Our services.

Toddler plays with barn animals with speech-language therapist.

In-clinic and online appointments.

Come visit us at our Point Loma office for naturalistic speech therapy and occupational therapy! In addition to clinic appointments, North Star’s online services make it easy for your child to receive an evaluation and therapy on your schedule. We accept Tricare Prime, Tricare Select, San Diego Regional Center (SDRC) payments, self-determination program (SDP) payments, health savings account (HSA) payments, flexible spending account (FSA) payments, and private pay. Our rates are as follows

25 minutes: $67.50 -$75
50 minutes: $135 -$150
Evaluation: $310 -$350

Prices include prompt pay discount for HSA, FSA, and private pay when payment is made on the day-of the appointment.

Each speech therapy or occupational therapy appointment includes individualized, evidence-based treatment, parent coaching, and a personalized home plan.

Dr. Katherine, a speech pathologist, explains language strategies to parent.

Speech-language evaluations and therapy.

Our strengths-based speech and language assessments identify areas of strength, emerging skills, and skills that have not yet emerged in the areas of speech (talking with the mouth), receptive language (understanding words), expressive language (using words), and social communication across all modalities. The goal of a speech and language evaluation is to better understand how therapy can improve the client’s ability to communicate in the ways that are important to them.

North Star specializes in speech-language pathology and parent coaching for: early intervention (babies and toddlers), children diagnosed with autism and early signs of autism, speech sound disorders, childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), child language disorders, minimally-verbal, nonverbal, or nonspeaking individuals, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) or speech-generating device (SGD) users. We also support teens and adults who have difficulty communicating due to a developmental diagnosis or disability.

Child sits on floor and plays with toy, speech-language pathologist holds toys.

Occupational therapy evaluations and treatment.

North Star’s occupational therapists (OTs) identify areas of strength, emerging skills, and skills that have not yet emerged in the areas of sensory processing, motor coordination, self-care skills, and executive functioning. The goal of an occupational therapy evaluation is to better understand how therapy can improve a client’s ability to participate meaningfully in the daily tasks that are important to them.

Our occupational therapists specialize in: early intervention (babies and toddlers), children diagnosed with autism and early signs of autism, motor differences, community participation, self-care and daily living skills, and prevocational skills. We also support teens and adults who have difficulty participating in activities of daily living due to a developmental diagnosis or disability.

During virtual speech-language therapy appointment, mother and teenage son laugh, speech pathologist (inset) coaches parent.

Caregiver coaching

Research evidence suggests that children whose caregivers receive parent coaching make faster progress that children whose parents don’t. Most speech therapy and occupational therapy includes parent education, where the therapist might speak with you for a few minutes at the end of the appointment and give you a handout with strategies to practice at home. Parent coaching is different. During parent coaching, you are included as an active participant throughout each speech or occupational therapy appointment. North Star’s parent coaching includes didactic instruction as part of a triad (you, the client, and the therapist), opportunities to practice with your child, self-reflection, and feedback. If your child already receives SLP or OT services with a different provider and/or you prefer to receive weekly therapy from an in-network provider, supplemental parent coaching, once or twice per month, can help you learn strategies to speed your child’s progress, reduce stress, and feel empowered in how to guide your child.

Contact us for more information.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) evaluations, programming, and training.

North Star completes evaluations for speech generating devices (SGDs) for Tricare Prime and Tricare Select enrollees. We can also complete evaluations and make recommendations for individuals who wish to self-fund purchase of a speech generating device.

In addition, North Star is thrilled to partner with the California Department of Rehabilitation to offer access to the Voice Options Program through a grant from the CA Public Utilities Commission. Through Voice Options, any Californian who is nonspeaking, nonverbal, or has difficulty communication can receive a free augmentative-alternative communication device and up to three house of training or therapy. Read more about the Voice Options Program and how you can get a free iPad with an AAC app (such as TouchChat, LAMP Words for Life, TD Snap, Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4Text) to use as an AAC device.

Our SLPs specialize in AAC assessments, programming, and training. We can support you in individualizing your AAC device to meet your needs, in addition to teaching device-users, parents, caregivers, and other providers how to use the device.

Two people sit and face each other. Their bodies and hands are visible but not their heads.

Gender expansive voice therapy.

North Star’s voice therapist, Olivia, provides gender expansive voice therapy for individuals experiencing voice incongruence. Transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) folks can utilize Gender expansive (or gender-affirming) voice therapy techniques to safely make changes to communication patterns to be congruent with your gender identity.

Contact us for more information!