Speech-Language Therapy

Speech-Language Therapy helps children develop communication skills, including articulation, verbal comprehension, expression, auditory processing, phonological awareness, pragmatics, voice, and fluency.

Speech therapy also addresses oral-motor and feeding skills, as well as augmentative and alternative communication.

Speech-Language Therapy Targets:

• Articulation - producing words correctly.
  Substituting, distorting, or omitting sounds
  
  
• Auditory Processing - the brain's ability to process what is heard.
  Difficulty following directions and listening and an inability to recall words.
  
  
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication - supplementing speech with gestures, picture symbols, or voice-output devices or computers.
  Lack of speech or limited ability to speak.
  
  
• Cognition - ability to focus, process, and remember information.
  Taking several minutes to respond, and quickly forgetting information.
  
  
• Fluency - the rhythm and flow of speech.
  Stuttering or abnormal rate of speech.
  
  
• Language Comprehension - understanding spoken and written language.
  Difficulty following directions and understanding concepts such as color, shape, opposite, and poor vocabulary.
  
  
• Language Expression - the production of spoken and written communication.
  Difficulty developing single words, combining words, and poor sentence structure.
  
  
• Oral-Motor/Feeding Skills - sucking, swallowing, chewing, and biting.
  Facial weakness, drooling, coughing, choking, gagging, and refusing certain foods.
  
  
• Pragmatic Language - appropriate communication in social situations.
  Inappropriate body language, eye contact, or responses in social situations.
  
  
• Voice - using appropriate pitch, loudness, and voice quality.
  Abnormal pitch, volume, or quality of voice.