School Age Speech Services

Augmentative and Alternative Communication is utilized with individuals that are late-talking or have a diagnosis that interferes with expressive language. Signs that this might be the service for someone in your family: limited expressive language and lack of conversational turn-taking. This form of communication might be used all of the time for an individual to communicate wants/needs, other times it may be a support tool to help verbal language emerge. Types of AAC include:

• Gestures
• Sign Language
• iPad
• Pictures
• Devices

Fluency Disorders are characterized by interruptions in an individual's speaking. These disruptions could be found in the rate/rhythm of speech or with disfluencies (i.e. repetitions of sounds, syllables, words, phrases; prolongations; interjections; blocks). Secondary behaviors of a fluency disorder may also be excessive tension, speaking avoidance, and little to no awareness/acceptance. Signs an individual may have a fluency disorder:

• sound repetitions (i.e. "m-m-m-m-my dog")
• syllable repetitions (i.e. "be-be-be-because it's blue")
• whole-word repetitions (i.e. "What-what-what-what did he say?"
• prolongations (i.e. "Sssssssee that dog")
• interjections (i.e. "like" and "um")
• blocks (i.e. difficulty initiating sounds/words)
• rapid rate of speech
• external body movements

Language Disorders can come in two different forms: receptive or expressive difficulties. Some individuals might combine these two as well. Those that speak multiple languages may exhibit these signs, however that doesn't mean they have a disorder. Signs an individual might have a language disorder include:

Expressive: difficulty expressing language

• difficulty asking/answering WH questions
• word-finding difficulties
• inclusion of many filler words (i.e. "like" and "um")
• trouble with categories and items that might be included in those categories
• grammar errors
• difficulty with labeling objects
• little to no comments during conversation

Receptive: difficulty understanding language

• difficulty paraphrasing information provided to them
• difficulty following directions
• difficulty answering WH questions
• lack of comprehension of information given to them verbally or visually
• identifying pictures/objects

Pediatric Feeding relates to a child's oral intake of nutrition and enjoyment of mealtime itself. When a child has difficulty with swallowing and/or eating a variety of foods, mealtime can be stressful for everyone involved. Signs your child may have a feeding disorder:

• difficult for an infant to suck on a breast/nipple
• lack of nutrition and/or oral intake
• lack of focus during mealtime causing feedings/mealtimes to be longer than 30 minutes
• vomiting in infants or children
• loss of food/liquid coming from the mouth or nose
• refusing certain food types or textures
• only eating certain brands
• coughing or gagging while swallowing
• crying during meal times
• difficulty with the oral stages (insertion of food, chewing, swallowing)
• frequent congestion, especially after meals
• pocketing food and/ or only taking small amount of food at a time
• back arching

Social Communication Skills (aka Social Skills) are the communication skills one might use on a daily basis in general conversation with peers or understanding nonverbals of an individual. These can be defined as pragmatics ('rules' of conversation). Signs an individual might have social communication difficulties include:

• inappropriately responding to questions or sharing stories
• difficulty staying on topic
• using the same language for every individual (i.e. parent, teacher, peer)
• difficulty with verbal turn-taking
• using limited language (i.e. greetings)
• difficulty understanding social situations
• difficulty expanding language when a topic is unknown
• limited question/answer production during a conversation

*This service is currently provided one-on-one or in a group setting. When reaching out, please specify what type of therapy you would be looking for. As of now, group teletherapy sessions will be limited to 4 individuals.

Speech Sound Disorders can be phonological or articulatory, typically found in children or sometimes those diagnosed with aphasia. These disorders are individuals that have difficulty producing speech sounds in isolation or conversation. An individual with a phonological disorder will have difficulty with multiple sounds in the same group, these will be more predictable. An individual with an articulatory disorder will have difficulty with specific speech sounds that won't follow a pattern, they may have substitutions or distortions of a sound. Signs your child may have a speech sound disorder:

• deletion of sounds in words (i.e. "ow" for "cow" and "no" for "snow")
• subtitutions (i.e. "wed" for "red" and "tink" for "think")
• additions (i.e. "cutup" for "cup")
• distortions (i.e. lateral lisp)
• syllable deletion (i.e. "favit" or "favorite")