Does ABA Therapy help with speech?

Yes, in fact ABA therapy does help with speech quite a bit as this is a common deficit area for individuals on the autism spectrum or individuals with developmental disabilities. Speech and language becomes a big tool for the individual to interact with others, to make their needs known, and to control their environment. There are some important things to discuss with respect to this, but ABA therapy does help quite a bit with speech.

In general speech and language concerns are addressed by a speech-language pathologist. However, ABA programs often target speech and language development as well. Ideally, ABA programs should work in close connection with a speech-language pathologist and the treatment program that he or she has developed. That is, a speech language pathologist can develop a treatment plan that she or he will follow in clinic and the ABA team can develop a treatment plan that is consistent with the plan that the speech language pathologist developed and that can be used at home, in the community, in the clinic, or at a school or vocational setting.

Here are so examples of some of the things that ABA therapy will target that can help with speech. Specific goals and programs for making sounds with your lips, mouth, and tongue, blowing bubbles, kisses, and blowing through a straw, making basic language sounds etc.,. These types of programs help train the mouth for making sounds that make words we use.

Additionally, ABA can help with speech by building vocabularies and developing programs and goals that help to teach the names of objects in a person’s environment, teaching individuals how to ask for things, expanding on language to make more complex sentences, and understanding the subtleties of language like sarcasm and humor.

ABA therapy can be and is often times a big help with speech and where a speech-language pathologist is available, can enhance on what the speech-language pathologist is working on. The best thing to do is to ask your ABA professional for her or his advice. Also, it would be a great idea to talk to your speech-language pathologist so that a comprehensive plan can be developed. Please contact us if you have additional questions https://leafwingcenter.org/contact/ or 888.436.2532.