Speech–Language Therapy for Children

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 Treatment for Communication Disorders

 If your child has a language impairment, our speech–language pathologists evaluate your child to determine its source and to assess how it affects his or her everyday life, performance in school, and social interactions. Some children with communication disorders may require assistive technology, such as a communication device. We work closely with our assistive technology program to help these children achieve effective functional communication.

Communication disorders we treat include the following:

• aphasia, a language impairment that makes it difficult to express thoughts, understand speech, read, or write
• dysarthria, which is when poor muscle tone makes it difficult to produce sounds
• apraxia of speech, in which a child has trouble putting words or syllables together in the proper order
• developmental language delays
• receptive or expressive language disorders, which make it difficult for a child to understand others or communicate ideas, respectively
• voice disorders

PROMPT Therapy

Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets, known as PROMPT Therapy, use touch to stimulate the muscles needed to produce sound. It is a treatment for children with a variety of expressive speech–language disorders. Children enrolled in PROMPT Therapy attend 5 sessions per week, 45 minutes each, for 3 weeks. The goals of the treatment include improved verbal output and gains in social, emotional, and linguistic skills that help children communicate at home, in school, and among friends 

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

 Feeding and swallowing disorders can result from a weakness in the muscles that are used to chew and swallow food safely. These include the muscles of the lips, tongue, jaw, neck and back of the throat. Feeding difficulties can also be sensory or behavioral, without any muscle weakness. These disorders can make it difficult for children to get the nutrition they need or to transition to age-appropriate foods.

Our pediatric feeding and swallowing experts specialize in the evaluation and treatment of a wide variety of feeding and swallowing impairments. The children we treat have often been diagnosed with failure to thrive; pneumonia and frequent lung infections or respiratory problems; gastroesophageal reflux disease; food allergies or intolerance; sensory integration disorder; genetic syndromes; cancer; and craniofacial anomalies or cleft palate.

Feel Your Food

Feel Your Food is an intensive group program for children with sensory-related food aversions. Children interact with and learn from their peers, and also work on strengthening muscles around the mouth to improve their eating experience. The goal is to make eating a normal, stress-free experience for the child and family by reducing conflict, easing fears, and improving social situations that involve eating.