How to Choose a Speech Therapist

How to Choose a Speech Therapist

by Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP Speech Therapist

If you’re asking yourself, “how to choose a speech therapist?” Congratulations! This means that you’ve located local speech and language professionals who stand ready to service your family. Rest assured that all of our speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have been screened and vetted and hold State licensure as well as the esteemed Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). So you have the pick of the best but it is still an important choice. As you decide on who you would like to work with, I thought a few tips from an “insider” might be helpful. Ultimately, choosing whom you will be working closely with for weeks and months is a highly personal decision. These tips are meant as a set of guidelines to confirm your instincts.

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How to Prepare for Speech Therapy Home Visits

How to Prepare for Speech Therapy Home Visits

by Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP Speech Therapy Techniques

Perhaps you’ve already determined that you’d like to have your child seen by a speech pathologist and have had some of your initial questions answered. Many times your child’s speech therapy services can be delivered in the comfort and convenience of your own home. Especially for younger children (i.e. up to age 5), being “on their own turf” can really help foster rapport between your child and the clinician and make your child feel maximally comfortable as he or she works on something that may be somewhat challenging. This brief post is dedicated to providing parents with a few tips for maximizing the effectiveness of speech therapy home visits. The better prepared and knowledgeable you can be as you start the process of your home-based speech therapy, the more likely it is that your child will achieve his or her speech or language learning goals.

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Stuttering in Children and Toddlers

Stuttering in Children and Toddlers

by Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP Language Development Speech Therapy for Kids

I get this question very often in my private practice. Many parents have observed in their young children (birth to age 5) a difficulty in forming fully fluent sentences. The task of forming coherent, perfectly articulated, and fluent language is a tall task and one that can take the whole of childhood to master. So, in many cases, stuttering in children or a disruption in their fluent speech is perfectly normal and not something that would require the attention of a speech therapist. Because stuttering is by far the most common type of speech dysfluency, I will focus today’s post on stuttering. However, there are several factors that parents should consider when faced with speech dysfluencies. These factors can very quickly give you, the parent, an indication of whether you would need to consult with a local speech therapist.

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Tips for Improving Your Toddler’s Speech Clarity

Tips for Improving Your Toddler’s Speech Clarity

by Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP Pronunciation & Lisps Speech Therapy for Kids Speech Therapy Techniques

It can take up to about second grade for a child to acquire fluent speech that is free of articulation errors. However, certain patterns of errors can make a child less understandable to his or her communication partners. This also applies to younger children. Today I wanted to highlight some of these patterns and give you, the parent, some suggestions for improving toddler speech clarity.

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How Long Does Speech Therapy Take to Work?

How Long Does Speech Therapy Take to Work?

by Gordy Rogers, M.S. CCC-SLP Speech Therapy for Kids

Let’s dedicate a blog post to a very important and practical question: “how long does speech therapy take to work?” The short answer is, and I must be honest…I don’t know, nor does any speech-language pathologist (SLP). But there are several factors that affect how long you should expect therapy to take:

  • the nature of your child’s speech challenge;
  • the severity of that challenge;
  • whether your child is also working through other learning or behavioral challenges;
  • the competence of your therapist;
  • and how involved you, as a parent, are.

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