It’s mid-fall. Your kids have likely been back in school for more than a month now. They are establishing routines and getting used to their new teachers, classmates, and schedules.
Often times, our speech therapy clinic receives new clients shortly after the new school year begins. Frequently, a child’s new teacher will notice that a student isn’t where he or she should be with regard to speech and language development, and suggest to parents that they should consider speech therapy for their child. Teachers are a great resource for identifying potential speech and language issues. Unlike pediatricians, teachers see children for extended time periods and have extensive interaction with them, and unlike most parents, teachers see children alongside other children of the same age, and they can clearly identify a child who may need some extra help.
For school-age children in need of speech therapy, the first stop is often the school district’s speech therapist.
There are some excellent speech therapists in the Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach areas working in the public schools. Some of the pediatric speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat used to work in those very schools. But even with the best speech therapists, there are some disadvantages to having your child only receive speech therapy at school. One of the main drawbacks to public school speech therapy is the missed classroom time. Another is that public school speech therapy is typically group therapy, as opposed to one-on-one speech therapy, so your child isn’t receiving individualized attention.
If your child’s delays are minor, and if your child’s personality is conducive to learning well in a small group environment, then the speech therapy provided by the school may be adequate. However, if you think your child could benefit from one-on-one attention, or if you’d just like some additional speech therapy sessions to help your child progress more quickly, you may want to consider supplemental speech therapy from a private speech therapist in Manhattan Beach.
The speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat can work with your child’s schedule and provide in-home speech therapy that is personalized for your child’s specific needs. Even just one day per week of private speech therapy to supplement the group speech therapy your child is receiving in school can make a world of difference!
In addition to the personalized, one-one-one attention your child will receive from the speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat, he or she will also have the advantage of learning in a familiar environment, with family members present. We do our best to make our speech therapy sessions fun for the child, and involve parents and caregivers so they can learn how to support the child’s speech and language goals in between therapy sessions.
If you would like to learn more about the speech therapy we provide in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, contact us at Lil’ Chit-Chat. We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have or set up a speech therapy consultation for your child. We look forward to hearing from you!
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