Some parents are unduly concerned about the speech a of their children. Sometimes they suffer needless anguish, and sometimes—in their anxiety—they actually create problems where none had existed.
Others don’t seem to be aware of defective speech, nor of the far-reaching effects such handicaps may have upon a child’s educational progress and emotional adjustment.
Still others recognize the problems and are eager to help, but do not know what to do or where to turn for help.
This website has been created to:
- answer some of the questions that parents frequently ask about speech problems
- explain what you can do when professional therapists aren’t available, and above all to
- suggest ways in which you, the parent, can help your child
The articles on this website will enable you to “do something”—something helpful and constructive and will help you understand the speech therapy program and to cooperate more effectively.
During the pre-school years the parents play an all-important role as the “teachers of speech.” Later they will share the responsibility with the classroom teacher and, in some instances, with the speech therapist.
The importance of the role of the parents can hardly be over-emphasized. A number of speech therapist have said that the biggest stumbling block to the child in the acquisition of speech is the teaching method used by the parents. That is a serious charge. Let’s consider it for a moment.
Would you send your child to a school conducted by “teachers” who had no professional preparation? Not if you could help it! You’d say, “Anything as important as my child’s education will be entrusted only to those who have had the best possible education and preferably some sound experience.”
Yet in this most important period, when a child is facing the complex and confusing problem of learning speech, we blithely assume that we can do the job.
While it is true that most children acquire speech even when the teaching is exceedingly poor, some children require more skillful teaching, and all would profit from it.
Because the teaching method you use with your child is of tremendous importance, because there are things that you can do to make the learning of speech easier for your child, because there is so much that you can do to help your child become a happy, well-adjusted person in spite of a speech problem—these are the reasons for the writing of this blog.
There is no magic formula to be found in these pages. The improvement of speech involves the breaking down of well-established neuromuscular patterns and the building up of new patterns.
Time and patience are necessary. But with sympathetic, intelligent help, the time can be shortened, frustration and anxiety can be minimized, and most children can be helped to acquire adequate mastery of the important skills needed for communication.
This blog contains information and suggestions that will help you move toward this goal.
Jane Bishop
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