5 Ways How A Speech Therapist Can Help Your Child!

Children start talking in the first two years of their life. While everyone learns at a different rate, some children have more difficulty as compared to others. In such cases, your child may benefit by consulting a speech therapist. A speech therapist’s sole purpose is to spend one on one time with your child and help them overcome communication issues. Some of the ways a speech therapist can help are:

1. Better Articulation: Articulation refers to a person’s ability to move the jaw, tongue, lips and palate to enunciate sounds. If the child can articulate properly, he or she will also be able to make more intelligible sounds. A speech therapist can help a child produce specific sounds and sound patterns. This can make their speech more easily understood by others.
2. Expand the child’s vocabulary: Once a child learns how to articulate different sounds, a speech therapist can help them learn new words. They can also help them learn how to string these words together into a phrase or sentence. This is known as expressive vocabulary. It helps your child communicate better and rely less on gestures and more on words. For example, he could learn to say bye instead of only waving his hand.
3. Increased receptivity: Communication is a two-way street. Receptivity refers to a child’s ability to understand and listen to others. While a speech therapist helps a child speak with more clarity it also helps them become better listeners. When children have a bigger vocabulary, they can use their knowledge to answer questions, participate in conversations and follow directions.
4. Stuttering: Stuttering is a common disorder that affects children. It can be understood as taking breaks in speech, repeating words and syllables. This condition usually begins in childhood and can often continue into adulthood. If left untreated, stuttering can also cause unusually facial movements, tension in the head and neck and odd motor movements. A speech therapist can help your child control such behaviour and treat their stuttering problem.
5. Resonance: When a child cannot speak properly, they tend to scream and shout to get themselves understood. This can cause vocal abuse. Resonance refers to voice quality determined by sound vibrations in the oral and nasal cavities. Vocal abuse can affect resonance and make a child’s voice hoarse. By helping them speak more clearly, a child will no longer have to shout to make himself understood and hence will have better voice quality.