Benefits of Innovative Speech Therapy for Children
Studies have long shown that advancements in speech therapy technology, techniques and clinical practices for children continually deliver better outcomes that enable children with speech and communication disorders to live happier and healthier lives.
Children affected by developmental speech disorders are at considerable risk of learning disabilities and psychosocial problems which can lead to issues later in life, including anxiety and depression. In boys particularly, speech and communication disorders have been linked to juvenile delinquency and social issues like isolation, along with psychological and mental health issues.
A 2018 NHS (UK) study found that children with a mental disorder were about 5 times more likely to have speech or communication disorder than those without. This highlights the need for innovative speech therapy for children, and on a much brighter note, also illustrates just how effective modern speech therapy for kids has become over the years and the improved outcomes it’s delivering for kids with speech and language disorders.
How Speech Therapy Helps Kids with Speech Therapy
As speech pathologists, a question we’re often asked is, “How can speech therapy help my child and what can I do at home to help?”. Speech therapy has evolved significantly over the years and new findings and breakthroughs continue to provide invaluable insights into the causes of speech and language disorders and the techniques used to treat disorders.
While there’s still much to learn, speech language therapists now have a significant understanding of the most common speech and language disorders. Moreover, these developments have also increased and improved the techniques and technological tools available to speech pathologists and parents to help children with speech difficulties.
Understanding the Childs’ Needs
The first step in a speech therapy plan is a one-on-one assessment in which the speech pathologist assesses the child’s speech and language skills to identify the speech disorder. Once they’ve identified the type of disorder, they can then determine the best way to treat it.
The speech therapy activities and exercises the therapist uses will depend on your child’s disorder and other factors, including their age, social skills and individual needs. The speech and language disorders that speech pathologists treat with speech therapy include:
- Articulation disorders
- Cognitive-communication disorders
- Expressive disorders
- Fluency disorders
- Receptive disorders
- Resonance disorders.
Effective Tools to Help Kids at Home
While smartphone and computer apps should never be a replacement for speech language therapy delivered by a qualified speech pathologist, there are now many apps which kids can use at home to improve their speaking abilities.
These apps are proving highly effective at helping children with a variety of speech and language disorders, in part because kids really enjoy using apps and this helps to facilitate the learning process. Moreover, these apps are easily accessible (check out Play Store and the App Store), affordable and they’re also great for time-poor parents who may lack adequate time to spend with their child going through speech development activities and exercises.
Educare’s highly-trained and qualified child speech pathologists provide speech therapy to help children of all ages improve their speech and communication skills, including language and literacy. To book an appointment or learn more, please contact Educare online or call us on 02 4067 3753 today.
