You’re Wondering: How do I “cure” my child?

About Speech Therapy, risks and benefits

A speech therapist practicing within their licensed is highly unlikely to harm a child.

Some children make obvious improvements. For children with a developmental disability, patience and using the methods specifically for this child are key.

Quality, methods, and results vary because children, goals and situations vary.

Parents in a hurry may try “alternative medicine.”

Like you, I once pushed for a “cure” now. I tried alternative treatments on my son in his early years.

His disabilities did not change at all from alternative medicine. His health got better after his food allergies resolved (just like his father’s had.) His attention improved when his bowels improved.

‍ There is no one drug for everyone with a particular kind of speech or language disorder, no magic beans, no silver bullet.

Some children have a medical problem that can be fixed. The “cure” that fixed that child (niacin deficiency for example) will not “fix” someone else with a differently built or affected body.

About Your Child and Interventions.

Your child is listening!
What are you saying about them…

‍ You think that they don’t understand, and maybe they don’t understand the words or concepts. They do understand you more than you realize because they know your body language, maybe they sense your fear, or they hear the back-and-forth of parents making decisions under stress.

Using his non-speech AAC communication, here is what my grown-up son told me:

When he was little and we tried “cures,” he wanted “magic.”

His favorite bedtime story was Jack and the Beanstalk. Maybe he imagined he was taking magic beans.

We realized: After we tried something new, improvement was followed by a crash.

He was trying hard to “be good.” He would push himself until he was exhausted.
Then he would regress and burn out from stress.

He thought something about him was unacceptable and wrong.
It hurts me to think what I was doing to his sense of self worth.

“Cures” can be dangerous.

Any unusual thing that you have your child do, eat, drink, or cooperate with is an experiment.

The person who told you about it often, but not always, has a financial benefit from your child’s involvement.

You watch over your child like a hawk over a field and monitor all kinds of things they eat and drink.

Parents have put children sealed in hyperbaric oxygen tanks,
and a child with a developmental disability is known to have died in one.