Services
Services
We provide speech and language evaluations and therapy to the communities of Bend, Redmond, Sisters, La Pine, Madras, Sunriver, Prineville, Pilot Butte, and Cloverdale in our centrally located office or via teletherapy.
Click here to learn more about teletherapy.
Once a child's specific speech patterns and errors are carefully analyzed through a comprehensive speech evaluation, we are able to create goals specifically targeting the articulation errors or phonological processes we will focus on in therapy. Clinicians use evidence-based therapy techniques and provide families with a home program for carry over in order to help the child learn new speech patterns to improve overall speech intelligibility/clarity.
Our therapists are certified by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) and specialize in the following pediatric speech and language disorders:
Our clinicians have specialized training in working with children who have motor speech disorders, such as Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Our clinicians may use a multidimensional approach to speech production disorders which utilizes the physical-sensory aspects of motor performance, as well as the cognitive-linguistic and social-emotional aspects. This approach centers around integrating all domains and systems towards positive communication outcomes. It may be used (with varying intensity and focus) with all speech production disorders from approximately 6 months of age onward.
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Children with autism often experience difficulty with expressive and receptive language skills and pragmatics (social language). Our clinicians are trained in a variety of evidence-based techniques proven to help children understand and use communication to form meaningful relationships. We believe that the primary function of communication is to develop and strengthen connections with others, so we base our intervention on a social-pragmatic approach. Our therapy sessions tend to be a balance of child-directed activities paired with more structured activities, designed to help the child engage and develop skills necessary for school. We believe that no one technique is ideal for every child, but instead we tailor our technique to each individual child and provide caregivers with strategies to use at home to extend what we are doing in the therapy room to the home environment.
Expressive and Receptive Language Delays/Disorders
Children may experience difficulty understanding language and/or expressing their thoughts, feelings, and needs effectively. They may have difficulty with vocabulary, syntax, language concepts, sequencing, and/or auditory memory. Once we carefully evaluate a child's language skills, we are able to plan individualized language goals targeting the specific expressive/receptive skills a child needs to learn. We use a variety of games, structured activities, and computer programs to target each child's individual language goals.
Social Communication
Some children experience difficulty with the social aspects of language. They may have challenges making friends, appropriately expressing their emotions, negotiating conflict, understanding and using humor, and perspective taking. We use a variety of language-based techniques to help children improve their social skills in order to improve their relationships with peers and adults. Our clinicians are trained in evidence-based behavior techniques and have completed courses in social thinking to help our clients understand themselves and others to better navigate the social world and foster relationships.
Reading
Children with speech and language delays or disorders are at high risk for reading difficulties because they may have poor auditory, phonologic, and verbal memory skills. Our clinicians work on reading using the most up-to-date science of reading methodology. We target the essential phonological awareness skills that serve as a foundation for strong reading skills and teach reading using explicit, systematic multisensory techniques. Home carryover activities are provided to reinforce skills taught in the therapy office.
Stuttering
The therapy we use for children who stutter is largely determined by their age. For very young children, we use indirect techniques which we use in therapy and teach caregivers to implement at home. For older children, we use more direct techniques that teach the child to use strategies to achieve fluent speech while empowering children to advocate for themselves and build confidence.