Services Include evaluating and treating disorders of:
As well as the use of augmentative and alternative communication systems e.g. sign language, gesture systems, communication boards, electronic devices, and mechanical devices.
Expressive Language
The use of words and gestures to communicate to others.
Receptive Language
Understanding words and gestures of others.
Play skills
The ability to play and problem solve with toys and same-aged peers.
Pragmatics
Social use of language. Children who struggle with pragmatics may need help learning how to use language, understanding how language changes based on listener or setting, and following rules of conversation or storytelling.
Fluency
Refers to the continuity, smoothness, rate, and effort of speech production. Everyone has disfluencies in their speech. However, sometimes childen show abnormal difficulty with one or more of these areas and need help developing strategies.
Articulation
Producing speech sounds, and ultimately words and sentences, using motor movements of the jaw, lips, and tongue.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
A motor speech disorder that makes it hard to speak. Children often understand language and know what they want to say but have difficulty with the complex movement needed for intelligible speech.
Auditory Processing
Ability to understand speech. With Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), the way the brain translates those sounds is disrupted, resulting in jumbled messages.
Aural Rehabilitation/Hearing
Children who experience hearing loss may need help learning how to listen, make sounds, or how to get their needs and wants met. Hearing and speech are heavily connected.
Augmentative/Alternative communication
The communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments.