Speech therapist for children: the tools for communicating children
The speech therapist for the child can be a reference figure in his correct growth path in case there are some problems affecting his cognitive development or learning delays of a different nature. The speech therapist through a targeted therapy made of comparison and exercises helps to improve the communication of the child: you too can do many for an adequate development of his creativity. Watch the video and get inspired!
Children's speech therapist: therapy for speech and communication disorders
Today, experts attach great importance to developmental age disorders, including communication disorders, such as stuttering, speech disorder, selective mutism, learning and behavior. Speech therapy (from the Greek λόγος, "word" and παιδεία "education") prevents and treats speech, language, communication, swallowing and cognitive disorders. If you have noticed the first signs of such ailments in your baby, do not hesitate. His academic performance, his socialization, his future relationships, his life will be conditioned by the quality of his language. You must, therefore, know when to take the child to a speech therapist, who can intervene due to language delay, difficulty in reading, writing, stuttering, impaired understanding, learning, swallowing and articulation of the voice. The disorders for which to consult a speech therapist after a specialist diagnosis are: absence of babbling, poor gestures, absence of language at 2 years of age, use of only two syllables after 3, incorrect pronunciation of sounds, exchange of internal letters of a term, problems with swallowing, stuttering, lack of concentration and motor coordination; difficulty in reading, writing, drawing and memory, hyperactivity, aggression, restricted vocabulary, use of short sentences. The most common disorder is simple delay in oral language, not strictly pathological. There are no compromised organs, but it is a delay in the learning of phonemes, often with difficulty in correctly pronouncing some sounds. If there are many, communication can become incomprehensible.
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Children's speech therapist: why speech therapy games are valid
After evaluating the case, the speech therapist establishes how and when to start speech therapy, which consists of speech therapy games, capable of attracting the child's attention, to examine their abilities. Some are presented in expert texts, others proposed by the speech therapist. The games are different depending on the disorder; they must stimulate attention, understanding and manual skills, therefore, not directly the language, but the skills that will allow the child to improve it. They include various activities: correct breathing tests, puzzles, constructions, essential for any form of reasoning; games with figures, which attract more than words, exercises to stimulate him to pronounce certain letters. The most common example is that of the so-called "soft r", not pronounced correctly even by many adults, having not learned how to position the tongue behind the upper teeth during the sound.
Speech therapist for children: from theory to speech therapy cards
There are many speech therapy cards on the market: it is important that you never choose which ones to start by yourself, but always follow the path of the speech therapist. If the child is not ready for a game, he may become disheartened or nervous. When the speech therapist establishes the path to follow, he will assign you exercises to do at home with your child. Even without his express "check", teach him names and use of household items, making a cake together, drawing or manipulating plasticine, commenting on the various phases of the activity. Read them some children's books, comment on the cartoons broadcast on TV. In the "oral language delay" normal language skills are achieved in a longer time than normal. Within 3 years or 3 years and half is manifested by a slow development of language without collateral problems, less serious if it involves one of the components, more serious if it involves all of them, that is, phonetic, lexical, semantic, morphological, syntactic, narrative level. If your child does not demonstrate one age-appropriate language development, has difficulties in understanding the language of others, swallowing problems, reported by the teacher of the school of the childhood or primary school, you can intervene immediately, as well as if you isolate yourself, do not socialize, show aggression, failing to communicate with others. Children with communication difficulties are more predisposed to psychic disorders, difficulties in learning and integration into society. The speech therapist evaluates communication, interaction, difficulties in emitting sounds, words, sentences with complete meaning.
Children's speech therapist: acting first against specific language disorder (DSL)
If by the age of 4 the child has not developed normal language skills we speak of Specific Language Disorder, a "specific" developmental disorder of various entities, not associated with other cognitive, sensory, motor deficits (mental retardation, neurological problems , hearing loss, severe environmental and emotional situations). Problems may be encountered in comprehension and production, in swallowing, subsequent difficulties in reading and writing and in interpersonal relationships, anomalies in behavior and in the emotional sphere. At 4 years of age, the child should understand the simple language of the speaker and express himself in an age-appropriate way. The problem should not be underestimated, since he is at risk for learning and emotional problems. The specific learning disorder (SLD) involves learning difficulties and use of school skills: reading (dyslexia), writing (spelling) or calculating (dyscalculia). cognitive disturbances.
Other pathologies related to language and communication disorders
Linguistic difficulty is associated with other pathological conditions: neuromotor, sensory, cognitive, relational deficits, mental retardation, psychosis, autism, Down syndrome. There are various degrees of language disturbance, the evolution of which also depends on the other skills involved. The speech therapist is a professional who specializes in rehabilitation for pathologies related to speech and communication disorders, but does not make a diagnosis. For this you must always turn to specialists (a child neuropsychiatrist, an orthodontist, an otolaryngologist, a speech therapist). The speech therapist then intervenes on the re-education of these linguistic and cognitive disorders: lack of attention, delay in language and learning, abnormalities in the articulation of sounds, in the fluency of words, neurological diseases, deafness and autism.
Speech therapist for children: stuttering and interruption of the voice
The problem of stuttering can arise from the age of 3; if left untreated, it can become chronic. Those who stammer have a clear concept to express, but cannot do it fluently, due to disfluences, interruptions in their speech. The contributing factors to the disorder are genetic, physiological, neurological or triggered by emotional reactions; when combined, they give rise to the disturbance and its persistence. If after a few months the disfluences persist and the subject feels tension, effort, a sense of discomfort, we intervene with a suitable therapy. The prognosis is all the more favorable the shorter the time elapsed between the onset of the disorder and the start of therapy. Diagnosis and treatment of stuttering differ according to the age of the subject. The speech therapist makes a language assessment; the psychologist of that of gravity, of the emotional aspects, of the discomfort connected to the disorder. It helps him to reduce the frequency of stammering, managing the anxiety caused by the fear of stammering, becoming the object of derision or annoyance for the interlocutor. Parental cooperation is required for preschool children. Verbal modeling therapy is aimed at increasing the fluency of language. For school-age children and adolescents, the experience of the Michael Palin Center is used, a center of international level specialized for this type of disorder, which provides individual, group and psychological cognitive-behavioral therapies. As for adults, the therapy aims to make them acquire speech therapy techniques that facilitate fluency, guide them to manage the critical moments of stammering and discomfort.
How to facilitate your baby's speech development
Always talk to him calmly, without abbreviations and with correct pronunciation, describe what you are doing and the objects you use. Hum while addressing him, engaging him with facial expressions when speaking. And above all, read him something every day, to make him understand the exact pronunciation of words, to broaden his lexicon and improve his linguistic production. Multimedia videos and games do not favor active learning, they reduce the child's attention span, focused on the screen and not on people's actions.
