Pediatric Speech Therapy
Pediatric speech and language therapy provides assessment and treatment of your child’s communication skills. These include speech, language, play and interactive development. The focus of treatment may be on oral-motor skills, stuttering, tongue thrust, voice or augmentative communication. As a parent, you are provided with strategies to help your child to communicate better at home and in the community. Speech and language therapy can help your child to:
- Improve understanding and expression of language
- Improve speech/sound production
- Decrease stuttering behaviors
- Improve swallowing patterns to reduce tongue thrust
- Improve communication through the provision of augmentative communication systems
- Improve eating and swallowing skill development
- Promote age appropriate play skills
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy is a form of intervention in which the therapist and child work to develop or improve the necessary skills for daily living through activity. Therapy can target skills needed for coordination, school readiness and performance, self help such as feeding, dressing and grooming, safety, focus and attention, play/social interaction, eye-hand coordination, calming and regulatory behaviors and more. We use a variety of treatment approaches, one of which is Sensory Integration, the ability of the brain and body to take incoming sensory information and create an efficient motor output. We also use the Handwriting Without Tears program for handwriting issues, and the Food Chaining approach to treat eating/food issues. Your therapist will develop appropriate home programs and family education in addition to direct treatment of your child.
Reasons Your Child May Need Occupational Therapy – Overly sensitive to certain sensations, Poor attention, Poor fine motor skills, Immature gross motor skills, Difficulty calming self, Under-active, Exaggerated behaviors or reactions, Limited play skills, Poor social development, and Limited Independence in self care skills, Difficulty transitioning or accepting change in environment or routine
We Offer – Handwriting Without Tears Program, Sensory Integration Therapy, Developmental Therapy, Fine motor skills development, Coordination/Gross Motor skills, Visual/Perceptual therapy, Oral motor & feeding therapy, Interactive Metronome, and Sequential Oral Sensory Feeding Program
What Is Sensory Integration?
Just as a computer is made to process data, the human brain is made to process sensory data into meaningful information. The brain is designed to be able to process classroom sounds into instructions, written numbers into equations and even sights along a roadway into traffic signs. Examples of sensory processing that the brain handles might include:
- Ability to process sounds into language, music, or the wail of a siren
- Ability to process sights into works, pictures or faces of people you know
- Ability to process touch into the soft feel of a silky blouse, the itch of a garment tag on the back of your neck, or the light touch of a bug on your arm
- Ability to process tastes and textures in the mouth into the sweet taste of ice cream, the bumpy texture of tapioca, the tingle of a stick of cinnamon gum, or the sour crisp of a pickle
- Ability to process moving through space into the gentle lull of a boat ride, the plummet of a roller coaster dip, or the alert to danger when stumbling
- Ability to process smells and feeling associated with the aroma of hot bread, the fragrance of a flower, or the stench of a boys locker room
The brain is designed to simultaneously integrate these types of sensory inputs and compute their meaning, given a particular context. e.g. A light moving touch on the arm while sitting on a blanket on a sunny day at a picnic might be computed as a bug on your arm while a light moving touch on your arm might be computed as an invitation to dance.
