SPEECH THERAPY

We Help Overcome Speech-Related Obstacles!

“Research has proven that when children don't catch up in their language skills, they have persistent language difficulties, as well as difficulty with reading and writing when they get to school.”

What is Speech Therapy?

Speech-Language Pathologists help to identify, evaluate and treat speech and language disorders. Speech therapy is when a certified practitioner, known as a speech-language pathologist works with an adult or child who has a communication difficulty such as written and spoken language issues, speech difficulties, stuttering, voice disorders, reading and literacy. Coaching and education regarding specific communication disorders, how we can help and what you as a parent can do is an important focus of assessment and treatment.

If you notice that your toddler isn’t reaching the necessary language milestones for their age, we recommend you get an assessment from one of our licensed speech-pathologists, who will help you decide whether intervention is necessary. A ‘wait and see’ approach simply delays treatment and can have lasting implications for language and cognitive development.

Speech Associates provides Step-By-Step Speech Therapy Activities to teach Speech and Language skills at home. We also help parents to help their own children to learn!

From Receptive Vocabulary Building, Expansions, Self-Descriptions and Parallel Talk, learn how to get your child to attend, engage, respond to sounds, imitate actions and expand vocabulary. Speech and Language therapy is the best treatment for this kind of difficulty.

Speech Associates speech therapists have received specialized training in the Hanen Program which is the most well known model of family focused early language intervention for young children with expressive and or receptive language disorders.

What are the different therapists called? What do the acronyms all mean?

Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP)

A Speech-Language Pathologist is a graduate from a Master's program in Communication Disorders/Speech-Language Pathology. They are registered and licensed with the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO).They can be the clinical supervisor of a CDA (Communicative Disorders Assistant)/Speech-Language Pathology Assistant (SLP-A), and can provide assessment and treatment for goals like speech and language, literacy, articulation, stuttering, swallowing, post-stroke, and many more areas. SLP's supervise CDAs either immediately following an assessment, or after 8-10 sessions.

Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) or Speech-Language Pathology Assistant (SLP-A)

A Communicative Disorders Assistant can be a graduate of a post-graduate certificate program in Communicative Disorders. An SLP-A can be a graduate from a Masters in Health Sciences - Communication Disorders, and can be working as an SLP-A while awaiting their registration with the College. This type of therapist must be supervised by a Registered Speech-Language Pathologist, and does not perform assessments or create treatment plans. They are qualified to run therapy sessions, create lesson plans, and report progress to the SLP. Sessions take place weekly for one clinical hour (45-50 direct minutes) per week.

For more information contact our main office at: 416-800-4259 for a consultation with a speech-pathologist or email us at: info@speechassociates.ca