Door County Speech Therapy is the private practice of Kristina Bohn M.Ed., CCC-SLP. I have 27 years of experience serving children of all ages with a variety of speech and language delays and disorders. Does your child not qualify for speech services through the school district, but you would still like him/her to receive therapy? Does your child receive speech/language services through the school system, but you feel they could use a little extra? Would you rather not have your child pulled from valuable classroom time to receive speech/language services, but would still like him/her to receive services? Would you just like a second opinion on what services your child may need? Does your child struggle with reading? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please contact me so we can discuss options for you and your child. I will coordinate with parents, teachers, family members, and other professionals, in an effort to ensure excellent success for your child.
Speech and language delays and disorders are the most common developmental problem among preschool children. They affect five to ten percent of preschool kids. Speech and/or language delays can be identified and treated as young as 12 months of age. Child development research has shown that the ages 0-3 years are critical for learning language.
What is a Speech Language Pathologist?
A speech-language pathologist is a professional who specializes in working with individuals to improve their communication and feeding skills. The role of a speech therapist is to identify, assess, treat and prevent communication disorders in all modalities (spoken, written, pictorial and manual) both receptively and expressively. In pediatrics, a speech-language pathologist works to develop and maximize the child’s speech, language, and feeding skills in a motivating play setting with the goal of increasing their independence and ability to communicate.
Speech-language pathologists are required to receive a master’s degree and may also have a doctoral degree. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) issues a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP) to individuals who meet certain criteria. Individuals who have received their CCC-SLP have obtained a master’s degree or doctorate in the field with at least 25 hours of clinical observation and 375 clock hours of supervised clinical practicum. In addition, certificate holder must have a year of paid professional experience and have passed a national examination. Ongoing professional development must be demonstrated through a variety of continuing education options including conferences and classes. The state department of education and the State professional licensing board can also issue credentials for Speech-Language Pathologists.
Speech-language pathologists are required to receive a master’s degree and may also have a doctoral degree. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) issues a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP) to individuals who meet certain criteria. Individuals who have received their CCC-SLP have obtained a master’s degree or doctorate in the field with at least 25 hours of clinical observation and 375 clock hours of supervised clinical practicum. In addition, certificate holder must have a year of paid professional experience and have passed a national examination. Ongoing professional development must be demonstrated through a variety of continuing education options including conferences and classes. The state department of education and the State professional licensing board can also issue credentials for Speech-Language Pathologists.
Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonological Processes
Most children make some mistakes as they learn to say new words. A speech sound disorder occurs when mistakes continue past a certain age. Every sound has a different range of ages when the child should make the sound correctly. Speech sound disorders include problems with articulation (making sounds) and phonological processes (sound patterns) and make it difficult for people to understand their speech.
Language Delays/Disorders
Language has to do with meanings, rather than sounds. A language delay is when a child's language is developing in the right sequence, but at a slower rate. Speech and language disorder describes abnormal language development.
Some children have problems with understanding, also called receptive language. They may have trouble:
Some children have problems with understanding, also called receptive language. They may have trouble:
- Understanding what gestures mean
- Following directions
- Answering questions
- Identifying objects and pictures
- Taking turns when talking with others
- Asking questions
- Naming objects
- Using gestures
- Putting words together into sentences
- Learning songs and rhymes
- Using correct pronouns, like "he" or "they"
- Knowing how to start a conversation and keep it going
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, jaw, tongue) needed for speech. The child knows what he or she wants to say, but his/her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words.
Fluency/Stuttering
Stuttering affects the fluency of speech. It begins during childhood and, in some cases, lasts throughout life. The disorder is characterized by disruptions in the production of speech sounds, also called "disfluencies." Many children go through periods of disfluencies when they are beginning to talk and are competing for talking time. Usually the disfluencies will disappear as their speech patterns mature. Stuttered speech often includes repetitions of words or parts of words, as well as prolongations of speech sounds. Most people produce brief disfluencies from time to time. For instance, some words are repeated and others are preceded by "um" or "uh." Disfluencies are not necessarily a problem; however, they can impede communication when a person produces too many of them.
Reading/Spelling
Recent studies have found that one in five children has dyslexia and/or a reading disorder. English is a difficult language to learn and there are always exceptions to every rule learned when reading. Unfortunately, reading is usually only taught in K-3 grades and 4th grade and beyond schools moves from learning to read, tho reading to learn. From 5th grade on, the average students encounter approximately 10,000 new words that they have never previously encountered in print. (Nagy & Anderson 1984). When students don't have a strong foundation and the prerequisite skills needed to decode those, they fail. Who wants to read when reading is hard? I have extensive training in phonics, phoneme acquisition and phonemic awareness. In addition, I have a child with dyslexia and have taken a graduate course on screening for dyslexia. As a Speech Language Pathologist, I am able to diagnose and treat struggling readers, through use of an Orton-Gillingham reading program, by teaching reading strategies and decoding skills that will help students to be successful readers.