Frequently Asked Questions

• Speech therapy is a type of therapy that helps people who have problems with communication.
• Speech-language pathologists, also called SLPs and speech therapists, are experts in communication and are the people who provide speech therapy.
• SLPs work with the brain and muscles used for speech and swallowing to address cognition, speech, language and swallowing problems.
• For some children, it isn’t always a matter of working on verbal output of language, but instead working on an overall method of communication. This is called Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).  AAC methods can include pictures, speech producing buttons and/or speech generating devices.
• For children, speech therapy is completed through movement, toys, games, books, and pictures. If therapy is fun it will encourage participation which will ultimately improve language and communication skills.

Children who need speech therapy may have difficulties with speech sound production, understanding of language and language expression, cognitive impairments, and/or oral motor delays.

Additionally, children with hearing loss, feeding/swallowing difficulties, and social skills disorders benefit from speech therapy. Aural rehabilitation services are for individuals with hearing loss. Hearing loss can have a major impact on the development of communicative abilities.  Training and treatment are utilized to assist children with hearing loss to improve the speech, language, and listening abilities. Feeding therapy assists children in accepting and enjoying a wide range of foods without discomfort or anxiety as well as the mechanical function of the swallowing process. Social skills can be addressed through learning appropriate methods of connecting and interacting with others in the child’s environment.

These difficulties can occur for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons can include: delays in development, syndromes, disorders, brain injuries, and/or traumatic birth.

Speech sound disorders:
There are two general categories of speech sound disorders. They are articulation disorders and phonological disorders. An articulation disorder occurs when an individual has difficulty producing specific sounds correctly. They may distort the sound’s production, substitute another sound in its place, or omit the sound. A phonological disorder occurs when an individual has difficulty understanding and using the correct sound patterns. For example, an individual may substitute all the sounds produced in the back of the mouth with sounds made in the front of the mouth.

Language disorders:
There are two general categories of language disorders. They are receptive language disorders and expressive language disorders. An individual with a receptive language disorder has difficulty understanding language which may be demonstrated by difficulty following directions, answering questions, identifying objects and pictures, and communicating with others. An individual with an expressive language disorder has difficulty expressing themselves using language which may be demonstrated by difficulty asking questions, naming objects, using sentences, and using correct language parts and patterns (pronouns, possessives, verbs, tense, word order, etc.) to communicate with others.

Motor speech disorders:
Motor speech disorders occur due to neurological impairments. They result from impaired movement of the muscles used for speech production, including the lips, tongue, vocal folds, and/or diaphragm. Apraxia and dysarthria are examples of motor speech disorders.

Feeding/swallowing disorders:
Swallowing disorders often occur due to structural weaknesses or dysfunction. This results in the difficulty of actually moving food from the mouth to the stomach. A feeding disorder results in refusal and/or aversion to eating food. These disorders can occur concurrently or independently of each other.

Stuttering:
Stuttering affects the fluency or smoothness of speech. Stuttering includes repetitions of words or parts of words, prolongations of sounds, blocked or stopped speech, and interjections. Although some amount of disfluency exists in normal speech, stuttered speech presents a greater amount of disfluent speech, which can negatively impact the ability of an individual to communicate with others.

• Therapy is all about learning and having fun! Children learn best through play, and when a child is engaged in what they are doing, newly learned skills will move to mastery more quickly.
• Therapy is done through movement, toys, games, books, pictures and practice to encourage participation and make therapy fun while your child improves their language and communication skills.
• I emphasize practice, practice, practice. Working on newly learned skills repeatedly will help your child to retain the skills outside of the therapy room.
• Although I am the one providing the therapy, you and your child are part of my team, and helping you to understand the therapy process will make you both more invested in the treatment outcomes.

The duration of therapy will be determined on a case by case basis.

Generally an evaluation will take place prior to the start of therapy to determine if treatment is warranted. Occasionally, a prior evaluation may be used to determine therapy needs, if that evaluation is current. The duration of therapy will be determined on a case by case basis.

Rates

Speech and Language Evaluation
Up to 1.5 hours of Evaluation and 1 hour of report writing:
$275

Oral Motor Evaluation
Up to 1 hour of Evaluation and 30 minutes of report writing:
$175

Speech and Language Therapy
45 minutes $100
30 minutes $70

I am currently accepting:
First Choice
Kaiser Permanente
PacificSource
Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield
UnitedHealthcare
Cigna

I also accept Private Pay clients and am happy to provide you with a super bill if requested. You can submit your super bill to your insurance company for partial reimbursement. Check out my blog post to learn more about what a Super Bill is.