FAQs

Children with severe food aversions are often referred to as resistant eaters, picky eaters or problem eaters.

Resistant/problem eaters have a limited food repertoire and are also particular about specific details including brands, food presentation, temperature, etc. Resistant/problem eaters often have a difficult time when new food items are presented, resulting in negative behaviors including, crying, tantrums, and food refusal.

While typically developing children who are “picky eaters” will not starve themselves or make themselves ill, problem or resistant eaters might. Mealtime should be a time of positive interaction and exploration. When mealtimes become stressful, anxious, and/or a struggle, I recommend feeding therapy.

– Sensory motor feeding therapy: Sensory motor feeding therapy (i.e. managing different textures and transitioning to new textures such as bottle to purees or purees to solids, etc.).
– Transitioning from tube feeding to eating by mouth
– Teaching the appropriate skills needed to eat orally
– Behavioral feeding therapy
– Food chaining: This technique is used to help expand a child’s food repertoire

– Speech And Language Evaluations
– Prompt Therapy
– Traditional Speech And Language Therapy
– Parent /Caregiver Training
– Sensory Motor based Speech Therapy
– Articulation Therapy
– Language Therapy

– Speech motor disorders
– Low muscle tone
– Motor planning disorders
– Apraxia
– Tongue thrusts
– Lisps
– Sensory Motor feeding disorders
– Behavioral feeding disorders

– Strategies to work through behavioral challenges during feeding.
– Individualized Sensory -Motor programs to improve feeding skills
– Scheduling to help regulate eating and mealtimes.
– Modeling how to use appropriate language to facilitate language development.
– Case specific training: We will see what is happening in the home and make suggestions and recommendations based on individual family needs.

An articulation disorder means there’s a problem with the actual production of speech sounds. This happens when a child doesn’t make speech sounds correctly.

This can be due to incorrect placement of the articulators (jaw, lips, tongue) during speech, or due to decreased muscle strength or difficulty with speech motor planning.

A language disorder can either be receptive or expressive or pragmatic.

A receptive language disorder refers to the skills involved in understanding language. These disorders are characterized by children who often have difficulty processing, comprehending, and/or retaining spoken language. Children with receptive language disorders often have difficulty following directions and answering questions.

An expressive language disorder refers to the verbal skills required to communicate thoughts and feelings to others. Children often have difficulty with verbal expression and formulating their thoughts in a coherent manner. Their sentences are often incomplete, inverted, or confusing.

A pragmatic language disorder also referred to as a social communication disorder, involves difficulty in understanding and/or using social language appropriately. Children with pragmatic language disorders often have difficulty using greetings, making requests, changing language according to the situation, and following rules of conversation (ex. making appropriate eye contact, staying on topic, understanding nonverbal signals from listeners).

I work with children of all ages.

PROMPT is an acronym for Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets. This technique is a tactile-kinesthetic approach that uses touch cues to a patient’s articulators (jaw, tongue, lips) to manually guide them through a targeted word, phrase or sentence.

PROMPT therapy is appropriate for children with a number of different communication disorders, including motor speech disorders and articulation disorders. Children with apraxia/dyspraxia, dysarthria, cerebral palsy, and autism spectrum disorders can benefit from PROMPT therapy as part of their therapy plan.

As a PROMPT certified therapist, I work with your child to develop an individualized plan that uses PROMPT Therapy, as well as any other necessary therapies, so we address the specific needs of your child.

Oral Motor Therapy is a muscle-based treatment approach that is performed in and around the mouth. The goal of the treatment can be to improve function of the musculature of the jaw, lips, cheeks, and tongue in order to improve feeding and swallowing skills, speech articulation and production, as well as to provide sensory input for increased sensory awareness.

If we decide your child would benefit from Oral Motor Therapy, I will develop an individualized program including specific exercises and activities to facilitate your child’s speech and/or feeding development.

Every child learns differently. The duration of therapy depends on your child’s specific needs, his or her consistency with therapy, and the follow through at home.