When to take your child to the speech therapist

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When to take your child to the speech therapist

L'learning the language it's a process natural. However, in some cases they can occur difficulties related to comprehension and all 'verbal expression. How to understand if it is appropriate to bring the child to a speech therapist? We asked the Dr. Anna La Guzza of the Amamente Center, who answered our questions together with the speech therapists of the Center, doctor Barbara Villa, female doctor Giulia Fusari, female doctor Alice Bartorelli.

In this article

• Speech therapy visit for children: what it is
• Speech therapist for children: what does this professional do?
• When should a child be taken to the speech therapist?
• How long does a speech therapy cycle last? And how much is it?
• When to worry if a child does not speak?
• Speech therapy for 2-year-olds
• Speech therapy exercises for 3-year-olds
• Speech therapy exercises for 4-year-olds
• Speech therapy exercises for 7-year-olds

Speech therapy visit for children: what it is

"Not always learning the language it is for the child a simple and unobstructed path: they can often occur difficulties, delays o hitches which can only be solved with a speech therapy intervention. Specialists can help to recognize and exceed these difficulties with the help of specifications strategy. The speech therapist, in multidisciplinary team, it can also intervene in disorders neuropsychological, such as specific disorders of learning, attention deficit or other difficulties neuropsicologiche".

Read also: When the child does not speak

Speech therapist for children: what does this professional do?

"Speech therapy is there branch of medicine which deals with studying the language and its possible problems. However, the speech therapist he is not a doctor, but one specialist able to act on the difficulties related to language, To communication, To password and voice. The speech therapist acts as a bridge, providing a educators e teachers information clinics, instruments practices and strategies to allow the child to face and overcome the difficulties he encounters inlearning and in communication, valuing his own strengths. In this regard, the speech therapist can produce one report without diagnostic purposes but exclusively evaluative. Thanks to the collaboration with figures authorized to diagnose speech disorders (child psychologist and neuropsychiatrist), it is possible to undertake a path of neuropsychological evaluation, which could produce a certificazione valid for school ".

Read also: How to stimulate the language of the newborn

When should a child be taken to the speech therapist?

"The learning of the language it is a very process subjective. The guidelines tell us that a child of two years he should know how to pronounce from 100 to 200 words about, as well as a few simple sentences. If the little one pronounces less than 50 passwords a is recommended control to intercept any difficulties early. Generally speaking, we can say that many "late talker" children they recover spontaneously, placing itself between three and four years on average for verbal skills. A small part of them, on the other hand, need a outside help, without which a delay of the language and a consequent could develop speech disorder (which will be possible to determine exactly around 3-4 years of age). A early intervention it can, in some cases, serve to prevent future difficulties that would otherwise be recognized too late, when the child is now attending the first grade and may begin to experience problems with the reading and writing, or difficulty relational ed emotional".

How long does a speech therapy cycle last? And how much is it?

"It is not possible to know the duration of a speech therapy course, because it depends da various factors: adherence to treatment, availability of Parents a support progress of the child, environment favorable, kind of diagnosis and presence or absence of emotional factors o behavioral that could support or hinder the child's development. Generally the commitment varies from ten sessions a more years of treatment, up to two or three. The needs of children also change over time so the treatment will follow i progress e will adapt growth objectives in time. The fare generally varies from 50 to 70 euros per hour, depending on the type of intervention ".

Read also: Language: has trouble saying the "R", 4 tips from the speech therapist

When to worry if a child does not speak?

"It is important that the neonate it starts vocalize from second-third month, entering into a relationship in its own way with the adult and with the sounds produced by the latter. You can expect thecommunicative intentionality and laugh dai 3 months, the answer to name dai 6 months, the first gestures how to "bye bye" and indicate come on 7-8 months, always allowing the child time to explore objects and food with his mouth and hands (without abusing the pacifier and bottle that it would be better to suspend by i two years), making sure of the correct alignment of the first ones teeth and the mobility of the language. So the first words from the year, in a quick elaboration of expressive and receptive skills. It is good for the parent to know these stages and how to support their acquisition, to prevent or minimize future difficulties ".

Speech therapy for 2-year-olds

"Children of two years in need of general support do not yet utter a number sufficient of words, they often turn out disappointed and they do struggles to express themselves. We help parents to physically place themselves on their level, to communicate in clear way and not hasty, to favor the gestural prerequisites, the shifts, the symbolic game. At this stage the goals are mainly psychomotor, suitable for throwing the basics of communication. Through the approach psychomotor in a short time there is a fast acquisition of new words and new ways of communicating ".

Speech therapy exercises for 3-year-olds

"Dai three years we see children with delay of language o late talkers. In the second case the recovery is much faster and easier, in the first case more difficult and longer. Integrated speech therapy and neuropsychomotor work involves taking charge of the whole family. The goal will be to recover the motor skills and musculature a oral level, stimulate thelistening communication and start to set some sounds so that they are produced in the correct way, starting from explosive sounds ("b", "p"), then labial, ("m") and then ("s", "l"), and so on to complete the phonological repertoire".

Speech therapy exercises for 4-year-olds

"Work with the children of 4 years with speech defects mild or true speech disorders (speech delays, oral dyspraxias ..) is increasingly focused on correct setting of the sounds, but it also works on report, on aspects psychological, On 'esteem, with a view to support at 360 degrees. Parent counseling constitutes an important node of the journey and the availability of the parent to follow the instructions of the professional is essential ".

Speech therapy exercises for 7-year-olds

"Dai 7 years the work focuses on the treatment of infant swallowing, learnings such as the reading and writing, the correction of speech defects residues such as rotacism or sigmatismo. It is not possible to indicate specific exercises, because we work on individual cases ".

The interviewee

La Dr. Anna La Guzza, clinical and school psychologist, is health and scientific director of the Breastfeeding Center, center of excellence for the treatment of speech difficulties in children. Amamente's mission is to welcome the whole family and to do this, each operator is carefully trained and updated. Thanks to the psychomotor game tool applied to speech therapy, a complete and integrated intervention is guaranteed. With the collaboration of parents, who can be involved in order to learn the exercises to do at home, it is possible to recover from difficulties in a short time. The speech therapists of the Center are trained to receive the family, welcome and treat not only the aspects of language but also to prevent learning difficulties and to support communication and relationships.

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• speech therapist
• language development