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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.
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 When it comes to your child's speech and language development, they may not. At The Speech Space, we are lucky to collaborate with some great pediatricians and developmental pediatricians. However, this is not always the case. It's not uncommon for us to hear that someone's pediatrician recommended a "wait and see" approach. Unfortunately this is not always the best approach-- especially if some red flags for speech and/or language issues are present already. For instance if your child is 18 months old and has not yet started talking, this is a major red flag and a "wait and see" approach may not be beneficial for your child. Beginning therapy as early as possible is aways recommended to help more easily build up a child's skills and to close the gap with their same-aged peers. As a caregiver, you are your child's biggest and best advocate. If your gut is telling you something is not right, you should go with it! We always want our families to feel empowered to know what they can and should do for their child.  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 have any questions about your child's communication development? Write in and let us know! We will be hosting a Q & A video on our youtube channel very soon. Any question about your child's communication development is fair game! Maybe you have a question about tongue-ties or lip-ties? Or maybe your question is related to toys? Whatever your question is, we will have an answer for you!  To submit your questions, simply email us (info@thespeechspacedc.com). The cut-off for this round of Q & A is May 14th, so get your questions to us before then! Also, your questions will remain anonymous (unless you want us to give you a shout-out, then you can let us know in your submission).
We look forward to reading and answering your questions! In recognition of "Better Speech and Hearing Month", The Speech Space is re-sharing some of our favorite posts about communication development.       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.
 Parents often ask us for activities they can do in their daily lives to help encourage their child's development. Recently, we came across Vroom, a website and app, which can do just that! To get started you simply make a profile and then Vroom will send you a daily tip or idea to help encourage your child's development. The service is free and you can get it sent directly to your phone, so you can do these activities on-the-go and anywhere!  Vroom is tailored to your child's age, so the activities grow with you as your child continues to develop. Apps and websites like Vroom make it easier to incorporate ways to encourage your child's development. But, if you are worried about your child's communication development, contact us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.
The quick, short answer to this question is: Yes! By the time your child is two years old, they should have at least 50 words (some children will have as many as 250 words or more!). Two year olds should be starting to, if not already, combining words or using at least 2-word phrases. In addition to using nouns, your two year old child should also use verbs or action words (e.g., "want cup"; "car go"; "mommy up").  When does all this actual talking begin? Children should have their first word(s) around the age of 12 months. Around the ages of 15 months-18 months, your child should start to sound like a parrot-- copying a lot of what you say, repeating what they overhear in conversations, or easily imitating what you ask them to. From 18 months- two years old, your child should have what we call a "language explosion". During this period you should see your child begin to quickly use new words, add more words to their repertoire, as well as, combining words. Check out our Communication Milestones for more details! Also, here are some ideas to help encourage your child's language skills. Worried your child isn't talking as much as they should be? Contact us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.
Parents often want to know what sounds their child should have or be using correctly. Today's post focuses on what your 5 year old should be able to do. If you missed our post about 4 year olds, find it here! By the time your child is 5 years old, they should be able to make most sounds correctly on their own without help or reminders (with the exception of R sometimes, which we will touch on later). At 5 years old your child should be able to easily produce the following sounds all the time in conversation: all vowel sounds, H, M, B, P, W, F,V, K, G, Y, L, Blends (e..g, two sounds together--SM, GL, etc), S, Z, SH, CH, J and typically, R and R blends (e.g., GR, BR, PR, STR, FR, KR). Most children will start being able to use TH and ZH (e.g., vision; fusion, television) on their own by 5 years old, but technically these sounds aren't mastered until the age of 6.  Now, time to talk about that "R" sound! Children often master their "R"s around 8 years old, so experts call R the "late 8". However, in our experience most children will naturally acquire this sound well before that time and waiting that long (or longer) to get it fixed just makes it harder. The reason some children easily acquire R on their own and other children do not can depend on a few things. Maybe your child has some low muscle tone through their lips, mouth, tongue and/or jaw (see our article here about fun activities you can do at home to strengthen up your child’s oral musculature). Or if your child needed help acquiring other sounds before R, it is likely they may need help with this tough sound. Another important marker to think about is how intelligible your child is (i.e., how much can other people understand what your child says). A child of 5 years old should be at least 95% intelligible-- meaning people should understand at least 95% of what your child says, regardless of if the context is known or unknown.
