To help these children to bridge their
communication and swallowing difficulties and make their life easier, we have a speech language pathologist also known as a speech therapist.

WHO IS A SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST?

Speech language pathologists / speech therapists are licensed professionals responsible for assessing and treating speech, language, voice, fluency, and swallowing disorders, with the ultimate goal of improving communication skills and quality of life. You can find speech language pathologists in various setups such as schools, clinics and hospitals to help children with their communication and swallowing difficulties.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SPEECH THERAPIST IN SPEECH THERAPY?

Assessing and diagnosing: Speech therapists are experts in evaluating and diagnosing the child’s speech, language, social communication and swallowing.

1. Individualized plan : After diagnosis,  speech therapist creates an individualized plan of treatment
tailored to the child’s needs. This plan includes goals for further therapy sessions which might focus on improving vocabulary, increasing comprehension of language, or improving the child’s clarity of speech according to the child’s need.

2. Language disorders :  When your child has limited vocabulary, struggles to form sentences, or has difficulty following your instructions, this could be due to developmental delay, syndromes, developmental disorders such as Autism, ADHD etc. can be treated by speech therapists.

3. Speech sound disorders: When your child struggles pronouncing a sound or word accurately , say ‘tar’ instead of ‘car’ or  omitting a sound in the word. This can be due to muscle weakness or difficulty in coordinating muscles affecting movement or strength of articulators. SLPs work with children to address these difficulties, providing exercises and techniques.

4. Fluency disorders: When your child is unable to say a word smoothly, he gets stuck or keeps repeating the same sound of the word , ‘ca-ca-ca- car for car’, or speaks too fast, your child might have fluency issues. SLPs help with these issues by teaching ways to slow down and improve their breath control, so they can speak more clearly and confidently.

5. Social communication disorder: When your child has difficulty following social rules such as greetings, taking turns in conversation , struggle to initiate a conversation and maintain a to and fro conversation, has difficulty interacting with peers and making friendship this can be due to lackness in social skills. SLPs work with these children to teach them social skills, including how to initiate and maintain conversations,
interpret body language, and develop friendships etc.

6. Feeding and swallowing disorders: Difficulty with chewing and swallowing food. Some children may find it difficult to chew or swallow different types of food and can affect their nutrition. These issues can be due to muscle weakness, sensitivity to consistencies or textures, or developmental delays. SLPs work on these by sensory stimulation and oral motor exercises.

7. Cognitive skills: SLPs work with children who have difficulties with attention, problem-solving, comprehension, critical thinking, and memory. These skills are important for learning, understanding, and communicating effectively. SLPs work with children to improve their attention span,teach strategies for solving problems and critical thinking, and strengthen memory skills.

8. Learning disability:  Most of the children who have language delay struggle with recognizing words, understanding sentences, or organizing their thoughts on paper. This can affect their academic performance. SLPs help by strengthening the language skills needed for literacy.

9. Educating family and friends: SLPs not only take direct sessions and treat the child alone, but also work on educating others who are close to the child on how to communicate with them, discuss about the strengths and weakness of the child, understanding the child better and guide them on what can help the child to have a quick progress and better quality of life.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN A SPEECH THERAPY SESSION?

Speech therapy for children is usually a play based approach. Through play SLPs try to work on the targeted communication goals, so that the child is engaged as well as learning at the same time and
enhancing their communication skills.

SLPs initiate a session with activities to build rapport with the child,  and then SLP conducts targeted exercises, using play strategically.

For instance, if a child has limited vocabulary and SLP wants to work on building vocabulary. The SLP would show the target word “dog” in multiple visual forms such as pictures , videos and then prompt the child to recognise the dog in those pictures and videos, if the child is not able to do it alone , the SLP would ask the parents to guide them to recognize it. Then gradually the prompts will be faded away and the child has to identify the target word “dog” himself.

Another example would be if the child is unable to pronounce the ‘k’ sound , he says ‘cookies’ for ‘cookies’. The therapist would first work on the identification of the particular sound , then make the child produce the sound accurately, when the child is able to produce it , the SLP would further help the child produce the sound in words, phrases, sentences and in help the child generalize in conversational discourse.

Positive reinforcement and feedback are provided throughout the session based on the child’s engagement and responses. In each session the SLP would discuss the performance of the child, the progress and strategies to help parents work with the child in a more natural setup at home. 

TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS USED IN SPEECH THERAPY

SLPs use effective and engaging materials and techniques for each child’s needs.

Visual Aids and Gestures: Visual aids, such as pictures, flashcards, or videos, are used to help individuals understand and express themselves better. Gestures can also support communication by providing visual cues that reinforce what is being said, making it easier for the individual to grasp new concepts and words.

Oral Motor and Breathing Exercises: SLPs use specific exercises to strengthen the muscles involved in speech and swallowing. These exercises may include blowing bubbles, making different sounds, or chewing exercises to improve muscle control and breathing, which are essential for clear speech and safe swallowing.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): For individuals with significant communication difficulties, SLPs may use AAC tools. These can be high-tech devices, like tablets with speech-generating apps, or low-tech options, such as picture communication boards. AAC helps individuals express their thoughts and needs, providing them with alternative ways to communicate when speech is challenging.

● Language stimulation techniques : Various evidence-based language stimulating techniques and strategies such as parallel talk – where the parents or SLP explains what the child is doing. For example when a child is playing with a car , the SLP would say – “Wow! That’s a red car! You are pushing the red car!”, and expansion technique – when a child says ‘car’, SLP would say ‘Yes, that’s a big car’.These techniques will enhance the child’s language skills. More of such techniques would be used in the session and discussed with the parents so that parents can practice them at home and have interaction at home better.

● Visual Aids and Gestures: Visual aids such as pictures, flashcards, or videos are used to help children understand better – showing the picture of ‘cat’ for the learning of the word cat. and gestures such as pointing, nodding, or giving a thumbs-up to emphasize on what is being said, this is make the child learn quicker and communicate better.

● Oral Motor exercises: When the child doesn’t have enough cheek muscles are weak, he wouldn’t be able to produce certain sounds clearly, and his chewing would be affected. Likewise any weakness in the muscles or limited movement of jaw, tongue , mouth or lips due to developmental and neurological issues would lead to difficulty in both speech and swallowing. These oral motor exercises would help to improve the strength and movement of the articulations and improve child’s communication and swallowing skills.

● Orosensory exercises: When the child has difficulty in eating certain food textures and consistency, it could be due to oral sensory issues such as hypo sensitivity that is lack of awareness of the stimulus, or hypersensitivity where the stimulus is distressing or intense etc. Orosensory exercises and stimulation help to overcome these issues.

● Breathing Exercises: When the child doesn’t have enough breath support, he would have difficulty in muscle coordination,  making it difficult to talk loudly, talking in longer phrases and sentences. While swallowing there would be risk of choking /aspiration where food enters the airway. Breathing exercise such as abdominal breathing improves the breathing capacity and coordination of muscles involved.

● Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): AAC are tools or devices used to communicate. High tech devices such as electronic devices or low tech such as picture cards or communication boards are used based on the child’s ability and severity of the communication difficulty.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, speech-language pathologists play a vital role in helping children with communication and swallowing difficulties. They evaluate each child, diagnose them, create individualized treatment plans, and use play-based  engaging activities during therapy sessions to address various issues such as speech, language, swallowing and social skills.