Speech and Language Therapy

Speech and Language therapy has a very important role to play in treating children with autism mainly as they have difficulty in giving and receiving verbal or non-verbal communicative information.

The common speech and language difficulties seen in children with autism are as follows:

• Delay in speaking i.e. delay in speech milestones
• Echolalia or pronoun reversal
• Difficulty expressing ones basic needs or wants
• Poor vocabulary development
• Limited speech
• Difficulty waiting for ones turn to speak
• Feeding and swallowing problems

A Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP) works with children with autism to address the following:

• Helping the child to understand communication
• Facilitating understanding of spoken language and situation expectations
• Giving the child something to talk about
• Giving the child a means of communication
• Giving the child a reason to communicate

The speech therapist works with the child and his/her family to facilitate effective communication among them such that it benefits the overall development of the child.

What is the goal of speech therapist for a child with autism? And what are the benefits of speech therapy?

The goal of intervention is to improve communication and social skills for your autistic child. This may include:

• Helping children understand non-verbal communication like facial expression and gestures
• Help develop a non-verbal communication system, such as pointing at pictures, for those who don’t speak
• To teach or model listening, speaking, reading, writing, and conversation skills
• To help the child with early communication skills
• To produce sounds and words and gestures

As the child’s speech improves after speech therapy it helps improve the overall communication, understanding, self-esteem and confidence in the child thus reducing his frustration of the inablity to convey his needs and wants.