Children of all ages can develop speech, language and/or voice disorders during their development. The causes for this vary. However, for children with speech, language or voice disorders, speech therapy is often enough to help them overcome the disorder.
Speech therapy is part of the basic care provided by statutory health insurance companies and is also paid for by them as a mandatory service. Up to the age of 18, 100% of the costs are covered for children and adolescents, so that they are exempt from any additional payments.
Of course, our therapy is also aimed at young patients whose language skills are impaired due to neurological disorders or impairments of the sensory and speech production organs.
The development of language and language comprehension is one of the most complex developments that the developing brain and sensory organs have to accomplish.
Functional problems can arise during this development, even without any underlying neurological disorders, which can impair speech perception and speech production. We offer consultations on your child's speech development. On request, we can also carry out a short speech development test and provide you with play therapy advice and a folder of materials.
Children should enjoy learning and gain positive experiences in their area of competence, which will shape their weaknesses in terms of physiology and age-appropriate development. The goals of our therapies with children are to strengthen specific skills, reduce deficits and promote performance in the relevant therapeutic field. Parental counselling is also an essential part of the therapy.
We are happy to assist you at any time by telephone or email and would also be delighted to welcome you in person at one of our speech therapy practices in Lichtenberg North, Lichtenberg South, Pankow, Märkisches Viertel or Bernau near Berlin.
Grammatical difficulties can occur, for example, in the case of language problems at school age, but a limited vocabulary (semantics) can also become apparent. In grammar, among many other topics, articles, singular and plural forms, the adaptation of verbs in a sentence, or even the accusative and dative cases can be practised.
Vocabulary therapy focuses in particular on expanding and specifying vocabulary in an everyday context. Developing a good feel for language is particularly important at this age. In phonological awareness therapy, your child can learn, for example, how to clap syllables, how to rhyme, or which sounds are at the beginning, middle or end of a word.
This area is closely linked to your child's auditory perception and processing. This does not mean that your child has poor hearing, but rather that they are being trained to ensure that the language they hear is processed optimally in the brain.
In this area, for example, difficulties may arise in the memory span or attention span of what is heard, as well as in the analysis of sounds in a heard word. These skills are, among other things, an important basis for learning to read and write without problems.
As a result, children who have difficulties in this area often develop reading and spelling difficulties (LRS). This should be distinguished from developmental dyslexia, which is a pure weakness in reading comprehension.
This means that the young people or adults affected do not have difficulties with spelling, but with processing and understanding what they read. On the other hand, developmental dysgraphia can also occur, in which there is a pure writing weakness, but no reading weakness.
Speech problems at school age can manifest themselves in the form of stuttering and cluttering, dyspraxia and audiogenic speech difficulties. Phonological difficulties, i.e. incorrect pronunciation of sounds, should no longer occur at this age.
Stuttering is considered treatable and usually develops in early adolescence. However, this means that the symptoms can be alleviated and compensated for, but not "cured". Stuttering causes blockages, prolongations or repetitions of words, which can range in severity from slight, brief interruptions to an inability to continue speaking.
External and internal side effects, such as high stress and insecurity, are just as individual, as are accompanying movements of the face or body. Cluttering is characterised by a very fast speech rate and unclear pronunciation, which reduces intelligibility.
Another form of speech problem is developmental dyspraxia, which manifests itself in very incomprehensible speech, as the brain does not plan speech movements correctly. This means that speech comprehension is not impaired, but the muscle groups required for precise speech are not controlled correctly by the brain.
For example, the affected child may know that they want to say a "t", but cannot move their tongue into the correct position, even though they have the muscular capacity to do so and could therefore perform the movement.
Developmental dyspraxia should actually be diagnosed in early childhood. However, diagnosis and treatment are very difficult, so many children only come to attention when they fail to respond to therapy.
We are happy to assist you at any time by telephone or email, and we also welcome you to register in person at one of our speech therapy practices in Lichtenberg North, Lichtenberg South, Pankow, Märkisches Viertel or Bernau near Berlin.
Swallowing disorders are functional or organic disorders of the orofacial muscles (mouth muscles) and all structures involved in the swallowing process. A distinction is made between disorders of food intake (dysphagia) and isolated disorders of the orofacial muscles (myofunctional disorders), which are often associated with misaligned teeth and jaws.
Careful observation of food intake with swallowing problems can help to quickly identify unfavourable swallowing patterns and limit them by taking measures such as improving posture.
During orthodontic treatment, myofunctional disorders – an imbalance of the muscles in the mouth and tongue – are often diagnosed, which can cause your child to lisp, breathe through their mouth and/or press their tongue against their teeth when swallowing.
This can have a negative effect on tooth position and cause the incisors to grow forward (open bite). In this case, the tongue, lip and cheek muscles can be strengthened so that your child can learn correct pronunciation and swallowing patterns.
Some language, speech, voice and swallowing disorders can occur regardless of age. These include, for example, speech therapy disorders associated with a comprehensive disorder, such as a profound developmental disorder or a physical and/or mental disability. Speech therapy for cleft lip and palate, mutism or hearing loss/deafness are also complex areas of treatment in which we are happy to assist you as specialists.
In general, speech therapy for comprehensive disorders is a process that is particularly responsive to individual resources and needs.
Language, speech, voice and swallowing disorders can occur at any age in conjunction with a comprehensive disorder, such as a profound developmental disorder or a physical and/or mental disability.
