What is Speech & Language Therapy?
Speech & Language Therapy facilitates a child’s ability to understand speech and to communicate with others, as well as oral motor/feeding skills.

Speech – the verbal and vocal means of communicating:

• Speech refers to the actual production of sounds.
• Speech disorders may include problems with producing speech sounds clearly, using the voice correctly, speaking fluently.

Language – made up of shared symbols so that we can connect and interact with others:

• Receptive language disorders refer to difficulties understanding or processing language.
• Expressive language disorders refer to difficulty sharing thoughts, ideas and feelings completely including putting words together, limited vocabulary, or inability to use language in a socially appropriate way.

Feeding – feeding disorders may include:

• Issues with taking in foods, chewing, or manipulating foods within the mouth.
• Drinking liquids, via bottle, sipper cup, straw or open cup.
• Food intake of various tastes and textures and meeting nutritional needs.
• Swallowing issues (also called dysphagia) at various stages of the swallowing process.

When should a child see a Speech Language Therapist?
A Speech Language Therapist helps children who have difficulty with:

• Pre-language skills, including making eye contact or facial expressions, gesturing, babbling, and/or imitating sounds.
• Weakness or lack of coordination in facial and oral muscles necessary for speech and feeding, being able to manipulate food while eating, or having unclear verbal language.
• Chewing, sucking from a straw/bottle, or frequently having food spill out of the mouth.
• Producing intelligible sounds and words needed to communicate with others.
• Receptive language such as understanding and following directions.
• Expressive language such as putting words together or naming objects and family members or using sentences.
• Using appropriate behavior and language within social situations or understanding indirect requests and facial expression from others.
• Thinking skills such as work finding, organization and problem solving.
• Speech sounds, including articulation.
• Producing smooth, fluent speech.

Speech & Language Therapy Resources