Should I call a speech therapist? How to decide when speech errors just aren’t normal anymore.

Should I call a speech therapist? This question pops up a lot, and I hear it especially at the beginning of a school year. Often it’s not just parents but teachers asking about students they teach. The answer can depend on what setting the child is in as school based and private speech therapy differ on qualifying criteria. Here’s an excellent blog post on the difference, “Important Info for Parents About School-Based and Private Speech-Language Therapy Services.”

In the fall of 2018 a published journal article by McLeod and Crowe came out providing a cross-linguistic review of children’s acquisition of consonants in 27 languages. The article backed up what speech language pathologists already knew about sound acquisition… it happens earlier than most think! 

McLeod and Crowe really didn’t determine anything new, they simply summarized a terrific amount of studies to show when 90% of English speaking children develop specific speech sounds. Because we know that children with even just single speech sound disorders are at risk for a host of educational difficulties regardless of the number or kind of errors expressed (Farquharson (2019). It Might Not Be “Just Artic”: The Case for the Single Sound Error, ), we recommend any child that falls outside of the norms in McLeod and Crowe’s cross-linguistic study be evaluated further for speech therapy needs. 

With articulation therapy, early intervention leads to an increase in positive outcomes, meaning less time and money spent on therapy.  Studies show that the age of the child significantly impacts the outcome and duration of therapy.  With each year that passes, the length of time needed to remediate sound errors significantly increases, especially after a child reaches 8 years of age.

So if you are still wondering if you should call a speech therapist don’t hesitate any longer. Contact Trilogy Therapy today, because we believe no matter where you are, access to therapy should have no barriers and we’re ready to help!

Speech Teletherapy: Why in some cases it works better than traditional on-site speech therapy.

I’ve been doing speech teletherapy for several years and know first hand how effective it is, but I don’t think others truly grasped it until this spring when the entire country came to a halt and everyone shifted virtually.  Here are five reasons why, in some cases, teletherapy is more effective than traditional therapy and you should consider trying it!

Carry-over and home practice

Carry over is a client or student’s ability to take an individual speech skill learned in therapy and apply it broadly in all speaking situations. Because you are providing teletherapy within the client’s/student’s home this can be easier to achieve. Items used during therapy are typically found within the client/student’s home. These items can be used for practice until the next speech teletherapy session.

More frequent contact with therapist

Because therapy can be scheduled without worry of travel time and at the convenience of both the client/student and the therapist, it is much easier to have multiple sessions and contact with each other. In some cases short, more frequent practice, is needed to master a skill (i.e., speech sound aquisition).

Convenience of doing therapy in your home

As noted above there’s no travel time or waiting in waiting rooms. The client or student simply logs on to the HIPAA/FERPA compliant platform and the therapy session begins.

Helps with those who have social anxiety

I have clients and students who have difficulty warming up to others in person. Each session begins with a period of time used to build rapport and establish (or re-establish) a connection. However, with teletherapy, I have found the time for building rapport is decreased. My client or student is in his/her own home and often has support from a loved one to decrease his/her anxiety.

Family support and participation

My clients and students all have family members who actively participate in our speech teletherapy sessions. This has been invaluable as many of them then work on targets with the client/student during the week while we aren’t in our session together.

There are many reasons to consider when providing speech therapy in person, on-site or virtually, and Trilogy Therapy specializes in doing it all! Visit us at www.trilogyteletherapy.com and schedule a visit today!

Ellen C. Treide MS, CCC-SLP