Speech disorder is not an unusual problem and can be tackled with the help of speech therapy. Scroll down and get to know how speech therapists help kids overcome their speech problems.
Speech disorder is a problem referred to cluttering, stuttering, voice and sound disorders. Sometimes, a person might even suffer from complete inability to speak, which is regarded as muteness. As children begin to learn different words and get introduced to sounds, they might suffer or develop speech disorder. Speech disorder, is a manageable problem during childhood. Many therapists, use various techniques and strategies, to make these little children overcome the difficulty of speaking. Resolving the problem of speech disorder at an early age, can boost a child’s confidence and help him/her deal with discussions and interviews at a later stage in their life.
Speech Therapy for Children
Therapists play an important role in assessing and treating the speech problems that many people suffer from. They have different skills and strategies, to work with all kinds of language and communication disorder. There are many variations in speech problems and these therapists, work in a strategic manner to support and improve this problem. They are more likely to work with;
- Children with producing speech.
- Children who do not understand and speak the language.
- Cluttering.
- Children who might have problem of chewing and swallowing.
To work on these different issues, they even work with doctors, nurses, psychologists, teachers and parents. As it involves a complete study of the child, the therapists must follow a certain regime of activities to improve the quality of speech of the client. Here is a list of activities, which indicate the working style of the therapist.
- Learn and identify the communication disorder in children.
- Administering and improving the problem of chewing and swallowing.
- Creating and implementing better treatment programs.
- Counseling and making essential suggestions to the parents while training the other health and educational professionals on the planned program.
- Examining the communication sources and the progress of the client.
- Making reports and case notes and maintaining the client’s information for future reference.
- Evaluating and revising the entire program and analyzing the outcome of the case study.
Other than just keeping a follow-up of the routine activities, they also have to develop and implement certain techniques, to reach to a successful outcome. Creating innovative exercises and activities can bring positive changes in children. Here are a few speech therapy techniques.
Speech Therapy Activities for Children
Articulation Therapy
Improper coordination of articulators, leads to articulation disorders. To overcome this disorder, make the child physically produce the sound. There are many activities that a therapist can borrow, or he/she can create articulation therapy ideas to treat the problem. Simply talking to the child can also help. However, if the child is treated through games and activities, the outcome is faster and positive. Among the most common ideas, is to make the child listen to the sound of the target object and later make him/her associate the sound to the suitable object.
Vocabulary
Inability to speak, these children also face the problem of low vocabulary. Less knowledge of words, makes expression difficult. Using innovative methods to build the vocabulary will help these children, efficiently express themselves. The therapists often create vocabulary games, or make the children read loudly, repeat words or add a new word to the sentence, to enrich them with new words. With a bank of new and different words and the ability to use them, these children get motivated and encouraged children to speak, which ultimately improves the speech quality in them.
Audiovisual Aids
As children suffer from producing sounds and are unable to speak, audiovisual therapy resolves this issue for them. There are many songs and stories that are designed for children with such disabilities. The therapists take the help of these audiovisual aids, and encourage the children to imitate the sounds. Here, the children can carefully observe the lip movement and understand the formation of different words. This makes talking easy for them.
Thinking Exercises
There are simple games, which provoke the children to think and imagine. A therapist can ask the children to guess what he/she is thinking of. This will make the children to put on their thinking cap and help them become more expressive. This also enhances their imaginary skills.
Language helps in communication and expression. Having the disability in understanding and speaking, causes great discomfort. Children who face such problems should be well attended and given a better treatment, to help them defeat this disorder. Taking the help of therapists always works out, as they improve and enhance the academic performance of the child. A fat fee structure and opportunity to use imagination in developing different techniques for improving speech quality, have pulled the youth towards this profession.
If your child has a similar problem, it is time to hire an expert speech therapist and help your child overcome his/her disability of speech.
