SPEECH LANGUAGE THERAPY
Speech language therapy and assessment can help children struggling with oral motor/feeding, articulation, receptive/expressive language, stuttering, and pragmatic language difficulties.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENTS AND TESTING
ORAL MOTOR/ FEEDING ASSESSMENT/TREATMENT
Oral motor feeding/assessment would be for a child that has trouble sucking, chewing different consistencies. Parents may have concern about being a messy eater. A child who has difficulty tolerating different consistencies (crunchy, puree, mixed consistencies) A child who is holding food in their mouth for an extended time or a child who has liquids escaping from the lips while trying to swallow. Also children who have had trouble transitioning from breast to bottle, from bottle to sippy cup.
ARTICULATION (SPEECH SOUND) ASSESSMENT/TREATMENT
This assessment would be for the child that has trouble being understood by all family members or school personnel. (See normal developmental speech guidelines).
RECEPTIVE/EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT/TREATMENT
This assessment would be for the child that has difficulty understanding directions or information told to them orally. The assessment would also include children that are “not speaking much”. Parents may describe them as “very quiet”.
FLUENCY (STUTTERING) ASSESSMENT/TREATMENT
Everyone has dysfluent speech. The NORMAL dysfluent child occasionally repeats syllables once or twice. A child with true dysfluent speech repeats sounds more than twice –li,li,li, like this. The pitch of the voice changes and the child experiences a “block” where no airflow or voice is present for a couple seconds. This assessment is for a child that has disturbance in his fluency that interferes with social communication and the development of complex language.
PRAGMATIC LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT/TREATMENT
The pragmatic area of language has to do with how language is used in actual conversations, discussions, or messages. Pragmatics includes the organization of the message, the appropriateness of the information, and changes in the style according to partners and situations. (i.e. tone of voice, eye contact, social language).
STEFANIE MURPHY, M.S., CCC-SLP
Stefanie Murphy, MS, CCC-SLP is an experienced Licensed Speech Language Pathologist who has worked extensively with both children and adults in the greater Nashville. She received her degree in Communication Disorders with a concentration in Human Development & Family Studies from Auburn University, and her Masters of Science in Speech Language Pathology from Tennessee State University. Stefanie also holds her Certificate of Clinical Competence, and is a member of the American Speech and Hearing Association. Stefanie believes in building relationships alongside clients and their families to provide the most well-rounded therapy experiences for clients and their families in addition to striving to make the client the most confident and competent communicator.