Description

Language and Speech Therapy Department

What is Speech and Language Therapy?

Language and speech disorders which are seen at a
significant rate in children represent a problematic area, seriously affecting
their social relations, academic success, and emotional development. For this
reason, addressing these problems at an early age will have a positive impact
on the child’s life quality.

oStammering

oSpeech delay

oLanguage disorders

oArticulation and phonological disorders

oDevelopmental disorders common to the group eligible to receive
speech therapy

oEarly language and speech therapy for children with special needs
and developmental disabilities

oSpeech and language therapy in children with hearing loss

oCleft palate and lip

oSpecific language impairment

oApraxia (failure to develop necessary motor ability to produce
words and voluntary muscle movements in relation to speech programming)

The most common language and speech disorders of the childhood

Fluency disorders – stammering

Stammering is a problem affecting fluency of speech
generally starting at 2-5 years of age. It may occur in different forms during
speech such as repetition of syllables, blocks, sound prolongations and
additions. This disorder is reported 4 times in boys than in girls. It is
possible to control stammering to a certain extent using therapy, however, this
requires a regular therapy process.

Articulation and phonological disorders

This disorder is characterized by difficulty in
pronouncing sounds or use of another sound instead of that sound. For example;
inability to produce sounds like /r/, /s/, /k/ or substituting them with other
sounds, such as /RABBIT/- /WABBIT. In this case, faulty sound(s) are identified
through tests, and after they are evaluated in oral-motor terms, a therapy plan
is prepared.

Speech delay– Language delay

When a child is one-year-old, he/she is expected to speak
single words, and to have a vocabulary of minimum 50 words at 1.5 – 2 years,
and to make sentences consisting of 2-3 words at about 2.5 years. It is
possible that children with a different speech development are classified in
the group we call “late talking normal children” Sometimes, however, a speech
delay may be the first sign of a serious problem in a child. In such cases,
early intervention significantly increases the possibility to get a response.

Who is a Language and Speech Therapist?

A language and speech therapist is a health professional
who has an undergraduate or associate degree in language and speech therapy, or
a masters or doctorate degree in language and speech therapy after other
undergraduate studies, and carries out studies to prevent sound, speech and
language disorders of individuals, and deals with the rehabilitation of
swallowing, language and speech disorders diagnosed by a medical doctor.