Coping with Chronic Health Conditions: Tips

Early Intervention By Licensed Speech Therapists Can Correct Your Child's Speech Problems

11 January 2018 by Freddie Cox

Your toddler hugs you when it's time for your usual playtime and learning sessions. A perfect smile breaks out on her face in anticipation for this activity. That smile never leaves the child's face, but there is a problem that has you worried. You ask questions that your toddler should be quite capable of responding to. She flashes sweet smiles without saying a word, and this bothers you every day. She may just have a speech delay problem. It's best to first address these problems with the child's pediatrician and request a referral for evaluation of your daughter by a licensed speech therapist. Early intervention by speech therapists can correct your child's speech problems.

Observing Symptoms of Speech Problems

You may have noticed that while you push Jen's stroller and she is taking in all the sites on your daily morning walks, she doesn't utter a word when you point out pretty flowers along the way. She does not repeat the names of the flowers when you encourage her to, but she continues to smile. She gives a blank stare when a squirrel runs across the road nearby. She may be experiencing both hearing and associated speech delay problems.

What To Do

It's true that children develop their learning skills at different paces. So, of course, there's no need for you to panic if Jen is not at the development milestone your other children experienced when they reached her toddler age. Speech problems, however, are best sorted out by a licensed speech language pathologist once the pediatrician finds it necessary to make a referral for this specialist to intervene. The quest will be to find out the cause for possible speech delay and treat it.

Speech Delay And Treatment

If your child is diagnosed as having difficulty while trying to formulate words clearly, you can expect a speech therapist to work with the child on moving mechanics of the mouth that result in the desired variety of suitable sounds. Your child will practice these sounds through speech therapy intervention and ultimately reach the goal of normal speech therapy range. However, be mindful of a different variety of speech and language disorder that's called apraxia.

What Is Apraxia?

Apraxia is a motor speech disorder that causes your child to experience difficulty in verbalizing sounds, words and syllables. Your child's brain fails to work in synchronicity with movement of the lips, jaw, and tongue in order to produce speech. Your child knows what to say. However, the brain struggles with vital coordinating muscle movements to make the words, sounds, and sentences happen.

Treating Apraxia

Speech therapists have your child practice speech and muscle movements to correct apraxia. Multi-sensory feedback is an integral method that the therapists use in treating this problem. Your child will be given stimulus cues to address those vital sounds, syllables and ultimately sentences that improve and correct apraxia symptoms.

For more information, contact a business such as Physical Therapy Institute.

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