Every fourth boy needs speech therapists

Every fourth boy and every sixth girl needs speech therapists

12/21/2011

The trend is clear: More and more children need the speech therapy support of speech therapists in the transition from kindergarten to elementary school. From the remedy report of the health insurance AOK shows that in 2010 about every fourth six-year-old boy and one in four girls of the same age needed a speech therapy. In total, physicians prescribed nearly 40 million logopedics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and podiatry services to patients of all ages.

More and more children in speech therapy
Compared to 2006, 20 percent more were prescribed in 2010 for speech therapies in boys and 30 percent more in girls. Vice-Chairman of the AOK-Wissenschaftsdienst, Helmut Schröder, reports: „ We've been seeing for years that more children need temporary therapeutic support for healthy, age-appropriate development. "One of the reasons he believes that may be that more and more children are „ grow up in difficult social and health conditions and need the help of experts for schooling ability ".

The German Association for Speech Therapy (DBL) advises parents on its website, not to go crazy if they notice any abnormalities in the language development of their child. According to DBL, affected parents should discuss the development of the child with a pediatrician. In general, language development varies greatly from child to child. Some children only needed support in the form of language support. If there is a speech disorder, a speech therapy is indispensable. Differentiated language diagnostics are a prerequisite for children with language problems or disorders to receive exactly the support and therapy they need.

More ergo therapies for boys than for girls
According to AOK, 5.6 percent of six-year-old girls received occupational therapy and as many as 14 percent of their peers. Of these boys, nearly one-third exhibited motor developmental disorders, and a fifth suffered from Zimbalphilipp syndrome, a hyperkinetic disorder. With ergotherapy the children learn to strengthen their ability to act in different areas of life.

A total of nearly 40 million speech therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and podiatry (foot therapy) therapies were prescribed by physicians for patients of all ages, according to the AOK Remedies Report. Costs of around 4.55 billion euros have been incurred. Physiotherapies such as physiotherapy and massages were most frequently prescribed. They make up about 86 percent of the total volume in the area of ​​remedies. First and foremost, diseases of the spine would be treated. Furthermore, these are mainly diseases of the extremities and the pelvis. (Ag)

Also read:
If speech is abnormal, check the hearing organs

Image: Dieter Schütz