Services
consultation
A free, initial consultation by phone, video, or in-person is available to new clients. It provides you the opportunity to ask questions, review options, and determine the best path forward for your child's needs. Initial consultations may include informal screenings, observation, parent and student interviews, and pertinent background information, such as prior testing and developmental and health history.
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Consultative services are also available for the purposes of IEP Review, ongoing collaboration, and participation in IEP meetings.
evaluation
Formal evaluations allow for the development of a comprehensive profile of strengths and weaknesses in the area(s) of demonstrated need. They may include but are not limited to standardized assessments, observation, informal measures, parent and teacher input, child and family health, school and social history, and a review of prior assessment results. Because every child's needs are unique, the initial consultation will serve to provide information regarding the expected time and cost of a formal assessment.
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Following the data-driven, evidence-based evaluation process, which can be spread over several sessions, you will receive a detailed formal report, describing your child's strengths and needs, an interpretive analysis of patterns of performance, diagnosis, recommendations for school accommodations and treatment, and treatment goals, when warranted.
intervention
When treatment is indicated, a personalized plan that fits your family's needs will be developed. Treatment options include individual and small group therapy sessions that may span 30, 45, or 60 minutes on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Each session includes direct and indirect treatment time to allow for family involvement, parent education, and documentation of progress.
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Therapy sessions are designed to be engaging. Depending upon your child's needs, play may be an integral part of the intervention process. At Holding Hands Speech we believe that we learn best when material is enjoyable and relevant within the context of a caring, positive, and respectful relationship.
Areas of Need
Specializing in the treatment and evaluation of children and teens
ages 4 to 15 years of age
with difficulties in one or more of the following areas:
speech
Articulation Disorder: Atypical speech development that may include sound substitutions, omissions, additions, transpositions, and distortions. One error or many may make it difficult for others to understand your child.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A motor planning disorder that makes it challenging to produce the movements necessary for speech production. You may notice errors that are inconsistent, difficulty with vowels, or unusual movements or the lips and tongue.
Phonological Disorder: Patterns of speech production employed by young children as a means to simplify speech that are utilized past the age at which most children have outgrown them. Children often delete the beginning or ending sounds of words, use only a handful of sounds to represent many, or use a "w" sound for "r" and "l."
Stuttering: Speech that is characterized by the repetition of sounds, syllables, and words, the prolongation of individual sounds, and/or a complete break in speech production and may also include struggle, tension, and negative feelings related to communication.
language
Oral Language Disorder - Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder - Developmental Language Disorder - Language-Based Learning Disabilities - Language Delay - Late Talkers
A significant impairment in the ability to comprehend and/or use spoken language, also known as listening and speaking. Impairments may occur across any of the five language domains:
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Phonology - Understanding and developing the rules for the sound system in a language - these are the precursors to reading acquisition, also known as phonological awareness. Your child may struggle with rhyming, hearing differences between sounds, or segmenting, blending, and manipulating sounds in words.
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Morphology - Understanding and using the smallest units of language, such as -s to mark plurals, -ed to mark regular past tense, and small words such as pronouns and articles. Your child may use incorrect pronouns, have difficulty relaying past tense, or may have difficulty following directions containing age-appropriate prepositions (e.g., in, on, under).
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Syntax - Understanding and using correct word order and complex sentence structure. Your child may mix up words in sentences, struggle to understand complex language, or use only simple sentences to relay their thoughts.
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Semantics - Understanding and relaying of meaning - vocabulary and content. Your child may struggle to understand stories read aloud, acquire new vocabulary, or may struggle to retrieve the correct words when speaking.
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Pragmatics - Understanding and using language in context. Your child may struggle with taking conversational turns, maintaining a topic, or experience difficulty understanding facial expressions and body language.
Written Language Disorder - Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder - Developmental Language Disorder - Language-Based Learning Disabilities - Dyslexia - Dysgraphia
A significant impairment in the comprehension and use of written language, also known as reading and writing. Impairments may occur across any of the five language domains:
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Phonology - Alphabetic awareness, reading words, and spelling. Your child may exhibit difficulty in learning to read and/or spell or be unable to break down new words to read them.
Morphology - Word endings, grammatical markers, sight word recognition. Your child may have difficulty understanding the nuances of written text, for example, they may not understand that the sentence was talking about something that happened yesterday. Your child may struggle with punctuation to mark possessive nouns and pronouns or contractions (e.g., cannot=can't).
Syntax - Word order and complex structure. Your child may not understand sentences containing conjunctions (e.g., because, but, although) or be able to use more complex language when writing. Your child may struggle with punctuation in complex sentences or understanding how to use other writing conventions, such as capitals to begin a sentence.
Semantics - Understanding and relaying of meaning - vocabulary and content. Your child may struggle to understand stories they read, acquire new vocabulary while reading, or may struggle to use new vocabulary in their written language. They have difficulty understanding certain types of figurative language, such as idioms (e.g., It's raining cats and dogs).
Pragmatics - Understanding and using language in context. Your child may struggle with understanding a character's point of view and the author's purpose or developing a story that relays their intended meaning in an organized and cohesive manner.
Speech and Language Disorders may occur by themselves or as part of other medical diagnoses, such as autism, hearing loss, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, other genetic syndromes, brain injury, prematurity, and fetal alcohol syndrome.
