We Treat Kids From Birth Through Their Early 20s
With over 17 years of experience, Alpha Pediatric Therapy specializes in many areas of need including gestalt language processing, augmentative and alternative communication, early language development, apraxia, articulation disorders, and parent coaching.
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC): Ways people use to communicate besides talking (verbal speech). Alternative communication is used when someone is unable to speak or is hard to understand. It can be as simple a using photos or pictures to as complex as a device or tablet with a program that speaks when activated with their hand, eyes, or a switch.
​Gestalt language processing: Often, but not always, present in children with autism, this a form of language development that starts with whole memorized phrases to single words.” This means that the child learns the meaning of individual words through phrases, or “chunks”, that include that word, as opposed to the word itself. Specialized therapy targeting enhancing language skills of a gestalt language processor is often important for seeing growth and more natural language development in these children. Want to know if your child is a gestalt language processor?
Autism spectrum disorder: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. Individuals with autism characteristically have difficulty with communication and interaction with other people, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, and symptoms that affect their ability to function in school, work, and other areas of life. If you have concerns that your child may have autism, please speak with your pediatrician. A speech-language pathologist cannot diagnose autism, but is skilled in working with children to improve their ability to engage and communication with others. What are the signs of autism?
​Early Language development: Often referred to as late talkers between the age of 1-3, milestones have been developed to track language development. Check to see if your child is on track.
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS): A speech disorder in which a child's brain has difficulty coordinating the complex oral movements needed to create sounds into syllables, syllables into words, and words into phrases. A child with CAS knows what they want to say. The problem is not how the child thinks but how the brain tells the mouth muscles to move. Think your child might have apraxia?
​Articulation disorders: This is a common condition when your child can’t make specific sounds. For example, they may always replace “r” with “w” or “th” with “s.” A speech-language pathologist can diagnose the condition and help your child communicate clearly using speech therapy. Click here to see developmental norms by age.
Feeding disorders: When is "picky" eating more than just picky eating? Is your child continuing to grow on their respective growth curve? Are you noticing difficulty with certain tastes or textures that may be cause gagging or vomiting? Has your child failed a swallow study? Alpha Pediatric Therapy is here to help with your child's feeding concerns and can aid in finding solutions to help you answer these questions.
Receptive and expressive language disorders: Being able to understand what is being said to them and follow directions is a critical component of your child's development. Subsequently, being able to use words and sentences with age-appropriate grammatical structure, word order, and meaning are all skills that continue to grow and develop as a child ages into their teen years.
Resonance disorders: Often the result of a cleft palate or other structural anomaly, hypernasal speech, nasal emissions, or weak pressure consonants can be addressed through speech therapy to improve intelligibility.
