Speech Therapy Services at Speech Connect

Neuro-affirming social skills therapy is a unique approach. Instead of teaching your child to 'act normal' (masking), neuro-affirming therapists focus on helping them navigate a world that wasn't designed for them, while preserving their self-esteem. 

The Old View: The autistic child is seen as having a 'deficit' or error. 

The Affirming View: It's a two-way street; the child may struggle to comprehend the non-autistic style, but non-autistic individuals also have difficulty understanding the child. 

The Therapy: We teach the child to recognize how different brains operate, rather than suggesting their way is incorrect. We approach this like cross-cultural training, ensuring that social skills therapy is empowering.

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. 

The main goal is simple: to help your child be understood by others (grandparents, teachers, friends) without you needing to translate for them. To achieve this, speech pathologists often conduct speech clarity assessments to identify specific clarity issues your child may be facing. 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 divided into two key areas: 

Receptive Language (Comprehension) 

This aspect focuses on how your child’s brain processes what they hear, which is often assessed through language assessments. Speech Pathologists work on these essential skills: 

- Following Directions 

- Understanding "Wh-" Questions 

- Inferencing (Reading Between the Lines) 

Expressive Language (Expression) 

This area emphasizes how your child formulates their thoughts, similar to how we treat words and sentences as building blocks. Through neuro-affirming therapy, we focus on: 

- 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; rather, we see communication as the ultimate 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 enhances their ability to communicate, allowing them to 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).

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.