Online Speech Sound Delay/Disorder Therapy

What could Speech and Language Therapy help my child achieve?

The overall aim of therapy is to help your child’s speech become clearer, more consistent and easier for other people to understand.

Depending on your child’s individual speech profile, therapy may help them to:

• produce speech sounds more accurately
• reduce speech patterns that are making them difficult to understand
• become more consistent in the way they say words
• recognise differences between their own productions and the intended sound
• develop strategies for correcting their own speech
• use newly established speech patterns outside the therapy session
• communicate with less frustration
• feel more confident speaking to unfamiliar people
• participate more confidently at school and socially

For older children and teenagers, therapy may also help reduce the impact that a persistent speech difficulty has on confidence, presentations, friendships, education and preparation for adult life.

The aim is not simply to produce a sound correctly during an activity with a therapist. The important outcome is being able to use clearer speech naturally during everyday conversation.

What does a speech sound assessment look like online?

Assessment takes place online through Zoom.

An initial assessment is usually approximately 90 minutes. This includes time with parents to take a detailed case history, followed by time assessing your child’s speech online.

I will listen to how your child produces speech sounds and words and look at the overall pattern of their speech.

This helps establish whether the speech differences appear more consistent with:

• an expected stage of speech development
• delayed development of speech sounds
• an atypical speech sound pattern
• or another type of speech difficulty requiring a different approach or further investigation

Relevant information about your child’s hearing, oral development, medical history or previous assessments may also be considered where appropriate.

Following assessment, I can explain what I have found and recommend the most appropriate next steps.

If you are unsure whether an online speech assessment would be suitable for your child, you can arrange a free 15-minute telephone consultation first.

Online speech therapy sessions

Online therapy sessions are usually 45 minutes long and are commonly arranged in blocks of six sessions.

Therapy is structured around the particular speech difficulty identified during assessment rather than using the same exercises for every child.

Activities are often adapted around your child’s age, interests and motivations to make what is practised relevant and functional for carryover beyond the session for home practice.

For younger children, therapy involves engaging interactive activities and games.

For an older child or teenager, activities can be made age-appropriate and increasingly focused on helping them use their developing speech skills independently within real conversation.

A structured therapy plan

When your child begins a therapy block, you receive a structured therapy plan explaining what we are working towards and how progress can be supported outside the session.

This helps you understand:

• the outcome we are working towards
• what your child is currently practising
• how you can support practice between appointments
• how the developing speech pattern can gradually be carried into everyday communication

You are also welcome to share the plan with your child’s SENCO or relevant school staff if you would like school to reinforce the same strategies.

Practice between sessions

Speech therapy is particularly dependent on carryover.

A child may be able to produce a new speech sound or pattern successfully during therapy before they are able to use it automatically while talking.

Regular, short opportunities to practise between sessions can help the new speech pattern become increasingly familiar and automatic.

As therapy progresses, the focus gradually moves from being able to produce the target successfully during structured activities towards using it in words, sentences and eventually natural conversation without needing to think about it consciously.

Parents can play an important part in helping this happen without turning everyday family life into a therapy session.

Your therapy plan will give you guidance on what is useful to practise at each stage.

Parents remain involved

The final few minutes of each online therapy session provide an opportunity for parent feedback.

I can explain what your child has been working on, show you how to support practice and discuss how their speech is progressing outside therapy.

It also gives you an opportunity to raise concerns or tell me about changes you have noticed.

For example, you may notice that your child can use a new sound very successfully during practice but still reverts to their old speech pattern when excited or talking quickly.

This information helps me judge when your child is ready to move to the next stage of therapy.

Helping clearer speech carry over into everyday life

Being able to say a sound correctly during a therapy exercise is not the final goal.

Successful therapy means your child increasingly uses their developing speech skills when:

• talking to family
• speaking with friends
• answering questions at school
• speaking to teachers
• presenting work
• talking to unfamiliar people
• communicating spontaneously without being reminded

Therapy therefore progresses gradually towards increasingly natural communication.

For an older child or teenager, developing the ability to hear, monitor and correct their own speech can also become an important part of building independence.

Why online speech therapy can work particularly well

Online therapy can work very well for many speech sound difficulties because the session can remain highly focused while taking place from the child’s familiar home environment.

There is:

• no travelling to and from a clinic
• no waiting room
• less disruption to the child’s day
• the possibility of after-school appointments, subject to availability
• less interference with homework and revision
• the ability to return immediately to dinner, homework, rest or family life when the session finishes

This can be particularly helpful for older children and teenagers, who may already have demanding school schedules.

Online therapy also means parents are nearby and can understand what is being practised, making it easier to support appropriate carryover between sessions.

Speech sound difficulties in older children and teenagers

A persistent speech sound difficulty can become increasingly noticeable as children get older.

Even when the rest of a young person’s communication is strong, they may become conscious of the way they speak during:

• classroom discussions
• presentations
• social situations
• meeting new people
• further education
• interviews
• employment

Some young people begin avoiding particular words or become self-conscious about speaking.

Age-appropriate online therapy provides a private 1:1 environment in which they can understand their own speech pattern, work towards clearer production and gradually develop the ability to monitor their own speech.

The goal is not to make a teenager feel that there is something wrong with the way they communicate. Therapy should address the speech difficulty while taking account of their own priorities and how much the difficulty actually matters to them.

What if my child has a lisp?

A lisp is one type of persistent speech sound difficulty.

Although /s/ and /z/ are commonly affected, other related speech sounds may also be involved depending on the particular speech pattern.

Assessment helps identify exactly how your child is producing the affected sounds, including tongue placement and airflow, so that therapy can be targeted appropriately.

Explore Online Lisp Therapy

What if there is another condition affecting my child’s speech?

Speech sound difficulties do not always occur in isolation.

For some children, speech may also be influenced by factors such as hearing history, motor speech difficulties, dental or oral structure, or a congenital or medical condition.

Where relevant, I will take your child’s developmental and medical history into account and advise if additional assessment or input from another professional would be appropriate.

Online therapy will not be the right option for every type of speech difficulty, which is another reason why assessment and establishing suitability are important.

Holistic and individualised support

Your child is more than their speech sound difficulty.

Therapy takes account of their:

• age
• interests
• motivations
• confidence
• education
• communication needs
• family priorities
• personal goals

For some children, the main priority may simply be being understood more easily.

For an older child, it might be feeling confident giving a presentation.

For a teenager, it might be wanting their speech to feel more comfortable before university, employment or interviews.

Therapy goals can therefore bring together:

assessment findings + your child’s priorities + family feedback + everyday communication needs.

EHCP annual review support

For children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), I can provide relevant Speech and Language Therapy input to support the annual review process where appropriate.

This may include:

• Speech and Language Therapy annual review reports
• reviewing current speech and communication needs
• reporting progress
• recommendations for ongoing strategies and provision
• online attendance at annual review meetings

Reports provide a clear professional account of your child’s current Speech and Language Therapy needs, progress and recommendations.

Not sure whether your child’s speech needs assessment?

It is not always easy for parents to know whether a child’s speech is part of typical development, whether they are simply developing sounds a little later, or whether there may be a Speech Sound Disorder.

You do not need to work this out yourself.

You can arrange a free 15-minute telephone consultation to tell me what you have noticed and discuss whether a Speech and Language Therapy assessment would be an appropriate next step.