Phrases like "my child has no speech" or "speech isn't developing" almost always lead to one thought: it's time for a speech therapist. And that's right, speech therapy covers a very large area of speech work. But the specialists at the Neuron center point out that other specialists can also work on speech and communication development. So the question isn't "who is better." What matters more is understanding the difficulties your child has and whose help they need right now.
What a speech therapist does
Many people think a speech therapist only "fixes sounds." In reality, the range of work is much wider. A speech therapist can work on:
- understanding speech addressed to the child;
- vocabulary;
- building phrases and grammar;
- connected speech;
- getting speech started, producing sounds and making them automatic;
- speech breathing.
Speech in ABA: a tool for communication
ABA therapy also has a large area devoted to speech and communication. Here children learn to make functional requests, understand speech, name objects and actions, answer questions and build phrases. They also learn to ask for help, say no, get another person's attention and use speech on their own in everyday situations.
One ABA approach to speech development is called "verbal behavior" and is based on Skinner's theory. Here speech is seen as a behavior that can be developed and strengthened. It is divided into several types:
- mand: a request, the most basic skill and often the starting point;
- tact: naming objects, actions and feelings, which builds vocabulary;
- intraverbal: answering questions and keeping a conversation going;
- echoic: repeating words or sounds;
- autoclitic: the grammatical structure of speech.
When a child talks but doesn't ask
Sometimes a child already talks but doesn't know how to ask for things. They don't know how to put a request into words, get lost when the item they want isn't in sight, can't cope with hearing "no," or use speech "not for its purpose": repeating what they've heard or lines from cartoons.
In one case from practice, the specialists chose PECS for such a child, a system of communicating with picture cards. The child's strength was visual support, while learning through verbal prompts went less well. First the child began asking with pictures, and then with words, building sentences on their own. In ABA the approach is different for every child, and PECS was chosen precisely because it suited this child.
Another moment from the sessions: the child spent a long time looking for the right card, found it, handed it to the adult and got what they wanted. For the child, this was a discovery: "my way of communicating works."
How to tell what your child needs
If the difficulties involve sounds, breathing, grammar or connected speech, a speech therapist is often the first helper. If the child doesn't use speech to communicate, can't ask for something or say no, and protests instead of using words, an ABA specialist will play a big role. Often both are needed. At the first consultation, the center's specialists look at what skills the child already has and what is missing, and only then suggest a plan.