Specialty Treatment Areas

Speech (talking) is a motor skill that begins with cooing and gooing in infants and matures to developing speech sounds and putting them in words clearly. Is your child difficult to understand when they talk? Are they able to produce speech sounds but put them in the wrong order in words? Are they clear in one-word sentences but longer sentences become mushier? These are questions we ask when we suspect a speech or phonological disorder.

Expressive language is how we communicate – talk, write, express opinions, advocate for self, put together sentences, use vocabulary and grammar, while receptive language is how we understand language – listen, read, follow directions, answer questions, understand people in a conversation. Children can have deficits in one or both areas at the same time, or one more than another.

Pragmatic language is how we use language socially with friends and family. Does your child have difficulties having social conversations with family or peers (sharing their thoughts, asking questions, staying on topic, listening to others)? Are jokes or figurative language (it’s raining cats and dogs, a piece of cake) hard to understand? Is greeting people, giving people compliments, sharing in games and turn taking with language difficult to accomplish? These skills fall under pragmatic language.

Early intervention is a treatment approach targeted at young learners (birth to three) that are at risk for speech-language difficulties or who have an identified speech-language disorder. The therapist works closely with the family to develop routines and language learning techniques in the homes to provide the most stimulating and supportive environment for their children to flourish based off that child’s own unique needs.

Before kiddos talk, they develop beginning language and cognitive skills that get them ready to communicate! These skills include using and understanding gestures (pointing, shaking head yes & no) enjoying and participating in social games (peak a boo, patty-cake) engaging in language rich activities (book reading, singing) achieving joint attention to focus on what mom/dad and others are communicating about and play skills that teach cause and effect, problem solving and so much more!

Even before children are formally taught how to read, there are skills they need so they're ready for that next step! Kids learn letters have sounds with them (the letter “m” makes the mmm sound). They learn and identify rhyming words, learn words are made up of syllables and how to identify them (butterfly – but/er/fly), learn how to change words by manipulating sounds (cat and hat are different by their first sound only). Plus more!

Learning how to play with words and sounds is not only beneficial for reading but also gives clues how to understand vocabulary, aids in writing and overall language development.

What if my child is not talking or was never able to talk? What other ways do humans communicate? Sign language, speech generating devices/tablets, picture communication boards, use of gestures/nonverbal communication are some alternative ways to support developing language skills and social interactions. These methods give your child a way to communicate  until/if verbal skills are consistent enough to be used on their own.

Sometimes I repeat words when I'm talking, is that normal? Absolutely! We all have occasional moments of "disfluency"; we repeat words, use words like "um" or use other sounds that make speech seem less rhythmic. But when these "bumpy" moments occur more frequently, disrupt or interfere with communication or make a person feel negatively about talking, this may be a disfluency disorder. There are a variety of techniques used to learn about, accept and change speech to make talking easier and more successful.