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School Age (K-12) intervention refers to therapy
services provided for children ages 5 and up. Speech and language
therapy is provided in conjunction with public, private, or home
schooling. Therapy takes into account what the child is working on
in other areas of their lives (academics, athletics, friendships, etc.)
and incorporates therapy strategies around the child's interests and
needs. |
Typical Reasons Parents Pursue Private Therapy
- To obtain medically relevant services.
- To address communication disorders for families who choose private school,
home school, home education, or otherwise prefer not to use school based services.
- To supplement what the school district is already providing.
Children benefit from intensive, individualized therapy
strategies applied during their daily routines. Florida Pediatric Therapy collaborates
with the educational team and family to meet the child's communication goals
and advocate for the child's needs.
When to seek help
- Information Processing/Auditory Processing
- When your child seems to hear what you say but does not seem to
understand or "get it" you should pursue an evaluation.
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- Difficulty following directions
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- Very bright children with receptive language and/or auditory
processing challenges often are successful until sometime between 1st
and 3rd grade when the child's ability to compensate for their lack
for receptive language through visual cues and classroom routines is
no longer able to keep up with the amount of auditory/verbal input
being given. Teachers and parents who are unfamiliar with
receptive language disorders often mistake this for a
behavior/discipline problem when in fact the child's compensation
strategies are just not longer working. When a child is having
difficulty following directions, it is important to evaluate why that
is happening and provide the child with tools and strategies to
improve their comprehension.
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- Autism and Related Disorders
- Autism is a challenge for the whole family. Finding the pieces
to the puzzle and unlocking the social/communicative door are critical
to a child's success. If your child is "on the
spectrum" a review of their strengths determines how to proceed
in goal setting and achieving the broader long term goal we all share
for our children (establishing and maintaining a fulfilling, healthy,
happy life). Ms. Bias has extensive training and experience with
children with autism and their families. This is a puzzle we
don't have all the answers to yet. In the meantime, let's look
at what combination of techniques will best help your
child.
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- Difficulty communicating verbally
- By age five, your child should be communicating smoothly, clearly,
and effectively in complete, and often lengthy sentences. If your
child's speech is choppy, unclear, infrequent, or you are otherwise
concerned an evaluation should be pursued.
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- Down Syndrome
- Whether your child needs help with a few specific stumbling blocks
or is still learning to communicate, we have the expertise to help.
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- Articulation/Speech/Fluency/Voice challenges
- If your child exhibits tongue thrust, lisps, incorrectly produces
sounds regularly, is dysfluent, or has an unusually
harsh/hoarse/quiet/loud voice, an evaluation should be pursued. Gregory
L. Lof, PhD, CCC-SLP has an interesting article with a variety of
normative data for articulation and Caroline
Bowen, M.S., CCC-SLP shares information on normal speech
development in her article at the thinkingpublications
website.
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- Inclusion Statement
- It is the position of Florida Pediatric Therapy that it is beneficial to every
child to be included with their peers in life.
Inclusion is most successful when appropriate supports are in
place. With time, commitment, and effective strategies a child can develop a
network of friends who are involved in day to day experiences and
learning and become the child's strongest advocates during ARD/IEP
meetings and life planning. When inclusion is well thought out, all children
involved benefit.
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