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| The speech and language therapist is primarily concerned with a child’s communication. Since communication functions as both the ability to understand and the ability to communicate with the outside world, a speech and language therapist will focus equal attentions on both facets of a child’s communicative ability. They are concerned with establishing how a child understands language, whether he or she can understand verbal instructions or whether he or she needs clues from his or her environment to understand what is going on around them. The speech and language therapist will give the child some means of communication with the outside world within what he has already accomplished in his communicative abilities. This might be through activities that encourage speech, signing, electronic aids or even a picture board. It has been noted that children who communicate with more than one method, such as a child who signs while they are speaking, are more likely to increase their vocal communication development. Children with even the mildest case of cerebral palsy often tend to be slow in developing verbal communication.
Speech and language therapists frequently help the child and his or her family to establish normal feeding patterns, as there is much research that suggests a correlation between good feeding patterns and the eventual possibility of developing normal speech. The correlation exists because the muscles used for feeding are the same muscles for speaking, and early development of these muscles in children with cerebral palsy has shown to improve the functions employed by these muscles. Even if a child with cerebral palsy is able to speak well, a speech and language therapist can assist them by helping to make speech clearer and easier to understand, or on building their language skills by expanding their vocabulary, learning to speak in sentences, or improving their listening skills. For the child who is more challenged in his or her speech ability, the speech and language therapist can be hugely supportive in helping them to communicate in teaching them sign language, giving them picture boards with basic pictures that a child can point out to express their desires or equipping them with a communication device, which would generally be computer-based and could immensely help a child’s communication ability. These sophisticated electronic communication aids are especially important to the child who is cognitively able to communicate but has a communication disability. Speech and language therapy can help a cerebral palsied child to live a normal life. Even though they may be physically disabled (and don’t forget, physical and occupational therapists can have quite an impact on a child’s mobility and motor skills), if one is able to communicate with the outside world, it is moiré likely that they will function smoothly in it. |
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