Communication is Key!
Speech and language (e.g. Communication skills) is one of life’s most important skills and is learned as infants and toddlers begin to explore, play, interact, imitate and model what they see and hear by others. Speech and language skills are key for preparing your child for social and academic success. Some children though fall behind other children when it comes to talking.
Early Intervention play a key role in intervention as communication delays can impact talking, understanding, play and social skills with others. When a child has difficulty with communication they can show increased frustration and can have increased tantrums or behavioral problems impacting communication growth and peer interactions as well as have implications on reading and future academic success.
Signs Your Child May Need Speech Therapy
- Difficulty or inability “talking” or putting words together
- Difficulty following simple or routine based directions
- Limited play or limited interest in a variety of toys while communicating
- Not being easily understood by family members or teachers / day care providers
- Difficulty talk in fairly complete sentences or to be easily understood by strangers by age 4
- Difficulty interacting in play or with other children
- Limited food repertoire, feeding aversions, or difficulty handling a variety of foods orally
- Stuttering or having repetition of words or sounds when talking (e.g. “I-I-I want.. or “but, but, but, but I want the ball”)
How Can Speech Therapy for Children Help Your Child?
- Improves communing by teaching understanding and expression of language
- Improves ability to answer and ask “wh” questions, sequence tasks, teaches topic maintenance in conversation, teaches story re-tell and increasing sentence length when speaking
- Teaches placement and production of sounds to advance clarity and speech and sound production skills
- Teaches proper swallowing patterns to reduce tongue thrust affecting feeding and clarity skills
- Improves communication through implementation of augmentative communication systems (e.g. PECS, AAC, Ipad devices) for communication
- Improves grammar (e.g. pronouns, verbs etc..) for proper sentence structures
- Develops eating, oral motor and swallowing skills for feeding
- Promotes age appropriate play skills
- Promotes and supports reading and auditory comprehension skills
Common Speech/Language Diagnoses
- Expressive language delays or disorders
- Receptive language disorders or delay
- Articulation and phonological disorders
- Social communication / pragmatic language skills
- Swallowing / Feeding delays or disorders
- Auditory processing disorders
- Language-based learning disorders
- Motor speech disorders (e.g., childhood apraxia of speech, dysarthria)
- Autism
- Aural rehabilitation (e.g. hearing deficits)
- Voice
- Stuttering
Our center related services
If you believe your child may benefit from a speech therapy screening or from speech therapy please contact us at 619.692.0622 or click the button below to set up an appointment.