Are you struggling to find time for your child’s speech therapy sessions? What if we tell you that you only need 10-15 minutes of your time to do at-home speech exercises with your kids to boost their communication and language skills?
Speech therapy for kids at home is not impossible. These easy-to-do-at-home exercises can help you address delays in speech and language, stuttering, or struggles in articulating certain sounds, which can stem from various factors, including genetic conditions or developmental disorders.
Recognizing and addressing these issues early is important for your kid, as it can prevent further delays, enhance communication skills, and bolster academic and social success.
So, let’s understand how you can improve your child’s speech and communication skills, empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.
What is speech therapy?
Speech therapy is a type of treatment for individuals who have difficulty with speech and language. It focuses on improving communication skills.
The therapy involves working with a speech-language pathologist who creates a customized treatment plan based on the individual’s needs. The therapist may use a variety of techniques, such as exercises, games, and activities, to improve speech and language abilities.
Speech therapy can be an effective treatment for a range of conditions, including speech delays, language disorders, stuttering, and cognitive-communication disorders.
Ways to Improve speech therapy for kids at home
Here are some tried and tested ways to improve your child’s speech.
1. Establish Communication Goals
Before creating any speech exercises or activities, parents/ speech therapists should first pinpoint the specific speech issues that their children are struggling with.
To establish communication goals, a speech-language pathologist will typically conduct a comprehensive assessment of the individual’s communication strengths and challenges.
Based on the assessment findings, the therapist will work with the individual and their family members to develop specific and individualized goals that are realistic, achievable, and meaningful for the individual.
Speech-language therapy sessions may include a variety of activities and interventions to help the individual achieve their communication goals.
These may include exercises to improve speech production, language learning, social communication scenarios, and assistive technology to support communication.
The goal can help in setting milestones for improving the overall communication of the child.
2. Storytelling
It is an excellent way to encourage children to develop language and improve their communication skills. Storytelling can be a powerful tool for speech therapy in children. It can be used to target various aspects of a child’s language development, including vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.
Storytelling can be used by encouraging the child to tell their own stories. This can help them to practice their language skills and improve their ability to organize their thoughts. Additionally, the use of visual aids like books and pictures can help provide context and support the child’s understanding.
Another way to use storytelling in speech therapy for kids is by having them listen to and tell stories. This can help improve their comprehension and memory skills, as well as their ability to tell stories in their own words.
Overall, storytelling can be an engaging and fun way to target different aspects of a child’s language skills in speech therapy. With the help of a trained speech therapist, children can make significant strides in their language development while having fun at the same time.
3. Singing
Singing can be a great speech therapy tool for kids that can be implemented at home. Music activates many areas of the brain and can help children with speech and communication difficulties to improve their cognitive and language abilities.
Singing can help improve a child’s phonological awareness, which is the ability to distinguish and manipulate the sounds of language. It also provides an opportunity for children to practice their breath control and vocal range, which can be essential for developing speaking skills.
4. Practice Articulation
When it comes to speech therapy for kids with articulation difficulties, practicing the targeted sounds is often a crucial component of the treatment.
There are many resources available to parents and speech therapists to help children practice and improve their articulation skills, such as word lists.
Speech therapy exercises can also be an effective way to remediate speech disorders in children. For example, exercises that focus on the “R” sound can help children who struggle with this difficult-to-master sound.
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) may provide specific targets for practice with articulation or motor speech therapy.
5. Enunciation practice
Enunciation involves articulating a word clearly and precisely, ensuring that the individual sounds and the entire word are easily understood.
It helps children develop better tone, volume, and pitch control of speech sounds.
Enunciation practice can be an essential part of speech therapy, especially for individuals who struggle with articulation, pronunciation, or phonological disorders. It involves learning to speak words clearly and with the correct pronunciation and stress.
Enunciation practice can include exercises such as tongue twisters, which can help improve a person’s speech clarity and phonemic awareness.
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work with kids to identify areas where they may need to focus specifically on enunciation and to develop strategies to improve skills
6. Reading Aloud and Conversation Practice
Reading aloud and conversation practice can be effective components of speech therapy for a variety of speech and language disorders.
Reading aloud can help individuals with speech sound disorders improve their articulation and phonological awareness skills. It can also help with fluency by encouraging a steady and consistent rate of speech. Additionally, reading out loud can help with word recognition and vocabulary development.
Conversation practice can be especially helpful for individuals who struggle with social communication disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Engaging in conversation practice with a trained speech therapist can help individuals with ASD develop their social skills and improve their ability to initiate and maintain conversations.
Speech therapy in Cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy (CP) can affect a person’s speech and communication abilities, and speech therapy can be a helpful intervention in improving these skills.
Speech therapy for cerebral palsy often focuses on strengthening mouth muscles, teaching specific sounds, and improving communication interactions.
The primary goal of speech therapy for cerebral palsy is to improve communication skills and make it easier for children with CP to articulate words clearly.
Additionally, speech therapy can help with feeding skills, as well as improve facial and oral muscle coordination.
Speech-language pathologists are trained to develop individualized treatment plans that address the unique needs of each child with CP. By utilizing various techniques such as articulation drills and social communication practice, speech therapy can help children with CP improve their speech, language, and communication skills.
Speech Therapy in Autism
Speech therapy can be an effective intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who may experience challenges with communication and social skills.
Speech-language therapy can help improve verbal and nonverbal communication skills, as well as social language abilities.
Speech therapy exercises for children with ASD may include practicing essential words, using favorite toys and objects to facilitate communication, making animal noises, and working on speech production and articulation.
Speech therapists can also help establish functional and spontaneous communication, set communication goals, and work on improving social communication, such as maintaining eye contact, turn-taking, and engaging in conversation.
Additional treatment in association with speech therapy
Although speech therapy is effective, it is a time-consuming process. Along with speech therapy, stem cell therapy can quicken the process and help the child speak and communicate without any difficulty with his friends and family.
Stem cell therapy to treat autism and cerebral palsy
Several studies have explored the safety and efficacy of stem cell therapy for cerebral palsy. A study conducted in 2021 showed that treatment with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) was more effective in children with cerebral palsy than with bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs).
Similarly, some researchers have conducted clinical trials exploring the use of stem cell therapy for autism, although there is less research in this area compared to cerebral palsy.
While stem cell therapy is gaining recognition as a standard treatment protocol for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in India, one should choose the best place of treatment to get the desired outcome within a short time without any side effects.
Conclusion
While speech therapy can be incredibly helpful for children with speech and language disorders, it can take a lot of time for the child to develop his articulation skills. It is important to work with a qualified speech-language pathologist, set realistic goals, and communicate openly about any concerns.
With persistence and consistent effort, speech therapy can help children lead more fulfilling and successful lives.
Stem cell therapy, on the other hand, will enhance the quality of life in children suffering from speech difficulties. A neuronal circuit (brain circuit made of nerve cells) will be formed in the brain which will repair the speech-related activation center in the brain. This will lead to the permanent elimination of the symptoms and the development of good speaking abilities in the children.
FAQ :
Q1. Can speech therapy be done at home?
Yes. Speech therapy can be done at home with the help of an expert speech pathologist.
Q2. Can parents give speech therapy at home?
Yes, parents can give speech therapy at home but with the help of an efficient speech therapist.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8699362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9794999/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8533906/
