Speech Therapy

424 Central Ave
Westfield, NJ 07090
ph: 908-232-5501
pediatricsls@gmail.com

Pediatric Speech-Language Services, uses a multi-modal therapy approach to focus on each child's individual needs and learning style. Fun, motivating activities are used to encourage your child to participate.

Apraxia
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words. This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis. The brain has problems planning to move the body parts (e.g. lips, tongue, jaw) needed for speech. The child knows what he/she wants to say, but his/her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words.
While there is a wide range of severity, children typically have the best outcome when intensive, consistent therapy starts as early as possible. Pediatric Speech-Language Services combines techniques used in PROMPT, Nancy Kaufman's praxis approach, and Beckman's oral motor approach.
Articulation/Phonological Disorders
An articulation disorder involves problems making sounds. Sounds can be substituted, left off, added or changed. These errors may make it hard for people to understand you.
Young children often make speech errors. For instance, many young children sound like they are making a "w" sound for an "r" sound (e.g., "wabbit" for "rabbit") or may leave sounds out of words, such as "nana" for "banana." The child may have an articulation disorder if these errors continue past the expected age.

Sound Development Chart
A phonological process disorder involves patterns of sound errors. For example, substituting all sounds made in the back of the mouth like "k" and "g" for those in the front of the mouth like "t" and "d" (e.g., saying "tup" for "cup" or "das" for "gas").
Auditory Processing Disorders
Auditory processing disorders are characterized by difficulty in the ability to attend to, process, comprehend, retain, respond to, or integrate spoken language.
Children with auditory processing deficits often have difficulty answering yes/no questions, "wh" questions (who, what, where, when, why), and may also experience difficulty with verbal expression.
Language Disorders
A language disorder is difficulty understanding and/or using language to communicate effectively. A child with a language disorder might have difficulty with language form (grammatical structures), content (vocabulary/basic concepts), organization (sequencing of language/memory/problem solving), and use (social communication-pragmatics).
Feeding Disorders
Feeding disorders include problems gathering food and getting ready to suck, chew, or swallow it. For example, a child who cannot pick up food and get it to her mouth or cannot completely close her lips to keep food from falling out of her mouth may have a feeding disorder.
Feeding Development Chart
Oral Motor Disorders
Oral-motor refers to the use and function of the muscles of the face (lips, tongue, and jaw). For chewing and swallowing, children need to have the right amount of strength, range of motion, and coordination. When a child has limited movement, coordination, and/or strength of the lips, tongue and/or jaw, eating is difficult.
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