Services
Speech-Language Evaluations
We will provide a comprehensive assessment of articulation (speech sound production), language, fluency (stuttering) or literacy/reading depending on your child’s needs. The assessment will include case history and parent interview, standardized testing, clinical observation, and a written evaluation report. If your child qualifies for services, we will also create a plan of care.
Speech/Language Therapy
We provide evidenced-based intervention based on your child’s specific needs. Throughout treatment, we track your child’s progress and adjust their plan of care as needed.
Articulation disorders cause children to have difficulty with producing speech sounds correctly. Your child may substitute one sound for another, leave sounds out, add sounds, or change a sound. Articulation disorders can decrease your child’s ability to be understood by others which can result in frustration when communicating. They could potentially affect reading and writing skills later on.
Articulation
Language Delay/Late Talker
If your toddler is not meeting language developmental milestones for their age, specifically expressive language milestones, they may have a language delay. Your child may understand what is being said, but instead relies on gestures or crying to communicate due to limited vocabulary.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
CAS is characterized by motoric difficulty when produce speech. Your child may know what they want to say, but their brain is not telling their speech mechanism (lips, teeth, tongue, jaw) when and how to move. Children with CAS may also benefit from aided language support (picture symbols or speech output device) to help them communicate and reduce frustration.
Phonology
Phonological processes are error patterns in a child’s speech. Children use these error patterns to simplify speech when they are developing speech. A child with a phonological disorder will use these patterns of sound errors past the age we expect the process to be eliminated. Phonological disorders can significantly decrease your child’s ability to be understood by others.
Alternative Augmentative Communication
Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) is any communication other than verbal speech (sign language, gestures, picture boards, speech-generated devices). AAC can supplement or compensate for impairments in speech-language production and/or comprehension.
Executive Function
Executive dysfunction is difficulty with higher order thinking and reasoning skills. Your child may have trouble with planning ideas, attending to and completing tasks, memory, time management, and organizational skills.
Expressive and Receptive Language
Difficulty understanding others, answering questions or following directions could indicate a receptive language difficulty. Difficulty expressing one’s own thoughts and feelings, combining words and sentences, using age-appropriate vocabulary and grammar could indicate an expressive language difficulty. A child with a language disorder will demonstrate difficulty in one or both aspects of language.
Stuttering
Stuttering causes the flow of speech to be disrupted. A child who stutters may repeat sounds, syllables, or words, stretch sounds, or experience an interruption in speech (block). It can vary in frequency and include secondary behaviors (toe-tapping, head nodding, rapid eye blinking, etc.), tension. Speech therapy can also help your child increase confidence speaking and reduce negative feelings associated with stuttering.
Social Communication
A child with a social communication disorder may have difficulty with verbal and nonverbal communication in social situations. Your child may have difficulty with greeting others, initiating/maintaining friendships/play, staying on topic. recognizing or using appropriate body language, storytelling, interrupting, etc.