What Is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy helps your child develop their speech and language skills. For example, your child may not articulate sounds and words correctly or may not have a vocabulary that allows them to communicate their thoughts and needs. A speech therapist can help your child develop both their speech and language skills. Communication is one of life’s most important tasks, and for children it facilitates their ability to learn, explore their environment, interact with others, and communicate their wants/needs.

What Are The Signs That My Child Needs Speech Therapy?

While every child speaks at their own pace and there is considered to be a wide age range for normal development of speech and language milestones there may be some signs that your child may need some support to improve their speech and language skills including:

• Uses fewer than 20 words by 18 months
• Is not using gestures such as pointing or waving bye-bye
• Unclear or immature speech
• Difficulty recognizing letter sounds
• Has trouble imitating sounds
• Produces only certain sounds
• Is unable to follow simple commands/requests

What Happens During A Speech Therapy Session?

Therapy World Speech Therapists provide one-on-one and small group activities to help children improve and master their speech and language skills. If you observe a therapy session with the treatment goals in mind, you will be able to see how the therapist uses his or her unique knowledge of communication development and the needs of a specific child to target objectives that will lead to the best treatment progress. Therapists have many tools which target specific goals such as language-based board games, articulation bingo games, and colorful sequencing activities. Each activity is chosen based on the specific goals of a child’s treatment plan.