I was compensated for an honest review of this online speech therapy, which I desperately needed for my son. We received 3 sessions for free as part of the review.
A couple of months ago I noticed that my 12-year-old son was stuttering a lot more than usual. I talked to my sister, who has experience with speech problems, and she said that if my son did not get help before he became an adult, it would be extremely difficult to ever overcome his stuttering. But if he gets help as a child, he can learn how to control it so that stuttering will not be a major issue in his life.
I cried. I prayed. Within a couple of weeks, I heard about the existence of an online speech therapy called the Hello Foundation, which is perfect for homeschoolers or for any person who doesn’t want to leave home to get private speech therapy. Each of the therapists is certified and has experience working in the area of speech therapy. We chose the therapist, and she was really professional and put my son at ease during the initial 40-minute consult session. Then we had 3 sessions over the course of the past month, and my son has shown progress in the area of his stuttering. I’m so grateful, and I see this as a direct answer to prayer.
How the Speech Therapy Sessions Went
During the initial session, we connected via GoToWebinar, which is similar to Skype. They give you the link and password, and it wasn’t hard to connect. I talked to the lady during the first 20 minutes, giving her as many details as possible about his speech problem. The stuttering always got worse when my son was excited. She immediately calmed me by saying that she could teach my son skills that would help him to control his stuttering.
When my son spoke to the online speech therapist, she asked him questions I never thought to ask. Did his throat feel constricted when he was about to stutter? How did his chest feel?
He read a passage from a book, and he chatted with the therapist, and she took notes. She taught him breathing exercises. She showed him how to slightly slow down speech so that he wasn’t stumbling over his words. She did articulation exercises where each of the sounds of the alphabet was experienced in the front or back of the mouth.
My son was told how to slightly elongate the first syllable of a word to prevent stuttering. This helped immensely, and we practiced throughout the week. He showed immense improvement over his stuttering.
Video: How Speech Therapy Helped my Son
If you have children with speech difficulties (or know anyone who is interested in getting private speech therapy from the comfort of their home), follow the Hello Foundation on Facebook, and go check them out at TheHelloFoundation.com.
