iPad Games to Develop Language Skills

Learn how we use the iPad to build language skills. We go over three games we really like and how we use them!

​If you have questions or concerns about your child’s s development, contact us at The Speech Space. We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems. 

Ways to Organize Your Child’s Toys

Children benefit from organization and routine. Having too many toys or options at one time can actually make your child’s development (of play, communication and attention) scattered and disorganized. There really can be too much of a good thing when it comes to toys.

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s s development, contact us at The Speech Space. We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems. 

A New Way to Play Go-Fish

Our version of Go Fish gives you ways to incorporate more language skills into the game! Work on using as many different descriptors as you can during turns– category, attributes (color, shape, size, number), function, location. Check out our instagram page (@thespeechspacedc) for more ideas. 

​If you are having concerns or questions about your child’s speech, language and/or communication development reach out to us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Do you know the important milestones for your child?

Knowing appropriate developmental milestones helps caregivers spot and act upon potential delays. The CDC has a nice resource page outlining some general, overall developmental milestones for children. Their slogan of “Learn the Signs. Act Early” could not be more on-point. For more specific speech and language milestones, check out our page here. Feel free to reach out if you have concerns — we see the most success when acting early on any delays. 

​If you are having concerns or questions about your child’s speech, language and/or communication development reach out to us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Paying Out of Pocket vs. Using Insurance

Parents that reach out to us are doing so because they are worried about their child and want to help them. Typically in the course of an initial phone call with parents the big question comes up: “Do you take insurance?” As a practice we have chosen not to take insurance, but it may not be for the reasons you suspect. The most important reason we do not accept insurance or work directly with insurance companies, is to be able to provide the best quality of care for the children we work with. 

As a practice, we have had some good success with helping families get partially or fully reimbursed. Of course, this completely depends on their insurance. We have seen many insurances write specifically that they will only cover “rehabilitative” therapy. Well folks, since in most cases the children we work with have not yet acquired the skills we are working on, the nature of their therapy is “habilitative”. Thus, they will never qualify for coverage. 

The vast majority of insurance companies, if they cover speech therapy for children at all, limit visits and also set a limit on session time. Often, this means a child may only be allowed a few visits for the whole year and each session would only be allowed to add up to “1 unit” (which sometimes is only 30 minutes total!). There are many children that we work with who benefit from frequent, consistent therapy, which sometimes can mean up to two hours of speech therapy per week.  We want to be able to provide a child with exactly what they need, in terms of session length and frequency of therapy sessions. 

Another reason we do not participate directly with insurance is for the costs of running our small business. This very much ties in to being able to provide the best quality of care for your child. Insurance companies nickel and dime providers on the rates they will reimburse. We prefer to use our resources to keep our games, toys, tools and book selection new and fun for the kids we work with, as well as, to attend courses to keep up with the latest research and techniques. If we participate with insurance, we would have less resources to do these things. 

Navigating insurance can be tricky and frustrating, but we are always happy to help when we can. Our biggest goal at The Speech Space is to provide the best quality of therapy and support for your child and family. 

​If you are having concerns or questions about your child’s speech, language and/or communication development reach out to us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.