Speech Therapy

Having adequate strength and coordination in our oral muscles and structures is essential for developing healthy feeding habits and maintaining a safe swallow. We assess the strength and function of the oral muscles and structures (including the lips, tongue, and throat muscles), used for swallowing. This helps us determine the most appropriate course of treatment. We can help picky eaters expand their palate and tolerance for new foods and textures; address disruptive or inappropriate mealtime behaviors; adjust food and liquid consistencies for kids with impaired musculature and coordination of their swallow structures; encourage more functional and efficient chewing patterns; and so much more.

Our voice originates from our anatomy within our throat, including our vocal cords and larynx. Together these structures are more commonly known as our “voice box”. Our vocal cords vibrate together very quickly to produce the sound that we hear. However, sometimes our “voice box” can be damaged or not function properly. This often results in vocal quality that can sound hoarse, strained or breathy. As speech therapists, we can analyze the structures within your “voice box” after imaging is obtained; then prescribe appropriate exercises and discuss practices to help reduce discomfort, promote healing, improve coordination, and encourage confidence.

AAC means non-verbal forms in which your child can communicate with the world. Augmentative means to supplement or add to someone’s speech. Alternative means to be used instead of speech. This includes the use of gestures/facial expressions, writing, drawing, picture cards, manual signing, assistive technology apps on tablets, and speech-generating devices in order to help someone effectively communicate. Treatment in AAC looks to find the communication modality that is best for your child by trialing many different types of no-tech, low-tech, and high-tech options that best fit your child’s needs at that time.

Pragmatics, also known as social language, includes so many things including: understanding and use of body language and facial gestures to communicate, problem solving and reasoning, emotional competence, and relationship development skills to name a few! Establishing and practicing these skills is so important to ensure that our kiddos can make and keep friends effectively, engage with strangers and adults appropriately, follow classroom codes of conduct to be powerful learners, and teach meaningful words to express emotional dysregulation and techniques to regulate their own emotions.

Fluency refers to the ability to articulate and express oneself easily and smoothly. Fluency challenges can present as stuttering, halted speech, mumbling, or difficulty with English as a second or third language. An interesting fact about stuttering is that there is no known cause. However, there are a few factors including gender, age of onset, genetics, and other environmental factors that may contribute to our kiddos developing disfluencies. Our speech therapists look at the whole picture, and address disfluencies by teaching techniques to enhance fluency and strategies to modify fluency roadblocks. Our therapists also incorporate counseling techniques into our session as stuttering and other disfluencies can have a major effect on our kiddos’ self-esteem.

It’s okay to stutter! Let’s develop a plan to work together towards “smoother” speech.

Hearing is one of the foundational elements of speech and language development. Children experiencing hearing loss or deafness may have impacted speech, language, communication and listening skills; and our speech therapists are here to support them! We are sensitive to and respectful of the decisions families make surrounding cochlear implants and are here to discuss options, as well as provide family counseling and education. Our SLPs also help those with auditory processing disorders improve their understanding of what they hear in the same way other kids do.

Language is the primary way we express and understand thoughts and ideas. This begins with prelinguistic language (language that comes before words are expressed), which includes communicative gestures such as pointing and reaching, as well as reciprocal engagement and attention.

Expressive language is how we use words to express ourselves; including functional vocabulary use, sentence structure, grammar structure, and general use of language in conveying a message to a communicative partner.

Receptive language is how we understand concepts and follow directions.

At Olea Pediatric Therapy, we can help late talkers find their first words; shape our clients’ statements to be more complex and specific; improve a child’s ability to understand directions with a variety of basic concepts; teach better understanding of grammatical structures; and the list goes on!

A motor speech disorder is an interruption between the brain and the speaking mechanism. There are two major classifications for motor speech disorders that we see in the pediatric population: Dysarthria and Apraxia. Dysarthria means that the brain is able to send the message to the speech mechanism, however, muscle weakness or lack of muscle coordination prevents individuals from speaking clearly. This is often seen in kiddos with cerebral palsy. With Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) the muscles are not weak or uncoordinated, but rather there is a breakdown in how the brain sends the message to the muscles. They are unable to perform the vocal movements even though they understand the task. Our treatment for these children focuses on strengthening and improving coordination of muscles involved with breath support and articulation; as well as practicing compensatory strategies such as reducing rate of speech, increasing volume and over enunciating our words, to name a few.

Cognition allows individuals to meaningfully interact with and understand each other. This includes skills like problem solving, memory, attention, and sequencing. Cognition also relates to executive functioning skills like planning, self-monitoring, and self-control. Our treatment in this area focuses on functional activities and play in order to achieve your child's targeted goals.