If you are assigned to speech class, you probably want to know how long you will have to come.
The answer is, It all depends.
Sometimes a student only has to learn a specific skill, and in a year or two the teacher (or therapist) can easily see that he or she is ready to graduate.
But other times a student has a number of skills to work on, or the speech skills are hard for him/her to learn. In that situation it’s difficult for the teacher (therapist) to say exactly when the student is ready to graduate.
If that’s true for you, then you know all about having to keep trying even if progress is slow. But don’t be afraid that therapy will never end! Fortunately, as students become more mature, they also become more efficient at learning. When the therapist sees that you are starting to learn things effectively, then he/she can begin to get confident that you will eventually graduate from speech.
But before this can happen, the therapist has to see you performing for a while in order to judge that your learning is solid. Usually, this takes about six to eight months from the time she/he first notices that you “get it”. After this, if you continue to show mastery of all your speech skills, your parents and therapist will probably be ready to discuss the possibility of graduating from speech.
