SPEECH THERAPY FOR TODDLERS AND PRESCHOOLERS

Care2Communicate have provided therapy for many young children using engaging and play based learning techniques to keep therapy fun, whilst ensuring communication difficulties are targeted. We work side by side with pre-school educators and parents to help ensure the child’s support networks are able to apply the techniques outside of therapy and facilitate the child’s speech and language development across all learning environments. Families often experience stress and confusion around whether their child is developing speech and language skills at the normal age expectations. Our speech pathologists are highly skilled in assessing and determining whether your child is reaching developmental milestones. Their focus will be on the following areas:

· Expressive language (use): Ability to communicate through early sounds and gestures, labeling, combining words, answering questions, retelling stories/events, using grammar and verbs in phrase and sentence construction and maintaining conversation. 

· Receptive Language (understanding):  Developing skills for joint attention, listening, auditory processing, following directions and understanding of language concepts and questions. 

· Speech articulation (pronunciation): We focus on your child’s speech sounds in syllables, words and sentences to help correct speech errors that make it difficult for your child to be understood (e.g. lisps, substitution of sound where ‘cat’ becomes ‘tat’)

· Pragmatic Skills (social skills): A focus on your child’s ability to understand the social language skills that make up every day interactions in a range on contexts, including, eye contact, greetings, gestures, body language, facial expressions, turn taking, gaining someone’s attention etc. We look at the child’s ability to use these modes of communication appropriately across different social situations and contexts.

· Voice: Looking at your child’s voice quality (e.g. hoarse or strained voice) or voice use (e.g. frequent screaming)

· Fluency (stuttering): Focusing on the flow/smoothness of your child’s speech without stuttering.

PRESCHOOL SCREENING

At Care2Communicate we believe early detection and intervention is key in order to reduce the severity of speech and language delays/disorders presenting in school aged children. To determine whether a child’s speech and language is developmentally appropriate, Care2Communicate offer pre-school screeners (maximum of 20 minutes), which include a brief report. This includes an outline of the child’s skills, areas of difficulty and recommendations regarding the child’s communication development as per expectation for their age. The screening process offers parents and educators insight into the child’s capabilities and what skills need to be developed to be school ready. Comprehensive assessments are also offered to allow our therapists to develop specific programs for the child to target their areas of difficulty and ensure school readiness.