Areas Of Expertise
“ Understanding the individual child, the family dynamics, and school setting allows greatest access to each child's capacity to grow as a successful communicator.”
- Janice Loeb
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Oral Motor Therapy helps develop correct movements for speech, improve breathing patterns for speech, muscle development for oral rest posture, and muscle control. A variety of exercises are provided and tailored to the individual’s need improve their oral motor skills.
An Oral Motor/Articulation assessment identifies the specific age level speech sound patterns produced by the individual including sound error patterns that impact on the individual’s ability to be understood. An Articulation evaluation, performed together with an Oral Motor assessment determines the relationship of oral motor skills to production of speech sound production and helps the Speech language therapist develop a personalized treatment plan for the individual.
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Speech production and articulation refers to the speech sound patterns produced by the child including sound error patterns that impact the individual’s ability to be understood. An articulation assessment, performed together with an Oral Motor assessment, determines the relationship of oral motor skills to production of speech sound production and helps the speech language therapist (SLT) develop a personalized treatment plan for the child.
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Executive function therapy is integrated into Speech and language goals to support an individual’s ability to plan, organize, initiate, self-monitor and develop and use flexible thinking skills for language comprehension, self- expression and social interaction in all modalities such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. SLPs can use various strategies to target executive function skills within speech therapy, such as visual aids, prompts, explicit instruction on problem-solving steps, role-playing scenarios, and practicing self-talk to support self-regulation. A diagnosis of Executive functioning disorder is made by a Neuropsychologist and not a Speech language therapist.
Executive function disorder refers to a set of cognitive difficulties related to planning, organizing, initiating tasks, self-monitoring, and flexible thinking, which can significantly impact communication abilities, making it relevant to the field of speech-language pathology (SLP) as individuals with such disorders may struggle with aspects of language expression, comprehension, and social interaction due to their executive function challenges; SLPs can work on improving these skills through targeted interventions focusing on areas like problem-solving, sequencing, and self-regulation.
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Receptive language evaluation is an assessment that measures a person's ability to understand spoken language. It can identify an individual’s ability for comprehension of words, sentences, and instructions and how well a person can “receive" and interpret language communicated to them for success is a variety of environments such as home, school and the general living environment. The assessment can identify potential difficulties including hearing loss (through an audiological evaluation performed by an Audiologist) and auditory processing challenges in understanding language. The Receptive language evaluation is key for developing intervention goals and strategies.
The Expressive language evaluation examines aspects of language such as vocabulary usage (lexicon), grammar structure, sentence complexity, and overall fluency. It is typically conducted by a speech-language pathologist through standardized tests, observation, and interaction with the individual to identify potential strengths and to set goals for improving challenges in their expressive language skills. Key aspects assessed include age-appropriate Vocabulary, Grammar, Sentence Structure, Word modification (Morphology), and Social/Pragmatic Language use.
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Social/Pragmatic language is the ability to use language appropriately in social situations while considering the context, social cues and the intended meaning behind words to effectively communicate with others.
To support age level development for successful social interaction, Social/Pragmatic language therapy provides support for the development of confidence and self-esteem in communicating with others. The therapy process includes work either individually with a Speech language therapist and/or in a Social/Pragmatic group where skills are put into play in real time with peers using age-appropriate engaging activities.
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Voice therapy is sought to protect and establish vocal function at its highest capacity through vocal hygiene and vocal behavior goals.
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Stuttering, also known as dysfluency, is a speech disorder characterized by involuntary disruptions in the flow of speech. Some examples of disruptions of speech include Repeating sounds, syllables, or words (e.g., "s-s-say it again") or repetitions, holding a sound for an extended period (e.g., "sssssay") or prolongations, pauses or stops in speech (e.g., "I-I-I want to go") or blocks as well as interjections such as ("um", "uh"), revisions ("I mean, like"), and circumlocutions (avoiding certain words).
Stuttering can vary in severity and frequency and may be accompanied by physical movements or emotional distress. It is typically a childhood-onset disorder but can persist into adulthood.
A Stuttering/Fluency assessment is initially performed to make a differential diagnosis as to whether the speech pattern is within the range of normal stuttering or if, in fact, it is an involuntary motor planning concern. The evaluation takes into account stuttering-related background information, speech and language skills, and individual’s temperament as, for instance, under what conditions speech fluency and stuttering behavior arise, the speaker's reactions to stuttering, the impact of reactions to stuttering of those in the speaker's environment, and the socio-emotional adverse impact that may be associated with stuttering.
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As a partner in supporting reading comprehension for beginners through young adults, tailored strategies are formulated to facilitate the successful acquisition of essential elements, including vocabulary acquisition, sentence construction, identifying key ideas, and comprehension of inferences. The goal is to have students become readers and writers for life.
As students become confident readers, they develop a critical eye for content and an affection for books as companions that help them build momentum for intellectual independence. They come to connect their "book learning" with both personal and social gains through text exploration and lifelong "page turning" for enjoyment. A deeper grasp of text content informs and inspires their own writing process.writing process inspired by their deeper grasp of texts read.