Speech Therapy! I Need It. | My Fit Brain

Speech therapists often work one-on-one with clients and develop individualized plans to treat each client. Using written and oral tests, and special instruments, therapists diagnose the cause and extent of speech impairments and analyze these impairments along with language and swallowing differences. However, clients can take several online theoretical and instructional in a speech therapy session to correct speech disability.

My fit brain provides the service of online speech therapy to the needy once.

Speech Therapy - How Does it Work?

Online Speech Therapy consultations are conducted live via an internet connection. The therapist communicates with the client via an internet link which provides good sound quality and a webcam. Therapy materials are administered via the computer screen and can be seen by both the client and the therapist simultaneously. Any additional materials and homework programs can be mailed. Therapy activities will generally be the same as those delivered in a face-to-face clinical environment. All you need is a computer, good internet connection, headphones (preferable) or speakers and a microphone (which is often already fitted on your computer). A webcam is not essential but may be helpful in some cases. All online assessments and services provided by communicating are conducted by a fully qualified and certified speech and language therapist/pathologist.

Who do We Provide a Service For?

Communicate offers services to both children, adults, and schools. Providing you have an internet connection, we can offer services to anywhere in the world. These services work best for children aged 5 years and above who have reasonable listening and attention skills.

• Language Difficulties – expressive and receptive language difficulties, specific language impairment, and word-finding difficulties
• Literacy Difficulties and Dyslexia- online therapy is an ideal way to work on literacy difficulties
• Training – if you need training relating to speech and communication difficulties, autism, special needs, or setting assistive communication devices or systems, this can be provided online
• Assessment – assessing speech, language, and literacy skills and providing reports.

Advantages of Online Speech Therapy and Teaching

There are a number of advantages to conducting therapy in this manner:

• Speech Therapy online may actually be more effective for some clients. Children with poor listening and attention skills and/or auditory processing disorders may benefit from the interactive nature.
• There is greater availability of therapy for individuals living in more rural areas or areas where there is restricted access to speech-language therapy services.
• There are financial benefits for both the therapist and the individual, as services “online” may be cheaper than “face to face” services, and there are no costs in travel, and less administration.
• There are time benefits, as services online do not require you to travel to a clinic, or the therapist to travel to your home. There may also be more flexibility around fitting in with your schedule.
• There are also environmental benefits, with services being done online, there is no petrol consumption and possibly less paperwork being produced.
• If you choose to have your therapy live with communicating we can provide access to programs and resources (via email) free of charge so that you can practice in your own time.
• All online assessment and services will be arranged and conducted by a qualified and certified speech and language therapists/pathologists.

Ten Ways a Speech-Language Therapist Can Help Your Child

There are ten ways a speech-language therapist can help your child are designed by My Fit Brain. These are the ways:

Articulation Skills/Speech Intelligibility

Articulation is the physical ability to move the tongue, lips, jaw, and palate (known as the articulators) to produce individual speech sounds which we call phonemes. For example, to articulate the /b/ sound, we need to inhale, then while exhaling we need to turn our voice on, bring our slightly tensed lips together to stop and build up the airflow, and then release the airflow by parting our lips.

Intelligibility refers to how well people can understand your child’s speech. If a child’s articulation skills are compromised for any reason, his intelligibility will be decreased compared to other children his age. SLP’s can work with your child to teach them how to produce the specific speech sounds or sound patterns that he is having difficulty with, and thus increasing his overall speech intelligibility.

Expressive Language Skills

While speech involves the physical motor ability to talk, language is symbolic.  In English, the symbols can be words, either spoken or written. We also have gestural symbols like shrugging our shoulders to indicate “I don’t know” or waving to indicate “Bye Bye” or the raising of our eyebrows to indicate that we are surprised by something.
Expressive language then refers to what your child says. Speech-language pathologists can help your child learn new words and how to put them together to form phrases and sentences (semantics and syntax) so that your child can communicate with you and others. 

Receptive Language/Listening Skills

Receptive language refers to your child’s ability to listen and understand language. Most often, young children have stronger receptive language skills (what they understand) than expressive language skills (what they can say). An SLP can help teach your child new vocabulary and how to use that knowledge to follow directions, answer questions, and participate in simple conversations with others.

