Pediatric Speech Therapy

What is Pediatric Speech Therapy?

Pediatric speech therapy is a specialized service focusing on providing assessments and treatment to children, adolescents, and teens with speech, language, cognitive-communication, and oral/feeding/swallowing deficits. Additionally, pediatric speech therapy focuses on addressing various types of communication problems (articulation, fluency, voice, receptive and expressive language disorders) to help develop the skills required for successful communication and swallowing.

What do we do?

Speech language pathologists (SLPs) assess children to effectively treat them for speech, language, feeding, and swallowing disorders via thorough evaluations to ensure that each child’s needs are identified. Treatment consists of therapy sessions in a relaxed and playful atmosphere.

• Are you unsure if speech therapy is right for your child? Schedule an appointment for a free speech screening.
• Does your child cough and/or choke when eating or drinking, have a wet sounding voice when eating or drinking, or suffer from frequent respiratory infections? Ask your doctor if a Modified Barium Swallow Evaluation is right for your child.

How do we help?

Strategies tailored for each child’s particular challenge might include:

• Language intervention activities: These activities include modeling and giving kids feedback, with the use of pictures and books, play-based therapy, or language drills to practice skills.
• Articulation therapy: The SLP models the sounds the child has difficulty with. This might include demonstrating how to move the tongue to create specific sounds.
• Feeding and swallowing therapy: The SLP teaches the child exercises to strengthen the muscles of the mouth. This might include facial massage; tongue, lip and jaw exercises; and the use different food textures to encourage awareness during eating and swallowing.

How can speech and language development be encouraged?

We place a strong emphasis on parental education to ensure that successful carryover is completed into the home environment.You can help your child with their speech and language development with various activities, including:

• Play, talk, sing, and encourage imitation of sounds and gestures
• Use playgroups and everyday activities to encourage speech and language development
• Read to your child everyday
• Introduce new vocabulary that is meaningful and fun via songs, routines, or play
• Speak directly to your child and give them time to respond; avoid completing their sentences for them
• Use good eye contact and express and interest in wanting to listen to your child
• Play with sounds and rhyming
• Encourage your child to ask questions and show them ways to answer questions
• Praise your child for communication efforts