FAQ's Regarding Speech Services

  1. How can students receive speech language therapy services?


    Students can be referred for an evaluation through a referral to the Student Support Team by his or her classroom teacher or they may be referred by a parent. After parent consent is received, students are evaluated using appropriate, standardized test batteries and recommendations are made based on test scores, as well as, clinician observations and judgements.



  2. How does a speech language pathologist provide services to students in a school setting?


    Speech language pathologists integrate students’ speech and language goals with academic and social goals by implementing classroom objectives into therapy activities. Speech language pathologists assist children with understanding and correctly using basic language concepts as they relate to classroom and social learning within the classroom. 

    Speech language therapy can be provided in diverse ways, depending on the student’s individual needs. Some common options for therapy include:

    • Monitoring or tracking the student’s speech and language skills across a period of time. 

    • Collaboration with teachers, colleagues and parents regarding a student's communication and learning needs. Strategies can be provided to better assist a student’s ability to learn in his/her classroom.

    • Push-in therapy occurs when a therapist comes to a student’s classroom to provide therapy within the academic setting. 

    • Small group or individual speech therapy sessions occur when a child comes to the therapy room for direct services pertaining to their goals. 

    • A combination of these services can be provided to a student depending on his/her individual needs. 

  3. What skills can speech language pathologists work on with students?

    Speech Production 

    • Articulation - therapists work to improve sounds and/or decrease the use of phonological processes that impact the intelligibility of speech

    • Oral Motor Skills - therapists target the awareness, mobility, strength and coordination of the articulators (tongue, jaw, cheeks etc.)

    Language

    • Therapists will work to improve a students understanding and use of language, grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, linguistic concepts ( spatial/location, temporal/time, quantity/number and quality/describing) and conversational skills

    • Pragmatic Language - Therapists will teach students to use and understand body language ( e.g. gestures, facial expressions, eye contact), taking turns in conversation and  use of appropriate volume, speed, intonation and body distance.

    Auditory Processing

    • Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) occurs when a child can't understand what they hear in the same way other children do. The child’s ears and brain have difficulty communicating. A child’s brain has difficulty recognizing and interpreting sounds, especially speech.

    • If your child has difficulties with Auditory Processing it is recommended that an audiologist complete an Auditory Processing Evaluation in order to determine if the disorder exists.

    • Therapy for a child with CAPD may involve all or some of the following:

      • Direct skills remediation (e.g. auditory discrimination, auditory pattern recognition, sound localization and lateralization etc.)

      • Compensatory strategies (e.g.use of graphic organizers, phonological awareness, use of context to understand and build vocabulary, active listening strategies etc.)

      • Environmental modifications (changing the learning or communication environment).

    Phonological Awareness

    • Therapists will work to build a child’s ability to understand and manipulate sounds and syllables in words. Phonological awareness is an essential skill involved in learning to read.

    • Tasks to improve phonological awareness may include segmenting words into syllables, identifying rhyming words, blending sounds etc.

    Fluency

    • Fluency means the smoothness with which sounds, syllables, words and phrases are joined together during connected speech.

    • If a child has difficulty with fluency this may present as stuttering.

    Voice

    • A voice disorder can be identified if speech is too high, low, or monotonous in pitch; interrupted by breaks, too loud or soft volume; or exhibiting  harsh, hoarse, breathy or nasal quality. 

    Feeding and swallowing

    • Students must be safe while eating in school, and they must maintain adequate nutrition to fully access the educational curriculum.

    • SLP’s can assist with determining safety of food  and liquid consistencies. A child may require a modified diet in order to safety consume food (e.g. thickened fluids or more finely chopped foods etc.)

    • SLP’s can assist with determining the safest postural position for swallowing depending on the child’s specific anatomy and physiology. 

    • SLP’s can also determine accommodations to the environment (e.g. increased time for food consumption), as well as adaptive equipment that may assist the child with safer swallowing (e.g. adaptive cups, spoons and plates, and use of dycem to hold plates, cups and utensils in place etc.).

  1. How can you build great communication skills at home?

  • When your child talks to you, pay attention to them. Ask them questions or comment on what they are saying to show them you are interested in their communication.

  • Before you speak or give important information to your child, make sure they are listening to you. 

  • Pause after you speak. This will give your child time to respond.

  • Play age appropriate board games with your child. You should encourage turn taking skills, as well as, talking about the game (e.g. Do you want to be red or blue? Who should go first? It’s your turn. Who’s turn is it?). Encourage your child to talk and have fun!

  • Encourage listening skills by giving your child simple directions to follow (e.g. At the grocery store, ask your child to put the pasta in the cart. Have them help set the table, tell them to place the fork next to the plate. etc.). Once they can easily follow a one step direction, ask a two step or three step direction (e.g. Go to your room and bring back your book.)

  • Read to your child. Discuss words they may not know in the story. Talk about the words that begin with a certain sound or letter and have your child listen for the sound or find the letters. Have your child retell the story to you in their own words. 

  • If your child is working on a particular sound in speech therapy, you should give reminders to say the sound correctly when he or she is talking. Talk with your therapist about when the time for this is appropriate. 

  • Children can practice saying sounds with a variety of activities in the home. Be sure

    to check with your child’s SLP for the specific sounds to target as well as some engaging

    ways to work on those sounds. Your SLP can provide guidance as to the specific needs of

    your child. Some ways to practice articulation could be having your child say their sound: when naming items around the house, cleaning/picking up toys, practicing for a few minutes while driving in the car, finding items at the grocery store that begin with their sound, and anyway you want to creatively incorporate their targeted speech sound.