Five Ways Speech Therapy Can Help Children with Autism

Speech therapy is always recommended for children who are diagnosed with autism and often it will be the first treatment that a doctor will suggest for your child.

Speech therapy is a wide-ranging field that ranges from body language to the pronunciation of words, to understanding social cues around speech and language. 

Whether your child is struggling with speech and forming words, or misunderstanding language and its use, speech therapy can be a valuable and helpful treatment. 

In this blog, we will discuss five of the top ways that speech therapy can help children with autism. 

1. Improve articulation

Children with autism often find it hard to articulate the sounds within words and put words into sentences. 

Speech therapy will help your child to enunciate sounds and words before learning to string simple and more complex sentences together.  

2. Helps your child to express themselves

Speech therapy will help your child to use verbal and nonverbal language to express themselves. This is crucial as your child grows up, experiences new environments and forms relationships.

3. Aid their understanding of language

Your child may have issues with understanding or comprehending others. If they are, then speech therapy can help them to understand what is being said to them. 

Speech therapy can also help your child to process nonverbal communication such as body language and facial expressions.

4. The ability to communicate in ways others can understand

Often, children with autism exhibit very unique ways of learning and unusual ways of processing speech and language. This can lead to problems with developing speech and spoken language. 

For example, some children may repeat long segments of their favourite books or TV shows without understanding the meaning. When this occurs, children usually also struggle to use any of the words they have repeated independently. This is called ‘echolalia’. 

Speech therapy works with your child to overcome these difficulties and break down any segments so they can begin to understand words and the meanings behind them. 

5. Communicate within a social setting

A lot of children with autism find it hard to cope with the unpredictable nature of conversations and spontaneous words or lines that are used. 

Your child may also have very specific interests and might struggle to speak about different topics. With speech therapy, your child will be taught strategies to mix with other children and broaden their understanding and interests in other topics. 

How can we help at All About Kids?

Your child will benefit by starting speech therapy as soon as possible if you notice any language delays or your child is formally diagnosed with autism. Studies show that with early identification and intervention, two-thirds of all children diagnosed with autism will improve their communication skills. 

Through speech therapy sessions, we can help your child with the following skills:

• Nonverbal communication such as gestural or picture communication
• Body language
• Use and respond to questions
• The ability to adjust the tone and sound of the voice, rather than a flat sound. This is also called prosody
• Grammar and tense
• Conversation skills
• Social skills

Our team has years of experience working with children with autism. We can help your child become more confident and more aware of speech and language, which in turn will boost their self-esteem and help them in social situations.

 To find out more about how we can help your child with speech therapy, please contact us here.