cognitive-Communication:
Speech therapists can support children that struggle with cognitive-communication starting at a young age and aid them with thought processes like organization of thoughts, problem solving, and attention to speech. These skills can help children as they become school age and learn with peers.
Social Communication:
Another area that a speech therapist treats is social skills, sometimes referred to as “pragmatic language”. Things like taking turns while communicating, staying on topic, and engaging in conversation are examples of pragmatic language.
Feeding:
Many people don’t realize that speech therapists can also work on feeding and swallowing. At Roswell Speech Therapy, we often support children with unique sensory needs that result in “picky” eating or other sensorimotor feeding difficulties.
There’s also things like stuttering, aural rehab for deaf and hard of hearing populations, alternative communication—it’s quite a long list!
If you were reading any part of this blog and thought, “Actually, I have concerns about how my child is developing in this area”, we would love to support you. We can either put your mind at ease that your child is on track with his/her speech and language OR join hands with you to support them. Book here: https://www.roswellspeechtherapy-ga.com/contact
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