Speech Therapy

Speech language pathologists are trained to evaluate and treat dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing. The patient may participate in a clinical bedside swallow evaluation or an instrumental swallow evaluation. Based on those results, the speech language pathologist may prescribe an exercise program to rehabilitate swallowing musculature or recommend modifications to your food and drink consistencies to prevent aspiration (when food or liquid goes in your lungs). Signs of swallowing difficulties may include troubles controlling food or liquid in your mouth, sensation of foods sticking in your throat, or coughing and choking when eating/drinking.

Cognitive functions include skills we use daily, including planning, task initiation, memory, attention, visuospatial skills, and more. One’s cognitive function may change based upon a neurologic event, such as a brain injury or stroke, a neurologic disease, or age-related changes. A speech language pathologist can help identify which areas of cognition you are having difficulty or changes in, and help create a treatment plan and compensatory strategies to improve your day to day functioning. 

Following a stroke, a patient may be left with residual deficits related to their language (aphasia), speech intelligibility (dysarthria), swallowing (dysphagia), or cognition. A speech language pathologist can identify which areas the patient is having difficulties in to create an individualized treatment plan to promote improvement in one or more of the areas impacted. 

Yes, to initiate speech therapy a patient must have a current script from a doctor or licensed provider. 

Yes, we do. Please check with your insurance provider to determine if they will cover speech therapy services. 

As a parent, you may be feeling that your child’s communication skills are not like their peers’. Or, your child may have medical or behavioral issues related to feeding and swallowing. Please discuss your concerns with your physician. You will need a physician’s referral for speech services, which provides us with preliminary information about the area(s) of concern. Then, during the child’s initial visit, our speech therapist will conduct an evaluation of your child’s skills using standardized or non-standardized assessment tools. If your child has had speech, language, or swallowing evaluations from other professionals (e.g., a physician or different clinic, a school team), please bring these with you to your first visit.

Yes, we appreciate the opportunity to consult with school teams about your child’s needs and progress. Please ask your child’s case manager at school to provide a form, that you will sign, agreeing to the release of confidential information between us and them.

Speech therapists help people develop functional communication to express their wants, needs, ideas, knowledge, and questions. Some children and adults may need to find other ways to communicate besides talking. Speech therapists sometimes use Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) to help people communicate. AAC can include low tech options such as communication boards, a picture system, writing or drawing; or high-tech options such as a speech generating device or an app on an iPad.

We offer interpreting services for our non-English speaking patients.

Yes, to initiate speech therapy a patient must have a current script from a doctor or licensed provider. 

Yes, we do. Please check with your insurance provider to determine if they will cover speech therapy services.