Areas of Expertise:

Phonological Processing Disorder: focuses on predictable, rule-based errors (e.g., fronting, stopping, final consonant deletion, etc.) that affect more than one sound. These errors are patterned in nature and can be treated as a process rather than by individual sound error.

Apraxia: a motor speech disorder that makes it hard to speak. It can take a lot of work to learn to say sounds and words better. When a child has apraxia of speech, the messages do not get through correctly. The child might not be able to move their lips or tongue in the right ways, even though their muscles are not weak. Sometimes, the child might not be able to say much at all.

Articulation Disorder: Difficulty producing speech sounds correctly. Focus on errors (e.g., distortions and substitutions) in production of individual speech sounds. 

Dysarthria: Dysarthria often causes slurred or slow speech that can be difficult to understand. Common causes of dysarthria include nervous system disorders and conditions that cause facial paralysis or tongue or throat muscle weakness. Certain medications also can cause dysarthria.

Accent Modification: Accents are the unique way in which we speak. However, accents can sometimes make it hard for you to talk with other people. People may not understand your accent. You may get frustrated because you have to repeat yourself a lot. People may focus more on your accent than on what you say. These problems can make work, school, or other activities harder. You may feel that if you had a different accent, you would be able to talk to people more easily. You may decide that you want to change your accent, a little bit or a lot.

Receptive Language Disorder: Having difficulty understanding language. This can include difficulties with the following: following directions, understanding questions, understanding object use/meaning, identifying common nouns/verbs, reasoning, inferential thinking, etc.

Expressive Language Disorder: Having difficulty using language. This can include difficulties with the following: combining words, using new words, expanding vocabulary, imitating, sequencing, storytelling, etc.

Literacy: Impairments in pre-reading skills, phonological awareness, reading comprehension, and written expression.

Auditory Processing: a disorder that effects how the brain hears/perceives and interprets spoken word. Signs and symptoms can include: difficulty understanding spoken language in competing messages in noisy backgrounds, taking longer to respond in oral communication situations, frequent requests for repetitions, saying “what” and “huh” frequently, inconsistent or inappropriate responding, difficulty comprehending and following rapid speech, difficulty learning songs or nursery rhymes, misunderstanding messages, difficulty paying attention or being easily distracted associated reading, spelling, and learning problems.

Fluency: An interruption in the forward flow of speech. These can include sound, part-word, whole-word, and phrase-repetitions, sound prolongations, blocks, revisions, not finishing a thought completely, and interjections.

Pragmatic/Social Language: The way in which we communicate verbally or non-verbally with the world around us. This can include difficulty with theory of mind, impaired conversational skills, difficulty interacting with peers, limited ability to understand the ‘rules’ of social interactions.

AAC: the use of various modes, that supplement (“augment”) or replace (“alternative”) one’s natural speech to enhance or facilitate his/her communicative success. Communication purposes can include getting desires met, protesting, making choices, and expressing feelings. AAC may also support transitions or literacy development. Some types include but are not limited to: visual schedules/Aides, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), communication boards/books (i.e., PODD), speech-Generated devices – devices which have synthetic or recorded voice output, iPad, Dynavox, switches, sign language. These will not inhibit verbal output, in fact, they may help to enhance it.

Cognition: Cognitive-communication abilities are those thought processes that allow humans to function successfully and interact meaningfully with each other. Many processes make up cognitive-communication. Examples of these are: orientation, attention, memory, problem solving, and executive function. This can be due to ADHD, aging, or traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Aphasia: This is the loss of ability to understand or express speech caused by brain injury or disfunction. This can include: speaking in short sentences, speaking in sentences that don’t make sense, word substitutions, speaking unrecognizable words, not understanding other’s conversations, writing sentences that don’t make sense.

Autism: refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. You may notice difficulties with limited smiling, limited eye contact, little or no babbling, no response to name, no back and forth gestures, limited engagement, loss of previously acquired speech, etc.