There are a number of things that lead to communication disorders and it is not your fault if your child has any of them. Speech and language disorders that can be blamed on parents have a lot to do with how parents handle their children. There are a number of recurring mistakes that parents make and this ends up affecting their children’s speech development. If you have made any of these mistakes, you can still make some difference instead of getting down on yourself.
Taking too long to act
Survey indicates that when a child receives speech therapy at earlier stages of communication disorder, there is going to be a significant difference as the therapy will be more effective. There are actually three things that make parents wait too long before seeking help: denial, fear and bad advice. Many parents picture their kids as perfect and would not want to entertain the thought that they are imperfect in any way. This simply means finding it hard to pick up the phone and call a speech therapist. Bad advice comes from families, friends and co-workers who know less about speech disorders.
Choosing wrong specialists to work with
More often than not, the first person that a parent will talk to when his child has any medical issue is either a child pediatrician or a family physician. You should note that these two professions basically entail illnesses and injuries. Sometimes these illnesses and injuries lead to speech disorders. However, communication disorder is not an illness or an injury. This means that doctors simply are not trained to diagnose or treat communication disorders. With that said, it will not do you any harm to seek help from professional speech-language pathologist. You can ask the doctor for a referral.
Taking matters into your own hands
Something else that many parents do is taking matters into their own hands. Well, it is alright to be concerned about your child and do whatever it takes to ensure he grows and develops well. However, it does not mean assuming the role of a professional speech therapist. Some parents try to fix the problem by working with their children only to realize a few months down the line that their efforts are not bearing any fruit. A speech therapy can get to the root of the problem but you cannot because you lack certain skills. Therefore, seek help early enough from a professional speech therapist.
In retrospect
Above are three major mistakes made by a good number of parents with children who have communication disorders. For a fact, every parent wants the best for their child. They will do anything to give them a better life. Sometimes the things that they do are not entirely right especially when dealing with a child who has communication disorders. This results from factors such as fear, self-denial and bad advice.
Bad advice usually is given to people who actually know nothing about speech therapy. Seeking help from the wrong people and taking matter into your own hands only aggravates the problem. What you need if your child has communication problems is the help of a professional speech-language pathologist.
