Articulation

An Articulation Disorder is a problem with the production of speech sounds due to incorrect placement, timing, pressure, speed and/or coordination of articulators (lips, tongue, teeth, jaw, velum). Children who have articulation disorders may be difficult to understand.

Our therapists target articulation disorders in a very systematic method that involves visual, verbal, and tactile reinforcement. 

View the Sound Development Chart here.

Phonological Disorders

There are a variety of patterns of errors, called phonological processes, such as fronting, backing, stopping, and gliding.  Some of these processes are normal at young ages but should be outgrown by a certain age, while other processes are only heard in the speech of a child with a phonological disorder. Children with a phonological disorder know how to make the sounds correctly, but they use the sounds in the wrong places in words such as, (fat becomes pat) or they omit the sound completely (boot becomes boo-). 

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a deficit in the ability to plan the motor movements for speech and is considered an oral motor planning disorder. Children with CAS have difficulties transmitting the speech message from their brain to their mouths.  If the signals sent by the brain are not transmitted correctly or are disrupted, proper speech is difficult to achieve. A diagnosis of CAS involves consonant and vowel distortions, distorted sound substitutions, errors consistent in type and place, and prosodic errors (prosody refers to pitch, rate, and rhythmic features of speech). Some other behaviors seen in CAS include groping, perseverative errors, and increasing errors as the length of utterance increases. Children with CAS may have normal receptive language skills despite their difficulty with expressive language skills (speech). 

Voice Disorders 

Voice Disorders are characterized by the abnormal production and/or absence of vocal quality, pitch, loudness, resonance, and/or duration. A child who presents with voice quality (hoarseness), pitch or loudness issues should receive a thorough assessment from an ENT (Ears Nose and Throat) doctor.  An ENT often refers children with voice disorders for speech therapy.

Expressive Language Disorder

Expressive language includes the words in our vocabulary and how we put those words together to communicate by talking, writing, and gesturing.

Expressive language is words or other forms of communication such as gestures, pictures, or sign-language. Our therapists target a variety of language skills including, grammar, written expression, and social skills/pragmatics.

Receptive Language Disorder

Receptive language forms the foundation of language from which expressive language develops. Receptive language is spoken or written messages a person understands such as, following routine requests and pointing to familiar objects. Typically receptive language skills precede expressive language skills.

Central Auditory Processing Disorder

Refers to how the central nervous system uses auditory information or what happens when the brain recognizes and interprets sound. Most individuals hear information that is easily transferred and interpreted by the brain. Children with CAPD often do not recognize or process subtle changes between sounds in words, even though the sounds are very distinct. For example, they may hear “hair” for “chair.” These kinds of problems are often more common in noisy environments or when listening to complex information. CAPD is diagnosed by an audiologist and treatment is administered by a Speech-Language Pathologist. 

Pragmatics/Social Language

Pragmatics refers to the use of social language. Skills such as, turn-taking, initiating conversation, eye contact, attention, and problem-solving, greeting, protesting, and understanding personal space. Children with pragmatic disorders often have difficulty with vocabulary and syntax development as well.

Pre-Linguistic Delays

These skills are often targeted with younger children, such as eye contact, joint attention, gestures of the face and mouth, babbling, sound imitation, and nonverbal communication skills. These skills typically develop prior to verbal communication.

Speech and Language Delay

When a child’s speech and language skills are delayed when compared to the norms. 

Click here to see when Speech Sounds typically Develop. We use the Goldman-Fristoe to test articulation to determine if a child has a speech disorder. 

Stuttering

Stuttering is a fluency disorder. Fluency refers to the smooth flow of connected speech when communicating. Stuttering is often evidenced by stopping, repeating, prolonging sounds or words, and adding unnecessary words (umm, uh, hum). Our therapists use a variety of techniques to reduce stuttering and promote relaxation.

Dysphagia

This refers treatment provided for children or adults who are experiencing difficulty during the swallowing process. Speech-Language Pathologists develop individualized compensatory strategies for safe hydration and nutrition. Visit Feeding Milestones.