Speech Therapy

Being able to communicate our thoughts and ideas to others, and to understand theirs in return, is vital to our everyday lives. So much of life hinges on the ability to effectively communicate; for example, ordering in a restaurant, reading a newspaper or a recipe, understanding directions, making friends, asking for information, and filling out an application, to name a few. To have this process of communication disrupted can have devastating effects.

For more information on our Speech Therapy programs, click a topic:

Articulation therapy

Articulation therapy refers to what most people think of as speech therapy, and that is correcting how people say their words.

These are examples of typical development:

* 12-18 months old

*18-24 months old

*24-30 months old

*30-36 months old

*36-42 months old

*42-48 months old

*5 years old

Auditory Processing

Auditory Processing refers to the ability of our brain to process what we hear when our hearing is intact. Children who experience auditory processing disorder will often exhibit some of the following behaviors.

Barton Reading & Spelling System

The Barton Reading & Spelling System is a one-on-one training system that has been documented by research to greatly improve the spelling, reading, and writing skills of children, teenagers and adults who struggle due to dyslexia or a learning disability. It takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the teaching of reading, which has been shown to be effective for individuals diagnosed with dyslexia.

For more information visit www.BartonReading.com

Earobics

Earobics is a computer program that is based on 20 years of literacy research. It systematically teaches the critical phonological awareness, listening and introductory phonics skills required for learning to read and spell. The Earobics software provides explicit, comprehensive phonological awareness and auditory processing training for the prevention and remediation of reading and other language-based disabilities

Feeding

"Picky eating is a normal part of childhood development. Approximately 50 percent of children aged eighteen to twenty-three months are identified as picky eaters." (Elizabeth Strickland, Eating for Autism, 2008, p. 61.) Problem feeding is more complicated than picky eating and is not a normal part of childhood development. Children who are problem feeders have problems with food consumption that may be severe enough to interfere with normal weight gain and growth.

Certain diagnoses or medical conditions increase the likelihood that a child will have a feeding problem. Some causes of feeding problems in children are:

1. breathing problems
2. cleft lip or palate
3. developmental disorders, like Autism or Down Syndrome
4. gastrointestinal problems, like reflux
5. heart problems
6. premature birth and low birth weight
7. problems with the nervous system from cerebral palsy or other disorders

Feeding therapy helps children who have:

1. a limited variety of tastes and textures in diet
2. low volume of oral intake or food refusal
3. maladaptive behaviors associated with eating
4. poor weight gain
5. power struggles associated with eating during mealtimes

Interactive Metronome

The Interactive Metronome (IM) program is used with children as well as adults who have diagnoses of ADD, ADHD, learning disability, and developmental disorder. Individuals with neurological and motor impairments, such as traumatic brain injury, stroke, Parkinson's, dysfunction of sensory integration, and balance disorders may also benefit from this program. Additionally, IM has proven effective when used for training athletes to improve timing, physical endurance and stamina.

Interactive Metronome provides a structured, goal-oriented process that challenges the individual to synchronize a range of hand and foot exercises with a computer-generated reference tone heard through headphones. The individual attempts to match the rhythmic beat with repetitive motor actions.
IM's impact on neurological recovery focuses on improving the brain's ability to perform two critical functions: motor planning and sequencing. Motor planning and sequencing are central to human activity – from the coordinated movements needed to walk or climb stairs, to the correct order of words for forming a sentence. IM improves those human capacities by strengthening a person's sensory-motor synchronization, commonly referred to as "timing."

Over the course of treatment, clients learn to:

Language Therapy

The term "language ability" may be thought of as an umbrella term for the various components of verbal communication: receptive language, expressive language, pragmatics, and written language.

The ability to understand and process what others say, to follow verbal directions and commands, and to understand higher level language (i.e. humor, idioms, figurative language) fall within the parameters of receptive language ability. A receptive language disorder may be considered a type of learning disability affecting the ability to understand spoken, and sometimes written, language. Students with a receptive language disorder often have difficulty with speech and organizing their thoughts, which creates problems in communicating verbally with others and in written expression, organizing their thoughts on paper.

The ability to put our thoughts and ideas into grammatically-correct words and sentences is considered expressive language ability. Individuals with an express language disorder often do not talk much or often, although they generally understand spoken language addressed to them. Imaginative play and social uses of language (pragmatics) may also be impaired by expressive language limitations, causing difficulty in playing with peers. These are children who may have a lot to say, but are unable to retrieve the words they need. Some children may have no problem in simple expression, but have difficulty retrieving and organizing words and sentences when expressing more complicated thoughts and ideas. This may occur when they are trying to describe, define, or explain information, or retell an event or activity.

Pragmatic language ability is one's understanding and use of the "unspoken rules" of language for engaging others in conversations. An individual with pragmatic problems may: say inappropriate or unrelated things during conversations, tell stories in a disorganized way, have little variety in their language use, and demonstrate the inability to read facial expressions or body language of others. Pragmatic disorders often coexist with other language problems such as vocabulary development or grammar.

Taken from: www.asha.org and www.childspeech.net

Stuttering

Stuttering is a communication disorder in which the flow of speech is interrupted. These are considered moments of stuttering and may be characterized by repetitions (mi-mi-mine), prolongations (mmmmine), or inappropriate stopping of the air or voice (no sound) of sounds and syllables. Unusual facial and body movements may also be associated with the effort to speak.

Go to these websites for more information:
www.nsastutter.org/
www.stutteringhelp.org/

S.O.S. Feeding Approach

The S.O.S. Feeding Program is a developmental approach to feeding designed to assess and address all the factors involved in feeding difficulties, such as dysfunction of the oral mechanism, feeding aversion, sensory issues related to eating, positioning, and environmental factors. It focuses on teaching a child the basic rules of eating through exploring different properties of foods, including texture, smell, taste and consistency. The S.O.S. approach allows a child to interact with food in a playful, non-stressful way.

Following a hierarchy to feeding, the S.O.S. approach starts with tolerating foods in the room and progresses to interacting with the food, smelling, touching, tasting and, eventually, eating the food. Parent education and involvement is an essential part of this feeding approach. Parents may watch feeding sessions to identify and learn their child's body language in order to carry this approach over to the home environment