Children require speech-language therapy for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to the following:
- Hearing impairments
- Cognitive or other developmental delays
- Weak oral muscles
- Birth defects such as cleft lip or cleft palate
- PDD/Autism
- Central Auditory Processing Disorder
- Apraxia
- Motor planning problems
- Respiratory problems (breathing disorders)
- Swallowing disorders
- Traumatic brain injury
- ADD/ADHD
- Children born prematurely
Does your child demonstrate any of the following?
- Increased frustration during communication attempts
- Preservative or repetitive behaviors
- Decreased interest in social situations by age 24 months
- Loss of skills previously mastered
- Decreased eye-contact
- Lack of imitation skills
- Decreased/lack of appropriate play skills
- Absent pointing by one year of age
- Difficulty with transitions
- Limited sound repertoire
- Significant sound errors/difficulty with overall intelligibility
- Inconsistent sound errors
- Randomly says a word accurately, then doesn’t use it again
- Limited to no words produced consistently by 16 months
- Delayed response time
- Increased need for repetition for response to commands, directions, and questions
Speech & Language Warning Signs
Pediatric speech and language therapy involves assessing and treating a child’s communication skills. These skills include speech, language, play, and general interaction development. The focus of treatment may be on oral-motor skills, stuttering, tongue thrust, voice, language, articulation, or augmentative communication.
If your child has not yet been evaluated for speech and language skills, this is a great place to start.