Better Speech & Hearing Month

Posted on by : Kasey Wade Tags: , ,

Welcome May 2021! We are so excited to let you know that May has been deemed the best month of the whole year… It is better speech and hearing month! This is basically a time for us as therapist to celebrate the work that we do, and spread the awareness about the kids that we help, the different aspects of our profession, and provide our families with tons of helpful tips, tricks, and content. In this blog post we decided as a team that I would talk about a couple of points that are very near and dear to our heart.

Number 1: Speech and language therapy services (as well as feeding services) can be very challenging to access for some of our families. Most people do not know that the requirement to qualify for services through their school district is strict and that kids need to score below the 1st percentile, so 99% of their peers are doing better than they are, in order to qualify for services. Many parents have concerns about their child’s speech and language development but when they go to the district to get evaluated they are told that they do not qualify. We wanted to empower you as a parent and validate your thoughts and concerns about your child’s development. Just because they do not “qualify” in the school district does not mean that they would not benefit from therapy services. There are many other ways for your child to receive speech therapy services and we encourage you to reach out to clinics, private therapy, or in-home therapy to see if there are other options or delivery models that your child would still benefit from receiving.

Number 2: We also wanted to share some statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services

  • Nearly 1 in 12 or 7.7 percent, of U.S. children ages 3-17 has had a disorder related to voice, speech, language, or swallowing in the last 12 months.
  • The prevalence of speech sound disorders (trouble saying sounds or pronouncing words) in young children is 8 to 9 percent.
  • By the first grade, roughly 5 percent of children have noticeable speech disorders, including stuttering, speech sound disorders, and dysarthria; the majority of these speech disorders have no known cause.
  • More than three million Americans (about one percent) stutter. Stuttering can affect individuals of all ages, but occurs most frequently in young children between the ages of 2 and 6. Boys are two to three times more likely than girls to stutter. Although most children who stutter outgrow the condition while young, as many as one in four will continue to stutter for the rest of their lives, a condition known as persistent developmental stuttering

Our goal and passion as a private therapy provider is to connect families with the resources that fit their families needs and help ensure every child who would benefit from services has access to them. Please reach out during the month of May with any questions you have, the resources you need and can’t find, or if you have questions about your child’s development! We are here for you! Be sure to check out our Instagram daily tip…we will be posting one tip every day in the month of May so be sure to follow along! Happy Better Speech and Hearing Month!

-Kasey-