Does your child need speech therapy, for articulation, to learn to pronounce certain sounds, or for stuttering? Speech therapy can be a little daunting, for both child and parent. It may help you if you know what to expect from the first speech therapy session.
You may have contacted a speech therapist privately, or been referred by your pediatrician, family doctor, or your child's preschool or school. No matter what speech issue your child is seeing a speech therapist for, the first session can be somewhat frightening. The first session will normally be quite easy on the child, though. It is an evaluation through which the speech therapist learns exactly what the issues are. This is typically done through play, and conversation. Your child will probably also be asked to repeat certain words, to check which sounds he or she has mastered, and which are missing.
My daughter actually had her last speech therapy session today. When I took her in the first time, I was quite nervous. My daughter, who has been exposed to (too) many languages and is bilingual, definitely needed some help. We kept putting it off, hoping that she would master those many missing sounds herself. When she turned 5, I knew it was time for some speech therapy.
The speech therapist we worked with was "old school", and I wasn't sure we were going to get on. My daughter sat on a chair, and was asked to say words. The speech therapist had a notebook and ticked off sounds for which therapy would be needed. The first few sessions were hard, but it got better after that. Today, everybody can understand what my daughter says, and that has certainly made her very happy!
She even admitted she was sad to stop therapy, because it was fun in the end.If this is not your experience, and speech therapy is not progressing the way you hoped, or the speech therapist has very different parenting philosophies to yours, there is no need to stick with someone you dislike.
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