What Speech Therapy Treatment for Kids Looks Like
When you look for speech therapy treatment, you may wonder what the therapy process looks like. To begin, a wide range of factors make up what therapy looks like for kids, and it is always customized to your child’s needs. Because speech therapy treatment is customized to your child, the therapy process may appear different than for other kids. However, therapy involves some of the same important pieces, and we’ll talk about those here.
How Does Speech Therapy Treatment Start?
Speech therapy treatment for kids usually starts with an evaluation, unless one was recently completed and provided to the therapist. Following the evaluation, the sessions usually begin with rapport building. This means that your speech therapist takes time out of the session to get to know your child and make sure that therapy is fun! Therapists ask your child some of their favorite activities and try to include those in future sessions. It is important that your child feels happy and comfortable before therapy begins!
Why Do Therapists Use Games?
We talk about this in our post, “Why Speech Therapists Use Play.” Through play, therapists provide speech therapy treatment that is effective and fun. Games and toys also include many opportunities to learn new language skills. Activities and games make for a great way to use speech models and language strategies.
Always remember that online speech therapy should be a positive experience! While sometimes therapy and learning skills may be challenging, the overall quality of the sessions should be positive for your child. Learning happens when your child is having fun and is engaged in the activities. This helps build strong motivation to participate and learn more, resulting in greater progress in speech goals.
How Do Kids Make Progress in Online Speech Therapy?
Kids make progress by participating and interacting with their therapist. Their language therapist will show or say to them different stimuli (visual, verbal, gestural, etc.), and by responding they gain skills over time. Your child makes progress by producing sounds, words, sentences, and more with the direct support of a pediatric speech-language pathologist.
Importantly, know that even if your child appears to be ‘just playing,’ in therapy, they are actually practicing their skills. Progress varies by child and no speech therapist can ethically provide a timeline of how long services will take.
Speech Therapy Treatment Differences
Because speech therapy treatment varies from child to child, every session may vary. Sessions depend on your child’s needs and what they work on in therapy. For example, if your child has challenges with social communication, they may focus on metaphors, social situations and turn-taking. A child who needs support with making speech sounds would focus on learning how to make those sounds correctly.
Based on your child’s speech goals, the activities, and techniques used, the session may vary greatly between therapists. In the early stage, it may help to have your child see one therapist consistently, and then once skills begin to establish, have them see multiple therapists.
What Happens If My Child Can’t Answer Questions?
A common concern of parents occurs when they see their child having difficulty answering questions or participating in therapy. However, the challenge they face in responding essentially is the therapy. Importantly, never give away answers when your child participates in therapy unless requested to do so by a therapist. The challenge of therapy means learning.
Your pediatric speech language pathologist knows how to support your child during these challenges. The therapist provides exactly timed support to ensure they effectively learn new skills. Importantly, the goal is that your child will eventually complete the task without help across all settings. We call this generalization.
How Do I Get Started with Speech Therapy Treatment?
If you are concerned about your child’s communication, reach out to a licensed speech therapist to learn more about what steps to take next. Firstly, if concern exists and a therapist finds it valid, they begin by providing an evaluation. The evaluation helps them understand your child’s needs and how to best support them in therapy.
Once your therapist completes the evaluation and determines a need for speech therapy services, treatment begins!
We provide services to all PA residents at this time.
