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.
Some of the conditions we treat include:
Children can have difficulty producing words and sounds leading to unintelligible speech and a hard time being understood by others.
A child may have a language delay or a language disorder if he/she has problems understanding questions, following directions, learning new words, saying new sentences or be completely non-verbal.
Oral motor skills refers to the movements of the muscles in the mouth, jaw, lips, tongue and cheeks.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (“CAS”) or Developmental Dyspraxia makes it difficult for children to speak or say what they want to.
A child can get ‘stuck’ on certain sounds or words, and may repeat them while speaking, leading to dysfluent speech.
Children may have difficulty with many aspects of language including reading, spelling, writing and listening.
Children with Down Syndrome have strengths and challenges in the development of communication skills, including receptive language (understanding) and expressive language skills (speaking and expressing thoughts).
Autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorders (“ASD”) is a developmental disorder characterized by challenges with social skills, verbal and nonverbal communication and behavior.
There are rules for how we use language in different situations and different groups of people. Children may have difficulties with these social communication rules and require speech and language therapy.
Children who have feeding and swallowing problems may have Dysphagia.