delayed milestones. Your speech therapist will put together fun activities to help strengthen the area in which your child has a weakness. Every activity, no matter how simple they may seem to you, is intended for a specific purpose, like blowing a whistle or bubbles, is to help develop the tongue and lips. For language, games to stimulate word retrieval, comprehension or just conversation.

Speech therapist, must have a degree in human communication, it's development and also it's disorders. Your speech therapist, must also be licensed with the speech-language therapy association in your country and a certificate of clinical competency. This will ensure that your therapist stays up todate with all new speech therapy activities and developments in their fields and thus be able to provide your child with best service.

Your involvement is essential to the success of your child’s speech therapy. Work with your therapist, and find out what you can do at home to continue speech therapy activities in between sessions, to permanently instil the newly-learnt skills.

IS SPEECH THERAPY NEEDED?

• Hearing impaired
• Intelectual, thinking or other developmental delays
• Weak muscles in their mouths
• Birth defects, such a s a cleft lip or palate
• Motor skills disorders
• Breathing problems
• Swallowing problems
• Traumatic brain injury

The earlier your child receives therapy, the beter.Children who are helped early on tend to have better outcomes in therapy, than those that begin later. Older children can, ofcourse, also be helped. This may take a little bit longer and progress may be slower as learnt patterns may need to be changed.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A SESSION

• Language Intervention activities
- Here the speech therapist will talk and play allot with your child, using books, pictures and objects. The therapist will concentrate on pronunciation and use repetitive exercises to build skills.
• Oral motor and feeding therapy
- Here the therapist will use oral exercises such as facial massage, tongue, lip and jaw exercises, to strengthen mouth muscles. Different food textures and temperatures are also introduced to increase oral awareness when eating and swallowing.
• Articulation therapy
- Sound producing exercises corrects sounds and syllables for a child during play. Your Childs age will determine the level of play. Here the speech therapist will teach your child how to make the correct sounds for letters, like "R" and will show them how to move the tongue to produce the sounds correctly

CONTINUED THERAPY OVER SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

Here are some at-home speech therapy activities ideas, for extended breaks:

• Play with sounds
Heraing the difference between sounds and there pitch is important to teach your child how to speak and read. Comment on sounds you hear around you, "listen to the clock ticking" "Is it loud, or is it fast or slow?". Talk about the sounds your child makes when playing like clapping their hands or stamping their feet. Let your child bang on pots and plastic containers and discuss the different sounds they make.
• Keep your talking simple
Talk slowly and clearly to your child about what is happening around him or when you give him an instruction. If you speak at a slow, conforatble pace it will be easier for your child to learn how to say individual words and sounds.Alos, use short sentences and words and this will help them understand grammar better.Move to more complex sentences as your child progresses.
• Be a good model
Limit baby talk when addressing your child.Speak clearly, naturall and correctly, especially if your child has speech problems.Remeber that before your child learns to speak they will listen to everything you say and how you say it...then copy you.
• Follow your childs lead
As your child starts to talk, focus on word and objects that are important in his life or things he is focusing on at the moment. If he loves cars, talk about the sounds they make, what is his favourite car, Is it big or small etc. This will have more of an impact on improving your childs speech, than trying to intrest them in things they aren't.
• Lisren to music
Exposing your child to music early on will help with hearing the difference in sounds and the ability to repeat words. Many children's toys play music and you can get many CD's for children too.
• Make eye contact
Before you talk to your child, make eye contact.Call his name or say "hello" to get his attention and keep it longer. If your child looks away, repeat his name to see if he is intrested in continuing to talk or play with you.If not, don't push the issue.Leave him and try again later.
• Repeat, repeat and repeat again...
Play the same games and sing the same songs over and over again, this will reinforce the learning process. A child must hear a word or see actions many times and understand it's meaning before she will use or copy it.
• Therapist
Ask your therapist what she has been doing with your child and keep these excersices going over a break.

You can bring speech therapy into your daily routine, and just by doing small, fun things with your child, you will notice a huge improvement.

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