Speech production.
Help your child speak more clearly!
By the time your child is 3 years old, you should understand 75% of what they say. By the time your child is 4 years old, you should understand 100% of what they say. A child who is difficult to understand might have a speech sound disorder (SSD). A speech sound disorder can manifest in a number of ways, for example, a lisp (difficulty saying the “s” sound), errors with R (parents sometimes say “my child sounds like they’re from England or Boston”), or more broad errors (mixing up letter sounds like saying “tat” for “cat” or leaving sounds entirely off words, like saying “ah ee” for “doggy”). Check out our blog post on intelligibility to learn more.
North Star can help.
During an initial speech-language evaluation, your child’s speech-language pathologist will assess their speech production skills and differentially diagnose the cause of their their difficulty saying sounds correctly. The most common cause of sound errors is phonological disorder (sound error patterns); other less common causes include apraxia (motor planning and movement difficulties) and dysarthria (weakness). North Star’s speech therapists use research to create an individualized therapy plan for your child. Therapy for speech sound disorders may include direct instruction for sound production, practicing sounds and words during reading or play, and parent coaching to help you learn how to practice with your child outside of therapy. Depending on your child’s age and sound errors, therapy may be more play-based or more drill-based. Therapy for speech sound disorders should include lots of repetition, typically with the goal of practicing the target sound 60-100 times per session.
Why choose North Star?
North Star’s speech therapists have expertise in remediation of “s” and “z” errors (lisp), “r” errors, pervasive error patterns (phonological disorder), and motor planning and movement difficulties (childhood apraxia of speech). Does your child already get speech therapy at school through an Individualized Education Plan (IEP)? Speech therapy at school can be helpful, but it can often take children years of therapy at school to speak at an age-appropriate level. Private therapy can speed your child’s progress, which limits the amount of time they miss class for therapy. At North Star, speech therapy is individualized and one-on-one, with a focus on repetitive practice, application of clinical research, and parent coaching, to help your child make changes as quickly as possible.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) or “apraxia” refers to difficulty executing motor planning and motor movements for speaking. CAS is relatively rare, but can greatly impact a child’s ability to communicate. Children with CAS often have difficulty initiating speaking, so they may be quiet babies or have a hard time making any sounds when they get older. CAS can also make children very difficult to understand because movement between sounds, syllables, and words is challenging. If you suspect your child has CAS or your child has already been diagnoses with CAS, it is important to find a speech-language therapist who has experience treating this disorder and uses research to drive treatment techniques. There are many treatments that claim to improve speaking skills in children with CAS (such as PROMPT or TalkTools); however, there is poor or low quality research supporting the efficacy of these techniques (“pseudoscience”). North Star’s speech therapists specializes in evaluation and treatment of CAS utilizing research-supported techniques such as Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cuing (DTTC) and Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment (ReST).