Early child development is very important as it sets the foundation for lifelong learning, health and behavior.
Many people still think that speech therapy is the literal act of speaking, while they are not wrong but it also includes language disorders and social skills. Every child needs to be able to communicate effectively that’s why speech therapy benefits those children who are non-verbal. Children who are hard to understand when they speak, or if they have trouble pronouncing certain letter, have difficulty understanding what others are saying or having any problems communicating can benefit from speech therapy. Children having feeding or swallowing disorders can also benefit from speech therapy.
Speech therapy helps with articulation and fluency, as well as the quality and volume of children’s speech as they speech therapist will work with the children and strengthen their speech muscles and will teach them to form sounds correctly. Speech therapists also improve swallowing and chewing of children by exercising their oral muscles. Picky eaters can also benefit from speech therapy as some speech therapists also work on oral stimulation and sensitivity to different tastes and textures.
Children with autism who may struggle with social cues or connecting words with emotions can also benefit as the speech therapist will work on expression as well as speaking and acting in socially appropriate ways. Speech therapists use things including books, toys, games and other fun activities to enhance children’s language development and processing, as well as expand children’s vocabulary. Speech therapists use such fun methods that often children don’t even realize that they are doing tasks given to them because they are having so much fun doing them.
Other benefits of speech therapy
Following are some of the most important benefits of children development and speech therapy:
- Improving interactions with others by developing conversational skills.
- Expressing thoughts, needs, ideas and most importantly emotions in a more understandable way.
- Following rules and self-regulation for conversation.
- Having social appropriateness in different settings and situations depending on those settings and situations.
- Others understanding you better what they are saying because of improved articulation.
- Non-verbal communication skills improved such as body language or facial expressions.
- Improved verbal communication skills as they can put words together in a sentence that make sense.
- Understanding the meaning of more words and how to use them.
- Using alternative communication devices such as text-to-speech programs or picture exchange communication systems.
In order for children to be more successful in school, build their self-esteem and become a more independent communicator, it is important to start speech therapy early so they can help address problems before they start becoming serious.
Many speech therapists in your area are waiting for you to bring your child so they can evaluate your child for a wide range of speech and language disorders and will develop a customized treatment plan to help you meet your needs and most importantly help your child to develop into a better and successful human being.
