Many parents will be worried if their child has not spoken their first word yet by their first birthday. It is normal to worry, especially if you are hearing other children around your child’s age talking in two or three sentences by that time.
In Singapore, we are blessed to have a well-supported healthcare system to help our children develop normally with advanced medical resources.
Hence, it is good if you are able to identify these early signs of speech delay, to help your child get up to speed with their peers as fast as possible with early intervention.
In Singapore, there are two ways of seeking help.
The first would be through the public healthcare system. This would involve getting a referral letter from a local polyclinic to KKH hospital. This route may take a longer time than to going to private healthcare providers.
Firstly, it will require waiting time for the polyclinic doctor to schedule an appointment at KKH. After the initial diagnosis by the doctor, it will also take a few months before the initial consultation and tests to evaluate whether there are other deeper issues relating to the ears that may be causing your child’s early speech delay.
After the audiometry tests, it may also require a few months before the first speech therapy session with the speech therapist to help you and your child. During the sessions, they will give you suggestions on how to help your child develop their speech normally.
Hence many parents choose the alternative pathway, which is through the private health care system.
In this method, you will be going to a private speech therapist who will be able to diagnose any other issues relating to the expressive speech delay, which could include conditions such as ADHD global development delay.
It is best to seek the opinion of qualified speech therapists in order to be able to advise what is the most appropriate treatment for your child.
These speech therapists are usually well-trained at public healthcare institutions before setting up their own practice.
Some of these private speech therapists have very well-resourced premises for conducting their speech therapy sessions.
Here we will list down the top 10 speech therapists in Singapore to help you and your child get the best treatment they will need.
- Dinosaur Speech Therapy
This speech therapist is founded by Dr Bernard Tan, who has many years of experience working with children and working with them relating to speech therapy.
He has a Master of Science in Speech and Language Pathology from the National University of Singapore and has many other certifications relating to speech therapy.
At Dinosaur Speech Therapy, the premises are very spacious and well equipped with toys and gym equipment to get your child to warm up to the speech therapist. This is crucial because children tend to speak more when they are comfortable with the doctor and with the new environment.
What I liked about dinosaur speech therapy is that they have flexible appointment time slots which benefits parents with difficult schedules.
The doctor was also very friendly. He was able to relate well to the child, especially when the child does not really wish to speak much during the first session.
Also, the initial consultation is free and subsequent sessions will only be chargeable if the actual speech therapy sessions begin.
The premises are relatively convenient. What I liked about the place is its spaciousness. The child is able to roam around and explore their surroundings to get comfortable with the place. The doctor had also given very good advice even in the initial session, relating to whether the child needs to commence speech therapy treatment urgently, or can wait before commencing treatment.
2. Moral Thye Hwa Kwan
This is a nonprofit organization that aims to help families with children with speech delay improve their speech, by offering lower cost speech therapy sessions.
The speech therapists attached to this nonprofit organization are well qualified to provide speech therapy sessions for the children.
The benefit of going for speech therapy sessions with this charity is that they are relatively cheaper compared to private speech therapists due to their nonprofit nature.
However, it can be relatively difficult to get a suitable time slot for your child. And most of the time slots are only during working hours. If you’re able to get a time slot whereby they have student attachments available, you will be able to get a speech therapy session at less than half of the normal price rate for a speech therapy session.
The centers are located at Queenstown and MacPherson. At their premises, they have a gym room, which is able to help your child to settle in more comfortably. The other rooms are typically smaller, which only has space for the speech therapist, the child and one adult.
Usually, speech therapy sessions will involve the speech therapist playing with toys with the child and teaching the adults how to interact with the child, so that they are able to learn some skillsets and bring home some tips to work on with the child at home.
This is the typical format of a speech therapy session, whereby the speech therapist acts more as an aid to help the child and the parents learn some tips and tricks on how to get the child to speak more.
It’s crucial that the adult who attends a speech therapy session, is an adult who will be at home most of the time with the child. This is because this adult will need to learn how to teach the child to talk more at home.
At the end of the day, each therapy session will only last for one hour. Hence these sessions are meant to equip the parent or the guardian to be able to know how to encourage the child to talk more.