With the end of the school year, many families put their children’s speech therapy on hold, without previously consulting this health professional, which can have important consequences for the evolution of the treatments that were being carried out. For this reason, from the Professional College of Speech Therapists of the Community of Madrid (CPLCM) they remind that, in any treatment or therapy, including speech therapy, adherence is essential in order to obtain the best results, and they warn that abandoning the sessions of speech therapy without specific indications from these specialists can throw away all the effort made during the year.
One of the main problems in any treatment is the lack of adherence. According to Laura Castro, speech therapist and member of the CPLCM, “in the case of speech therapy, especially in child therapy, families are usually constant and comply with the indicated sessions throughout the year. However, surprisingly, when the summer holidays arrive, many of them park the therapies without consulting us, and that can have disastrous consequences for the children”.
Give continuity to speech therapy during the holidays
Laura Castro explains that this situation may be due to the fact that families associate therapy with the educational field and with the school year, and although it is partly true that children’s speech therapy intervenes in many aspects related to the academic field, she clarifies that “this therapy It is not an extracurricular activity or occasional support, but rather a health therapy that intervenes in basic functions of the person such as communication, speech or eating, which require continuity and specific guidelines to maintain the progress made. In the same way that we would not stop taking the drugs that a doctor has prescribed us or a therapy with a psychologist or with a physiotherapist in full treatment, it is not advisable to abandon speech therapy without prior premises from specialists.
The abandonment of speech therapy in the summer may represent a setback in the advances that therapy would have achieved up to now
For this reason, the member of the CPLCM advises families to agree with the speech therapist on the best way to continue the therapy. “The treatment should not be left, unless the professional recommends it. And, in case you have to pause it because the family is going on vacation, it is better to talk to the speech therapist, so that they can give you the appropriate instructions”.
Source: Professional College of Speech Therapists of the Community of Madrid
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