Benefits of Speech Therapy for Special Needs Kids
Speech therapy is an intervention method that helps children and adults with impaired speech and/or swallowing capabilities. Speech therapists or speech-language pathologist (SLPs) are trained and experienced professionals who use exercises and a variety of techniques to strengthen the ability to speak coherently.
Speech and language delays can be identified as the child reaches 18 months of age. These are associated with increased difficulty in reading, writing, socialization, and paying attention, which is why parents and caregivers should be have adequate knowledge about their kids’ expected developmental milestones.
Indulging your child in speech therapy, after consulting a doctor, can improve these disabilities at a quick pace—and that too at an early stage.
Early intervention not only improves a child’s communication skills but also gives them the enhanced ability to understand and grasp spoken language. Research shows that children who received active interventions of speech and language therapy at an early age, show improvements in speech and/or language disorders.
Autism is a common developmental disability that can affect speech, social communication and language development. Once autism is diagnosed, speech therapists work out the best ways to enhance the person’s quality of life through improved communication. Some of these ways are:
Better Articulation Skills
Articulation is referred to as the physical movement of the lips, tongue, jaw and palate that collaborate with each other to produce speech sounds. A common articulation problem is a child’s inability to make the ‘R’ sound. For some, this may denote a speech disorder, while some children grow up with this problem due to lack of articulatory exercises in early years.
Speech therapists work with the child to produce particular sound patters in order to increase their overall speech intelligibility. One example is a game that requires the child to roll dice, and say the sound out loud when the dice lands on a specific sound.
Improved Speech fluency
A common communication disorder, stuttering, affects speech fluency of children with autism. Stuttering is associated with behaviors like prolongations, interjections and repetitions. The Stuttering Foundation states that over 70 million people worldwide are affected by stuttering.
A speech therapist may teach the child different strategies to control these stutters with exercises that strengthen the tongue. The SLP may advise the patient to pace their breath while talking or exercise their trigger words so that they have better control over its fluency.
Improve swallowing
People with speech disorders sometimes face difficulty in swallowing, or otherwise known as dysphagia. Swallowing disorders can also be a result of brain injuries, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s or any other neurological disease.
A speech therapist utilizes a blend of exercises to improve the patient’s oral intake process. The aim of these exercises is to increase the patient’s control over their swallowing capabilities. Some techniques may include:
- Swallow maneuvers
- Head positioning technique
- Improving range of motion, coordination and strengthening of jaw, tongue and cheek muscles.
We offer speech therapy services at home
As a leading home health care agency in the Greater Houston and surrounding areas, we provide speech therapy services at the comfort of your own home.
We also offer home care service Katy TX such as infusion therapy and elder care services. Contact us for more information.
