Therapy for Late Talkers
Speech-Language Pathologists can support children with their early/emerging communication skills. We can help children who use less words than expected for their age and children who are behind in their milestones and averages. We can show you how you can teach your child to use new words. Check out our parent information on milestones to see if your child's skills are where they should be!
We encourage parents to access services even if their child is slightly "behind" and to reach out if they are feeling concerned. Parents, often you have a really good sense of when there might be something "going on" with your child! Do you get the feeling that your child is talking less? Or using less words? Or is overall lagging behind their friends, or their siblings at the same age? Please reach out to us for a free consultation! We discourage parents from taking a "wait and see" approach - get some support now and learn how you can encourage your child's speech and language development. Accessing supports early (early intervention is best!) results in better outcomes and less therapy required overall in the long run.
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Many of the activities and strategies we use (and will teach you) are also fantastic for children learning language within their normal developmental range. Even if you have no concerns about your child's speech and language development, you can also come chat with us about creating a language-rich environment to further facilitate and enhance your child's speech and language learning. We give ideas for how you can help your child talk more.
What do we work on?
Expressive Language
Using Language
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Important words to help your child:
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Request for their wants and needs​
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Comment when they see something exciting and interesting
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Ask questions
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Answer questions
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Describe what they see
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Protesting appropriately using words
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Combine words into phrases and sentences ​
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Increasing the number of words used in a phrase
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Increasing their vocabulary and the number of words used
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Initiate communication independently
Receptive Language
Understanding Language
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Following directions
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Understand basic concepts​​
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Whole-body listening skills
What does therapy look like?
We will work with you to find a format fits your child's and your family's needs the best. We currently offer both in-home and teletherapy sessions.
Play-Based Sessions
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Our sessions are play-based. Young children learn best in play because they are interested and engaged. We are experts using play to target expressive and receptive language the same time.
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We use play-based techniques and strategies to help develop your child's language. We structure and modify the activities to target specific language goals. We aim to help your child learn and practice language concepts in situations that are similar to when they would actually need it in their day-to-day life! This form of therapy increases the child's success in using their new language skills in their regular conversations and activities outside of structured practice.
We keep the sessions fun because communicating and interacting with people should be motivating!
Parent-Coaching
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Sessions will include teaching and showing parents how to directly support their child. When we work with your child, we will show you how to do the same strategies and activities to support your child's ability to learn to use and understand more words. We want to show you how you can help your child talk more, use more words and pick up language faster!
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We will show you what words to focus your efforts on, how to teach your child new words, and how to create motivating opportunites for them to practice.
We are passionate about parent education and empowerment because parent involvement leads to the greatest improvements. We also want to show you all the great things you are already doing, so that you can be confident in building upon your existing skills!
Language-Rich Environments
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We discuss with you about how you can use your existing activities (e.g., laundry, cooking, car rides) to practice language concepts. We will give you activity and game ideas tailored to your child's goals so that they have many opportunities to hear and use more language.
We will also talk about how to promote pre-literacy skills (foundation skills for reading in the future).
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Communication opportunities are all around us! There are many chances you can help your child use and understand more words.
What treatment approaches do we use?
Hanen Approaches
The Hanen Centre has developed a series of treatment approaches dedicated to supporting parents and educators of young children to use their daily interactions to build lifelong social, language and literacy skills. Research shows that parental involvement in a child's early intervention is critical, as children learn best at home where they are motivated to communicate with the important people in their lives.
The Hanen approaches are evidence-based coaching programs based on principles of adult learning. The goal is to train the adults in a child's life to use simple, effective strategies to facilitate communication development during every day conversations. Traditionally, Hanen sessions are delivered to parents and educators via online or in-person group classes, though the principles can be adapted and used in one-on-one coaching as well.
For more information, please visit hanen.org​
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SCERTS Framework
We support children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families based on the SCERTS™ model (SC: Social Communication, ER: Emotional Regulation, TS: Transactional Support). SCERTS is an evidence-based model to help the child become a competent and confident social communicator, who is able to express themselves spontaneously with a variety of messages. As well, the SCERTS model supports the child's ability to learn and apply functional and relevant skills in the different situations they may encounter each day. Within this model, we collaborate with families and focus on abilities and supports that "lead to the most positive long-term outcomes as indicated by National Research Council (2001; Educating Children with Autism)"
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For more information please visit scerts.com
