What is Speech Therapy?
Speech Therapy is a treatment for rectifying speech defects. It is a treatment that people from all age groups may undergo. Speech Therapist would focus on rectifying speech related defects. It may involve treating one’s Vocal pitch, Volume, articulation, tone, etc.
Speech Therapy treatments are given by Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs). They are also known as Speech Therapist. SLPs are not doctors but they are the ones who assess, diagnose and treat people suffering from Speech, language and communication defects.
Recovery in speech disorders through Speech Therapy varies from case to case and on how severe the problem is.
Speech Therapy in Children
In the case of children, the SLPs normally asses the child’s Speech and language skills against the overall development. This assessment is done through some tests. Thereafter the specific type of speech disorder is identified and based on it the speech therapy approach is decided. In the case of children speech therapies, parental involvement is required. Parents may observe the speech therapy sessions and learn to participate in the process.
When to Contact a Speech Therapist for children?
When to Contact a Speech Therapist for young children? As Parents, we almost yearn to hear the first words from our babies. However, as a parent, you always need to be on your guard, because it is seen in a majority of cases that delayed speech and speech defects in toddlers and children often go unnoticed. So you need to be aware of the symptoms of delayed speech and steps you should take as a parent right from the beginning. We at Bengal Speech as a leading provider of Speech Therapy and treatment in Kolkata have listed below some key points to deal with delayed speech and speech defects for your awareness:
Speech and Language Development in children before 12 months:
Before 12 Months a baby may be when he or she is around 6 months, the baby would do some babbling and some vocalization. Around 9 months normally it is seen the baby may be able to string certain sounds together like “ma ma”, “da da” with different tones. The babies utter these sounds without a proper understanding of what they mean. Just before 12 months, babies may be able to recognize the names of common objects. Normally they would also react to sound and noise e.g. may be the doorbell ringing, the telephone ringing etc. By this time he or she should also be able to respond to their names may be stopped and turn when called.
Early Warning Signs for delayed speech between 12 to 24 Months: When the child is unable to respond to sound or not vocalizing, may be an early indication. Moreover, the non-use of gestures is another sign. By 18 months if the baby still prefers to use gestures instead of vocalizing it is another symptom.
Over 2 years:
By 2 normally a huge gain is seen in the child’s speech. The child at this age has some words in his or her vocabulary. If a child is not able to imitate speech or is unable to produce sounds, cannot follow simple instructions, then indeed it is a cause for concern. It may be time to visit a speech pathologist for Speech Therapy.
Our Speech-Language Pathologists
We are a specialist team of speech-language pathologists, trained to help with speech, voice or language related difficulties and challenges in every day, business and academic settings. We are an independent organisation, consisting of practising speech-language pathologists and audiologists – and have been in operation since 2006.
Our specialists get to the root of the matter, find out your issues in speech, language or communication – and provide training to overcome them through scientific and structured therapy. All the Speech Therapists in our team are highly qualified & experienced – and you, the client, gets the benefit of our expertise.