SPECIALTIES | Speechandvision

MY SPECIALTIES

ARTICULATION DISORDERS

Insightful Possibilities can provide evaluation and therapy to address articulation errors. Articulation errors occur when a child has difficulty understanding the correct use of the tongue, lips, or teeth to produce a specific sound or multiple sounds. These errors may involve saying "wing" for "ring," "wook" for "look", or "thaw" for "saw."

PHONOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Phonological errors occur when a child continues to use developmental phonological patterns of speech, typically used when a child is first learning speech prior to the age of three years, beyond the age of three. Some examples of phonological errors are dropping syllables out of words ("nana" for "banana"), dropping ending sounds off words ("ba" for "ball"), or dropping sounds out of consonant blends ("poon" for "spoon").

CHILDHOOD APRAXIA OF SPEECH

Childhood apraxia of speech occurs when a child has difficulty sequencing the motor movements for speech production. This can result in the child saying a word correctly at one moment, but incorrectly another time. It may be more noticeable when a child says a longer word or sentence. The child often knows what they want to say, but is not able to say the sounds. This disorder often results in significantly unintelligible speech.

FLUENCY DISORDERS

Insightful Possibilities can provide evaluations and therapy to address stuttering in children and adolescents. Fluency disorders involve repetitions, prolongations, blocks, and muscle tension that impact the production of speech. Often times preschool age children exhibit developmentally acceptable dysfluent speech. An evaluation by a speech language pathologist can help determine if a child is exhibiting typical fluency errors or if the errors indicate an actual fluency disorder.

LANGUAGE THERAPY

When a child has difficulty expressing themselves or understanding what is said to them, they may need language therapy. Language therapy can involve teaching children vocabulary skills, how to put words together to make sentences, how to understand and follow directions, or how to use communication skills in social situations. Sometimes a child will have both a speech delay and language delay at the same time and both areas can be treated together.

AUGMENTATIVE ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION

Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) involves all the ways a person can communicate other than talking. It can involve use of gestures, sign language, a picture communication system, writing, and use of computers/tablets to communicate. Insightful Possibilities can help you determine what communication system works best and has the training to make special accommodations for children who have combined vision and communication concerns.

VISION SERVICES

For children who have a vision impairment, Insightful Possibilities is able to offer Functional Vision Assessments, Learning Media Assessments, and Assistive Technology Assessments. Instruction in braille reading and writing is offered, as well as teaching students how to use any vision equipment and compensatory strategies needed in their environment. Consultative services and training for teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents is also available.

CORTICAL VISION IMPAIRMENT

A cortical vision impairment (CVI) is a brain based disorder resulting in difficulty processing visual information. Insightful Possibilities can help children who have CVI by determining what level of CVI they have and provide parents and teachers with information and strategies to help the child better process and access visual information.