5 Reasons Why Language Therapy Is Crucial For A Non-Verbal Child!

Some children find it too hard to communicate with others through speech. Thus it is imperative for them to learn how to communicate their thoughts and needs, make choices and interact with others. This is where a speech therapist can help.

Here are some of the ways a speech therapist can help non-verbal children.

1. Develop a better mode of communication: Speaking is not the only mode of communication. A non-verbal child can learn to communicate through gestures, sign language, vocalization etc. A speech therapist can also teach them how to control their facial expressions while communicating with others. They could also be taught to use pictures of single button voice output devices.
2. Language Development: It is a misconception that speech therapy restricts itself to speech. Language development is a crucial part of speech therapy. Along with developing a vocabulary, a speech therapist will also be able to target concepts such as actions, sequencing, grammar, the use of pronouns, comprehension, categorization etc.
3. Improved Social Skills: If a child cannot communicate with others, he may withdraw into himself. Thus, finding a way to express himself and communicate with others is crucial to developing social skills. Non-verbal children often find that their pragmatic language skills are delayed or disordered. A speech therapist may use various tools such as role-playing, video modelling, social stories and specific apps designed for speech therapy to help the child develop these skills. When combined with aided communications, this can help the child develop social skills.
4. Better Reading: Literacy and communication go hand in hand. Nonverbal children may be taught to communicate through typing. This improves their spellings and in turn, helps improve their vocabulary and makes reading easier.
5. Enhanced Alternative Communication: As mentioned above, we do not communicate only through spoken words. Gestures, sign language, vocalizations and approximations are important modes of communication for non-verbal children. A speech therapist can work on these communication strategies and help develop them. For example, a child could make hand gestures to eat or drink or tap a person to get their attention. Some children have a limited ability to create certain sounds. These sounds can be made meaningful. For example, if the child can say ‘aa’ he could be taught to make that sound when he is hungry. The key here is to understand what are the aspects important to the individual and developing a mode of communication through sounds according to them.