It is very natural as a parent to be concerned about your child’s speech development, especially since children often experience various speech abnormalities as a course of learning language. How do you know if your child is developing normally? Is it typical for a child to be experiencing a certain speech “errors” beyond a certain age? It’s good to know …
How does Speech Therapy using the PROMPT method help treat Apraxia?
What is PROMPT? PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets), is a system used to treat speech disorders. The PROMPT technique has many facets to support speech change and is mainly used to treat apraxia. This system takes into account all the different ways we use our bodies including: sensory, perception, cognition, ideation, planning and action. The unique factor …
Speech Therapy Tips: How to Stimulate Early Language Development in Children
Consult with a Speech Therapist Early language development in children does not happen overnight and can be a slow process, but with a proactive attitude, eager parents can do a lot to help their child along as he or she learns to speak. If you feel that your child has a speech or language difficulty or if he or she …
Chicago Speech Therapy: How accurate is the M-CHAT?
What is the M-CHAT? The M-CHAT, or the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, is a test used for toddlers between 16 and 30 months of age to screen for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Developed and copyrighted by Dr. Diana Robbins Ph.D. and translated into over 30 languages, the M-CHAT was designed for parents to administer to their children, but …
Speech Therapy: The phonological process of fronting
Learning language is a tough process for children and often involves small steps and substitutions as your child masters new sounds. For example, your child might have started out saying “wawa” but has since advanced to saying “water”. But what if your child has developed a pattern of speaking which involved the same substitutions? What if he always replaces the …
Chicago Speech Therapy: Coping with Stuttering and Developing Stutter-Free Speech
Stuttering is quite common throughout the world; it is estimated that at least 1% of the entire population suffers from this speech disorder. This common disorder is something that can practically hinder a person’s progress in various situations, as well as emotionally cause a discomfort with public speaking or social situations. Communication is something we perform daily, and when the …
Speech Therapy: What is Cluster Reduction?
What is Cluster Reduction in Speech? Children can encounter many different kinds of mistakes while learning to speak. We’ve all seen sitcoms or movies during which the younger sibling adorably mispronounces words, saying things such as “fren” instead of “friend.” This type of mistake is actually called cluster reduction. Cluster reduction in speech is when a consonant cluster, that is …
Chicago Speech Therapy: The Difference Between ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder
The diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is on the rise in America’s youth, affecting 2 to 16 percent of school-aged children. Symptoms such as difficulty in listening, focusing, and processing information often lead to an ADHD label, but a different, underlying issue may be at the heart of the problem: sensory processing disorder (SPD). What is Sensory Processing …
Chicago Speech Therapy: ‘Backing’ of Speech Sounds and Your Child’s Speech Development
What Is Backing? Every language has rules about how sounds can be combined. There’s even a name for the science of speech sounds and sound patterns; it’s called “phonology.” As children listen and learn speech, they naturally pick up on these rules and learn to speak like the adults around them. However, this process also intrinsically involves making mistakes and …
Articulation Disorders and Learning to Speak Effectively with the Help of Speech Therapy
We all know the cute mispronunciations children make when learning to speak. For example, a four-year old may substitute a multi-syllable word like “spaghetti” for a jumbled up “bisketti”, or pronounce “aminal” instead of “animal”. These kinds of mistakes are common and completely natural when first learning how to form words. Should your child continue to make these mistakes for …