Speech therapy can help autistic people and this article covers several important aspects, including guidelines on finding a qualified speech therapist.
What Is Speech Therapy?
A field with an extensive range, speech therapy treats speech and communication disorders. In children, those with developmental disorders are helped to understand and use spoken language in a social context. It allows children with lisps or stutters to pronounce words correctly.
Certified speech-language pathologists (SLP)- also known as speech therapists, are communication experts with a master’s degree and work in an institution, clinic, school, or private practice. SLPs could also be part of an educational team and use an array of tools and interventions, including play-like therapy and toys or speech curricula and formal testing.
What Is Autism And When Is It Diagnosed?
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects 1 in 44 children in the U.S. Autistic children have difficulties learning vocabulary and new concepts, as well as communicating their wants and needs.
Some have difficulty behaving in certain situations because they are unable to adjust to changes quickly, while others could have limited or repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Echolalia, flipping objects, or excessive smelling or touching of objects are often present.
Autism can be lifelong but the symptoms of autism start appearing before the age of 3, causing difficulties with communication, language development, and social interaction. Each person with autism is unique and symptoms vary from mild to severe. Some develop symptoms in their first year, while others show regression between 18 to 24 months after developing normally in their first year.
Autism Spectrum Disorder Signs
The signs that your child should be checked for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are problems with interaction and social communication, including:
- Delayed speech and language skills.
- Upset by minor changes in their environment
- Speech patterns that demonstrate echolalia or repeat words or phrases.
- Obsessive interests
- Provides unrelated answers to questions.
- Unable to respond to their name after their first year.
- Can’t point at objects to show interest by 14 months.
- Can’t play “pretend” games by 18 months.
- Avoids eye contact and prefers to be alone
- Unusual reactions sounds, smells, tastes, looks, or touch.
- Spin in circles, flap their hands when excited, or rock their bodies when anxious.
- Trouble talking about their feelings or understanding how others feel.
Symptoms should be seen as a group of symptoms as children not on the autism spectrum may display some of these symptoms, while children who are on the autism spectrum may not display all of these symptoms.
Autism Speech Evaluation
With substantial experience treating children with ASD, speech pathologists (SLPs) use several tools and techniques to evaluate a child’s overall communication abilities and identify specific communication challenges.
SLPs evaluate food preferences and sensory issues, as well as speech or language developmental milestones to diagnose autism and work out individualized treatment plans to meet the child’s specific communication needs. Often part of a multi-disciplinary team that includes psychologists and occupational therapists, SLPs can help parents identify red flags and guide further evaluations.
What a Speech Therapist Does for Autistic People
Playing a crucial role in helping an autistic child to learn to communicate and engage with other people, speech therapists first assess a child’s needs and will then develop a treatment plan with specifics such as whether to work 1:1 or in groups.
As critical as speech therapy is for autistic children, it can also benefit autistic adults.
Autism Speech Therapy Treatment
To help autistic children learn to speak more fluently, the individual child’s needs are considered. At the time that typically developing children focus on people and learn from them, an atypical child is more focused on things happening around them, leading to different rates of development and learning.
A speech pathologist provides activities to do at home and works in organized sessions with the child. To create a complete therapy program, the SLP works with parents, caregivers, family members, and the child on activities that include:
- Simple games that encourage speech.
- Essential language skills practice such as greeting and asking questions.
- Teaching and singing songs to learn sentence cadence and encourage speech.
- Language modeling includes speaking, gestures, and facial expressions.
Ways Speech Therapy Tackles Autistic Challenges
The feeding and communication challenges of people with autism are tackled in different ways that include:
- Speech Pragmatics: Basic skills such as the meaning and appropriate use of things like idioms as well as knowing when, how, and to whom to say phrases such as “good afternoon” are taught.
- Prosody: The melodic sound of a voice going up and down in conversation is sometimes lacking in autistic children leading others to think they have no emotions. Vocal skills are part of what SLPs teach.
