child speech therapy
child speech therapy
What to Expect
The first step starts with you! Identifying a need and seeking early intervention is the key to unlocking your child's full potential in the shortest amount of time.
Starting therapy can be daunting, but our team will walk you through exactly what to expect during your child's time with us. We are here to walk alongside you and help you navigate your child’s therapy journey!
Here is a step-by-step guide to what to expect during your therapy journey. Just know, our therapists always make it fun at The Speech Spot!
Step 1: Initial Evaluation
An initial evaluation is for clients who have never had an evaluation or whose most recent evaluation was more than 12 months ago. If your child has had a previous evaluation within the last year, they may be eligible to start treatment right away (just let us know if this is the case and we can look over the report and determine if enough information is included for our therapists to develop a treatment plan for your child). Having a complete picture of your child's abilities and areas of opportunity to grow is key to effective therapy.
An initial evaluation typically lasts about an hour and an half and includes both informal and formal observations of receptive and expressive language, as well as oral speech and communication. We’ll also review any current medical or educational diagnoses, therapy records, and your parent questionnaire.
All results will be shared with you at the completion of the evaluation, and if therapy is recommended, we’ll collaborate to develop a treatment plan tailored to your child’s specific needs. A formal report will also be sent to you that will include the information you have shared with us, results of the evaluation, our recommendations, and goals for therapy.
Step 2: Treatment Plan
Whether your child is evaluated by us or comes in with a previous evaluation, your child’s therapist will create a treatment plan in order to individualize your child's therapy sessions, set goals, and to measure progress. The therapist will identify the primary purpose of therapy, decide what to work on first, choose the type of treatment and tasks, and set frequency of therapy to achieve all goals.
It's important to remember that home practice is an essential part in your child’s progress! Your child’s therapist will send homework to work on after each session with cues and support you can give to your child as they practice - practice at home should be successful!
Step 3: Tracking Progress
Once therapy begins the therapist will watch, look, and listen for progress and alter the plan as needed to achieve the plan goals. For families and therapists watching as your child's skills blossom is the most gratifying step of therapy! Your child’s therapist will informally assess skills as therapy continues to determine if other goals need to be added. Parents are always kept in the loop as goals are met and new skills are addressed! What your child is working on in therapy should never be a surprise to you, and our therapists encourage you to ask questions!
Step 4: Discharge
For many children, once initial goals have been met, they will graduate from therapy! For children having more extensive goals and needs, therapy may be ongoing as goals are continually added.
No matter how long your child is in therapy, once you walk through our doors your child is part of The Speech Spot family for life! We encourage anyone who has ever been a client to reach out any time in the future if you ever have any additionally speech, language, social, motor, sensory or feeding concerns. We truly are ALWAYS here to offer advice and support (plus it warms our hearts to hear just what your sweet kiddo has been up to since we last saw them!)!