Speech therapist or speech-language pathologists are trained personnel who work with children having speech-related disorders. They also provide screening, consultation, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, management and counseling services for children with special needs. Speech therapy plays an important role towards the holistic development in a child with autism spectrum disorder. It improves overall communication, enhances social skills, enables to cope up better with the society and function in day-to-day life. It should be started as early as diagnosis is made. Speech therapist does much more than simply teaching a child to correctly pronounce words. In fact, a speech therapist working with an autistic child may work on a wide range of skills including:

Speech articulation: by oromotor exercises of lip and facial muscles, the way a child moves mouth while saying certain words and sounds.

Communication: This includes teaching gestural communication, or training with PECS (picture exchange cards), electronic talking devices, and other non-verbal communication tools.

Comprehension: The speech therapist engages the child in functional language activities that involve cognition and social interaction.

Speech pragmatics: Use of speech to build social relationships.

Conversation skills: Self Talk, parallel talk, sentence elongation, situational talk.

Conceptual skills: Big and small concept, left & right concept, color concept, body parts concepts, yes and no concept.

Speech therapy for children

A child may participate in speech therapy in a classroom as part of a small group or in a one-on-one setting. This depends on which speech disorder they are experiencing. The SLP will use therapeutic exercises and activities to help them overcome their specific issues. These include:

Language activities: Involves playing and talking with the child while using pictures, books, & objects to stimulate language development. The SLP may also demonstrate correct pronunciation and use repetition exercises to help increase the child’s language skills.

Articulation activities: These will involve the SLP working closely with a child to help them with their pronunciation. The SLP will demonstrate how to make specific sounds, often during play activities.

Feeding and swallowing therapy: An SLP can work closely with a child with chewing or swallowing issues. The SLP can also use oral exercises to help strengthen the muscles in the mouth or work with different food textures to improve the child’s oral awareness.

Exercises: The SLP may use a number of tongue, lip, and jaw exercises, alongside facial massage to help strengthen the muscles around the mouth. This can help them with future speech and communication.

An SLP will also provide the child with strategies and homework. These exercises allow them to work through certain activities with a parent or caregiver, so they can continue to practice at home.

Speech therapy for adults

An SLP can use several different techniques as part of adult speech therapy.

These include:

Social communication: The SLP may use problem-solving, memory activities, and conversation exercises to improve communication.

Breathing exercises: An SLP may use breathing exercises to assist with resonance issues.

Mouth exercises: These are a suitable way to strengthen oral muscles, which can help improve communication.

Swallowing exercises: Medical issues, such as Parkinson’s disease, oral cancer, or a stroke, may cause swallowing difficulties. An SLP can use swallowing exercises to help a person manage these issues.

At Brains Super Speciality Hospital we provide the best Speech Therapy services catering to the need of each patient. The services are tailor made as per the specific requirement of the patient. The unit is handled by a team of experienced therapists.