Chit Chat Speech Therapy provides neurodiversity-affirming services and a strengths based approach to therapy. Our team of SLP’s has training and expertise in supporting neurodivergent children. We strive to provide individualized, client-centered therapy that is functional and meaningful to your child in all communication environments.
Because of our commitment to providing high quality services while following evidence based therapy approaches, when taken on as a client, your child will be seen for consistent, weekly or even twice a week sessions (if time permits in the SLP’s schedule.) Most therapy approaches require consistent, frequent therapy sessions in order to see the most progress and change in your child’s communication.
Thus, we like to wait until there is a consistent, weekly spot available for your child to begin therapy, so we can provide the best intervention following the research and how the interventions are “prescribed” for the best and quickest progress/outcomes. Your child will remain on the caseload until the therapy process is completed and they have “graduated” or you would like to take a break from sessions.
Our therapy sessions are meaningful, fun and conducted in a play-based approach. Sessions involve targeting your child’s speech and language goals in a child-led, play based approach, while also honoring sensory needs and the individual needs and interests of the child.
Additionally, parent involvement during the sessions and follow up with home practice is recommended to maximize progress. We work together with the child’s family members and school teams to also grow their confidence in implementing strategies to improve your child’s ability to participate and communicate in all environments.
Click to learn more about each type of therapy we offer at Chit Chat.
Refers to how a child produces specific sounds, such as /s/, “th” or /r/. Articulation disorders often involve substitutions of one sound for another (e.g., /w/ for /r/- “wed” for red) or sound distortions, such as a frontal or lateral lisp. According to research, by the age of 5, children should be able to produce almost all sounds correctly.
Refers to how we use individual sounds/the rules for using sounds in language. Children with phonological disorders demonstrate consistent patterned errors of sound substitutions or deletions. For example, when a child is producing the phonological pattern of fronting, they will consistently produce sounds made with the back of the tongue (e.g., /k/ and /g/) with the front of the tongue (e.g., “tea” for key or “dough” for go.) The more phonological patterns a child demonstrates, the more difficult they are to understand. Phonological disorders are typically more severe in nature, due to the number of patterned errors present, compared to articulation disorders or children who demonstrate just one or two sound errors.
Is a motor speech disorder in which the child has difficulty planning and coordinating the oral motor movements required for speech. Children with CAS have difficult saying sounds, syllables and words, not because of muscle weakness, but due to the brain having difficulty planning and coordinating the movements necessary to produce intelligible speech. Children with CAS typically have a good understanding of language and know what they want to say, but their brain has difficulty coordinating and planning the articulatory movements required to say the message. CAS is often confused with other speech sound disorders and it should only be diagnosed by SLP’s with specialized training and expertise. Treatment for CAS should also be provided by SLP’s with more training and expertise in this type of speech sound disorder.
Refers to a child’s ability to expressively use words and sentences to communicate and express their wants and needs, ideas and feelings. Expressive language includes a child’s use of verbal, gestural, or augmentative (AAC) to effectively communicate with others. Children with expressive language delays/disorders may demonstrate difficulty using the expected number of different vocabulary words or sentence/phrase length for their age. They may also have difficulty using correct grammar, word order/sentence structure, and higher level use of vocabulary (e.g., categorization, function, associations, etc.)
Refers to a child’s ability to understand and process spoken language. Children demonstrating difficulties with receptive language, may struggle with following directions, understanding basic concepts, answering questions, understanding stories, understanding vocabulary, etc.
Many autistic individuals present with a gestalt language processing style. This language learning style often first comes presents as long strings of babbling, immediate repeating or scripting. This language style requires a different approach to therapy than the traditional one for analytic language processors.
Refers to the ability to hear, segment, and manipulate sounds, syllables, and words of spoken language. These skills are considered the "building blocks" children need to learn to develop strong reading and writing abilities. Some examples of phonological awareness skills include; rhyming, syllable segmentation (clapping syllables in words), phoneme segmentation, phoneme blending, sound identification, etc.
I highly recommend Jayden Fenrich! She worked wonders with my son. He's gained so much knowledge from her! Using it in daily practice. I myself as a parent have also learned a lot from her. She's very informative. Would use her services again in a heartbeat!
