Speech Therapy
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Pediatric Speech Therapy

Pediatric speech and language therapy provides assessment and treatment of your child's communication skills. These include speech, language, play and interaction development.  The focus of treatment may be on oral-motor skills, stuttering, tongue thrust, voice or augmentative communication. As a parent, you are provided with strategies to help your child to communicate better at home and in the community.

Speech and language therapy can help your child to:

  • Improve understanding and expression of language

  • Improve speech/sound production

  • Decrease stuttering behaviors

  • Improve swallowing patterns to reduce tongue thrust

  • Improve communication through the provision of
    augmentative communication systems

  • Improve eating and swallowing skill development

  • Promote age appropriate play skills

The Speech Therapy staff of HHPT hold a Masters Degree and are licensed by the State of Georgia.  They hold a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech Language and Hearing Association.

Reasons to refer a child for Speech Therapy

Toddlers often have trouble with pronunciation and difficulties putting sentences together. A child between the ages of 18 months and 3 years will generally mispronounce many words. It's perfectly normal to have to play a guessing game to figure out what your child is saying, and at times you may have absolutely no clue what she's getting at. That's okay!

If the problem is not pronunciation but rather that your child isn't talking or is talking very little, you should act a little more quickly.  You should have your child evaluated if he or she is doing any of the following:

  • Doesn't react normally or consistently to sounds. (May be overly sensitive to sounds such as vacuums or hair dryers yet seem indifferent at other times when people call their name.)

  • Mispronounces vowels, saying "coo" instead of "cow".

  • Uses one catch-all sound or syllable to name most things ("duh" or "duh-duh")

  • Doesn't point to common objects in books

  • Uses a word once and then doesn't use it again frequently.

  • Still says single words only, and not two or three word sentences.

  • Answers a question by repeating part of your question.

What happens during speech therapy?

A speech therapist will test your child and find out the types of speech and language skills that he or she needs to work on. Speech therapy includes training and repetitive exercises and use of devices that can make it easier for some children to speak. Speech therapists also work closely with the parents so that they may help their child.

The therapist works one-on-one with your child or in a small group. During therapy your child may do a variety of age-appropriate fun activities.

  • Language exercises: During these exercises the therapist plays with and talks to your child. The therapist may model the correct way to say words and have your child repeat words and sentences.
  • Articulation exercises: Articulation means the making of sounds. The therapist will do sound exercises with your child by making the correct sound or syllable of a word for the child to repeat. Your child is shown how to make the sound with his or her mouth and tongue. Your child may use a mirror to watch how the mouth and tongue move to make the correct sound.
  • Relaxation and breathing exercises: Breathing techniques and relaxation exercises may be done to help your child relax the face and mouth muscles.