As a top pediatric speech therapist in Orlando, First Words Speech Therapy helps children reach their full potential. Our experienced speech and language pathologists are licensed and work with children of all ages.
To meet your child’s specific needs, we provide comprehensive evaluations and treatment plans that are individualized to your child’s needs.
What Is A Pediatric Speech Language Therapist
“Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults,” American Speech Language Hearing Association
What To Expect During A Pediatric Speech Therapy Session
Each child is different, with their own needs, so their speech therapy should also be unique to them.
A speech therapist works with children in a variety of ways to overcome their speech – language disorder. Keep in mind each program is specifically designed to treat the needs of each individual child, there are a variety of techniques, including:
Language Activities
These include talking and playing, using objects, books, pictures, or events to help stimulate language development. The speech therapist will use repetition exercise and model correct pronunciation to build language and speech skills.
Articulation Activities
Sound or articulation production typically involves the speech therapist modeling correct syllables and sounds for your child, commonly during games and play activities. These exercises specifically related to your child speech therapy needs and age appropriate.
This includes physically showing your child how to move the muscles in their mouth to make certain sounds, demonstrating how to move their tongue to make a certain sound, such as the “t” or “r” sounds. A mirror is often used for this activity.
Oral Motor Activities
This includes swallowing and chewing issues. A speech therapist often uses a range of oral exercises, such as a variety of tongue, jaw, and lip exercises to health strengthen mouth muscles. As well as different food temperatures and textures to increase oral awareness.
Goals Of Pediatric Speech And Language Therapy
The goals of speech therapy target a diverse area that focus on speech production, communication fluency, cognition, spoken and written language, resonance, voice, and auditory processing.
Increased confidence and self-esteem
Improved the ability to express themselves clearly
Use of correct language and improve understanding
Improved social skills
Improved capability to effectively communicate
Improved swallowing and feeding development
Increased auditory processing
Speech and Language Therapy to Support You and Your Child
A speech therapist is there to support you, your child, and family. They may suggest tips, recourses, and activities to do with your child at home to help increase their speech and language development.
At First Words Speech Therapy, we have developed a holistic approach to the therapy process wherein your child’s care can be coordinated with other therapy disciplines (Occupational, Physical, Behavioral, etc.) to attain optimal results in all necessary developmental areas.
