Services

• Speech Sound Disorder/Articulation Services:

A speech sound disorder occurs when mistakes continue past a certain age. Each sound has a different range of ages when the child should have it mastered. Speech sound disorders include problems with articulation (making sounds) and phonological processes (sound patterns).  Treatment is designed to improve articulation of individual sounds or reduce errors in production of sound patterns. This classification also includes the medical diagnosis of a tongue thrust disorder that affects the production of s, z, sh, ch, and j sounds.

• Apraxia of Speech Treatment Services

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words. This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis. Rather, the brain has problems planning to move the body parts (e.g., lips, jaw, tongue) needed for speech. The child knows what he or she wants to say, but his/her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words.

• Cluttering/Stuttering Therapy

Stuttered speech often includes repetitions of words or parts of words, as well as prolongations of speech sounds. These disfluencies occur more often in persons who stutter than they do in the general population. Some people who stutter appear very tense or "out of breath" when talking. Speech may become completely stopped or blocked. Interjections such as "um" or "like" can occur as well, particularly when they contain repeated ("u-um-um") or prolonged ("uummm") speech sounds, or when they are used intentionally to delay the initiation of a word the speaker expects to "get stuck on." Disfluencies often stand out and disrupt a person's communication. Listeners can usually detect when a person is stuttering. At the same time, however, stuttering can affect more than just a person's observable speech. Some characteristics of stuttered speech are not as easy for listeners to detect. As a result, diagnosing stuttering requires the skills of a certified Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). The treatment program is designed to help the individual speak more fluently, communicate more effectively, and participate more fully in life activities. These services are designed to help children between the ages of 3-18 manage fluency errors every day through the use of techniques learned in our sessions.  

• Cleft Palate/Articulation/Resonance Therapy

Resonance disorder does not respond to traditional speech treatment techniques. Resonance is the quality of the voice that is determined by the balance of sound vibration in the oral, nasal, and pharyngeal cavities during speech. Abnormal resonance can occur if there is obstruction in one of the cavities, causing hyponasality, or if there is velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD), causing hypernasality and/or nasal emission. Normal velopharyngeal function results in normal oral resonance, adequate intra-oral air pressure for consonant production, and sufficient breath support for normal utterance length. Velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) is when there is an anatomical or structural defect, such as a short velum following cleft palate repair, a submucous cleft, or a deep pharynx secondary to cranial base anomalies. As such, related articulation disorders cannot be treated with prosthetics or surgery.

• Language-based learning disabilities

Language-based learning disabilities are problems with age-appropriate reading, spelling, and/or writing. This disorder is not about how smart a person is. Most people diagnosed with learning disabilities have average to superior intelligence. These services are designed to help children prepare for reading by mastering the foundational level of processing sounds and words. It is also mastering the concepts of rhyming, syllables, and in listening to the details auditorally presented in speech with another person. These problems may also include difficulty with the following: expressing ideas clearly, as if the words needed are on the tip of the tongue but won't come out; saying things that are vague and difficult to understand (e.g., using unspecific vocabulary, such as "thing" or "stuff" to replace words that cannot be remembered); using filler words like "um" to take up time while the child tries to remember a word; learning new vocabulary that the child hears and/or sees (e.g., in books); understanding questions and following directions that are heard and/or read; and Identifying the sounds that correspond to letters, making learning to read difficult.

• Central Auditory Processing Therapy

Central auditory processing disorders (CAPD) are deficits in the information processing of audible signals not attributed to impaired hearing or intellectual impairment. This information processing involves perceptual, cognitive, and linguistic functions that, with appropriate interaction, result in effective receptive communication of auditorily presented stimuli. CAPD may affect language learning and language use as well as cognitive language processing areas (e.g., attention, memory, problem solving, and literacy). Specifically, CAPD refers to limitations in analysis, organization, transformation, elaboration, storage, retrieval, and use of information contained in audible signals.

Licensed Speech Language Pathologist—M.E./CCC-SLP.