Recognising Signs Your Child Needs a Speech Therapist
As a parent, you’re prompt to understand that your child needs the best chances to succeed, especially in development. That’s why many parents seek speech therapy for their children. Communication will always be fundamental to a person’s success from grade school to social life. However, some children might not reach the speech or language skills they should expect from their age, which is why your child’s appearance and thoughts might jump to the idea of them needing speech therapy. Alpha Abilities is here to help you understand what signs indicate that speech therapy is necessary for your child, how to identify those signs, and how to rehabilitate your child.
Speech and Language Development
Before I discuss specific alerting signals regarding speech therapy needs, I’d like to ask the reader about typical patterns of speech-language development in children. Speech is creating sounds that combine to form fully articulated words. In contrast, language is a more expansive communication system involving relationships among a child’s understanding, expression, and social use of communicative codes.
Milestones in Speech and Language Development
There are many milestones for speech-language development as infants grow into children. This reflects average developmental differences. Understanding these milestones can help a parent to evaluate if their child is on track in speech-language development and to identify potential issues early.
Signs Your Child May Need a Speech Therapist
Knowing what to look for—the warning signs that your child might have speech or language problems that would benefit from speech-language therapy—can help determine if your child needs additional support before they miss out on valuable learning and social opportunities. Although children all develop differently, there are some red flags to watch out for when children learn to talk.
Delayed Speech Development
A speech delay is the most common sign that a child might need speech therapy. This could mean struggling with producing sounds, building words, combining words into phrases, or delaying the language milestones.
Limited Vocabulary
A child with a speech or language disability might have fewer words in their vocabulary than their peers of the same age, might be inefficient at learning new words, might have trouble retrieving words, or might resort to other forms of communication, like pointing or using gestures, to communicate their needs.
Difficulty with Pronunciation
Trouble pronouncing words, especially sound substitutions, omissions, or distortions, can be a clue to a speech difficulty that can be improved with the help of a speech therapist.
Poor Comprehension Skills
In addition, because speech and language disorders can contribute to difficulties in receptive language – listening, following directions, answering questions, and listening to and understanding stories or conversations – it is essential for students to be screened for language alerts.
Persistent Stuttering
Stuttering, a form of fluency disruption that includes whatever one does to get a word out (e.g., repetitions, prolongations, or blocks), might persist into the school years in some children. Intervention from a speech pathologist can be provided to reduce the stuttering and attempt to manage it.
Social Communication Challenges
Problems with social communication, such as difficulties with conversation or making eye contact, difficulty being aware of social cues or subtleties, or failing to pay attention or remain focused while conversing, often indicate more profound issues with speech or language.
Frustration or Behavioural Issues
Youngsters for whom spoken communication is a challenge—perhaps due to difficulties with speech or language—might experience frustration or exhibit behavioural problems relating to their inability to express their wants satisfactorily and needs in conventional language. Their behaviour might become challenging, too: they might throw tantrums, withdraw from others, or act out.
How Alpha Abilities Can Help
Alpha Abilities is a prominent speech therapy service provider that offers professional intervention services for children with speech and language difficulties and their families. Our qualified speech therapists aim to provide an appropriate evaluation, treatment, and support level to meet the unique range of communication concerns and disorders.
Comprehensive Assessment
At Alpha Abilities, we use formal measures to describe, measure and document a child’s observable speech, language and communication skills. Standardised tests are designed, normed and validated to pinpoint a child’s strengths and areas of need. Through formal and informal observations and input from parents, we gather data to create a comprehensive analysis of a child’s speech, language and communication skills.
Individualised Intervention
We all recognise that kids are individuals with various strengths and needs, so we formulate intervention plans tailored to each child. Our speech therapists work with families to build speech, language and communication goals alongside practical strategies to target these goals and enhance their child’s skills.
Early Intervention
Early intervention is essential to maximise the speech and language outcome of a child with speech and language disorders.
At Alpha Abilities, we offer an early intervention program to help young children from 0-18 years of age. Our early intervention services have three main components: speech and language development, clarity, and social communication. Our goal of intervention is that children will communicate effectively and be better socially.
Family-Centred Approach
At Alpha Abilities, we view therapy as a collaborative process involving families. Therefore, some of our sessions include training, education, and support for parents and caregivers to keep up with their child’s language progress at home and in the community.
Overall, irregularities in speech are a warning sign that your child needs speech therapy. They may require particular intervention from a licensed speech pathologist to maintain speech quality and become proficient communicators. There are evidence-based programs that guarantee professional therapy in speech and language. This way, your child learns essential communication skills for his career and personal life.
