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Speech Therapy for Children With Autism

Children with autism should start speech therapy as early as possible. Speech therapy can be designed specifically for each child and taught in a one-on-one environment. Speech therapy for children with autism is more than just language, it teaches full communication skills and can follow a child through life adapting as your child grows and changes.

  1. Speech Therapy

    • Initially when you think about speech therapy, you think about actual language, but speech therapy is for all aspects of communication, including understanding language, expressing language, sign language, picture symbols for language and anything that helps an individual communicate. Many people with autism have behavioral problems, and it is a popular belief that these behavior problems spring from the inability to communicate. Almost every child diagnosed with autism is recommended speech therapy as part of their treatment.

    Non-Verbal Skills

    • For children with autism who have limited or no communication skills, speech therapy can help. For starters, a speech therapist can work with children with autism to help them strengthen their language muscles to start learning to form sounds. They can also work with them to teach them other means for communication such as sign language, electrical language devices or Picture Exchange Cards (PECs).

    Conversation Skills

    • While for some people with autism speech therapy seems like an obvious recommendation, for others with a lot of language, it can be confusing as to why speech therapy is recommended. It is one thing to learn how to talk, but is a completely different thing to learn how to have a conversation. Speech therapy helps people with autism understand how back and forth exchanges in conversations work.

    Other Communcation Skills

    • Speech therapy is also helpful to children with autism because it helps them understand abstract meanings and it helps them understand when someone is joking or being sarcastic. Children with autism also have a hard time with words that can carry several different meanings depending on the context they are used in. A speech therapist can also help with that.

    Speech Therapy Sessions

    • Speech therapy is taught in sessions. Sessions can take place in a speech therapist's office, at a child's home or at a child's school depending on the age of the child. Speech therapy sessions encourage spontaneous communication, and the skills taught are generalized so that the child can use them in multiple environments. The best therapy sessions are designed specifically for the child and are designed to fit the child's everyday environments.

    Finding Speech Therapy

    • To find a speech therapist for your child with autism, start by getting recommendations from your physician. Additionally, your child's school or early intervention program may already have speech therapy sessions available. If you are still unable to find speech therapy, visit the American Speech Language Hearing Association for more help in locating a speech therapist who is right for your child with autism.

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