Specialized Therapies for Kids/Adults

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Oral Placement Therapy 

Oral Placement Therapy involves all different levels of treatment. The nonverbal child often needs strengthening, sensitization, or sometimes desensitization to be able to use the same muscles for speech production. By working during eating or in play activities, we can achieve these goals in a natural fashion. Individuals with articulation or phonological disorders often had training or retraining of muscle groups in order to achieve a correct sound placement. Visit: www.talktools.net 

Myofunctional Therapy 

Myofunctional Therapy involves training oral muscle groups to correct a deviant swallow pattern. Tongue thrust or deviant swallow often has a negative impact on dental alignment and speech production. Therefore, habituating a correct swallow can, in turn, strengthen muscles which are necessary for correct speech production through language therapy .   

Beckman Oral Motor Intervention 

Oral motor skills are critical to basic functions that occur even when we are asleep, such as controlling secretions, swallowing, and maintaining alignment of the oral structures so that breathing is not interrupted. Oral motor skills impact basic survival such as sucking and swallowing by infants that begin by the third month of gestation.  Development of these skills enhance the progression from breast milk or formula, then to pureed foods, and on to table foods, as well as the skills needed to progress from sucking a nipple, to using a wide variety of utensils, including straws, cups, spoons, and forks. Oral skills also impact the control needed for speech development, from producing the cooing sounds as an infant, to articulating complex words in conversational speech. Poor oral motor skills can result in delayed or reduced skill development for the areas listed above. The individual may be described as hypersensitive, a lazy talker or a picky or messy eater. Problems such a drooling, bruxism (tooth grinding) and gagging may occur. Please visit: www.beckmanoralmotor.com 

Voice Therapy 

Although less prevalent in the population, voice disorders are no less frustrating to the speaker. Voice quality disorders such as hoarseness may be a sign of physiological pathology in need of medical examination, while vocal resonance disorders such as hypernasality may be the result of structure anomalies. In most cases, voice disorders respond positively to therapeutic intervention.  

Fluency Therapy 

For hundreds of years people have been mystified by stuttering, the most well known of fluency disorders. There are many different therapy programs for stuttering. Our program teaches techniques which make it difficult to stutter if the techniques are used properly.  Visit: www.stutteringhelp.org

Articulation Therapy 

Correct sound production is essential to communication. Articulation and phonological disorders comprise the greatest number of speech disorders we face. Whether a child's speech is unintelligible or just not as clear as it could be, effective communication is a primary goal of all speakers. 

Language Therapy 

Language is the basis for most learning. Without language there is no communication. While there are varying degrees of language disorders, the ultimate goal of all people is to comprehend all that is heard and express ideas in all that is spoken.  

Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol 

The Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol is a way of teaching children with apraxia of speech the easiest way of saying words until they have increased motor-speech coordination. Children are taught the shell of words without including too many of the complex consonants, vowels, or syllables which make a word too difficult to even attempt on a motor basis. This teaching method is a reflection of how young children attempt “first words.” For example, the word “bottle” may begin as “ba,” progress to “baba,” later becomes “bado,” and eventually, “bottle.” Please visit: Kaufman Children's Center 

Adult Neurogenic Communication Disorder Therapy 

A Neurogenic Communication Disorder is most often the result of brain damage or other types of central nervous system damage, such as a stroke. Neurogenic Communication Disorders can also be caused by an infection in the central nervous system or by certain diseases, including Parkinson's disease. There are different classifications of this disorder. Neurogenic Communication Disorder can affect how a person speaks and can include problems with understanding language whether it is written, spoken or read. In certain instances, a person with this disorder knows what they want to say, but cannot find the right words to say it. Other times, the muscles that are needed for speech and swallowing are affected. This means that the person cannot move the muscles that are needed in order to speak and they might have problems swallowing. Sometimes a Neurogenic Communication Disorder causes a person the inability to distinguish certain words that are shown or said to them, words that were easily recognizable before the disorder started. For instance, if you show them a picture of a tomato (which is an easily recognizable item) they may not be able to say the word or even write it down, even if they know what it is. Fortunately, there is treatment for this disorder. It is not always curable, but many people make great progress once they start receiving treatment and are often able to be taught how to function in a normal way again.