inter Pediatric Therapy services offer a variety of assessment and intervention protocols for children and adolescents with communication disorders.  The following are just some of the areas our experienced Speech-Language Pathologists address:

• Pre-Language Skills: This refers to eye contact, gestural communication, facial expression, babbling/sound imitation and other nonverbal communication methods that emerge before verbal communication. 

• Oral Motor Skills: This refers to the strength and coordination of facial and mouth muscles for speech and feeding. Children with oral motor disorders may exhibit drooling, poor control of food while eating, and unclear speech.

• Feeding/ Swallowing: Children with feeding and swallowing disorders may exhibit symptoms such as: loss of food/liquid may falling from mouth, difficulty chewing, difficulty sucking from a bottle/breast or straw, strong aversions to certain textures or flavors or even refusal to consume a variety of foods.

• Articulation: This refers to the speech production of all the sounds within a language.  Children acquire speech sounds along a developmental continuum, with certain sounds being acquired as late as age 8.  When a child has difficulty producing specific sounds it can greatly affect his/her speech intelligibility and lead to frustration from being not understood.

• Language: Language is broken down into two components: Receptive and Expressive.  Receptive language refers to the child’s understanding of what is said to him/her.  Receptive language generally precedes expressive language. Expressive language refers to the words and gestures that a child uses.

• Pragmatics: This refers to social language.  Children who have difficulty with pragmatics may exhibit inappropriate behavior or inappropriate responses to others’ questions or directions.  They may have difficulty taking turns, making eye contact, playing well with others, or following indirect requests.

• Cognition: Cognition covers thinking skills such as memory, organization, planning, and problem solving.  Cognitive skills are important for academic success.  Cognitive deficits may result from brain trauma, developmental delay, and various diagnoses.

Early intervention is key to providing children with the best possible therapeutic outcome.  If you have any concerns regarding your child’s speech and language development it is important to act now.  Call the clinic for a free phone consultation with one of our Speech-Language Pathologists.  They will be able to tell you what signs to look for that might indicate a problem.  They will also be able to make suggestions for improving your child’s speech and language development and may suggest bringing the child in for a speech-language evaluation.

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