Some of the primary indicators that your child may need help include:
Although SCT will submit claims to all insurance companies, we are specifically contracted with the following carriers:
Once your child’s evaluation has been scheduled, you will receive a confirmation email from us detailing your appointment date and time, your therapist’s information, all necessary intake paperwork, and even directions.
On evaluation day, we will make every attempt to ensure your child is as comfortable as possible, including keeping a parental presence in the room during the evaluation, so that you can answer questions while supporting your child. At this time, both standardized assessments and informal measures will be carefully chosen and implemented in order to obtain a detailed picture of your child’s communication development, and to help address your concerns.
Although they can’t speak, children begin communicating at birth. For example, they communicate discomfort with cries, happiness with coos and smiles, and engage with their environment through eye contact and vocalization.
With this said, first words are initially approximations of what they will later sound like (e.g. a child will typically say “nana” before saying “banana”), which will typically occur between 12 and 14 months of age.
Like any other skills, speech sounds arrive at varying ages, and some sounds will take more time to master than others. However, for the speech sounds “s” and “th,” we typically begin therapy around 4 years of age, although for the “r” sound, we typically wait until the child is at least 6 years old to begin therapy.
In both cases, the short answer is yes. CAS is often overlooked as a possible cause of speech difficulty in children, and requires careful and thorough evaluation by a Speech-Language Pathologist. Here, we will determine whether the following features are present in the planning and programming of your child’s speech:
SCT social groups and friendship pairs provide children a supportive place to learn and practice social skills in a small group environment, with a professional speech/language pathologist facilitating. During these groups, we follow much of the Michelle Winner-Garcia Social Thinking curriculum, as well as add our own lessons based on a specific group’s needs and dynamics.
To appropriately answer these questions, the first step is to identify whether a child is simply particular with their food preferences, or whether they have sensory deficits that prevents them from tolerating different foods and food textures.
In order to determine which factors are preventing your child from eating different foods and food textures, SCT’s speech therapists will evaluate their oral motor functions, along with their sensory defensiveness. Depending on the results, feeding therapy can target strategies that increase food tolerances, and incorporating oral motor exercises and techniques can reduce their sensory deficits.
Regardless of their diagnosis, it’s important to address your child’s eating habits early so that they do not negatively impact their healthy growth and development.
Just like with any other learning environment, each child will progress through therapy at their own rate, although overall length depends largely on the skill your child is developing.
Whatever your child’s needs may be though, SCT is dedicated to providing family training so children will progress through speech therapy as quickly as possible.
If you need a therapy referral, please speak with your pediatrician, who can then fax their referral to SCT at (425) 557-4409.
SCT provides evaluations and treatment for children from birth through age 18.
Seeking out speech therapy for your child can seem overwhelming, but SCT is always ready to help.
If you're not sure if your child needs our services or you have questions about billing, insurance, evaluations or screenings, don’t hesitate to contact us.
If you prefer to speak with someone during business hours call us at (425) 557-6657
Both Stephanie's son Jack and daughter Olivia needed help from SCT and for over three years she's trusted our “warm and inviting” therapists to help her children overcome speech delay and Apraxia. Read more about why Stephanie says she'll never hesitate to refer us to anyone she knows.