We provide one-to-one therapy and small group therapy.
Our services are individualized to meet your child’s needs. Once we evaluate your child we create a treatment plan and begin the therapy process.
Dyslexia
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a specific language-based learning disability affecting reading that has a biological basis in the brain. It is typically characterized by difficulties in word recognition, spelling, and decoding. When you have dyslexia, your brain takes longer to make some of these connections and does it in more steps.
How do I know if my child has dyslexia?
Dyslexia looks different at different ages. The only way you will know for sure is by having your child tested. Here are some red flags from preschool to early elementary age.
Preschool
- Delayed speech
- Mixing up sounds in multisyllabic words
- Early stuttering
- Ear infections
- Difficulty Rhyming
- Kindergarten
- Struggles to read familiar words
- Doesn’t know how to decode unfamiliar words
- Often substitutes words when reading aloud
- Often skips over or confuses small words
Early Elementary
- Immature speech
- Doesn’t consistently recognize words
- Inaccurate reading of single words in isolation
- Reading is slow and choppy
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Dysgraphia
Jon grips his pencil tightly and forms his letters from bottom to top. His letters are below the line and some of them are backwards. Jon does not write complete sentences with the correct grammar or punctuation.
What is dysgraphia?
Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder of written expression that impairs writing ability and fine motor skills. It impacts spelling, legibility, word spacing and sizing, and expression.
When are letter reversals in writing no longer appropriate?
Letter reversals, when children write letters backwards or upside down, can be common up until the age of 7 years. It is often called mirror writing. This is due to poor working memory as well as weaknesses in visual processing skills. Children typically reverse the letters b, d, q, p, and the numbers 9, 5, and 7. People often think this is a sign of dyslexia however dyslexia is more complex than that.
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Articulation
What is the difference between an articulation disorder and a phonological disorder?
Articulation refers to the movement of speech mechanisms such as the tongue, lips, larynx, teeth, hard palate, nose, etc., These mechanisms may not work properly due to being weak, damaged, or malformed, which causes a speech sound disorder.
On the other hand, phonological disorders focus on the predictable rule-based errors in speech. An example of a phonological disorder is the repeated “fronting” of our velar sounds /k/ and /g/ and are replaced with the sounds /t/ or /d/.
Refer to the Little Bee Speech for a full list of phonological disorders and an approximate age these errors
What are phonological processes?
Phonological processes are speech sound errors that occur in patterns. In younger children, these are sometimes developmentally appropriate. However, some of them should disappear by age 3, and all of them should disappear by age 7. Some common phonological processes include:
- Reduplication: e.g. “baba” for bottle. Should disappear by age 3.
- Unstressed syllable deletion: e.g. “nana” for banana. Should disappear by age 3.
- Velar fronting: The velar sounds /k/ and /g/ are replaced by /t/ and /d/, which are made closer to the front of the mouth. For example, cookie becomes “tookie.” Should disappear by age 3.
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Autism
What is Autism?
Autism is a neurological difference that impacts how an individual interacts with the world around them. It is characterized by differences in social interaction, communication, and behavior. Autism is defined by a spectrum because every autistic person is different, with a different range of skills, strengths, and needs.
What are some Signs/Symptoms of Autism?
Although autistic people experience autism differently, some characteristics are common.
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Stuttering
Stuttering is a neuromuscular dyscordination. That means that there is a breakdown in the timing of the brain, lungs, vocal folds, mouth working in unison.
What causes stuttering?
- Genetics: 50% of people who stutter have family members who also stutter
- Brain Wiring: People who stutter as adults process language differently using both sides of the brain rather than one.
- Language Development: Children whose language skills are higher than their motor speech skills are more likely to stutter.
- Speech and Language Disorders: Children who have other articulation or language delays are more likely to stutter.
- Medications: some allergy medications have been associated with stuttering
Resources for stuttering
Resources:
- The Stuttering Foundation of America - Helpful information, videos, and other resources regarding stuttering.
