Speech Therapy and Other Disorders
In the fields of child development and mental health, communication is divided into three parts: speech, language, and pragmatic, or social, language. Communication problems may be related to speech or language or both and range from mild to severe.
Speech and language problems are often associated with other disorders, such as hearing loss; neurological disorders; brain injury; intellectual disability; physical impairments, such as cleft lip or palate; emotional or psychiatric disorders; and other developmental disorders. Many times, however, the cause is unknown. It is estimated that 1 in every 10 Americans has experienced or lived with some type of communication deficit.
Speech therapy is often an important treatment option for children and teens diagnosed with other disorders or delays and therapy results can be impressive. Some of the most common therapy partnerships are discussed here, but speech therapy can be successful for children with other disorders as well.
Speech Therapy and ADHD
Children and teens with ADHD are at risk for speech disorders, but language therapy may be most beneficial for these kids because they process language differently. The language difficulties may be the result of a specific language impairment or related to ADHD or both. Regardless of whether or not there is an identified language impairment, because of the nature of many ADHD symptoms, the end result is that your child is not able to communicate effectively.
Your child may struggle to find the right words to say. He may not be able to string his thoughts together to participate in a conversation or may lose track of a conversation. Many times these “holes” in conversation make children appear defiant or oppositional when in fact, their behavior is the result of missing some of the language information and, therefore, not being able to respond appropriately.
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Paying attention to language may be an even bigger problem in noisy environments, such as a classroom or even your living room. Many children are not able to focus on one speaker or event or to move their attention from one speaker or event to another. They may have difficulty managing chunks of language and information, making it easy to miss or lose instructions. When this happens, children usually respond inappropriately and frequently get in trouble. Any noisy situation involving language can be a difficult situation for children with language and/or attention problems.
Children with ADHD often have lapses in their pragmatic, or social, language ability. Even though they may have the ability to understand the rules of conversation and other social interactions, their distractibility and impulsiveness may prevent them from following the rules. They may interrupt or blurt out, talk too much or too loudly, and have trouble entering a conversation, staying on topic or changing topics in a conversation, or ending a conversation. These are ADHD behaviors as well as communication behaviors and, regardless of their source, they may get in the way of your child’s social success.
Speech Therapy and Autism
One of the most important steps you can take to help your child with autism is early intervention and, because autism is a social communication disorder, speech therapy is a key part of intervention. Although beginning intervention before age 3 is best, speech therapy for older children and even teens, is also important and can greatly enhance the communication development of your child. Speech therapy can improve overall communication and help your child develop relationships that may lessen the isolation that often comes with autism. Therapy can improve the day-to-day communication function of your child. In fact, research shows that children who improve the most are usually those who receive the most speech therapy.
Speech therapy treats speech, language, and social communication. Therapy goals may range from learning to articulate speech sounds correctly to understanding and using both verbal and nonverbal language more effectively. Therapy goals are intended to help your child be able to understand the intentions of others as well as make his intentions known to others, to communicate without having to be prompted, and to know the appropriate time and place for using social language, such as when to say “thank you” or “good morning.” I will design goals to help develop conversational skills so your son or daughter can exchange thoughts, ideas, and information. Overall, the goal of therapy is to improve your child’s communication and enhance his quality of life.
Speech Therapy and Auditory Processing
The term “auditory processing" and the diagnosis of auditory processing disorder (APD) have attracted a lot of attention in recent years. If your child has been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder, you know there is a lot of confusion and misinformation surrounding APD. It’s also important to know that many of the characteristics of auditory processing disorder are present in other disorders, such as ADHD, autism, and language processing. Every child who has trouble listening or understanding or following directions doesn’t necessarily have APD and these children are often misdiagnosed. Regardless of the source of your child’s processing issues, speech therapy can help.
Speech therapy can provide information to help structure your child’s environments, such as school and home, to help focus her listening attention. Simple changes, such as adjusting where she sits in the classroom or making sure the teacher is close when speaking, can be helpful. At home, having your son or daughter’s full listening attention before speaking is important; never try to compete with the TV or a device.
Speech therapy can strengthen other skills that will help compensate for the auditory processing deficit. Children with APD benefit when they learn to remember details that they have heard or information heard in a sequence. Being able to process and respond to different kinds of questions is very important, because children who do not process information correctly usually don’t respond correctly, which can lead to misunderstanding and conflict. Learning to give a reasonable answer to simple questions (“What would you like for lunch?”), as well as more complex questions requiring reasoning and problem solving (“Why did you leave the gate unlocked? Do you know what could have happened?”), can have a positive impact on your child’s behavior and school performance.
Even though there is no cure for APD, speech therapy can contribute to the development of skills that are specific to the auditory processing. For example, we can set speech therapy goals to help your child learn to recognize sounds and the differences between sounds, identify when sounds are missing, and understand how to fill in the gaps in what he hears. Children can learn to listen and work in different kinds of background noise.
Speech Therapy and Your Child's Disorder
It’s impossible to discuss the benefits of speech therapy related to all disorders here. If you aren’t sure if speech therapy might be appropriate for your child, please contact me. I will be happy to discuss the potential benefits of speech therapy specific to your child and his current diagnosis.
A FREE 30 minute phone or in-office consultation is available for you and your child. Call me at 940-704-4324 or contact me to schedule your FREE consultation. This will give us an opportunity to get to know each other and discuss any questions or concerns you might have.
You can also download my free Speech and Language Milestones Document above to see examples of communication skills you can expect at different ages, including for preteens and teens.
Sources available upon request.