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Each “newly minted” parent remembers visits to a specialist such as a pediatrician or an orthopedist. Unfortunately, still few parents remember that a visit to a speech therapist is equally important.
Children’s balances, ultrasound of hip joints, or newborn hearing tests have become a standard in our society. Unfortunately, still few parents remember that a visit to a speech therapist is equally important. Contrary to the most common opinions, a speech therapist is not only a specialist dealing with the correction of sounds or calling “r”. As you will see in a moment, his help may turn out to be necessary at the earliest stages of our child’s life.
Healthy babies have a normal suckling reflex. However, in some of them, e.g. premature babies, this reflex was not developed properly or did not occur at all. The task of a speech therapist is then, through the use of appropriate massages and exercises, to stimulate the proper motor skills of the mouth. This greatly accelerates the appearance or improvement of a weak suckling reflex.
When we observe that our child’s speech development differs from that of its peers, we should also turn to a speech therapist. It is he who diagnoses the causes of delayed speech development and, in cooperation with a neurologist, psychologist or phoniatrist, strives to make up for any delays as soon as possible.
Most often, however, a speech therapist is associated with correcting speech impediments, i.e. evoking or changing sounds so that they sound correct. Remember that it is never too early to correct speech impediments. The notion that the speech impediment will disappear or the child will grow out of it is also erroneous. If the child has many problems with proper articulation, it should be treated as early as possible. An effective process of elimination of speech impediments requires the cooperation of the child with both the speech therapist and the parents. A child working with a speech therapist and recording the processed material at home has a chance to make quick progress.
A speech therapist is also a person who works with children who have hearing problems. We do not realize that a child who did not hear or his hearing was rudimentary, after inserting a cochlear implant must “learn” to hear, because his brain lacks the right connections responsible for the correct interpretation of sounds. It is thanks to properly organized and conducted under the supervision of a speech therapist an auditory education that it has a chance to enter the unknown world of sounds and develop speech in the future.
Another group with which the speech therapist works are intellectually disabled children and children with neurological diseases. (autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other similar conditions). Such patients often need to be taught the basic rules of communication, sometimes even other than verbal communication.
To sum up, there is no better or worse age for the first visit to a speech therapist because the range of problems that he can deal with is really wide. It is worth remembering that speech therapy, despite the fact that it is sometimes long-lasting, improves the quality of communication and thus has a positive effect on children’s contacts with their peers.
Text: mgr Izabela Wiatrowska, speech therapist and mgr Magdalena Jęksa – Wojciechowska, speech therapist, ABC of correct pronunciation