As children grow and age from infancy to adolescence, there are milestones that all parents excitedly await along the way. From their first words to first steps, there are major achievements that will shape the life of a child and how they begin to operate in the world. As children grow, it is not uncommon for issues to arise that can complicate that journey, such as trouble communicating through speech.  Being able to verbally express our needs and wants is absolutely essential, and no child should be without that valuable skill. Children’s speech therapy in Miami is something any parent with a child who has trouble communicating should consider. The sooner a child is able to learn how to correct issues with speaking, the more likely they will be to effectively communicate in an age-appropriate way moving forward.

 

How to Know if Children’s Speech Therapy in Miami is Necessary

There are common “red flags” that a parent may notice as their newborn grows and begins to develop different skills. Some of those include:

 

  • A baby who does not make noise or babble
  • Not responding to noise
  • Not speaking first words by 15 months
  • Lack of eye contact
  • A vocabulary of fewer than 50 words by age two
  • Speech difficulties like a stutter or lisp
  • Speech sound errors after age five

 

Any of these common speech delays could be as a result of articulation disorders, cognitive delays, expressive and receptive language delays, voice disorders, or auditory processing disorders. These can often be a result of hearing impairments, weak oral muscles, autism, motor problems, traumatic brain injury, or respiratory problems.

 

Common Speech and Language Disorders

Articulation Disorder – affects the phonetic levels of speech, often making it difficult for a child to say certain vowels or consonants. Articulation errors typically include substitution, omission, distortion, or addition.

Fluency Disorder – include problems such as stuttering, when speech is interrupted by stops or partial word repetition, or lisps with prolonged sounds or syllables.

Voice Disorders – problems with pitch, volume, or quality of the voice that can sometimes cause discomfort to the child when speaking.

Receptive Disorders – difficulty with processing and understanding language.

Expressive Disorders – problems putting words and sentences together, limited vocabulary, difficulty when using language in a social way.

Cognitive Disorders – problems with skills involving memory, attention, and perception.

 

Therapies and Techniques

There are two common types of speech therapies that can be utilized to help children learn to better communicate; oral-motor therapy and sensory integration. 

 

Oral-motor therapy – uses various exercises to strengthen and coordinate the ability of oral muscles, often used alongside feeding therapy. This type of therapy helps to facilitate the improvement of jaw, lip, and tongue function through various exercises.

Sensory integration – aims to help children with difficulties processing sensory information by exposing them to sensory stimulation in specific, repetitive ways. This is often done in a “play” environment.

 

If your child is displaying signs of difficulty communicating, it may be because of any of the previously mentioned reasons. Speech therapy is a proven effective way to allow children the skills to properly communicate and express themselves verbally. By addressing issues like articulation disorders, cognitive delays, language, fluency, voice disorders, feeding and swallowing, speech therapy in Miami is the best and most effective way to help your child. At Viva Pediatric Therapy, a large team of experienced professionals can help your family improve your child’s speech, even from the comfort of home or school. When you’re ready, call Viva Pediatric Therapy at 305-891-9691 to set up an appointment.