Most children suffering from CP generally have Children Orthopedic Problem controlling the tongue, face, jaw, and chest muscles. This reduces or limits their ability to produce sounds or speak properly. Further, hearing loss can also cause speech delays and problems with communication. You should know about 75% of children suffering from CP have speech defects. Luckily, about 50 to 70% of the children benefit significantly from speech training and enjoy a better quality of life.
Further speech therapy can help children control fundamental muscle movements, form words, breathe, or make sounds. This improves the range of communication skills and offers better vocal clarity to listening. No matter if it is spastic or ataxic cerebral palsy, the use of speech therapy can be highly advantageous. It have proven that children should begin treatment for speech delays before the age of 2, which is the time around which most of them are diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Understanding speech therapy for cerebral palsy
Speech therapy can be a helpful tool for anyone with speech defects or language issues. This helps them learn how to communicate appropriately with the world. Speech therapy for CP focuses on helping strengthen the mouth & pharynx muscles and teaching kids how to make specific sounds with their mouths. Your child’s speech therapist will customize a treatment plan using therapeutic techniques. Here, the treatment generally will include the use of
- Sign language, pictures, letters
- Hearing aids for children who have poor or limited hearing
- Technology for increasing the speech volume of kids with faint voices
- Tongue, mouth, and jaw exercises to strengthen the muscles
- Computer programs for practicing speech at home
Different types of cerebral palsy require different speech problems, so the therapist will individually customize the Cerebral palsy therapy for each patient. The focus is especially on spastic or ataxic cerebral palsy, as it can make the condition of the child worse.
How can speech therapy help?
Cerebral palsy children experience many vocal issues, which include
- Shuttering or repeating words
- Monotone and breathing speech
- Talking too fast or too slow
- Problems controlling the pitch and volume of their voice
- Slurring their words
- Trouble pronouncing specific sounds or letters
- Hoarse speech
- Discomfort or pain while speaking
Using these approaches, the children will learn how to maintain or keep their vocal pitch steady and speak more clearly. They will also learn to take deeper breaths when talking. Practicing these skills can be helpful for children who have problems with swallowing, heartburn, chewing food, drooling, and coughing.
Without speech therapy, most children will have ongoing communication problems as they grow older. Speech therapy aims to establish proper language and speech habits for kids that will help improve their cp child Daily communication skills over the long term.
Benefits Of Speech Therapy
Language is crucial in emotional, cognitive, and social development, so speech therapy has far-reaching benefits for children. When kids learn how language works, they can make better sense of the world around them. Kids who participate in speech therapy will perform better in school, interact more easily with other children, and join activities they could not do before. They can also become more confident, which is extremely important for kids with cerebral palsy.
Additionally, speech therapy can introduce your child to essential learning skills at a very young age. They can develop healthy learning patterns that will benefit them throughout their lives. Now, children with CP often have a hard time communicating their needs to family members or caregivers. Luckily, speech therapy for cerebral palsy will help them learn how to express their thoughts and understand what they say.
Speech therapy techniques and exercises
The first thing the therapist will do is assess your child’s abilities. They will ask you about your child’s mental and physical functioning level, examine the mouth for shape issues, and test your child’s hearing to ensure it is correct. Now, the therapist will determine the most significant communication problem areas and focus on those first. They will only work on a couple of issues at once rather than fix everything at once.
Not depending on your cerebral palsy type, be it spastic or ataxic cerebral palsy, they will customize a cerebral palsy treatment plan to ensure the exercises meet the needs of your child and help him learn better. Here are some of the widely used therapy techniques and exercises.
- Swallowing exercises to improve the control of the jaw, mouth, and tongue.
- Lip and tongue strengthening exercises using tongue depressors and lollipops. Chewy foods can also be incorporated for jaw-strengthening
- Breathing and blowing exercises to help kids learn to form specific mouth shapes for producing sounds.
- Demonstrate proper word-forming techniques to help the child use their mouth and tongue to form words, syllables, and sounds. Children can benefit from mirrors to get their mouths to form similar shapes.
- Pictures and objects to build vocabulary
Speech therapy at home
As a parent, you play a crucial role in developing proper speech habits in your child. Practicing at home is quite essential for the success of speech therapy. Talk to the therapist about the exercises and activities you can do with your child at home. In general, you should talk slowly and look directly at your child whenever you are speaking. You can help your child assign meaning to words by using objects and pictures while talking to them. Also, whenever possible, encourage your child to speak in sentences instead of pointing to using single words. Here, an excellent way to practice this is to hide a few of their toys and then have them explain where they have found them.
Conclusion
Speech therapy can undoubtedly be a great means of helping children with ataxic cerebral palsy or any other form of learning how to communicate properly. If you plan to get started with that, connect with the Trishla Foundation for the right guidance. Their expertise will help customize the treatment plan and ensure that your child gets the best attention possible.
