A child who finds difficulty in communicating after a certain age needs to visit a speech pathologist. A speech pathologist works on the power of speech thus helping in normal communication. A speech pathologist helps children with speech problems by conducting speech tests and thus devising a treatment plan to normalize the communication. Speech pathologist helps the child with specially designed vocal exercises and other behavioural practices.Kids can find it difficult to utter sounds or words. This can be a frustration situation both for the child, the parents, the teachers and every other person that the kid is communicating with. But the difficulty lies more with the child as s/he is unable to say what he actually wants to. When people find it hard to understand what you are actually trying to say, you would know that it is time that you need to go to a
speech pathologist.
A speech pathologist is a professional therapist who can help you speak in a better and normalized manner. They are equipped to help you with suggestions through various exercises, which are more of behavioral practices that can effectively aid the child in saying words and sentences with the right sound, pronunciation and articulation. A speech therapist can make life real easier for the child as he can help him return to the world of normal communication.
When Should You Visit a Speech Pathologist?
Whenever you find your kid troubled with the following problems, you would know that you must go to a speech pathologist.
Articulation Issues
Your child is said to suffer from an articulation disorder when you notice that he is having a difficulty while coming up with specific sounds and he can never say a word in the correct manner. For instance, whenever he tries to say ‘run’, it comes out as ‘won’, or when he says ‘say’, it sounds like ‘thay’. Most of the parents feel that this is childish lisping and choose to overlook it. In some cases it is also seen that parents feel that the child is acting naughty and scolds him so that he begins to talk properly.
What needs to be realized that since speech and language development is a essential and complicated part of a child’s progress, it should be professionally monitored. Only then will the actually situation be understood and effective measures can be taken to rectify the problem if any.
Fluency Disorder
A child is said to suffer from fluency disorder when he keeps on repeating certain sounds. He also shows difficulty in pronouncing a complete word, or the beginning or the end of a particular word. This is also misapprehended as the child’s way to irritate his parents or teachers. But if noticed intently, you will find that the child is struggling to complete his word or bring out the sound from his mouth. For example, the child might get stuck with the first part of the word ‘ladder’ and keep on saying ‘la-la-la-ladder’. He may also stutter or keep harping on certain sounds like ‘s’ or ‘m’ and say ‘ssssssing’ or ‘mmmmmmom’.
Resonance Issue
This is known as voice disorder when people cannot understand what the child is saying. The problem can be ascertained when the beginning of the sentence said by the child might be quite clear and loud but then it becomes more of a mumble when he reaches the end of the sentence. A child suffering from resonance issues sound as if he is talking through his nose or having cold.
Apart From These, if You Find the Child Having Any of the Following Problems, You Should go to a Speech Pathologist:
- If the kid is hearing impaired
- If he is autistic
- If the muscles around his mouth are weak and is hoarse or has vocal nodules
- If he has a swallowing or breathing disorder
- If he has a cleft lip or palate
The speech therapist decides on the treatment and therapy after conducting a speech test by recording his voice and analyzing it carefully. The therapist demonstrates the sounds and words that the kid is having problem with, primarily through example. With regular practice children can gradually overcome their problems and enjoy easy communication.
