Speech therapy may be useful for your child if your child's speech disability includes difficulty pronouncing words, as speech therapy may help improve language development, communication and pragmatic skills.

What is speech language therapy?

• Speech therapy is an intervention service with the goal of improving a child's speech and ability to understand and express language, including non-verbal language. Speech therapists, also referred to as Speech Language Pathologists (SLP's), provide such services. Speech therapy typically includes the following areas: 
• Coordinating the mouth to produce sounds to form words and sentences. This is to address articulation, fluency and voice volume regulation.
• Understand and express language, which includes addressing the use of language through written, pictorial, body, and sign forms, and the use of language through alternative communication such as iPads, computers and social media.
• Treatment of swallowing disorders, including feeding.

Does my child need speech therapy?

• Some children may need speech therapy to improve the following areas:
• To address pragmatic language - using verbal and body language in everyday social situations such as making friends and requests, and engaging in conversations.
• To address medical conditions such as brain injury or infections that have affected their ability to communicate.
• Disabilities such as Down syndrome.