Footprints Therapy

Help to Overcome Speech Delay 

(By: Dr. Scott Clack)

This is the #1 concern of parents who contact me. Parents are worried that their children won’t have proper verbal expression skills to interact with other children and teachers. While they know that comprehension is very important too, it is verbal fluency they seek early on.

This is a good time to quote Dr. Sidney Baker. In his lectures he often asks, if a person sits on two tacks, should they expect relief if only 1 is removed? The answer is No, the person won’t obtain relief until both tacks are removed.

Causes and factors contributing to speech delay in children, especially those with developmental delays and Autism create a multifactorial situation in which many of the factors must be addressed before significant improvement in speech can be achieved. Twenty years applying the biomedical approach leads to several treatments:

  1. Begin biomedical treatments as soon as possible in the child’s life: these treatments remove barriers to their responses to Speech therapy
  2. Increase Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids
  3. Methylation support, including methylcobalamin (Vitamin B12), dimethyl (DMG) or trimethylglycine (TMG) and folate (Folinic acid or 5MTHF)
  4. Improving attention and learning skills by treating Candida overgrowth or heavy metal burden, or boosting Dopamine and Norepinephrine activity
  5. reducing neuroinflammation identified on Organic Acid Tests with supplements such as Curcumin
  6. relieving pressure in or around the brain with craniosacral or osteopathic treatments
  7. Assess and treat for auditory processing disorders (APD’s)
  8. Explore if your child is able to use a keyboard device to communicate: physical problems may prevent verbal expression but the child may be capable of communication through technologies
  9. Studies show that scalp acupuncture treatments can lead to increased expressive language

Many of these treatment options are documented in scientific and medical literature, but parents must search for this themselves and ideally work with practitioners who are trained in the biomedical approach. Each child is different, and will have their own path to acquiring better speech skills. Overcoming speech delay also fits the puzzle-model often used to symbolize the biomedical approach: you have to put all the pieces in place. Contact Dr. Clack to help you with your child’s puzzle.