How does Speech Therapy help my child with Autism?
The ultimate objective of speech therapy is to improve the communication skills of your child on the Autism spectrum, which is associated with symptoms that do impair his/her language and communication skills. To understand how Speech Therapy for Autism works, it is important to know that language is used to communicate our feelings, thoughts and needs with other people. Language can be either communicated verbally or non-verbally.
Speech is essentially, the physical production which make use of the oral muscles and the coordination between them to express the ideas, thoughts and feelings. Speech therapy focuses on developing the language as well as speech aspects, and therefore, would work towards uplifting these areas by means of exercises and activities, so as to to enhancing the overall communicative ability, which in turn boosts your child’s cognitive capacity on a whole.
Speech therapy can directly benefit your child in the ability to understand and express their thoughts, ideas and feelings, through intelligible speech, along with an increased ability to solve problems, in an independent environment, which makes them school-ready. Speech therapy also can help with improved swallowing.
Speech therapy has a great effect on pre-literacy skills, vocal quality, fluency of speech, and the development of practical social skills. This could help your child achieve a better quality of life, build a greater self-esteem, and thus, increased independence.
Speech and language are two individual, but related components of communication. Speech therapy also helps with communication, which would help your child convey the ideas in his/her mind, either verbally or nonverbally.
Other Questions
Does my child need Speech Therapy?
What does Speech Therapy include?
How often does my child need Speech Therapy?
At what age should I start Speech therapy for my child?
