Services

I specialize in the areas of autism, speech sound production, language delays and disorders, language-based learning disorders, and stuttering.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

I've spent the bulk of my career working with autistic children and children with other developmental disabilities. As the saying goes, "If you've met one autistic person, you've met ONE autistic person." I take this to heart and ensure that all my clients living on the spectrum are met with individualized care that best supports them where they are. Some children need support at the earliest elements of communications, such as the ability to regulate their nervous system, holding joint attention along with others, and establishing meaningful back-and-forth interactions. Other children lead lives further down the developmental pathway, and need help with achieving those "next level" capacities like solving social problems, higher-order thinking, abstract reasoning, and understanding the "gray" areas in life. My past work alongside highly-trained occupational therapists has given a wealth of knowledge on sensory integration and a toolbox of regulation strategies I love to share with parents and caregivers.

Articulation

Articulation refers to the development of speech sounds that we use to communicate. Speech sound development begins at birth when a child is listening to their environemt, taking in all kinds of auditory information, and builds a capacity to discriminate the sounds used in their native language. A child's journey through speech begins with cooing as a baby, then babbling as an infant. As they grow, children begin to refine these sounds into more intelligible forms that others recognize as words. A child may require the support of a speech therapist to help with articulation development for a number of reasons: hearing loss, neurological conditions such as Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), decreased oral muscle tone (hypotonia), phonological processing challenges, or differences in oral-facial structures.

Language

Some children who struggle with challenges in expressing themselves or understanding others comprehension may have a language impairment without an apparent origin. By conducting a thorough evaluation, I gather enough information to form a treatment plan that can address any number of language-based difficulties. Some elements of language therapy include building vocabulary, improving processing of language information in stories or directions, producing more complex oral narratives, and using language to effectively solve problems.

Fluency/Stuttering

Some children may have trouble “getting their words out.” When this happens, children can become self-conscious and avoid speaking in certain environments where they feel they might struggle more. It can be challenging to know where to turn when your child is demonstrating the possible signs of developmental stuttering. It is common for children's speech to include some natural dysfluency; however, when this difficulty with speaking is prolonged for several months and possible increasing, it is the right time to reach out for support. I work directly with children and their families to ensure that everyone is on the same page about what the child's goals are. Fluency therapy can take on many different forms since there are elements of "correcting" a child's stuttering as considering how stuttering makes a child feel and whether their internal feelings are more imprtant than how they sound to others.

DIR/Floortime®

Throughout all these services, DIR is the bedrock of everything I do. DIR is the common shorthand for the Developmental-Individual Differences-Relationship based model, which was developed by Drs. Stanley Greenspan and Serena Weider in the 1980s. Greenspan and Weider outlined a way of thinking about children's development that sought to dig deeper than the concrete elements we often consider the most important part of growing and learning. DIR acknowledges the importance of academic skills and learning language; however, it also prioritizes the subtle yet fundamental aspects of development that occur earlier in a child's life. These elements include the ability to self-regulate, share joyful engagement, sustain meaningful back-and-forth interactions, and participate in shared problem-solving.

While DIR can be considered the abstract, philosophical piece of my work, Floortime is where the fun happens! Floortime was Greenspan and Wieder's term for the real-world practical application of the ideas of DIR. Practicing Floortime means meeting a child at their level, following their lead to understand their perspective, learning about their individual sensorimotor profile, and using this information to tailor interactions so a child is most comfortable and open to the learnging that happens in a nurturing relationship. You can think of DIR as "talking the talk" and Floortime as "walking the walk."

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