Choosing a speech therapist for a child

Автор: Расторгуева Александра Александровна

Организация: БелГУ

Населенный пункт: Белгородская область, г. Белгород

As soon as parents realize that their child needs the help of a speech therapist, the question arises of who to turn to, where to find a competent specialist who will help the child solve speech problems.

If we ignore the qualifications of a specialist for a while, the choice is between municipal specialists and private ones. At the same time, the choice of parents is often influenced by common myths, which, as a rule, have nothing to do with reality.

Myth 1. A private speech therapist is very expensive.

Perhaps some private specialists with a good reputation charge a lot of money for their services, but there are no less private centers that offer their services at affordable prices. Using the same Internet, it is not difficult to find competent, experienced and inexpensive specialists.

Myth 2. A speech therapist in kindergarten is more experienced because he works with a large number of children.

It is quite possible that municipal specialists have more children with speech problems. However, quantity does not necessarily translate into quality. In this case, rather, the opposite is true. Will a speech therapist in a children's clinic or kindergarten be able to give your child as much attention as he needs if a large number of other children are waiting for his help? And experience in this case will not play the most important role. In addition, a private speech therapist for a child is often more highly qualified - private centers mostly take care of their staff by sending them to advanced training courses, various seminars, and so on.

Myth 3. It takes a lot of "paperwork" to apply to a private speech therapy center.

This myth also has nothing to do with reality. Moreover, a child speech therapist in a private center will require fewer references than the same speech therapist in a kindergarten or in a children's clinic. To contact a specialist at a polyclinic or kindergarten, you will need to take a referral, collect various certificates, provide a personal file, and so on. In private centers, such formalities are usually omitted.

Myth 4. A speech therapist in a children's clinic is more responsible because he has to report on the work done.

In this case, it is worth noting that the municipal specialist does not have any personal interest in eliminating speech defects in a child. But a speech therapist for a child in a private center, on the contrary, is interested in eliminating speech defects for each of his small patients - the reputation of the center depends on this, and hence the number of people who come to the center for help in the future. That is why modern centers try to provide their patients with the most comfortable conditions - a cozy home environment encourages a more trusting relationship between the baby and the speech therapist, which means that the problem can be fixed sooner.

And the last thing to focus on is that when applying to a serious private speech therapy center, parents will be able to rely not only on a child's speech therapist to work with the baby individually, but they can also rely on training in speech therapy groups, consultations from specialists in related fields (psychologists, to for example), a choice of additional programs, classes that will help to achieve and consolidate the positive effect as quickly as possible