May is National Speech-Language-Hearing month! Have you ever wondered if your child’s speech and language skills are on track for their age? Are you seeking insight into your child’s development and how to best support their growth and independence? Read on to learn more about speech-language pathology and how More to Say SLPs can work with children and their caregivers to support communication development.
What is Pediatric Speech and Language Therapy?
Pediatric speech and language therapy supports children in developing the communication skills to help them understand and engage in activities of daily living with their communication partners. Speech and language therapy targets phonology, articulation, receptive & expressive language, pragmatic language, fluency, literacy, as well as feeding and swallowing! Let’s explore each of these areas further to see how speech and language therapy may help support your child’s development.
What are Phonology and Articulation?
Phonology concerns how speech sounds are organized by patterns within a particular language. Articulation is how people physically produce sounds using the articulators in their mouth. Indicators of seeking support for your child:
- Poor speech intelligibility (others understand less than 80% of a child’s speech)
- Noticeable difficulty producing specific sounds
- Increased frustration and decreased engagement in communicative situations
What are Receptive & Expressive Language Skills?
Receptive language refers to the ability to understand language and expressive language refers to the ability to produce language using words, signs/gestures, or Augmentative & Alternative Communication. Indicators of seeking support for your child include:
- Limited ability to follow directions and understand age-appropriate concepts/questions
- Limited spoken language and difficulty putting words together to form sentences
What is Pragmatic Language?
Pragmatic language refers to social communication skills, both verbal and nonverbal (e.g., turn taking, understanding indirect language such as sarcasm, eye contact, and gestures). Indicators of seeking support for your child:
- Difficulty engaging in conversation with others and difficulty understanding emotions/feelings
- Poor problem solving, perspective taking, inference making
- Inflexibility to routines or play
- Frequent interruptions or inappropriate comments
What is Fluency?
Fluency concerns the ability to produce smooth speech that flows with ease in conversation. Seek SLP support for your child if:
- Dysfluencies are consistent and frequent within spoken language
- There are sound repetitions (e.g., ba-ba-ba-banana), prolongations (e.g., ssssssee), blocks/pauses (e.g., I want ….. toy), and hesitations (e.g., Hi uh I uh) in your child’s speech
- Your child demonstrates physical tension/body movements and avoidance within speaking situations (e.g., frequent shifts in eye contact/movements, fidgeting/tapping, tensing of the lips/jaw)
What is Literacy?
Literacy is related to the ability to read, spell, and write. When teaching literacy, concepts such as matching letters to their sounds, hearing and playing with sounds in words, reading smoothly and with understanding, spelling, and expressing thoughts in writing are introduced. It is recommended to seek support for your child if they experience:
- Difficulty recognizing letters or letter sounds
- Slowed, effortful reading or trouble sounding out words
- Significant spelling errors
- Difficulty with immediate and/or delayed story retell
What is Feeding & Swallowing?
Feeding therapy targets a child’s ability to eat a variety of foods across settings to support adequate nutrition and quality of life. Swallowing concerns the safe and effective chewing and swallowing of foods/liquids. Indicators for seeking support for your child include:
- Difficulty progressing from breast/bottle feeding to self-feeding and/or accepting transitional solid foods
- Distress during mealtimes
- Regression/limitations to a child’s repertoire of foods
- Difficulty chewing/manipulating food in the mouth
- Strong sensory preferences/aversions: textures, temperatures, flavors, food appearance
- Signs of unsafe feeding: choking, coughing, aspiration, gagging, vomiting, refusal, mealtime fatigue
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How Can We Help?
At More to Say, we use a child-led and play-based approach to meet children where they are at to improve confidence and independence within their daily lives. Through individualized, family-centered treatment, we provide families with the tools to continue to learn and grow beyond therapy, supporting the carryover of skills into a child’s natural environments (school, home, community settings).
If you believe your child may benefit from speech therapy, we would love to schedule a phone screening or a comprehensive speech & language evaluation at our Branford or Oxford, CT clinic. Call us at (203) 828-6790 or email us at info@moretosayct.com to schedule!
