Successful communication involves the ability to hear a message, process the information, formulate a response, initiate and motor plan a response verbally in a socially appropriate manner. Breakdowns can occur in any of these areas.Our licensed speech and language pathologists are highly trained to work with children of all abilities. Our specialties include children with Autism, Apraxia of speech, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and ADHD. We perform thorough evaluations and develop individualized treatment plans to address the child’s specific needs in receptive/expressive language, phonological, fluency, and feeding disorders.
Areas of Treatment
Language
• Expressive language – the ability to use language to communicate
• Receptive language – the ability to comprehend and process language
• Pragmatic language – the use of social skills and ability to interpret nonverbal cues
Augmentative/Alternative Communication – The use of alternative devices to facilitate communication. These may include sign language, pictures, PECS, switches, iPads and other communication devices.
Oral Motor – Strength and function of oral structures and motor plans for coordinating movements for production of speech.
Articulation – Precise production of sounds for intelligible speech.
Feeding/Swallowing – Specifically the oral phase of swallow including size, texture, temperature, and taste of bolus, drooling and gagging, sensory issues, bolus management, and muscle functions during swallow.
Cognition – Attention, focus, memory, problem solving and executive function
Phonology – Understanding sound symbol relationships
Literacy – Reading, writing and understanding printed language
The speech pathologists at Fun Kids Clinic have training, experience and hold certifications in a variety of treatment approaches including aural rehabilitation.
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Hanen
Lindamood-Bell
Acoustic Pioneer
M.O.R.E.
Orofacial Therapy/Reverse Swallow
Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT)
Talk Tools / Oral Placement Therapy
Oral Motor & Feeding
Hanen Programs are designed to empower parents and caregivers to foster the early language and social communication development of young children. “Train the trainer” thru workshops and evidence based resources to help providers in their work with families and child care providers. Programs include:
Learning Language and Loving It
It Takes Two to Talk
More than Words
Instructional programs designed to strengthen reading, comprehension, and math skills by developing the sensory-cognitive functions that form the foundation of learning. Some of the Lindamood-Bell programs that our therapists have been trained include: Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing.
Feather Squadron is an iPad app that can quickly screen or perform thorough and accurate measurements of auditory processing abilities by playing a series of video games. Zoo Caper is a game designed to incrementally improve dichotic listening skills. Several studies indicate significant correlations between poor dichotic performance and other learning and reading difficulties. Insane Earplane is an easy to learn flying game designed to improve a variety of tonal listening and processing skills. Tonal Pattern Memory has been shown in many studies over the years to be a strong auditory processing area correlating to reading abilities.
M.O.R.E. is an acronym for Motor components, Oral organization, Respiratory demands, and Eye contact and control, and focuses on the Suck-Swallow-Breathe synchrony. Elements of toys and items can be used to facilitate integration of the mouth with sensory and postural development, as well as self-regulation and attention. Use of the M.O.R.E. techniques can be used in the treatment of both sensorimotor and speech-language problems.
Orofacial Therapy/Reverse Swallow (also commonly known as “Tongue Thrust”) addresses improper function of the tongue and facial muscles used at rest, during chewing, and for swallowing. The therapy is designed to retrain muscle function patterns and maintain them by retraining neural memory patterns in the brain. During the day we swallow 500-1000 times, so it is easy to see how an improper swallow can cause multiple problems for example: Disrupting dentition eruption patterns and teeth alignment, causing a frontal lisp in speech production, and create TMJ problems/headaches. Children as young as 8 years can follow the directives to correct a tongue thrust. Younger children (as young as 4 years) can be evaluated and preventative exercises may be in order. Therapy is short-term of approximately three months with follow-up visits as needed. Some typical behaviors associated with tongue thrust are habitual chewing on pencils, clothing, fingernails; sucking thumbs, fingers, tongue or lower lip; drinking large amounts of liquid with meals to wash down the food; frequent mouth wiping as food and liquid are pushed forward; and chronic mouth breathing.
PROMPT was founded by Deborah Hayden over 30 years ago. PROMPT addresses communication breakdown across multiple domains such as: cognitive, social, pragmatic, behavioral, sensory-motor and physical (philosophy). This technique provides a systematic way to investigate various modalities such as: auditory, visual and tactile (approach). PROMPT helps plan and organize the direction and treatment needed for the specific speech delay (system). PROMPT uses 4 levels of tactile cues to provide feedback to the speech system (technique). PROMPT has been used with phonological, developmentally delayed, dysarthric, dyspraxic, hearing-impaired, autistic spectrum and fluency disorders.
TALK TOOLS® was founded by Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson to expand the sharing of expertise among practitioners treating those with speech, oral, and feeding disorders. The agency fosters programs, tools, and training to assist therapists in offering better care for their clients with innovative products and techniques. Sara’s hierarchal, muscle based and tactile-sensory approaches developed with years of experience utilize oral motor therapy tools to train and transition muscle movements for speech production and feeding.
We use components of several different programs for oral-motor/swallowing difficulties. These include but are not limited to: Talk Tools, SOS, myofunctional therapy, tongue thrust or reverse swallow therapy programs.
Successful communication involves the ability to hear a message, process the information, formulate a response, initiate and motor plan a response verbally in a socially appropriate manner. Breakdowns can occur in any of these areas.Our licensed speech and language pathologists are highly trained to work with children of all abilities. Our specialties include children with Autism, Apraxia of speech, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and ADHD. We perform thorough evaluations and develop individualized treatment plans to address the child’s specific needs in receptive/expressive language, phonological, fluency, and feeding disorders.