Communication
SPEECH DIFFICULTIES
Does your child have…
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difficulty saying particular sounds?
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a lisp?
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no clear words?
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unclear speech?
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deletes sounds in words eg “be” for “bed”
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a history of cleft palate, dribbling, hearing problems, ear infections?
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pointing or gesturing instead of saying words?
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the need for you to interpret what he says to other people?
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difficulty consistently saying words or randomly says a word and then doesn’t say it again?
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slurred or imprecise speech?
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If you have any of these concerns your child would benefit from an assessment by a speech pathologist.
The assessment will determine whether your child’s medical, developmental or hearing history may be influencing their speech development and production of sounds.
The speech pathologist will examine your child’s mouth, assess the oral anatomy and oral muscular movement and coordination and analyse the sounds they can correctly discriminate, produce and sequence. The assessment may also involve observing your child’s eating and drinking as this may give a better understanding of your child’s oral movement.
Following the assessment the speech pathologist will determine whether your child would benefit from speech therapy. Therapy may be directed at improving your child’s awareness of their mouth, lip, tongue, palate and jaw movements and teaching your child how to correctly produce a sound and then sequence sounds into words and sentences.