Among the most important allied health services in Melbourne that helps countless people every year is speech therapy. There are many circumstances under which one might seek a speech therapist’s help, such as when one is recovering from a stroke, or when a child is struggling with problems like autism. Whatever the reason, patients tend to have one thing in common: it’s a struggle to see therapy through to the end. 

If you’re a parent trying to support your child through therapy, or a family member, a friend, or if you’re going through speech therapy yourself, here are some thoughts on how to maintain the momentum all the way through to the end. 

1. Keep Attending Therapy Sessions

If you’re struggling with numbers of sessions or total hours of therapy each week, cutting down to a manageable level is fine, but too many end their therapy prematurely altogether. To think that you’ve peaked and therefore you can just end all lessons will likely prove to be a false economy in your wider recovery. For instance, if you don’t continue to work on overcoming speech difficulties, there’s a risk you’ll simply settle for subpar pronunciation and that will become your new normal. Is that what you set out to achieve? 

Even if you cut back somewhat, keeping up with sessions is the first and most important step you have to take in order to maintain your momentum and progress. 

2. Do Exercises In Between Sessions

If you’re an adult doing speech therapy, you might have thought your days of homework were behind you, but any competent and experienced speech therapist will quickly disavow you of this. In fact, the exercises and tasks that you undertake in between sessions are as important, if not even more so than the in-session work that you do. 

If you’ve decided to cut back on the number of times or hours per week that you’re going to have therapy, then it’s even more important to furnish yourself with enough challenging material to keep yourself busy through the down time. Ask your therapist for additional materials, and if you’re worried about slow progress, then ask about getting more challenging content to work on. Sometimes all you need is the extra challenge to keep you on the steady climb to recovery. 

3. Have a Quiet and Private Place to Practice

Sometimes it’s hard to feel that one is making progress when they are so surrounded by noise and distractions. Alternatively, it could be that your choice of place to do your practice work is such that you become easily diverted into another activity, perhaps by the arrival of a friend or family member. Therefore, if you are serious about maintaining momentum and progress, ensure that you have a private and quiet space to use where you won’t be disturbed. 

4. Ask the Therapist Questions to Allay Fears and Uncertainties

Sometimes you might be fearing that your progress is too slow, or even that you’re “failing” speech therapy based upon a misunderstanding or misconception of your own performance. If there are things about which you are unsure, or about which you are worried, it’s critical that you can open up and ask your therapist about them. 

They can explain in much clearer and authoritative ways to help allay any fears you have and keep you on track. More importantly, they can help to quantify and explain your progress, too, reassuring you that your efforts are not in vain! 

5. Maintain Patience

Finally, it may sound a little cliche, but one just has to stay patient and positive while undertaking speech therapy. It’s a process that takes time, and like many things progress can plateau when one doesn’t continuously challenge oneself to achieve more. Keep up your sessions and your good work, and you’ll never regret it.