How can a Speech Pathologist help your child with communication difficulties? Communication, what does it mean…when we talk about communication difficulties, we aren’t just referring to verbal language, or helping a child to talk. Speech therapy can help children to develop social skills. Social skills include a variety of different forms of communication include non verbal communication, body language and understanding the non verbal communications of others. Speech Therapy often helps non verbal children to develop eye contact and participate in play activities, as well as helping them to develop consistent effective ways to communicate. Speech Therapy can also assist children with verbal skills who have trouble with certain social skills such as sharing and turn taking or being able to cope with winning and losing. |
In terms of language development, Speech Therapy can help children to be able to put words together as sentences. Therapy can also help children develop or expand their vocabulary. When we talk about language we are referring to two types of language receptive, this is our ability to listen and understand what others are saying (for example, following and understanding instructions), and expressive language, our ability to express ourselves. A child’s receptive language ability will determine whether they understand rules at home and school and whether they can respond appropriately to questions and conversation. It is not uncommon for a child to be very chatty and articulate (have great expressive language skills) whilst actually not understanding everything that’s going on in conversation (poor receptive language skills).
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As a Speech Pathologist we also look at the sounds a child makes. Sometimes a child may have difficulty making certain speech sounds or pronouncing specific letter sounds. Common difficulties are mixing up “k” sounds and “t” sounds and “g” to “d” sounds. Speech therapy can help a child by teaching them the correct sounds and how to use them. Being able to pronounce these sounds properly and consistently is important for expressive language and speech.
Stuttering something else a speech pathologist can help with. Stuttering is repeating sounds, or syllables, or phrases. This affects their fluency (or flow) of speech. Speech therapy can assist to reduce this stuttering and hence increase the fluency of a child’s speech.
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Supporting children with Autism at Real Autism Care we can do more than just support a child’s verbal communication. Whilst this is important, children with Autism may not see it as important as people without Autism. For children with Autism we also support them to develop multi modal forms of communication. This is different for each child but can include encouraging using signs or using key word signs through therapy. We can also use PECS, a Picture Exchange Communication System. This is a system used to help non verbal children. If the child doesn’t use words, we can use images to help them communicate their needs and wants. In fact, using signs and visuals is shown to facilitate verbal communication. Use visuals or pictorial representations can help a child follow the instructions, know what is expected of them and understand what is happening next. As a speech Pathologist we also develop social stories. Social stories are a pictorial representation of a sequence of events, a situation, skill, or concept. We use these stories to help a child understand what’s appropriate in specific situations, for example when they get upset or angry or when there is too much noise around them.
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Speech Pathologists work closely with the families to develop collaborative goals about what are the therapy needs of the child. We always try to work with the child’s interest and their strengths to make therapy as individually tailored as possible. Yes, we do like to provide home work, or as we like to call it at Real Autism Care “at home success tasks” to ensure that a child is practicing outside of therapy. Our at home success tasks are ways to practice therapy tasks in everyday life situations. With all this practice, they’re likely to make the most success.
If you are concerned about your child’s speech or language book a free 30 minute screener with one our speech pathologists at our Campbelltown or Wollongong clinic. Your child does not have to be diagnosed with Autism to see our therapists however we have additional skills and experience supporting children with Autism or a Disability. You can call our office on 1300 856 617 to book your free speech screener TODAY! |
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