What is Speech Therapy?

Speech Therapy, also called speech-language therapy, is an allied health specialty  which addresses language and production aspects of communication.  Speech and language therapy treats 5 domains; semantics, pragmatics, syntax, morphology, and phonology.  Phonology addresses sound, with the smallest sound segment being a phoneme.  Morphology refers to word formation, such as past tense or comparatives and syntax refers to sentence formation, like using the correct subject verb agreement.  So these domains will seem reminiscent of studying phonics and grammar in grade school!  Semantics has to do with meaning, so in a sense, vocabulary.  Pragmatics relates to the social communicative aspect of language.  A speech therapist, more correctly described as a speech-language pathologist, can address any of these areas.

In pediatric speech therapy, the Master’s level professional with experience in the pediatric population, develops a treatment plan based on a detailed assessment.  A good pediatric speech and language assessment is comprised of a thorough case history, as well as observation and standardized or criterion referenced assessment tools.  A pediatric speech language pathologist typically assesses receptive and expressive language, vocabulary and articulation.  Other areas of a suspected challenge may be assessed, such as oral motor weakness, feeding and swallowing, apraxia, pragmatics, disfluency, and auditory processing.

A treatment plan is assessment-driven and is comprised of measurable goals.  A speech therapy session will target these goals using engaging, meaningful activities to capture the child’s attention.  Parent or caregiver training is an important part of pediatric speech and language therapy.  Home practice is essential to generalization of new skills!  Good speech and language skills are important for school and life, so it is important to give suspected weaknesses the attention they deserve!

Early intervention is important if you suspect a language disorder.  As an allied health specialty, private insurance will often cover speech therapy, so it is a good idea to see if your policy covers evaluation and treatment.  Complete this survey https://speechandot.com/Survey.asp to see how your child is doing.