Speak to me

When parents come to see a speech therapist about their child's problems they are often surprised at what a speech therapist works on.  Typically, parents think a speech therapist only works with speech sound production (how clearly words are said).  Whereas we work on speech sound production skills (AKA articulation), we also work with feeding, language development, language processing, auditory processing, stuttering, voice problems, etc.  In a private practice we often see a large variety of kids throughout a given day, which is often why speech therapists enjoy working in this setting. 

Because speech therapy incorporates so many different areas, it is often important to talk to parents before they come in for evaluations, so that the therapist knows what kind of testing the child needs to have done.  If a family is being referred to us for speech therapy we often do a brief phone intake to get this information before the family comes in, to help us plan for our evaluation and make our evaluation less time consuming.  This initial phone appointment is also a great way for parents to ask questions without the child present.  Which helps parents feel more relaxed about having their child evaluated.  It gives the therapist a chance to get a better feeling for the child's current status and past history.