Does Your Child Have Difficulties with Speech?
Our Expert Speech & Language Therapists Provide Evidence Based, Quality Therapy to help Children with Speech Difficulties
Some Facts About Speech Difficulties
Children that have speech difficulties beyond what can be considered typical developmental difficulties may be diagnosed as having a ‘speech disorder’. The term ‘speech disorder’ refers to any problem a person may have with producing speech sounds when talking, which impacts their ability to be understood by others.
Children with speech difficulties might struggle with articulation (making speech sounds) or phonology (using sounds in the right place in words).
There are many different causes of speech disorders in children. These can be associated with a medical diagnosis such as cleft lip and palate or a hearing impairment. However, in many cases children may have difficulties with speech without any obvious cause.
There are lots of different terms which can be used to describe speech difficulties. For example; ‘speech sound disorder’, ‘childhood apraxia of speech’, and ‘inconsistent speech sound disorder’ may all be used.
Children with speech disorders / difficulties can struggle with:
Telling the difference between different speech sounds
Articulating (making) different speech sounds
Producing certain speech sounds next to each other or very close together
Using the right speech sounds in the right places when talking
Saying longer words or joined up words, such as in sentences
Having a good flow to their speech – speech might sound staccato, or jumpy
Controlling their pitch or intonation when talking
Children With Speech Needs and Communication Skills
Here are some of the ways that good speech and language therapy can help children with speech needs and their families:
Expanding the child’s repertoire of sounds they can produce.
Increasing children’s ability to tell the difference between sounds they hear.
Developing their phonology skills, to support them to use the right sounds in the right places in words.
Developing the child’s rhythm, intonation (‘tune’ when talking) and flow of speech.
Supporting the child to generalise the skills they learn in therapy to their everyday communication and conversations.
Teaching the child’s family and other important people how to support the child with speech sound errors.
Helping the child to make themselves understood when talking to others.
Tips For Parents on How to Support Children With Speech Needs
Reduce use and ideally phase out dummies and bottles as soon as you can.
Try to face your child when you are speaking to each other, so they can see how you form the sounds in your words.
Slow down your own speech, and try to speak clearly.
If your child makes an error, model back what they’ve said correctly but don’t ask them to copy you. For example, if they said ‘it’s a dod!’ you could say, ‘yes it’s a dog! Good noticing!’.
Do not penalise incorrect pronunciations of words or tell your child they are wrong.
Acknowledge and confirm with your child what you have understood in their speech.
If you cannot understand what your child is saying, ask them to show you. If they cannot show you, can they draw it or find it in a book?
Acknowledge and support your child’s feelings. For example, they might be feeling frustrated if they can’t be understood.
Try to focus on what your child is telling you, rather than how they are pronouncing the words.
How Our Speech Therapy Can Help Children With Speech Needs
We assess each child’s needs holistically and design our treatment plans around the unique needs of each child. At the centre of everything we do are the goals, aspirations and expectations of the child and their family.
Here are some of the many evidence-based therapy approaches and frameworks we are specially trained to use to help children with speech needs develop their communication skills:
Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme 3
PROMPTS for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets
THRASS, A Phonics Program
Caroline Bowen speech sound disorders and childhood apraxia of speech
Elklan
How can we help you and your child?
If you’re interested in how our expert speech and language therapy can help your child with speech needs click below to request a free telephone consultation with one of our therapists or to book an initial assessment appointment. We will assess your child’s strengths and needs and design a therapy package to suit your child’s unique learning style, and your budget. We can also support children and young people in the over one hundred schools that commission our schools speech and language therapy service.
