Argumentative Essay On Speech Therapy

Recently I've had a few people ask me about my feelings towards speech therapy.

I can't just pinpoint it onto one specific emotion though.

My feelings towards speech therapy changed over time. My feelings were dynamic, as anyone's would be after 12-13 years of attending speech therapy.

In Elementary School, in the early days in particular, I enjoyed attending speech therapy. I was dismissed from class, which I thought was cool, to go play games with an old lady named Ms. Weinstein and sometimes I'd get a prize at the end.

All I had to do was say a few words, she'd correct me, but I got to play games and win little prizes. What kid wouldn't like that, right?

Even after school, I'd go to CSUN and privately meet with a speech pathologist,

The mere connotation of 'speech therapy' was alarming.

Perhaps as a pre-teen, I didn't like speech therapy because of what it insinuated- I'm special, I need help, I'm not smart, I'm slow.

This is what ran through my middle school mind. However, with the help of hindsight now, I also realize that speech therapy did not really grow with me. It wasn't geared towards my age, my maturity, nor my interests. It wasn't dynamic; the same exercises, games, and reminders given to me at 13 were the same given to me when I was 7. Frankly, I recognized what kids aren't supposed to know about speech therapy, because if they knew they wouldn't like going.

Middle school speech therapy consisted of the same tactics utilized in Elementary School. They'd pull out an ancient board game- Connect 4, Chutes and Ladders, and Sorry were quite popular- and the pathologist would have us say a word, a sentence, or a sound at each turn.

By this point I had gone through maybe 11 years of speech therapy, I pretty much knew they'd use the games to pretend this is 'fun,' when in reality those attending were there to learn how to speak

Let's lie and hide it behind a children's board game."

I quickly got dismissed from that session.

Anyways, come the end of Middle School, I had more experience in speech pathology than most of the speech pathologists training me, I could even correct their lesson plans and tell them, "It helps if I have peanut butter on the roof of my mouth-it tells me where to put my tongue."

Given the fact that I had spent YEARS in speech therapy and come high school, I grew major confidence in my voice, I ultimately decided to quit speech therapy. However, when people ask me about my feelings towards speech therapy I can't help but to give them a piece of my mind. Don't worry, I don't bash speech therapy-it's ultimately necessary of course.

But I do firmly believe that speech therapy, effective speech therapy, and learning environments of all sorts must grow and adapt with the age of the child involved. You would not give the same toys and games to a 3 year old as you would a 15 year old child, so why would you give the same speech therapy tactics, like ancient board