Pediatric Speech Therapy in Fort Smith & Fayetteville, AR

You can likely tell if your child needs speech therapy if you see that they struggle with any aspect of communication. Speech therapy is designed to help children improve their speech and language skills, such as articulation, self-expression, fluency, understanding others (receptive language), and much more. If your child struggles with any of these areas, you should speak with their pediatrician about your concerns to see if you can get a referral for speech therapy.

If you still aren’t sure if speech therapy is the right treatment for your child, you can check out our Developmental Milestones resource on our website. We break down all of the milestones your child should achieve between birth and age five so that you can determine if your child is on track or if they need a little more support to reach their speech and language goals.

The absolute best way to know if your child needs speech therapy is to schedule an evaluation with our experts at Little Hands at Play. We can complete a thorough evaluation of your child’s abilities and limitations to determine if they are on track developmentally or if they could use extra support from our team to be able to communicate freely with others.

Pediatric speech therapy can address any condition that impacts a child’s ability to speak, or to use or understand both spoken and written language. This can include developmental delays as well as genetic conditions or disabilities. Some of the most common conditions that our expert speech-language pathologists at Little Hands at Play can address include: 

• Delayed speech or language
• Articulation disorder
• Childhood apraxia of speech
• Tongue thrust
• Hearing impairment
• Cleft lip or palate
• Tongue or lip tie
• Stuttering or cluttering
• Voice disorders
• Social communication challenges
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Cerebral palsy
• Down syndrome
• Fragile X syndrome

We use therapeutic exercises and play-based activities to help children build the key skills they need for effective communication. And the best part is that your child is never too young to start pediatric speech therapy! Even infants have key speech and language milestones that they should reach, such as babbling, smiling, and looking for the source of a sound. Our experts can help if your baby needs extra support to reach those important milestones. 

If your child is having trouble with any area of communication that affects their ability to play, learn, make friends, or share their ideas, our pediatric speech therapists can help.

When you bring your child to Little Hands at Play Therapy for their speech therapy evaluation, you’ll meet with a member of our team to discuss your child’s speech and language development. We’ll ask you about their milestones, any communication challenges you’ve noticed your child is facing, any diagnoses they have, and get more information from you about your concerns.

Next, we’ll do a thorough assessment of your child’s speech and language skills and limitations. This can include observation to determine the types and severity of any challenges they’re facing as they interact with their environment. It can also include specific activities or exercises done with the speech therapist to determine what skills your child already has and which ones they need more support to achieve.

Once the assessment is completed, our speech therapist will speak with you to explain what they found, as well as answer any questions you might have about the results of the assessment. Then we’ll recommend a personalized treatment plan for your child and work with you to determine the best therapy schedule that fits your family’s needs.

Speech therapy addresses your child’s ability to communicate freely with others. Because of this, it’s often very easy for parents to see that their child is making progress during their therapy sessions with our experts. This is simply because your child will find it easier to communicate their needs and understand others as therapy progresses, and things that they struggled with before therapy will start to be less of a challenge.

There is no hard and fast rule for how long speech therapy will take. Some children will gain their speech and language skills quickly, and others will need more support to reach their developmental goals. But we do know that any progress is better than no progress, and the more your child works on their speech and language skills with our therapists and at home, the sooner they will see results from therapy.

We may not necessarily be able to give you a percentage that tells you how much your child’s speech and language skills have improved. But we can explain to you what skills they have gained and how far they have come as therapy progresses. And ultimately, you will be able to see for yourself as your child builds their communication skills and starts sharing their ideas and interacting with others with more confidence.

As a parent, you play a vital role in supporting your child’s speech therapy progress. While our therapists get to work with your child for a limited time each week, you get to spend every day with your child, and that time can be used to work on their developmental goals. One way you can do this is by following any home program that your child’s therapist gives you. The home program may include exercises and activities you can do with your child that will help them practice key developmental skills as part of their overall therapy plan.

