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Neuro-affirming social skills therapy is different. Instead of teaching your child to "act normal" (masking), neuro-affirming therapists teach them how to navigate a world that wasn't built for them, while keeping their self-esteem intact.

• The Old View: The autistic child is the one with the "deficit" or the error.
• The Affirming View: It is a two-way street. The child struggles to understand the non-autistic style, but the non-autistic person also fails to understand the child.
• The Therapy: We teach the child to understand how different brains work, rather than telling them their way is wrong. We treat it like cross-cultural training.

Early language development therapy focuses on building the foundational communication skills typically acquired between birth and age three.

Unlike therapy for older children, which may involve structured table-top activities, early intervention is dynamic, play-based, and heavily focused on parent coaching. We are not just teaching words; we are teaching the child how to communicate.

The main goal is simple: to help your child be understood by others (grandparents, teachers, friends) without you needing to translate for them.

Speech pathologists usually look different types of "clarity" issues. It helps to know which one your child is working on:

• Articulation: Your child knows what sound they want to say, but their articulators (tongue, lips, jaw) aren't moving the right way to make it.
• Phonology: Your child can physically make the sounds, but they have their own set of "rules" on where to put them.
• CAS (Childhood Apraxia of Speech): Your child’s brain knows exactly what it wants to say. Their mouth muscles are strong enough to say it. However, the "signal" or "map" that tells the muscles how to move in the right order gets scrambled.

Language therapy can be broken into two areas: 

Receptive Language (Comprehension)

This focuses on how your child’s brain processes what they hear. Speech Pathologists work on these skills:

• Following Directions
• Understanding "Wh-" Questions
• Inferencing (Reading Between the Lines)
  

Expressive Language (Expression)

This focuses on how your child formulates their thoughts. We treat words and sentences like building blocks.

• Vocabulary & Word Finding
• Sentence Structure (Syntax)
• Narrative Skills (Storytelling)

While schools teach how to write and remember the ABCs and spelling rules, Speech Pathologists build the "foundation." If a child cannot clearly hear or manipulate sounds in their head, they will struggle to read them on a page.

Before a child can attach a sound to the letter "B," their brain must be able to "hear" that the word "Ball" starts with a /b/ sound.

This skill is called Phonological Awareness. The goal is to train the brain to hear that words are made of separate Lego bricks (sounds) that can be pulled apart and put back together.

We do not view speech as "better" than AAC. We view communication as the goal. Whether your child uses their mouth, their hands, or a screen, if they are connecting with you, that is a win. AAC doesn't stop a child from speaking. It removes the barrier so they can participate right now while their speech is still developing.

What is AAC?

It stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

• Augmentative: Adding to speech (e.g., using gestures or pictures while talking to make the message clearer).
• Alternative: Used instead of speech (e.g., selecting a word on a device as opposed to speaking).

The big fear: Will this make them lazy?

This is the #1 question parents ask. The proven answer is No. Research consistently shows that using AAC actually increases verbal speech because it takes the pressure off. When the frustration of "being stuck" is removed, children often relax and attempt more words or sounds.