Specialty Areas
Early Language Development
(12 months +)
Focusing on early communication development and foundational skills for play and social skills. Parent-coaching is always implemented to encourage carryover of skills in the home and outside the therapy room. Some areas that are targeted include: turn-taking, joint attention, play skills, imitation skills, understanding early words and instructions, using actions and gestures, saying words, making choices.
Autism / NLA
(Natural Language Acquisition)
Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) is a framework to support children through gestalt language development. *Most* autistic children develop language this way and some neurotypical children do as well. Gestalt language processors (GLPs) begin learning language with longer chunks of language or intonationally defined strings of language (gestalts or scripts) rather than starting with single words. Some GLPs need support to move through the NLA stages of language development to reach self-generated, original, and flexible language.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder in which a child's brain has difficulty coordinating the movements required for speech. The problem is getting the messages for speech movements from the brain to the mouth. These children may not be able to move their lips or tongue in the right ways, even though the muscles are not weak. Some of these children may not be able to say much at all.
Phonological Disorder
Phonological disorders a type of speech sound disorder in which a child uses developmental patterns for simplified speech production (e.g., fronting, stopping, final consonant deletion). These children may omit, substitute, or simplify speech sounds. It is developmentally appropriate for children to use specific phonological processes in the early years, however, these error patterns are expected to disappear at certain ages. Often, prolonged use of these sound error patterns will make it difficult for these children to be understood and they may need support to learn the linguistic rules for accurate speech sound use.
Expressive & Receptive Language Disorders
An expressive language disorder is one in which a child has difficulty communicating or getting their messages across to other people - both verbally and nonverbally (actions, gestures, signs, etc.).
A receptive language disorder is one in which a child has difficulty understanding and processing language and information they receive from others. Some children have a mixed receptive-expressive language disorder in which they have symptoms of both types of disorders.