- Non-Verbal Communication Skills: Training with electronic talking devices, picture exchange communication systems (PECS), gestural communication, and other non-verbal communication tools.
- Social Skills: These skills include the ability to assess the mood of a person or room, to ask and answer questions, and to understand where to stand at an appropriate distance in a conversation.
- Concept Skills: Because autistic people sometimes have difficulty with concepts such as “liberty,” or other words, SLPs may work on building these skills.
- Ask and Answer Questions: Autistic children are taught to recognize a question and find the appropriate answers, and also formulate, ask, and understand answers to their own questions.
- Alternative and Augmentative Communication: By helping people with autism expand communication, AAC promotes independence, and increases social interactions.
- Feeding Challenges: Certain speech therapists have specific training in addressing swallowing and feeding challenges and could evaluate a particular issue to work out treatment plans around the needs of the particular person.
- Grammar: SLPs help autistic children correct grammar mistakes or where they refer to themselves in the third person or use incorrect tenses.
- Conversation Skills: SLPs could work on joint attention in a back-and-forth exchange.
- Body Language: Recognition of subtle signals and cues about when to join conversations or how to participate are taught.
Places Speech Therapy Services Are Provided
SLPs could work with other therapists and providers or as part of a child’s educational team providing services in:
- Private practice offices
- Early intervention centers and schools
- Autism clinics that provide other therapies, for example, sensory occupational therapy
- Residential care facilities and institutions
- The home of the person with autism
Benefits of Speech Therapy For People With Autism
Because autism presents differently in different people it needs a holistic, individualized approach to address specific needs that help overcome each separate autism characteristic. With the goal of communicating in more functional and useful ways, speech therapy works with both children and adults who have communication difficulties,
For children with autism, speech therapists help in several ways, including asking for help, turn-taking, or improving how to get along with others or play by improving communication skills.
Issues such as food sensitivities or aversions, reading and writing, gestures, and using AAC- including sign language, written words, pictures, or electronic devices can all be aspects covered by SLPs.
Does Insurance Cover Speech Therapy?
Because speech therapy is well-established in the treatment of autism, it is generally covered by medical insurance- if a child has an established autism diagnosis. Services are also often provided in the school system or by early intervention programs free of charge.
Some SLPs don’t accept insurance directly and you may need to make a payment at the time of the consultation and then later submit a claim to your insurance company for reimbursement.
Certain SLPs in private practice or autism clinics are contracted in-network with health insurers but will require either a co-insurance payment or co-pay.
Convenient & Effective Speech Therapy: Get Better Speech
>> Check out Better Speech official website >>
To create a customized program, Better Speech therapists listen to you, evaluate your needs, and create a tailor-made program to help you achieve your goals most effectively. The steps of the program are:
The First Session: Get acquainted with your speech therapist who evaluates your needs to understand what motivates the child and then sets up goals. In the Adult program, there are different goals, milestones, and motivational quotes whereas the Child program incorporates parent coaching milestones, between-session practices, and fun badges to reward children as they progress faster.
Regular Zoom Sessions: To maintain progress, weekly online sessions could include:
- One-on-One Interaction
- Progress Reports
- Interactive Games
- Printable Practice Exercises
- Parent Coaching (if necessary)
Practicing Between Sessions: After each session, you get 2 or 3 age-appropriate, engaging speech exercises customized to your needs to accelerate results.
Success Charts: The charts map progress in a visual format which can be tracked by the badges on the chart.
Achievement Badges: Issued when another 10% progress is made toward your speech goal, badges are added to your Member Dashboard. Children can print them to add to their Success Charts.
Member Dashboard To Track Progress: Session notes and monthly progress reports are posted to monitor progress.
Certificate: To mark reaching your speech goal, a final badge and printable Certificate of Achievement- signed by our Clinical Director is issued.
Better Speech Follow-Up Program: Once speech goals are met- to maintain progress, you have the option to get follow-ups, refresher sessions, and other appropriate practice materials.