Speech Therapy
Pediatric speech therapy is designed to help children who struggle with producing clear and understandable speech, apraxia of speech, auditory processing, developmental language delays, dyslexia, phonemic awareness, feeding, fluency, social language, reading and writing, and academic difficulties. Speech language pathologists aim to help children gain confidence and develop the skills necessary for effective communication and social interaction.
What Areas Does Speech Therapy Address?
Articulation
Speech intelligibility refers to how children articulate their words, how they use their voice, and how smoothly words flow off their tongue. Intelligible speech is speech that is readily understood, even by strangers.
Fluency
Fluency refers to the smoothness, flow, and rhythm of speech. Fluency disorders such as stuttering (disruptions in the flow of speech) or cluttering (rapid or irregular speech) are common targets in therapy for children.
Augmentative and
Alternative Communication
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) refers to communication devices, systems, strategies, and tools that replace or support natural speech. These tools support children who have difficulty using speech to communicate.
Reading / Writing
A structured multisensory phonics strategy, the Orton-Gillingham Approach, develops literacy skills in all ages by breaking these skills down into more manageable components involving letters and sounds. This strengthens the language foundation, building more complex reading and writing skills.
Auditory Processing
Auditory processing is the brain’s interpretation of heard information. This is what enables children to pick up on verbal cues, aiding them in following directions, developing phonemic awareness, and enhancing comprehension skills.
Language Delays
Language disorders include expressive language (ability to communicate verbally or non-verbally), receptive language (ability to understand language), and social/pragmatic language skills (skills used while interacting with others). These skills are prerequisites for learning, communicating, and functioning.
Social Language
Social skills must be in place for meaningful language to occur. These include cooperative play, seeing things from another person’s perspective, turn taking, problem solving, interpreting social contexts and cues, and seeing the bigger picture.
Oral Motor Skills / Swallowing
Oral motor skills enable the muscles of the mouth and jaw to speak, eat, and swallow. These skills may be lacking if children exhibit excessive drooling or have challenges with swallowing, chewing, and blowing bubbles.
Academic
Academic skills are often targeted when speech and language difficulties impact children’s ability to succeed in school. Key academic areas addressed include reading, writing, spelling, and listening/reading comprehension.