What is Speech Therapy?
- Speech therapy is a treatment that helps to improve the ability to speak or communicate effectively either verbally or non- verbally.
- Speech therapy focusses individuals of all ages from children to older adults.
- It addresses issues with understanding of language, expression of thoughts, voice problems, fluency problems, clarity issues in speech and also swallowing problems.
- It also ensures improving one’s quality of life by helping to express themselves.
When to start speech therapy?
- According to researches, Speech therapy is more beneficial if started in the early stages of life, before 3 years of age and likely to benefit until 6 years of age.
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- Once the milestone check doesn’t meet the child’s age appropriate skill, the child can be taken to a Speech Language Pathologist for an expert opinion.
- Few examples of the milestones are
Age- 2: Begins combining two words like Dada come, Mamma go, etc.; Uses 15- 20 Single words; Identifies and says body parts.
Age- 3: Uses 3 word Combination; Begins asking questions frequently; Identifies and says common concepts like fruits, vegetables, shapes, colors, etc.
Importance of Speech therapy