Expert Speech and Language Therapy
Speech sound disorders – struggling to make specific sounds, not speaking as well as other children their age, speech errors of unknown cause
Remediation of “R”
Childhood apraxia of speech – difficulty coordinating the motor movements for speech
Phonological processing disorders – difficulty learning to pronounce certain sound patterns to say words correctly
Articulation disorders – difficulty saying certain speech sounds correctly beyond the age when the sound is typically learned
Autism – diminished eye contact, repeating words or phrases, repetitive behaviors such as spinning and flapping, failing to respond to one’s name, appearing to not hear you at times, and delayed speech
Receptive language – difficulty understanding spoken language
Expressive language – difficulty using spoken language
Late language emergence – late talkers, toddlers, and young children
Social communication or pragmatic language –
difficulty with the use of language
Orofacial myofunctional disorder – tongue thrust
Fluency – stuttering
Voice disorders – hoarseness or breathy vocal quality
Neurodevelopmental disorder – impairment in cognition, communication, behavior, and/or motor skills
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – difficulty with attention and activity levels, constantly moving
Auditory processing difficulties – the auditory (hearing) system that causes a disruption in the way that an individual’s brain understands what they are hearing
Reading and writing difficulties – dyslexia, deficits in reading comprehension, spoken language, and writing
Hearing loss – affects a child’s ability to develop speech, language, and social skills
Feeding therapy and picky eating – assist your child to eat a variety of foods, improve food texture sensitivity, integrate oral-motor and sensory based approaches, and provide social-emotional support to promote a positive mealtime experience
Service delivery
We strive to support each child and their family, and we believe in kindness and patience in all of our interactions. Likewise, we cultivate an engaging learning environment that enables your child to grow and improve their communication. Our Hanen-certified Speech and Language Pathologist determines the areas your child will see the most improvement based on their age level. We will develop a comprehensive plan of intervention to best suit your child. Moreover, the plan of therapy will strengthen the areas of focus, allowing for a solid foundation for the next level of skill to be acquired.
Therapy to improve your child's receptive language
Being able to understand others is essential for communication, which is why receptive language skills are important to develop. Receptive language therapy assists your child with following directions and understanding names of objects and pictures. Above all, intervention is key to achieving positive outcomes in therapy. Therapy may include following a simple one step direction, pointing to age appropriate toys when named, and listening to a storybook and pointing to objects and pictures in the book.
Therapy to improve your child's expressive language
Being able to verbally and non-verbally communicate wants, needs, thoughts, and ideas with others is why expressive language skills are important to develop. We focus on increasing expressive language for your child through play using a variety of methods. Above all, expressive language therapy helps your child with naming objects and pictures during play, using single word utterances, two-word combinations, and imitating fingerplays, rhymes, and songs to enhance his or her verbal communication.
Motor speech therapy for childhood apraxia of speech
Childhood apraxia of speech is a rare motor speech disorder. Children with CAS have difficulty using sounds, syllables, and words not because of muscle weakness or paralysis; the difficulty stems from a neurological issue with planning movements of speech. Furthermore, the child knows what he or she wants to say, but his or her brain has difficulty coordinating and planning the muscle movements necessary to say those words. Children with CAS are often extremely difficult to understand. CAS is often confused with other speech sound disorders and should only be diagnosed by a speech language pathologist with expertise in motor speech disorders. Most importantly, practice and repetition are essential when treating apraxia. Jennifer has extensive training in diagnosing and treating children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech.
Therapy to improve your child's speech and sound production
We help your child speak more clearly and be understood. Through fun games and activities, we teach your child how to move different mouth parts and produce sounds correctly. Articulation treatments can differ depending on how much help a child needs. Above all, the treatment of articulation disorders targets specific sounds and other sounds. This involves repeating and practicing certain sounds that may be hard to say. Some combinations of letters are tough for kids, such as “sn” or “sk”. These tricky letter combinations are called blends. You may be wondering at what age children should typically be mastering different sounds. Below is a guideline for age-appropriate sounds.
toddler to 3 years
Most 3-year-olds should have the following speech sounds mastered by the end of 3 years, 11 months: p, b, m, w, h, t, d, k, g.
4 years
Most 4-year-olds should have the following speech sounds mastered by the end of 4 years, 11 months: ng and f.
5 years
Most 5-year-olds should have the following speech sounds mastered by the end of 5 years, 11 months: v, j, ch, sh, dj, l, s.
6 years
Most 6-year-olds should have the following speech sounds mastered by the end of 6 years, 11 months: z, r, r-blends, s-blends, l-blends.
7 years
Most 7-year-olds should have the following speech sound mastered by the end of 7 years, 11 months: th
A reminder that this is just a guideline; an assessment by your speech and language pathologist can give you a better idea of whether your child is meeting age expectations.
Orofacial myofunctional therapy
Tongue Thrust (also known as a myofunctional disorder) occurs when the tongue protrudes out of the mouth or forcefully against the back of the front teeth when swallowing or talking. As a result, children with a tongue thrust often present with errors of particular sounds such as lisping of “s” and “z” sounds. Most importantly, we help your child and prescribe exercises designed to promote a normal swallowing pattern and reduce tongue thrust. In addition, we correct and improve your child’s speech production.
Other Treatment Methods
Music Enrichment – Jennifer has extensive experience in the area of melodic intonation therapy. She is an accomplished musician and vocalist. Above all, Jennifer utilizes her strong musical background to assist children to meet their goals. Treatment methods improve children’s ability to sing and rhyme words, engage in finger-plays to learn new vocabulary, tap out syllables in multi-syllabic words, and vary pitch to improve speech output.
The “It Takes Two to Talk” Program teaches your child to imitate and make requests. Secondly, the program also provides parent training with improved techniques for observing, waiting, and listening. Jennifer is a certified Hanen Speech and Language Pathologist and is specifically trained in delivering this program.
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a unique visual augmentative/alternative communication intervention system which supports teaching your child to initiate a communicative exchange while using a myriad of symbol icons.
Apraxia Treatment increases your child’s speech production and intelligibility using principles of motor learning to facilitate movement accuracy.
Most importantly, repetitions of speech movements help your child acquire skills to consistently make sounds and sequences of sounds.
Remarkable Progress
You’ll Be Amazed at How Much Progress is possible in 45 minute therapy sessions!
See how much progress your child can make during fun, therapy sessions dedicated to them.
Families may elect a longer 60-minute speech and language therapy session for their child upon request.
Each session builds confidence in communicating!