There are many ways that speech therapy in our private clinic differs from the type of therapy our clients would receive at school. We thought it would be helpful to share this with you so you can make an informed decision about what is going to be the best route to take.
Speech therapy for children in school
In schools, while every effort will be made to do the best they can for your child, there are a number of unavoidable limitations for speech therapy. This includes the following:
The children are given their therapy session in a group and not as one-to-one specialized support that focuses solely on your child’s needs. If one child in the group needs to work on certain sounds, the whole group will work on it too.
Group therapy means that it takes longer to reach goals and the scope for the goals themselves will be restricted.
It is not possible for the therapist to do any hands on prompting of the facial muscles, which for some children can be an essential part of their speech progress. Similarly, feeding therapy is not viable either.
The focus of the sessions will be geared around tasks that directly relate to the child’s academic progress. Anything beyond that remit will remain undealt with.
As a parent or primary caregiver, you will not be privy to any in-depth updates on what is happening in the therapy sessions. Communication about progress will be limited, making it far harder for you to know what you can do to support your child’s speech development at home.
Speech therapy for children in our clinic
In contrast, our private clinic works very differently, in the following ways:
Family involvement plays a major role in how we work so successfully with children in our care. We understand how important it is to keep up momentum and implement the new learning we deliver in the therapy sessions in real life contexts at home too. The more a child can practice and reinforce their new skills, the better it is for their development. Parents and caregivers are part of the team – we are in a partnership all coming together to help the child in the best way possible.
It is necessary to make a commitment to working consistently. Children will be required to complete assignments to consolidate their learning and parents will also need to be committed and accountable to ensuring this work gets done. This is nothing to worry about though. Rest assured that just as we take progress seriously, we simultaneously make learning fun. Our focus is learning through play so therapy sessions are enjoyable and engaging.
We create a learning environment set up specifically for your child’s success. That means rearranging the furniture in a way that will be optimal for your child’s learning needs. Parents stay in the room so you can see first-hand what’s going on and activities that can be replicated at home.
Goal setting is meaningful and relevant to your child’s life; goals do not solely focus on academic success (as they would in school). We want to see your child thriving in all aspects of their life.
Any physical issues impacting your child’s ability to progress will be appropriately addressed. For example, if your child has a tongue tie, we can work on improving their tongue function.
Age appropriate challenges, goals and learning through play is how we support your child. If we are teaching toddlers how to talk, we’ll use farm animal toys and have a great time making animals sounds to get them talking. Eight year olds don’t want drills so we do things like using board games to practice their sounds instead. Private therapy brings a lot of flexibility to get creative.
From this brief overview, we hope this gives you a clear picture of the notable benefits from choosing to take the private speech therapy route. If you have any questions about how we can help your child, or you’d like to schedule an appointment with one of our therapists, please call 503-266-1030 or email info@speechwithsarah.com.
Alternatively, you can book a free 15-minute consultation by clicking here.