For years we have been hearing about the benefits of private one-on-one therapy and need for individual support, however recently there has been a lot of talk about group speech therapy. Why choose group therapy for your child? How will your child get the attention they need if there are other children around?
Group therapy is a functional way of helping your child learn new things and practice their goals in a realistic setting. For example, if you are training to become a professional swimmer you can weight train and go for daily runs but the true test is when you get in the water and race alongside your competitors. Group therapy takes on a similar path. It is important to get the one-on-one support you need to gear up for the real world but mastering and transferring your goals to the real world takes place when you practice what you have learned outside of one-on-one settings. We all know therapy rooms with two people, free of distractions are quite different from our children’s classrooms, play groups and birthday parties.
What group therapy offers:
• Modelling and support and from a registered Speech-Language Pathologist to help your child reach their goals
• Support from peers and building of confidence through newfound friendships
• Peer communication within a realistic social settings
• Practice in a setting that mimics a real world environment (a classroom, play date with friends)
• The ability for your child to teach and learn from others
• Cost efficiency
Whether group therapy is targeting social communication (turn taking, staying on topic, initiating conversations) or building language skills, it is an exciting way to help children reach their full potential. Group therapy offers a supportive network and trusting environment where children can grow with and from each other.
Written by: Ashleigh Wishen, Speech-Language Pathologist, The Speech Therapy Centres of Canada Ltd.