How to tell if your child needs speech therapy

When your child is an infant, you may or may not wonder whether your child will be a candidate for speech and language therapy. As an infant, there are some things for which you may want to look out. If your baby has difficulty with feedings and swallowing, that may be a sign that he or she needs early intervention.One obvious indicator of a candidate for therapy is a child with a claft palate; there should be a team of doctors and therapists working together with the child, including a speech therapist. Children with language delay or impairment and learning difficulty would gain tremendously from therapy. Children with learning disorders or dyslexia can also gain from speech therapy. Difficulty in articulating or producing sounds, such as 'r' or 's' (causing a lisp) would make the child a candidate for speech therapy. Children with hearing impairment may or may not need speech therapy, depending on the severity of the hearing loss. Some children hear fine until age 3, when most of language should have already been acquired, thereby diminishing the need for speech therapy. However, children who are hard of hearing since birth would gain from therapy. Children who stutter should have speech therapy as well, there are many methods that can be used to diminish stuttering, specifically depending on the client's situation. A child with voice disorders must get speech therapy to help the vocal cords. There are many exercises that would help rebuild the strength of the vocal cords. These are just a few examples of children that would benefit from speech therapy. I plan to go into more detail about specific cases in the future hubs. Please let me know if you have questions or comments about specific cases.