SPEECH THERAPY CLINIC

Speech therapy is a process that involves the professional use of assessment and treatment for problems with speech (these problems involve making the appropriate sound, using the voice fully, and not straining), language and communication (these include problems with language understanding, thought expression, or social situation responses) and swallowing and feeding (this deals with problems involving the use of muscles in the mouth and throat to swallow).

• Assessment

Our professional assessment techniques help us to cover an extensive understanding of your child’s strengths and weaknesses and then develop intervention programs that focus on his/her specific needs. Our assessment covers the following:

• Receptive language (testing what the child understands of spoken language)

• Expressive language (testing the child’s use of grammar and sentences)
• Pragmatic language (understanding how the child uses language in a social context to interact with others)
• Play skills of the child
• Literacy and phonological skills (testing for the development of reading, writing and spelling skills)
• Fluency of speech (testing for the flow of speech, such as stuttering)
• Articulation (the clarity of the child’s speech and errors in sound)

• Resonance or voice problems(understanding difficulties with voice pitch, volume and quality)
• Oral feeding (understanding difficulties with eating, swallowing and drooling)

Furthermore, our therapists can assess cognitive-communication disorders (this is difficulty communicating as a result of an injury to the part of the brain that controls the ability to process cognitive function).

• Intervention

Our therapist usually meets one-on-one with the child to implement recommended interventions derived from the result of the assessment. Then the speech therapist may do any of these in treating the challenges:

• Coach the child improved ways to breath and speak to use the voice better
• Instruct exercises for using the lips, tongue, and other muscles in the mouth and throat
• Help improve learning new words skill, especially if the child has lost language because of a stroke or brain injury
• Help the child with improving memory or organizing thoughts
• Enlighten the child on using augmentative and alternative communication. These are ways to communicate besides speaking. Some examples are finger spelling, picture communication, or speech devices.

Our therapeutic strategies include the following:

• Language intervention activities:this involves interactive activities such as playing and talking, using pictures, books, objects, or ongoing events with the child to develop language skills. Also the therapist model right vocabulary and grammar, and use repetition exercises to develop language skills
• Articulation therapy:the therapist uses modelling of sounds difficult for the child. This might include showing how the tongue is moved to make specific sounds.
• Feeding and swallowing therapy:this can also be referred to as oral-motor therapy. This involves training the child with oral exercises to strengthen the muscles of the mouth. This includes facial massage and different tongue, lip and jaw exercises. Different food textures may also be used to encourage awareness during eating and swallowing.

Some of our therapeutic tools include speech therapy applications, language development games and toys, such as flip cards and flash cards and workbooks.