Speech-Language Pathology

Speech-language pathology involves evaluating how people speak and communicate, and providing support to improve, manage, or prevent speech and language difficulties. It also focuses on helping individuals develop, maintain, or regain their oral motor and/or communication skills.

SLP’s scope of clinical practice includes the provision of assessment, treatment and consultation services for:

  • Language delay and disorders

  • Speech delays and disorders including apraxia, dysarthria, and motor speech impairment

  • Communication disorders related to autism, developmental delays, learning disabilities, head injuries, cognitive disorders, hearing impairment and progressive neurological diseases

  • Literacy

  • Written communication

  • Stuttering

  • Alternative and augmentative communication needs

  • Structural anomalies of speech and voice mechanisms

SLP for
Children & Youth

Assessment

Speech-Language Therapy for children and youth

The roles and expectations for children are very different from those of adults. Play is considered the primary occupation of childhood, as it allows children to explore, learn, and interact with their environment.

Speech-Language therapists understand how essential communication is for children to access and engage with the world around them. When a child has difficulty being understood or understanding others, it can affect their ability to fully participate at home, at school, and in play.

Speech-Language therapists work with children and their families to support communication development. Whether a child is slow to start talking, struggles with certain sounds, stutters, or has difficulty understanding language, therapy can help build the skills needed to connect and express themselves. Through assessment and treatment, a trained Speech-Language therapist will identify areas of strength and need, and provide support to help your child grow in confidence and share their thoughts, ideas, and personality with family, peers, and the community.

Speech-Language Therapy can help with

Articulation

Articulation is the term we use to describe how one says speech sounds. When someone talks, do you notice anything about how they sound? Maybe they say their “s” differently than you, maybe they said a “t” when you were expecting a “k”, or maybe you don’t know what exactly is going on; you just know that you can’t understand some or a lot of what they say. Working on articulation means working on having clear speech that everyone can understand. It could be as simple as working on a couple of sounds that they have difficulty with or it could be like working a whole pattern of errors. A pattern of errors means that you can predict what errors they will make depending on the nature of the sound.

Motor Speech

The difficulty with motor speech disorder lies in the motor pathway from the brain to the muscles of the mouth. This can lead to speech that is difficult to understand by others and it is difficult to describe how it sounds since it’s different each time. For example, saying the same word may result in five different errors. It can also impact how vowels sound. Working on motor speech disorder is targeted to help build up the appropriate motor pathways for clearer speech, using motor learning principles in therapy.

Receptive Language

Receptive language is the term used to describe one’s ability to understand language around them. Are they able to understand questions (e.g. who, what, where, when, why, how)?Can they follow one-step directions and multiple-step directions? Do they understand concepts like wet/dry, clean/dirty, on/under, in/out? Do they understand pronouns? Receptive language is vital for connecting with those around us, for academic success, and for engaging with the world. Working on receptive language in therapy will build up the skills mentioned above through play, games, worksheets, or conversation; whatever works best for your child. It can also reveal what techniques can facilitate better understanding that you can use at home and at school.  

Expressive Language

Expressive language is the term we use to describe how one can express themself with language. It’s how they use language to get their needs met, to share their thoughts, and to state their opinions. It’s how they answer and ask questions at school, it’s how they make friends, it’s how they tell you about their day during dinner. Are they able to form negative sentences? Can they combine two ideas into the same phrase using connecting words? Are they able to use the appropriate grammar? Working on expressive language are for those kids who may have difficulties in these areas.

Fluency

This service is for children that have difficulty with fluent speech (i.e., they repeat sounds of words [“t-t-t-take me home”], parts of words [“sm-sm-sm-small fries please”], whole words [“I I I I need the bathroom”] or parts of a phrase [“what do-what-do-what do you mean”], they have silent blocks in their speech, or they have prolonged sounds in their speech [“ssssssssssorrry’]). Therapy would work on building up techniques that your child can use when they need or want more fluent speech.

Social Language

Social language is the term we use to describe our ability to use language in social settings. It encompasses skills like understanding jokes, reading between the lines, knowing how to start a conversation, how to end a conversation, knowing that conversations require each person to take a turn, knowing literal and figurative language. Social language encompasses all the unspoken rules of how we communicate in social settings that society expects kids to learn just by being exposed to social settings growing up. Working on social language involves explicitly teaching these social language rules and applying them in role-playing scenarios.

Literacy

Literacy is the term used to describe one’s ability to read and write effectively. Do they understand the words they are reading? Can they understand the content over multiple sentences. Are they able to write out their thoughts? How is their spelling? Literacy is required for so many skills in life. Not only do we need literacy to succeed at school but we need to it succeed in every part of life afterward. Post-secondary education, banking, bills, contracts that are signed for services and jobs, applying for jobs, taking transit, travelling, ALL require literacy. Building up these skills early are essential for success in life!

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

AAC is the term used to describe any mode of communication other than speaking. It can be used in conjunction with speaking, or on its own. It can look like symbols that one points to while requesting, speech-generating devices (high-technology) that are part of an iPad or tablet or a big button that generates a whole phrase whenever it is pressed. It could also look like someone writing out the key words in their message while they talk. This service benefits children who require something additional to their own voice to get their needs and wants communicated.

Speech-Language Therapy assessment

Your Speech-Language Therapist will assess your child’s needs across a variety of areas. The assessment includes both standardized and non-standardized measures to provide a comprehensive picture of your child’s development.

Once the assessment is complete, a full report will be provided including recommendations as well as education and feedback for families. In collaboration with the caregivers, realistic goals are created to best address the child’s needs at that time.

Intervention is customized to meet those needs and to ensure that they can improve their ability to perform in their regular occupations and achieve their goals. Changes to the intervention plan and intensity of treatment can occur at any time depending on the progress of the child.

Ready to begin your journey?

Whether you’re looking for support for yourself or a loved 
one, we’re here to provide the care and guidance you need.