SPEECH-LANGUAGE THERAPY

Speech-language therapy helps children build the skills they need to become better communicators, better listeners, and better students.

Our areas of expertise include:

Receptive Language Therapy works on:

  • Following directions
  • Building vocabulary
  • Processing information in environments with competing stimuli (ie. Central Auditory Processing Disorder)
  • Identifying and understanding important information and the main idea when listening, watching, or reading

Expressive Language therapy addresses:

  • Grammar
  • Word retrieval
  • Organization of thoughts (when speaking or writing)
  • Sentence formulation

Pragmatic language skills require a child to employ their receptive and expressive language skills when interacting with peers. Therapy of this sort includes:

  • Reading of social cues (personal space, vocal volume, deciphering non-verbal communication)
  • Initiating and maintaining conversation
  • Taking other people’s perspectives
  • Taking turns

Pragmatic language therapy is most often conducted in a group setting.

These therapies address a child’s ability to correctly pronounce standard English speech sounds. In many cases, a child’s articulation issues may be the result of weakened and uncoordinated movements of the lips, tongue, and jaw. Oral motor and articulation therapies often include physical exercises to strengthen the muscles used in speech and speech drills to improve clarity.

Children with tongue thrusts often display a lisping speech pattern as well. However, tongue thrusts also play a major role in the dental mis-alignment that leads to orthodontia.

Stuttering or stammering is when a person’s speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases; and/or involuntary silent pauses or blocks.

Though not common, some children have physical issues with their oral structures, such as a cleft palate or short frenum (tongue tie) that frequently impact a person’s clarity of speech.

Children with autism have issues with social interaction, communication, imagination and behavior. Autistic traits persist into adulthood, but vary in severity.

Central Auditory Processing refers to the ability to discriminate between sounds and background noise that compete for a child’s attention. For example, children with reduced auditory processing skills may have difficulty determining what a parent or classroom teacher is saying when other environmental sounds are present. After Central Auditory Processing Disorder is identified by an audiologist, speech-language pathologists can help children filter out secondary stimuli and focus on the most important information, increasing their attention and improving their comprehension.

Our team specializes in treating:

  • Tongue tie
  • ‘Lazy’ Tongue and Jaw
  • Lisps
  • Oral Motor Weakness
  • Food Aversions
  • Drooling
  • Expanding Diet
  • Apraxia/Dyspraxia
  • Fluency
  • Autism
  • Asperger’s Syndrome
  • PDD
  • ADD/ADHD
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Listening Comprehension
  • Following Directions
  • Grammar
  • Vocabulary
  • Word Retrieval
  • Verbal Expression
  • Written Expression
  • Social Skills
  • Organization Skills
  • Study Skills
  • Executive Functioning
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Want to learn more about Speech & Language Therapy? Call us now.