Speech Therapy
How will Creative Speech Therapy help my child be understood?
We know that when others have difficulty understanding your child’s speech, it is heartbreaking. As speech therapists, we target speech patterns instead of isolated speech sounds. This process is a faster and more effective style of therapy. We want your child to feel confident and independent as soon as possible.
A speech delay/disorder is clinically referred to as an articulation delay/disorder. Articulation involves the movement of the jaw, lips, tongue, velum, and cheeks to say specific sounds or types of sounds. An articulation delay often includes substitution of one sound for another. Children typically develop speech sounds in a specific order. For example, most children’s first sounds are “lip sounds”: p, b, m, w instead of complex tongue sounds: r, s, z.
An articulation delay occurs when the child is not acquiring the typically developing sounds within age appropriate expectations. This can be caused by several factors including structural issues (tongue tie), functional problems (chronic congestion causing mouth to rest in the open position) or learned behaviors. An articulation disorder occurs when the child is acquiring speech in an atypical way. Some examples are Apraxia and Stuttering. Research overwhelmingly shows that the earlier you intervene the more successful your child will be at resolving the speech or language issue.
We start with an evaluation
We will complete a thorough evaluation to determine the underlying cause of your child’s articulation delay or disorder. This includes:
- An in-depth examination of the structures of the mouth,
- Collection of a language sample and sound inventory,
- Complete investigation of background, medical history, and family history
- A formal articulation assessment
Once we determine the underlying cause of your child’s speech issue, we will formulate a customized plan with goals.
Then we treat your child with kid friendly and research based interventions
We will then treat your child using hand selected, kid friendly, and research based interventions. We also teach you how to promote better speech clarity with your child at home. Depending on the cause, we implement the following techniques as appropriate:
- PROMPT
- Kaufman Apraxia Program
- Oral Motor/Placement Therapy
- Tethered Oral Tissue Treatment
- R Distortion Therapy
- Lisp Reduction
- Phonological Processing Therapy
- Drooling therapy
- Open mouth breathing therapy (open mouth breathing can cause snoring)
