Communication is essential for human growth and development. From birth into adulthood, we continuously use different methods of communication to convey our wants and needs. A primary way – speech – is a learned skill that must be practiced and improves over time. At Watch Me Shine, we offer various teaching methods and therapies, including speech and language therapy to hone these skills and help each child communicate to their best ability. Speech-language pathologists are professionals who can aid in overcoming speech issues, as well as problems with reading and writing, like dyslexia. They specialize in problems with articulation, fluency, voice, and oral feeding as well.
Modeling
Speech therapy at Watch Me Shine provides an individualized approach and attention to best help your child. Our speech pathologists use modeling – where they show children how to make sounds, including demonstrating skills such as tongue movement and language drills. Working with children to practice exercising jaw and facial muscles are also used in children with feeding problems.
Important for Social Development
Communication and speech are crucial for cognitive development, but social development as well. Children with speech inefficiencies can sometimes become shy or less social because of their inability to keep up with their peers. Speech and language therapy offers a solution, resulting in confident children who can effectively communicate with classmates.
The benefits of speech therapy are bountiful, but the work put in during treatment must continue outside of the classroom. The ultimate goal is to improve the coordination of speech and to strengthen the neural pathways associated with it. The best way to reinforce these skills is to practice, and time spent outside of therapy will increase your child’s level of improvement.
In addition to the increasing confidence on a social level, your child will likely feel more independent when seeing success. They can more effectively communicate their thoughts without assistance, even further boosting their confidence.
Ultimately, the goal for the speech-language pathologist would be to develop a mode of communication that’s most effective for the individual child. This is not always speech, although that is the favorable method.
Regardless of the speech and communication issues, your child is facing; they could likely develop and improve with speech and language therapy at Watch Me Shine. Give us a call at (207) 990-0162 for more information about the other treatment and childcare services we offer here.