Does My Child Need Speech and Language Therapy?

Any child who experiences difficulty in one or more of the following areas will benefit from Speech and Language Therapy intervention:

Speech

  • Omissions or additions of sounds in words e.g.: /clap->cap/
  • Incorrect pronunciation of sounds e.g.: /sun->thun/, /cup->tup/
  • Incorrect pronunciation of words consisting of multiple syllables: e.g: caterpillar, hospital
  • Stuttering/dysfluency, e.g: repetitions or prolongations of sounds in words and/or words in phrases

Voice

  • Speaking with a pitch that is too high or too low
  • Speaking too loudly or too softly
  • Recurrent vocal nodules due to screaming and shouting
  • Hoarse voice
  • Hypernasality (too nasal)

Language

  • Understanding of vocabulary, grammar and elaborated/longer phrases and sentences.
  • Correct use of vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure
  • Understanding and use of higher ordered language (synonyms, adjectives, figurative language etc)
  • Comprehension/understanding of information that they hear
  • Comprehension/understanding of information that they read/write
  • Identifying and describing cause and effect relationships (why- because)
  • Thinking and reasoning skills
  • Generating descriptions
  • Social language (pragmatics)- eye contact, turn taking, facial expressions
  • Following instructions that they hear
  • Following instructions that they read
  • Second language acquisition

Auditory Processing

  • Listening skills
  • Auditory number, word and sentence memory (remembering numbers, words and sentences that they hear, in the correct sequence)
  • Auditory interpretation and execution of directions /instructions (interpreting and following directions /instructions that they hear)
  • Auditory comprehension (Answering questions correctly about stories/information that they have heard)

Phonological / Sound Awareness

  • Discrimination and interpretation of environmental sounds
  • Appreciation of nursery rhymes
  • Identification and discrimination of rhyming words
  • Segmentation of words and sentences
  • Sound-letter recognition
  • Identification of the first, last and middle sounds in words
  • Blending of sounds to  form words

Communication

Alternative methods of communicating where speech is limited or not present

Please feel free to contact me should you require any further information:

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