Speech therapy is one of the key services that deaf children need, even if they receive cochlear implants. September is International Deaf Awareness Month, and it's important to address some misconceptions that could create unnecessary long-term challenges for deaf children. Working with SLP patients with hearing disabilities is one of many satisfying careers in speech-language pathology. Speech pathologists use speech therapy to help patients with hearing problems improve their quality of life.
They work on interventions for speech disorders related to voice, articulation, fluency, resonance and other factors. They also collaborate with audiologists to create treatment plans for patients. Other communication techniques can be explored, especially when the use of oral or sign language is not sufficient to support communication. Natural gestures, drawing, writing, or pictograms can help children communicate.
We would like to thank the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists for their contribution to the development of this information. Doctors help children perceive, analyze, and give meaning to environmental and speech sounds. Speech therapists work with clients whose communication disorders are due to a variety of causes, such as strokes, brain injuries, and developmental delays. Some prefer a bimodal approach, arguing that it avoids language deprivation by implementing a mode of communication before access to the sound of speech.
Due to the alteration of auditory input, speech and oral language development may be limited, which will affect oral communication skills and, eventually, social participation, including academic achievement, participation in leisure activities and, finally, access to the labor market. For children who go to school or daycare, the speech therapist must work closely with all education professionals, such as the teacher of the deaf, support assistants and class teachers, to ensure that the objectives of speech and language therapy are included in schoolwork and in everyday activities, both at home and outside of home, in order to provide the child with as many opportunities as possible to learn and practice. There is no doubt that children with hearing loss should enroll in speech therapy at an early age to ensure that they develop speech and language skills as normally as possible. In some cases, doctors may use guided speech, in which speech sounds are encoded by signs, to help children differentiate between subtle aspects of speech.
These examples, among others, demonstrate that, in recent decades, the work and intervention modalities of speech and language therapy have evolved significantly and will continue to evolve, following the experience of therapists, the transfer of knowledge from research and technological and social changes. All deaf teachers will have been trained on how to support the language development of deaf children and will be able to advise you on what you can do at home to ensure that your child is progressing at a good pace. Teachers plan and educate children who are deaf or hard of hearing with different backgrounds, abilities, and characteristics. While the limitations of older hearing technologies often prevented the integration of auditory training into speech therapy, auditory perception with newer technologies has re-emphasized the importance of auditory stimulation.
Some parents have told us that it is sometimes difficult for them to get an appointment with a speech-language therapist. Standards for the certification of professionals involved in the education of deaf and hard of hearing children and young people. Consequently, current speech and language therapies for deaf and hard of hearing children are based on interactive perspectives and therefore include a wide spectrum of approaches and techniques. If your child has one, the need for speech and language therapy can also be set out in a coordinated support plan (CSP), a legal document that sets out the additional support needs your child may need.
