First, we will complete a thorough evaluation to determine the underlying cause of your child’s language delay or disorder. We will also determine whether your child has a delay or disorder using formal and informal assessments. We will then implement a variety of techniques to determine the best course of action for your child. 

Once we determine the underlying cause and the best course of action, we will formulate a plan with goals to address the root cause.

Depending on the cause, we implement the following techniques as appropriate:

• Hanen Program for Language Development
• Social Thinking Language Therapy 
• Visualizing and Verbalizing
• Traditional language therapy

Finally, we will treat your child using kid friendly and research based interventions. We also teach you how to interact with your child in a way that builds language skills at home. 

There are two types of language. Receptive language is your child’s ability to understand language. We measure receptive language as your child’s ability to follow directions, complete routines, and answer questions. The second type is expressive language and that is your child’s ability to put thoughts into words and sentences that are grammatically correct. Expressive language is measured by your child’s ability to communicate using topic specific vocabulary and combine words into phrases and sentences. Children can have a language delay in receptive, expressive, or both types of language. 

 A language delay occurs when a child is going through the developmental steps of acquiring language, but is exhibiting a slower onset of language skills. We identify a language delay by comparing your child’s language skills to developmental milestones. Using this method, we can determine the gap between your child’s language skills and same aged peers. The goal of language delay therapy it  to close that gap between a child’s level of functioning and that of same aged peers. 

A language disorder is a language difference. A language disorder occurs when a child continues to demonstrate difficulties acquiring and using language by preschool or school age. It also occurs when a child is not acquiring language correctly  and when this difficulty is not explained by other factors such as IQ, sensory impairments, or autism spectrum disorder. Some examples of language disorders include Apraxia and Stuttering. The goal of this type of language therapy is child specific by determining the underlying cause of the disorder and treating the cause using a variety of techniques.