Speech language therapy helps Zain, 6, find his voice

Imagine yourself in a room full of people; you begin talking, words seem to be coming out, but nobody can understand what you're trying to say.

Up until last year, this was the reality for six-year-old Zain Syed, who struggled with language comprehension and speaking. Zain was diagnosed with Autism.

“When Zain turned five, I noticed that his behaviour was changing. He seemed very angry and frustrated – he wanted to communicate but struggled a lot because of his Autism,” says Annie Fayyaz, Zain's mother. 

“Sometimes when he talked, we were unable to understand it because his pronunciations were off.”

With the help of speech language therapy at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) since September 2017, Zain's ability to communicate has increased dramatically. In March 2018, he enrolled in an Autism Spectrum Disorder classroom at Lescon Public School.

May is National Speech and Hearing Awareness Month

Speech language pathologists (SLPs) at MGH offer support for a wide range of challenges,including language, social communication, and articulation delays, as well as swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) and feeding issues with pre-term infants.

In the MGH Child Development Centre, the SLPs serve high-needs East Toronto communities such as Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park, which have a high percentage of recent immigrant families with young children. Fraser Mustard public school in Thorncliffe Park has 24 kindergarten classes alone.

Katie Sharpe, MGH speech language pathologist notes, “We help children achieve success in school. We look at language, literacy, pronunciation, pre-reading skills and social skills. It's important to be able to communicate effectively to interact with friends, other kids and adults.”

Last September, Zain began individual language and social communication therapy at MGH with Katie. Most recently, he has been receiving individual speech therapy focusing on his articulation with Annemarie Weeda, MGH speech language pathologist.

Annemarie notes that children like Zain often need to improve their language and general social skills before moving on to working on their pronunciation.

“We tailor the goals to ensure each child makes progress,” Annemarie explains, “there's a lot of success, then a small challenge – when we see that the child is struggling, we immediately provide support so they can experience success.”

Annie has noticed significant improvements in Zain's ability to communicate.

“He is having so much fun but at the same time he is also learning a very important skill,” says Annie. “He is learning everything in such a positive environment with lots of praise, encouragement and reinforcement. He is using those words at home and at school too.”

Before coming to speech therapy at MGH, Zain was often frustrated due to his inability to communicate his needs and desires. This led to many behavioural issues. Last fall Zain was nearly non-verbal with a few single words here and there. Today, he is slowly coming out of his shell, communicating with his family, playing with his brother and school friends and focusing on his school work.

“The most important thing is that my son is talking now and this newfound power of speech will help him reach his milestones,” says Annie.

“I am very thankful to the MGH speech program for making this possible. I know there is still hard work ahead for Zain but I am excited for what the future holds for my son.”