When a child is growing up, their communication skills gives them access to the world and to people around them. Children learn to speak with other people and form their own thoughts with words. Some children struggle with this. This can be because their language skills need a helping hand or their speech is not clear. The earlier these struggles are identified and addressed, the better for the child.
We work with the following:
SPEECH SOUND DEVELOPMENT
We strive to improve your child’s ability to produce sounds and words.
SPEECH CLARITY
Even if your child can repeat all the sounds, they might get them muddled up when they’re talking, or leave sounds out altogether.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Development of your child’s understanding and expression of language.
ORAL – MOTOR SKILLS
Your child might have trouble shaping different sounds correctly, for example, /r/ or /s/.
DEVELOPMENTAL VERBAL DYSPRAXIA / APRAXIA
Difficulty planning the movements needed for speech.
STUTTERING / STAMMERING / DYSFLUENCY
We aim to provide your child with the skills required to improve their speech production.
LEARNING DIFFICULTIES
Improving your child’s reading, writing, spelling and listening skills.
DOWN SYNDROME
Promoting your child’s language, cognitive (mental) and social development.
AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS (ASD) – PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER NOT – OTHERWISE – SPECIFIED (PDD – NOS), AUTISM, ASPERGER SYNDROME
Promoting your child’s speech, language and social language skills.
CLEFT LIP AND / OR PALATE
Improving your child’s speech skills. It is common for children with cleft lip and / or palate to develop speech difficulties particularly with nasal sounds, for example, /m/ and /n/.
VOICE DISORDERS
Your child may have a voice that sounds hoarse or breathy.
HEARING IMPAIRMENT
Hearing difficulties may have an impact on your child’s speech and language skills.
SOCIAL LANGUAGE
Improving your child’s ability to communicate in groups or with other children will greatly impact on their confidence.
FEEDING / SWALLOWING DISORDERS
The same muscles for speech are used for eating and drinking. Weakness or difficulty coordinating these muscles results in difficulty chewing and swallowing.
FEEDING
We provide evaluation and therapy for children who have difficulties with eating such as problems with chewing, pocketing food and holding it in their mouth, frequent coughing and / or choking on food and liquids.
We also provide evaluation and therapy for children who are “problem feeders” which can be defined as the following:
- Restricted range or variety of foods, usually less than 20 different foods.
- Cries and refuses new foods.
- Refuses entire categories of food texture or nutrition groups.
- Almost always eats different foods at a meal than rest of the family.