May is Better Speech & Hearing Month!
You may have heard of Speech Therapy, and you may even know someone who serves your community as a Speech-Language Pathologist. But perhaps you’ve wondered, “What does a Speech-Language Pathologist (or SLP) actually do and how could an SLP serve my child?”
SLPs can work with your child to help improve various functionalities related to communication, including but not limited to articulation, cognition, voice, language, social skills and feeding.
Here are 10 Ways Our SLP’s Can Serve Your Child Well:
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Help a child learn the unspoken social and cultural rules, cues and skills needed for healthy communication with others
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Increase a child’s vocabulary knowledge and usage
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Aid in a child’s ability to form correct sentence structures for correct settings by helping your child learn what words to use, in what order, and when the appropriate time is to say them
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Help a child with limited speech find more/other ways to communicate, such as using a computerized device/AAC, or a picture system
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Help a child that stutters learn to make their speech more fluent
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Teach a child to pronounce and/or articulate their sounds correctly (such as when attempting to make the “r” sound, or saying the final/ending sound of a word)
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Help a child who struggles to express their thoughts and feelings by teaching them to appropriately convey their thoughts in a coherent fashion, whether through verbal or written communication
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Help a child that has difficulty with comprehension or answering questions to increase their receptive, cognitive, critical thinking and problem-solving skills
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Teach a child the intangible relationships between words and concepts, including but not limited to skills such as comparing/contrasting, creating descriptions and/or definitions, summarizing, etc.
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Develop a child’s oral motor skills required for appropriate feeding techniques
Ultimately, no matter your child’s specific needs, our SLPs’ main objective is to provide the necessary tools, resources and strategies to help give the next generation
A Voice That Lasts Forever!
