Speech & Language Therapy

Speech & Language Therapy (SLT) helps the child realize his or her maximum communicative ability. The Speech Language Therapist assesses the child’s communicative ability and then prioritizes the intervention goals that best meet the child’s needs. Intervention can begin with the child in an individual session, in a group setting or in consultation with the staff or parents.

Speech & Language therapeutic intervention for the child may cover developing basic communication (pre-linguistic) skills, verbal comprehension, spoken vocabulary, sentence expansion, articulation, voice, and a more efficient respiratory system. For some children, an alternative and/or augmentative communication (AAC) system may be introduced such as signing, object/picture communication system or specific AAC devices to enhance overall communication.

Another important area that SLTs address is the development of appropriate feeding skills and maintenance of safe swallowing for the child.