Speech Fluency/Stuttering

Stuttering is a communication disorder that affects speech fluency. It is characterized by breaks in the flow of speech referred to as disfluencies and typically begins in childhood. Everyone experiences disfluencies in their speech.  Some disfluencies are totally normal but having too many can actually significantly affect one’s ability to communicate.

In stuttering, we most often see the following types of primary behaviors: repetitions, prolongations, interjections, and blocks. We may also see secondary behaviors, typically in more severe cases of stuttering such as tension in the neck, shoulders, face, jaw, chest; eye blinks, nose flaring, other odd facial movements; clenched fists, stomping of feet; jerking or other unusual motor movements in arms, hands, legs, feet.

SLPs can teach your child strategies on how to control this behavior and thus increasing his speech fluency and intelligibility.

Voice and Resonance 

Voice disorders refer to disorders that affect the vocal folds that allow us to have a voice. These can include vocal cord paralysis, nodules or polyps on the vocal folds, and other disorders that can cause hoarseness or aphonia (loss of voice). You can learn more about voice disorders on www.myfitbrain.in

A common voice disorder in young children is hoarseness caused by vocal abuse. Vocal abuse refers to bad habits that lead to strain or damage to the vocal folds such as yelling, excessive talking, coughing, throat clearing, etc.  Speech-language pathologists with experience in voice and resonance disorders can work with children to decrease these behaviors and repair the strain/damage of the folds.

Social/Pragmatic Language

Social/ pragmatic language refers to the way an individual uses language to communicate and involves three major communication skills: using language to communicate in different ways (like greeting others, requesting, protesting, asking questions to gain information, etc), changing language according to the people or place it is being used (i.e. we speak differently to a child than we do to an adult; we speak differently inside vs. outside), and following the rules for conversation (taking turns in conversation, staying on topic, using and understanding verbal and nonverbal cues, etc).
SLPs can work with your child to teach them these social language skills so that they can more appropriate;y participate in conversations with others.

Cognitive-Communication Skills

Cognitive-communication disorders refer to the impairment of cognitive processes including attention, memory, abstract reasoning, awareness, and executive functions (self-monitoring, planning, and problem-solving). These can be developmental in nature (meaning the child is born with these deficits) or can be acquired due to a head injury, stroke, or degenerative diseases. SLPs can work with your child to help build these skills and/or teach your child compensatory methods to assist them with their deficits.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

Augmentative and Alternative Communication, also known simply as AAC, refers to “…all forms of communication (other than oral speech) that are used to express thoughts, needs, wants, and ideas. When SLPs are working with children, our number one goal is always communication. Sometimes, a child may have such a severe delay/disorder, that traditional oral speech is not possible or is not practical. In these circumstances, an SLP may work with a child and his family to come up with an AAC system to use instead of, or alongside of, speech.
It is very important to note, that these AAC methods are not always used to replace speech. In many circumstances, AAC is used as a bridge to speech. Children can use the AAC methods to communicate while still working on developing speech skills (when appropriate).

Swallowing/Feeding Issues

Speech-language pathologists, believe it or not, can be trained in pediatric swallowing and feeding issues in addition to speech and language issues. This is because, as SLPs, they have intimate knowledge of the structures and functions of the oral cavities and beyond. In fact, some SLPs have training in my functional disorders including tongue thrust.

Educating and Empowering you on how to best help your child

Hands down, the best thing an SLP can do for your child, is to educate you and empower you on how to best help your child. A speech-language pathologist may spend an hour or so a week with your child, but you spend hours and hours a week interacting with your child. You wake your child, get him ready for his day, read to him, talk to him, bathe him, and put him down to sleep at night.  It is during these everyday routines that your child is learning the most and is given the most opportunities to communicate.

When you are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and confidence YOU can be the best “speech therapist” your child will ever have. So ask questions, take notes, do the homework, and work closely with your child’s SLP. Together you can make an amazing team and change your child’s speech problem
So look our SLP by visiting My Fit Brain or email us at help@myfitbrain.in