Language Disorders
This is a disorder which impairs a person’s ability to formulate, process, and express their thoughts and ideas out loud or in written form. “Language” is actually more of an umbrella term, as it encompasses many specific skills including prelinguistic skills (e.g., joint attention, sharing interest), para-linguistic skills (e.g., gestures, signs, body language), listening, understanding vocabulary, reading and literacy, using words appropriately, producing age-appropriate phrases or sentences, engaging with peers socially, and using age-appropriate grammar. Some children with language disorders may only have difficulty in one or two of these skill areas, while other children may need more supports.
MY APPROACH
I tailor each therapy session to work specifically on the impaired concepts.
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Literacy Disorders
Literacy disorders are characterized by difficulties understanding letter-sound relationships (knowing that the letter T makes the /t/ sound), blending sounds into words, segmenting and manipulating sounds in words, reading at grade level, understanding rhyming words, making sense of vocabulary used in a reading passage or story, and understanding/using written language. Literacy disorders can also impact a child’s ability to spell. Literacy disorders usually emerge in kindergarten and those issues may compound as children reach upper elementary and middle-high school grades once they are no longer “learning to read” but must “read to learn”.
MY APPROACH
I will assess the specific aspects of literacy where breakdowns are occurring. This usually means looking at your child’s ability to read short-complex words/phrases/sentences or I may need to see whether your child’s issues are rooted in early developing literacy skills (such as your child’s ability to detect and manipulate sounds within words, hear and produce rhyming word pairs, and/or a child’s knowledge of letter-sound relationships).
After a literacy assessment my goals will be tailored to the specific pattern of strengths and weaknesses noted during testing. I do not use any one specific curriculum for literacy treatment, but instead take a systematic, cumulative literacy approach while incorporating evidence-based strategies. Most (reputable) literacy curriculums are based on systematic literacy instruction methods. One example is Lively Letters™, which has been clinically-proven to improve phonemic awareness, phonetic decoding, and oral reading and reduce referrals for early intervention and special education services.
My intention is to provide parents with a knowledge base and practical strategies so that they can help their child when reviewing literacy skills at home outside of therapy.
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