Benefits of Speech-Language Therapy

As a trained Elementary Educator and Speech-Language Pathologist, I see the value in looking at the child as a whole and thoughtfully consider who the child is, as a Learner.  What supports does your child need to access in order to be successful in communicating with family, peers, and their teachers?  

Does your child/student need help to be better understood? Or help with unlocking the code to fluent word recognition? Or maybe help with formulating their thoughts so they can express themselves, their opinions, and feelings in a meaningful way (spoken and written language)?

Literacy, Speech and Language are all connected.

Improving one has an effect on the other.  When we look at therapy and intervention from this point of view we see the value in considering all parts of the child’s learning system.

 Children who have difficulty with acquiring speech and language skills often have difficulty with acquiring the skill of literacy. These difficulties may be initially noticed when a child has a delay in acquiring proper articulation of speech sounds (i.e “speech delay”) or in their ability to understand or use spoken language (i.e. “language delay”). These delays have an impact on the child’s development of phonemic awareness, which is the child’s ability to understand, manipulate, and attend to sounds in spoken language.

Phonemic proficiency is one of the foundational skills for fluent word reading.

Difficulties in spoken language development also contribute to difficulties with understanding and using concepts, vocabulary, and grammar.  If children have a limited vocabulary or limited understanding of concepts or of sentence level grammar, this can lead to difficulties with reading comprehension. In the classroom, these students may have difficulty expressing what they know verbally or in writing.

Spoken language is the foundation for reading and writing skills.

This means that explicit & systematic instruction and intervention in the area of spoken language can result in a positive change in the child’s reading and writing skills. In turn, this can positively impact academic success.  

The early and on-going support of a Speech-Language Pathologist can help improve literacy skills by carefully evaluating and providing intervention in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, grammar, and language comprehension skills. These are critical components of literacy skill acquisition and focused development of these skills helps contribute to later positive academic outcomes.  

If you are wondering about your child’s speech-language or literacy skill development, you can contact me here.