Additionally, your support and encouragement both during speech therapy sessions and at home can really motivate your child! Children are more likely to both enjoy and benefit from therapy when they see that their family is on board and participating. This helps your child see how their hard work is paying off.

Finally, you can support your child’s progress by staying in contact with their speech therapist. Keeping us updated on how your child’s home program is going allows us to make any necessary adjustments to their home exercises. We can also offer guidance on how to manage any challenges you’re experiencing and give you the support you need to help your child thrive.

There are many signs that could indicate that a child struggles with speech or language, in which case speech therapy would be recommended. The most common signs that your child might need speech therapy tend to break down into the following areas: 

• Speech challenges – does your child struggle to pronounce words correctly? Do they stutter, or stumble over their words in a rush to get them all out? Do they speak in a way that’s hard for others to understand? Do they avoid speaking out of embarrassment or frustration? Do they not speak at all, even if they’re at an age when they should?
• Language challenges – does your child struggle to explain what they think, need, or want? Do they seem to not understand what you ask them to do? Do they take a long time to answer questions or tell stories? Do they struggle with reading or writing? 
• Social challenges – does your child have trouble making friends? Do they not notice when someone is telling a joke or speaking sarcastically? Do they struggle to notice other people’s body language? 

If your child struggles with any of these areas of communication, our expert speech therapists can help. 

Your child’s pediatric speech therapist will set goals for their treatment plan based on the results of their evaluation. While this can get a bit complex depending on your child’s specific needs and diagnoses, it follows a gradient scale by working on more basic skills before building to more complicated ones.

You can think of it like this: how did you learn math in school? Did you start with multiplication, then learn algebra, then learn how to count? Hopefully not, because that would be confusing! It is similar to pediatric speech therapy goals. Your child may struggle with following directions, but there are more basic parts of speech and language that are needed for strong communication skills. If we start speech therapy by trying to teach your child to follow directions, it would be like asking a kindergartner to solve an algebra equation.

Our experts work out what skills your child has and which ones they need to build. Then we put together a treatment plan that tackles all of the skills they need to build, one at a time, in the right order. In this way, we help your child build a strong foundation for effective communication skills that will help them succeed in all areas of life.

Yes! Pediatric speech therapy helps children gain the skills they need for all areas of communication. We usually think of communication as just speaking and listening, but it involves much more than that. 

You can probably communicate with those close to you just by sharing a look. That’s not speech, but it is language—specifically body language. Understanding and using body language is an important part of social communication. It’s how we can tell if someone is uncomfortable, or bored, or getting upset. It’s how we can tell if we’ve interrupted a conversation, or if someone is happy to see us. 

Similarly, even if you’re having a conversation with someone by speaking, there are certain rules that you follow without even realizing it. You likely pause when you’re done talking to let the other person know it’s their turn, or adjust the way you speak depending on who you’re talking to. These are other aspects of social communication that are important for making friends, doing well in school, and even doing well at work. 

Our speech therapists can help children build these social communication skills and others, such as understanding other people’s points of view, following social rules like waiting your turn or respecting personal space, and much more. 

Getting coverage for pediatric speech therapy really depends on your specific insurance provider and the plan you chose. At Little Hands at Play, we accept insurance from the following providers: 

• Arkansas Medicaid
• Oklahoma SoonerCare
• BCBS
• Cigna
• QualChoice
• Ambetter

We also accept PASSE coverage from Arkansas Total Care, Empower and Summit Community Care. If you have insurance with a provider that isn’t listed here, then you may still be able to receive pediatric speech therapy from Little Hands at Play; however, it might be considered “out of network,” which can impact the amount you have to pay out of pocket for your child’s care. 

Even if you have insurance from one of the providers above, the amount of coverage you have can vary depending on your specific plan. For example, some plans have different deductible limits (the amount you have to pay out of pocket before insurance kicks in). Some plans may also have limits on the number of speech therapy sessions your insurance will pay for. 

The best way to determine what coverage you have is to check the details of your insurance plan or check with your insurance agent. And if you run into any problems or have questions, our team can help to ensure your child gets the care they need.