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Speech Therapy FAQs
"frequently asked questions" about speech therapy for children with hearing loss:
1. Do all children with hearing loss need speech therapy?
- A child with even a little hearing loss will have problems saying and hearing some sounds.
- For children who have no hearing at all, speech therapy is still very important. Speech
therapy helps a child:
- Learn to read
- Learn more vocabulary
- Understand sentences
- Learn social pragmatics
- Learn to form the words properly
2. When should my child start speech therapy?
- She should start once you know there is a hearing problem. This can be as early as birth to three
years old.
- The sooner she starts speech therapy, the sooner she will learn speech and language.
3. Where will my child get speech therapy?
- If she is young, she may get speech therapy through your state's early intervention program.
(link to page on Early intervention).
- If she is school age she may get a speech therapist through the
IDEA or
section 504.
- She can take private speech therapy sessions that cost money.
4. How much speech therapy is the right amount?
- If she is young, she won't be able to sit still for very long. Then it is better to have
20 minute sessions everyday instead of two, one hour sessions a week.
- Even when she is older she may become mad and frustrated during her speech therapy sessions.
If this happens you may need to shorten the time of her sessions.
5. How will I know if speech therapy is helping?
- She will read and know words better.
- She will communicate what she wants better.
- She may speak better with people she doesn't know.
6. How long will my child need speech therapy?
- She will need speech therapy all the time she is in school.
- To learn a language well, a deaf or hard of hearing child is helped a lot by speech therapy.
7. How do I find and choose a speech therapist?
- Some public schools may have only one or two speech therapists.
- If your child goes to a school for the deaf there may be several speech therapists.
- Sometimes you cannot choose a therapist and one is assigned to your child.
- If you can choose, find someone that both you and your child feel good about.
8. Who will pay for speech therapy?
- When speech therapy is given by early intervention services or speech education, your
state or local government pays.
- Some insurances pay for your child to get private speech therapy.
9. My child uses sign language. Does she still need speech therapy?
- A speech therapist does not only teach how to sound words out.
- A speech therapist can teach and review sign language.
- He also teaches how to interact with other people.
10. My child doesn't want to go to speech therapy. What do you suggest?
- Find out why she doesn't like speech therapy.
- Join her for some sessions.
- Find out what she thinks would make it better.
- Find out if she would have more fun in a group therapy session.
- Don't take her out of classes for therapy. She may not want to miss the fun! Have the
therapists work with her in the regular classroom.
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