- The National Stuttering Association
- The Stuttering Home Page
- The American Speech-Language and Hearing Association
- FRIENDS: The National Association of Young People Who Stutter
Bilingual
Book Recommendations for Parents of dual language learners
- Bilingual: Life and Reality by François Grosjean
- The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us about the Science of Language by Albert Costa
- Bilingual: Life and Reality by François Grosjean
- The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us about the Science of Language by Albert Costa
Book Recommendations for Bilingual Learners
Apraxia
What is Apraxia of Speech?
Apraxia is a motor speech sound disorder. It is sometimes referred to as Apraxia of Speech (AOS) or Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Apraxia is neurological meaning that it affects the brain pathways involved in planning the sequence of movements needed to produce speech. The brain knows what it wants to say, but cannot properly plan and sequence the required speech sound movements. A child might not be able to move their lips or tongue in the right ways, even though their muscles are not weak. Sometimes, the child might not be able to say much at all.
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Accent Modification
Everyone has an accent. People sometimes want to change the way they speak. Speech-language pathologists, or SLPs, can help.
The Way We Speak
Have you ever stopped and listened to people around you? They probably all sound a little bit different, even if they speak the same language. People may sound different because they come from different parts of the country. Some people sound like they are from another country. They all sound different because of their accent.
Everyone speaks with an accent. Today, people move from state to state and from country to country. One thing that we take with us no matter where we move is our accent.
About Accents
An accent is the unique way that groups of people who speak the same language sound. A person’s accent depends on many things. The most common groupings are:
- Regional Accents. These are common among people who come from different parts of the country. People who are from Texas often sound different than people who are from New York.
- National Origin Accents. These are sometimes heard in people who learned English as an adult. Someone who speaks only English may sound different than someone from France who speaks English as a second language.
Accents are a natural part of spoken languages. No one accent is better than another. It is important to know that accents are NOT a speech or language disorder.
Accents and Communication
Your accent can say a lot about your background and where you are from. You may be very proud of your accent.
However, accents can sometimes make it hard for you to talk with other people. People may not understand your accent. You may get frustrated because you have to repeat yourself a lot. People may focus more on your accent than on what you say.
These problems can make work, school, or other activities harder. You may feel that if you had a different accent, you would be able to talk to people more easily. You may decide that you want to change your accent, a little bit or a lot.
Changing Your Accent
With hard work and practice, you can learn how to change the way you say words. Changing your accent is also known as accent modification. It can be hard to change your accent on your own. A speech-language pathologist, or SLP, can help. SLPs work with:
- People who speak English as a second language.
- People who want to change their regional accent.
- Professionals who want to communicate better at work.
- Actors who need to learn a new accent for a role.
Working With an SLP
To help you with your accent, the SLP needs to understand the way you speak. The SLP will learn more about:
- How you say different sounds.
- The way you sound when you talk. This includes the rhythm of your speech and how you put stress on some sounds.
The SLP will ask you to read words and sentences. The SLP will also listen to how you speak in conversation. It is also important for the SLP to know what communication problems you have and what your goals are.
The SLP will use this information to help you change your accent. You will set goals with the SLP, based on what is most useful to you. You may work with the SLP alone or in a small group.
Insurance companies will not pay for services to change your accent. This is because an accent is not a speech or language disorder. You will need to speak with your SLP about how you can pay for services.
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Booking an Evaluation
Parents often call RLLC to book an initial evaluation for their child. Since they have never been through the evaluation process it is important to speak to one of our team members to determine which type of evaluation is needed.
During that initial chat, you will be sharing your concerns and what prompted the testing. While you are sharing information about your child’s strengths and weaknesses the therapist will make recommendations for which type of evaluation is warranted.
As far as the therapeutic process, every child’s goals and treatment plan will look different. We do not use a cookie cutter approach. The therapists craft goals to work towards based on our testing.
When will we be done with therapy?
This is a common question that we are asked at the beginning of the therapy process. The usual answer is, it depends. There are many factors to consider. On average, students that we see for language two times per week are usually with us for at least 2 full years. Articulation therapy time varies due to the number of sounds in error and the severity of those errors. Reading clients on average are with us for two years.