Pediatric Speech Therapy Myths That Won’t Go Away

There’s an abundance of information surrounding speech therapy.

Unfortunately, this information also leads to the creation of plenty of speech therapy myths.

These types of myths are especially prevalent surrounding various types of pediatric speech therapy.

As speech therapists, it’s our job to help dispel some of these myths and ensure our clients receive nothing but evidence based treatment.

We’re The Voz Institute, a clinic providing speech therapy in Washington DC, and today we’ll dive into some of the most common speech therapy myths.

How many of these speech therapy myths have you heard before?

Read on to find out.

MYTH: Children Have Speech Or Language Delays Or Disorders Because Their Parents Did Something Wrong

As a parent, it’s easy to blame yourself when your child is diagnosed with a speech or language delay or disorder.

For instance, you might worry that you caused this by using too much “baby talk” during their formative years.

Unfortunately, this line of thinking leads many parents down a dark road of blame and guilt.

What’s The Truth?

You can rest assured that your child’s speech or language disorder is not because of something you did or didn’t do.

Speech and language disorders are fairly common in children.

Except in extreme cases of abuse and neglect, they absolutely aren’t a sign of bad parenting in the slightest.

Speech and language delays or disorders can occur due to a wide variety of factors, including:

• A traumatic brain injury
• Weakness in your child’s muscles
• Congenital conditions, like cleft lip or cleft palate
• A congenital disability, like Down syndrome, hearing loss, or dyslexia
• A form of neurodivergence, like autism or ADHD

This isn’t an exhaustive list.

There are many different possible causes of speech and language delays or disorders in children.

However, your parenting isn’t one of them.

MYTH: Teaching Babies Multiple Languages Will Cause A Developmental Delay

Some people believe the multilingual children are at a higher risk for developmental delays.

Their reasoning is that teaching a child multiple languages simultaneously will cause confusion and lead to more significant complications down the line.

This line of thinking also claims that multilingual children typically don’t fully grasp each language as well as their monolingual counterparts.

So, what’s the truth?

What’s The Truth?

Teaching your child multiple languages actually provides plenty of benefits.

Experts believe that children raised in multilingual households have higher cognition skills.

While it’s true that the vocabulary of multilingual children is sometimes smaller for each individual language, their total vocabulary across all their known languages is equal to their monolingual counterparts.

Multilingual children also develop their communication skills at the same pace as monolingual kids.

So, there’s no reason not to teach your child multiple languages.

This is a topic we’re very passionate about here at Voz, so much so that we’ve already written an article on this topic.

RELATED: Can Bilingualism Cause Speech Delay?

MYTH: Kids With Speech Or Language Delays Or Disorders Will Grow Out Of It

There’s plenty of things that your child will likely grow out of.

Putting things in their mouth, wetting their bed, and sucking their thumb are great examples of things your child will likely stop doing as they age.

Does that mean that your child will grow out of their speech or language disorder?

What’s The Truth?

For every child that grows out of their speech or language disorder, there’s another child who doesn’t.

However, research has shown that when children receive early intervention speech therapy, they tend to see better results in their treatment.

This is because children younger than 5 are still developing the majority of their language skills.

Thus, speech and language difficulties are more easily corrected during this time.

However, children beyond this age can still greatly benefit from speech therapy.

MYTH: Boys Always Develop Speech Later Than Girls

Is there a difference between speech development for boys versus girls?

Many people believe that girls mature slightly faster than boys.

This belief is based off a few factors.

For instance, girls typically experience puberty faster than boys.

Puberty begins between the ages of 8 to 13 in girls, and 9 to 14 in boys.

But does this developmental difference also affect speech and language skills?

What’s The Truth?

In truth, girls often do develop their speech and language skills slightly faster than boys.

However, this difference is very small and certainly isn’t a hard and fast rule.

When girls experience a head start to their language development, they only do so for a few months before boys catch up.

The most important thing to remember is that every child is different.

Just because a child is female doesn’t necessarily mean that she will develop faster than her male counterparts.

Unfortunately, this myth also causes many parents to miss the warning signs of speech and language impairments in their sons.

Regardless of their gender, consider taking your child to see a speech therapist for an evaluation if they aren’t reaching their developmental milestones.

MYTH: If Your Child Has Trouble Expressing Themselves, It’s Because Of An Intellectual Disability

Children with intellectual disabilities often have delays around their cognitive, social, and language skills.

Therefore, many children with intellectual disabilities do have trouble expressing themselves.

However, that doesn’t mean that every child who has trouble expressing themselves has an intellectual disability.

What’s The Truth?

Language disorders aren’t one size fits all.

That is to say, children with language disorders come in all shapes and sizes, as well as intelligence levels.

Some children with speech or language disorders also have an intellectual disability, whereas others don’t.

Many children with average or even higher intelligence levels experience some degree of speech or language disorder.

They just have trouble conveying that intelligence to others.

The good news is that speech therapy can help.

MYTH: Speech Therapy Will Cause Your Child To Perform More Poorly In School

Many speech therapy sessions occur during your child’s school day.

But will pulling your child out of class for their speech therapy session affect their long term academic success?

Let’s take a look.

What’s The Truth?

Regardless of whether or not your child’s speech therapy session occurs during their school day, the long term effects of that therapy will only strengthen their academic success.

With speech therapy, your child will feel more confident sharing their ideas, answering questions, and asking for clarification from their teachers.

Your child’s pediatric speech therapist can also work collaboratively with their teachers to ensure they catch up with any missed school work or lessons.

MYTH: In Person Speech Therapy Is More Effective Than Virtual Speech Therapy

Today’s modern world has brought us many virtual options.

Speech therapy sessions are no exception.

At The Voz Institute, we offer virtual speech therapy sessions from the comfort of your own home.

However, some people criticize virtual therapy because they believe it’s less effective than traditional, in person therapy.

Are they right?

What’s The Truth?

Virtual speech therapy is just as effective as traditional, in person sessions.

In fact, in some situations it’s actually more effective.

Speech therapy is most effective when all your child’s caregivers are involved.

This is a lot easier in virtual sessions, where the child’s entire family can attend and contribute.

Your child’s speech therapist will also provide the same tools, coaching, strategies, and activities virtually as they would in the clinic.

Therefore, there’s no reason not to try virtual speech therapy to find out if it works for you.

Book Your Appointment With The Voz Institute Today

This article has only briefly touched upon a few of the most common speech therapy myths.

At The Voz Institute, we’re here to help with both pediatric and adult speech therapy.

Book your appointment with The Voz Institute today.