We Specialize in
FEEDING
OROFACIAL MYOLOGY
AAC
LANGUAGE DISORDERS
SPEECH SOUND AND MOTOR SOUND DISORDERS
Our team of Speech-Language Pathologists specialize in a variety of services to cater for your child’s speech therapy needs.
We prioritize connection and collaboration with all members of a child’s therapy team, including caregivers, pediatricians, occupational therapists, and more. Before therapy begins, we closely examine a child’s overall profile including factors such as overall medical stability, history, allergies, and cultural or religious accommodations. In our therapy sessions, we implement a relationship-based approach that reduces anxiety, builds functional skills, and increases positive association with speech therapy sessions. Sessions are highly individualized because every child has their own unique preferences and experiences that must be honored. Trust between the child, caregivers, and the therapist are the foundation of the work that we do.
Feeding
What is pediatric feeding disorder
Pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) is defined as impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and is associated with medical, nutritional, feeding skill, and/or psychosocial dysfunction. Feeding disorders can present as refusal of one or many food groups, oral motor deficits making the physical act of feeding difficult, negative behaviors surrounding mealtimes, adverse reactions to introduction of foods, sudden weight loss, decreased acceptance of varying food textures, brand preferences, and more.
How will feeding therapy benefit your child
- Feeding is a combination of coordination and skill, therefore making feeding disorders a multi-faceted issue. A child with a pediatric feeding disorder will benefit from feeding therapy as it will examine all facets, including sensory, medical, psychological, structural, motor and behavioral.
In addition to teaching children the oral motor skills necessary for successful eating and drinking, we target a variety of other feeding skills including: - Exploration of the sensory properties of food
- Development of vocabulary surrounding food
- Identification of signs of distress with feeding
- Strategies for appropriately removing food from the mouth
- Support for caregivers and tangible recommendations that can be used at home
- Social communication at mealtime
How Kid Connections Therapy will help
At Kid Connections Therapy, a trained feeding therapist will work with you and your child to understand the underlying facets that make up your child as an eater. The therapist will provide recommendations to outside providers to gain further information regarding various areas that may be impacting your child. With this information and the support of the team, including the parent and child, we will work with you to implement strategies surrounding mealtimes and food exploration in the home, while also working on oral motor skills necessary for chewing and swallowing. Feeding therapy is not a “one size fits all”, therefore we will work with you, your family, and your child and individualize the approach.
Orofacial Myology
What is Orofacial Myology?
Orofacial Myology is a specialized discipline that focuses on the evaluation and treatment of oral and facial (orofacial) muscles.
Abnormal tongue, jaw, cheek, and lip positioning and coordination can negatively impact oral rest posture and speech/swallowing movements.
How Myofunctional Therapy will benefit your child
Improves your child’s ability to coordinate swallowing/feeding and articulatory movements
Promotes nasal breathing and optimal development of oral structures
Reduces the risk of later development of sleep apnea, TMJ, and dental malocclusions
What KCT does in order to achieve milestones and goals:
Makes individualized assessments, referrals, and treatment based on your child’s needs
Partners with parents to increase carryover of strategies to promote healthy life long habits
Selects age appropriate and motivating therapy activities to keep your child engaged
How Kid Connections Therapy will help
Our therapists will make individualized assessments, referrals, and treatment based on your child’s needs. We selects age appropriate and motivating therapy activities to keep your child engaged.
We partner with parents to increase carryover of strategies to promote healthy life long habits.
What is Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy?
Assessment and treatment of the orofacial complex in order to provide patients with optimal oral rest posture, breathing, swallowing, eating, and speaking patterns.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
What is AAC?
AAC stands for augmentative and alternative communication. Augmentative communication is when something is added to your speech (e.g. sign language, pictures, letter board). Alternative communication is when you experience difficulty with verbal output and need another way to communicate.
AAC is a method of communication that does not require verbal speech output. It can be used in many different forms, such as: No-tech, which is a form of communication using technology, such as sign language, facial expressions and gestures. Low-tech devices, which include communications boards, core-board posters, and word pictures. High-tech devices, which can be iPads, tablets or computers with language software applications on them.
Who would benefit from using AAC?
Individuals with, but not limited to, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Apraxia of Speech, Developmental Delay, Down Syndrome, Traumatic Brain Injury and those who are unable to speak, have some verbal approximations or a few words, or are highly unintelligible may benefit from the implementation of AAC.
How Kid Connections Therapy will help
At Kid Connections Therapy, we will work with your child to see how they are currently communicating and from there, develop a communication approach that works for them. Communication and language development are dynamic and ever-changing, therefore we will always be looking for tools and modalities to assist and support these needs. We will also work closely with families and caregivers to provide resources, recommendations and support regarding their roles in supporting the needs of AAC communicators. We believe that everyone has a voice and that what an individual has to say is important!
Early Childhood Language Disorders
What is a language disorder?
Children who have a language disorder have trouble understanding language and communicating. Our therapists use specialized techniques to help your child learn how to improve their expressive and receptive language abilities.
Very young children who experience language disorders have difficulty developing the ability to understand spoken language and to use language and other forms of communication (e.g., nonverbal communication) to express themselves. These children may also experience delays or difficulties developing social skills, or the ability to interact with others in the way we expect for children their age. Language therapy for young children can help them develop typical language skills and/or to find their best possible means of communication.
How Kid Connections Therapy will help
At Kid Connections, we value caregivers’ and families’ role in supporting a child’s language development, and our therapists use “Parent Coaching” and other evidence-based techniques to support children experiencing language disorders from a wide variety of causes.
Speech Sound and Motor Speech Disorders
What are speech sound disorders?
Speech sound disorders is an umbrella term referring to difficulty or a combination of difficulties with perception, motor production, or phonological representation of speech sounds and speech segments. This include phonotactic rules governing permissible speech sound sequences in a language.
How Kid Connections Therapy will help
Our therapists use effective, evidence-based approaches incorporate the following concepts:
- Movement. Rather than targeting sounds in isolation, or targeting phonological processes, we target speech movement, or the movement of the articulators in order to sequence sounds correctly. Therefore, we may start with working on a child’s movement of their articulators when producing simple CV, VC, or CVC syllables (e.g., no, up, done).
- Frequent and Intensive Practice. We ensure that a child is practicing their targets many times within a treatment session.
- Multisensory input. We provide children with verbal, visual, auditory, and/or tactile cues to support their success with the targeted movements.
Types of speech sound disorders
Speech sound disorders can be broken down into two categories:
1. Organic speech sound disorders
2. Functional speech sound disorders
Organic speech sound disorders:
include disorders secondary to hearing impairment (sensory/perceptual), cleft palate/other orofacial anomalies or structural deficits due to trauma (structural), and dysarthria or apraxia (motor/neurological).
Functional speech sound disorders:
include articulation and phonological disorders. An articulation disorder impacts a child’s motoric ability to produce certain sounds, whereas a phonological disorder involves patterns of errors and typically has linguistic aspects.
Social Groups
Kid Connections Therapy now offers a 9-week program focusing on childhood language development and social expansion.
