Parents are often concerned about their infant’s development. This is normal, and the vast amount of information provided on the internet and in community circles can often be overwhelming and misleading. Infants predictably develop speech and language. However, speech therapists are here to help when this does not occur! A speech therapist can recommend hearing testing by an audiologist if your infant or child appears to have hearing loss. Please give Mark Their Words Therapy Services a call to schedule an assessment with one of our skilled speech therapists today.
What type of speech disorder does my child have?
As stated by KidsHealth,
“A speech disorder refers to a problem with making sounds. Speech disorders include:
- Articulation disorders: With this kind of disorder, words do not come out intentionally. A child may have trouble with a “th” or “cr” combination, making the language difficult to understand.
- Fluency disorders: Stuttering is the best-known example of a fluency disorder, in which the flow of speech is interrupted by unusual stops, partial-word repetitions (“b-b-boy”), or prolonging sounds and syllables (“sssssnake”).
- Resonance or voice disorders: These include pitch, volume, or speech quality problems. You may think your child is “yelling” when this expression seems normal to them.
A speech disorder can also include apraxia or dysarthria. Apraxia is a condition that causes problems organizing the movements of speech. Dysarthria is a speech disorder causing speech to seem slow and blurry.
A speech therapist can help get to the root of the problem
You might be wondering what you should expect with your child’s speech and language development as they grow. Here are some guidelines from Pathways:
- By three months, a baby should be making eye contact and cooing
- By six months, a baby should start to babble, e.g., “dada.”
- By nine months, a baby should begin to imitate sounds
If your child doesn’t meet these milestones, it’s nothing to be upset about. However, it’s a good indicator that the help of a speech therapist may be necessary.
A speech-language therapist can assess your child for a speech disorder. These tests will lead to a diagnosis of the exact type of condition that needs to be treated.
Your child may have received an autism diagnosis from your pediatrician and was referred for speech therapy. If that is the case, we can build on that diagnosis with additional assessments and appropriate interventions. We can also assist with building a team of professionals to navigate this new journey.
Here are some of the most common tests used to diagnose speech disorders in children.
- Denver Articulation Screening Examination (DASE) is a developmental screening test designed for children between 2 months and five years of age. It tests communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem-solving and social skills.
- Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – This test has been used to diagnose speech disorders for decades. This test measures the child’s vocabulary and examines their ability to speak. The therapist recites words, and the child identifies an associated picture that matches each word.
- Early Language Milestone Scale 2 – The ELM Scale-2 test takes about 10 minutes to complete. It measures language milestones in children up to 3 years of age or older children who developmentally fall within this range.
So, what does a speech therapy treatment plan look like?
One of our speech-language therapists will work with your child in a relaxed, friendly setting on a series of exercises.
The speech therapy exercises can range from tasks that strengthen the face, tongue, and throat muscles to vocabulary development and even basic communication skills like making eye contact when speaking to others.
Some children with speech and language challenges also have issues eating. Speech therapists can also assess your child’s feeding skills and make recommendations to expand the types of foods and amount of food they will eat.
It is also important to note that a speech therapist is part of a team and can help you find additional therapy resources for your child if your concerns go beyond just speech and language.
Give us a call!
The good news about a speech disorder is that the earlier your child begins speech therapy, the better the long-term results can be.
If your child is struggling with delayed speech, vocabulary development, or a neurological or physical disorder impacting their speech, give Mark Their Words Therapy Services a call to set up a screening appointment.
Sources:
- https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/speech-therapy.html
- https://www.asha.org/
- https://pathways.org/topics-of-development/communication/
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