What does speech therapy look like at AnetSpeech?
What to Expect
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Free consultation
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Get evaluated
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Start therapy
Consultation
First, at your free video or phone consultation, we'll have a 15-20 minute conversation. You'll share your main concerns about your child's speech. There's time to ask questions.
This chat helps us know if an evaluation appointment is the next best step or if a well-chosen parent handout is all your child needs at this time.
To lock in the evaluation appointment, you'll complete some online intake forms and authorize a deposit. In some cases I will complete a courtesy check of your insurance coverage. There is significant preparation on my part for your child's initial visit - your deposit is in consideration of this thorough preparation.
Evaluation
Next, at the evaluation zoom session, I work directly with your child and I may have some more detailed questions for the parent. In most cases*, I'll included a standardized assessment, but I'll also take time to get to know your child, play a short game for rapport-building, and find out things they love. Before the end of this session, we'll schedule an included follow-up chat to go over the results together and plan our next steps.
I'll write a thorough evaluation report for you with a recommended best approach for therapy, which we'll go over at your included review session.
*If you have a recent school evaluation, a standardized assessment with AnetSpeech can possibly be waived.
Speech Sound Disorder Therapy
I specialize in Speech Sound Disorders (SSD) at AnetSpeech. This term covers a variety speech impairments, including phonological disorders and childhood apraxia of speech.
Speech Sound Disorders include:
Phonological Impairment
Articulation Delay
Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Treatment for an SSD depends on the results of the evaluation. The evaluation will tell me how mild or severe the speech delay is, and how often I will recommend therapy.
Finally, to decide the starting point of therapy, here are some things I look at:
What does the child need to say now?
What sounds can he already make?
What sounds will help the most?
In our virtual therapy sessions I incorporate kids' favorites, like a crazy unicorn flight for a movement break or a matching game with their favorite cartoon character for a quick brain break. The brain learns better when it is enjoying what it is doing, so I pack in fun between the hard drill work of capturing their next dream sounds and words.
AnetSpeech also evaluates and treats the following impairments:
Language Delay
Language Disorder is a term for delays or challenges with either receptive language or expressive language, including the following:
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Understanding spoken instructions
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Producing more than one-word or very short sentences
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Using pronouns and verb endings correctly
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Using more specific vocabulary words pertinent to the situation
Treatment for language delay can involve story listening and retell, describing or question tasks, as well as activities to highlight grammatical structures.
Stuttering
Children who struggle with Stuttering, or a Fluency Disorder, may repeat the first sound or syllable of a word until they can continue with their sentence. Or they may be stretching out a sound trying to find the next sound. They may even just have a completely silent but tense blocked flow of speech.
Treatment for Stuttering considers not just techniques to manage these disruptors of the flow of speech, but also strategies to manage situations, feelings, and beliefs so that the person can have full quality of life despite stuttering.
Ready to capture your child's next speech goals?
Now that you're empowered with the information on this page, you might be thinking you want to chat with me about your child's speech.
I'd love to hear your concerns. Let's see if AnetSpeech is a good fit for your child's next steps to capture clearer speech sounds!