You may have heard someone refer to your child's "speech skills" or their "language skills", when talking about their development. While they may sound similar, these are actually quite different areas of development. This post provides a quick, basic summary on the difference between these two areas.  Speech skills: Speech, which is related to how your child talks, can be split into two different areas, articulation and fluency. Articulation refers to the way children acquire and produce sounds in words, sentences and conversation. If your child is having difficulty with their articulation development you may see things like:
Fluency is the aspect of speech production that involves smoothness, rate and effort. If your child is having difficulty with their fluency development you may see things like:
 Language skills: Language can be broken down most simply into two parts: receptive language and expressive language (Note: Today we are just talking about foundational or basic language skills. We'll cover higher-level language skills in a future post.) Receptive language is the ability to understand what is being said and can include things like following directions or understanding questions. If your child is having difficulty with their receptive language skills, you may see things like:
Expressive language is the ability to use language and includes things like grammar, vocabulary and answering questions. If your child is having difficulty with their expressive language development, you may see things like:
Some children may have trouble with one of these areas of communication (speech or language) or both. Some children may have difficulty with one area of their language development, but not the other (receptive vs. expressive).
Looking out for potential red-flags with your child's development is the best way to combat any difficulties in these communication areas. Identifying areas of weakness and working on them early gives your child the best chance to make progress and catch up to their peers! If you have questions or concerns about your child's development, contact us at The Speech Space. We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems. Children often master their "R"s around 8 years old, so experts call R the "late 8". However, in our experience most children will naturally acquire this sound well before that time and waiting that long (or longer) to get it fixed just makes it harder! The reason some children easily acquire R on their own and other children do not can depend on a few things. Maybe your child has some low muscle tone through their lips, mouth, tongue and/or jaw (see our article here about fun activities you can do at home to strengthen up your child’s oral musculature). If your child needed help acquiring other sounds before R, it is likely they may need help with this tough sound. So What Sounds Should My 4 Year Old Have?  By 4 years old your child should be able to easily produce the following sounds all the time in conversation: H, M, B, P, W, F, V, K, G, L, Blends (e.g., two sounds together-- PL, SN, etc). Most children by 4 years old will also have later developing sounds, such as: S, Z, SH, CH, J, Y, TH and of course, R and R blends (e.g., GR, BR, PR, etc). Another important marker to think about is how intelligible your child is (i.e., how much can other people understand what your child says). A child of 4 years old should be at least 85% intelligible-- meaning people should understand at least 85% of what your child says, regardless of if the context is known or unknown.  If your child is having difficulty acquiring sounds at the appropriate times and others have a hard time understanding your child, speech therapy can help! Not only will speech therapy help your child acquire the sounds they are missing and help with their overall intelligibility, it can also help your child with their future academic skills.
Did you know children with articulation issues often have trouble with their pre-reading and reading skills? Speech therapy can help prevent and even work on these issues for your child. If you are having concerns about your child’s development reach out to us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.  Does your child have frequent ear infections or bad seasonal allergies? If your child has these issues, they may end up with buildup of fluid in their ears. The fluid in your child's ears blocks sound from making it efficiently and clearly into their inner ear (where the actual hearing is done) causing hearing issues. Difficulty with hearing sounds can negatively impact your child's total communication development (meaning: speech development, language development and even social development!). If your child is not hearing how sounds are made correctly, they will likely have difficulty imitating sounds and words. As we discussed in a previous post, children start their engagement and communication early on, so interference with your child's hearing can impact their development, particularly as they get older. Not only can their speech development (i.e., learning how to produce sounds correctly) become impacted, but their language development and social development can become stunted. Think of your child’s early years as practice for these type of skills (speech, language and social skills) for later in their childhood and even later life. If your child is not able to practice their skills, how will they be able to correctly use the skills they haven’t been able to practice?? After all, practice makes progress!  If you have concerns about your child’s ability to hear correctly, it is vital that you get their hearing checked out! You can speak to your pediatrician about your concerns and they may refer you to a pediatric audiologist or ENT. ASHA also has an online catalog of certified audiologists all over the country. Another resource is the Early Hearing Detection & Intervention - Pediatric Audiology Links to Services (EHDI-PALS). Red-Flags that your child may have issues with their hearing:
If your child does have hearing issues due to fluid, your pediatrician and audiologist will determine the course of action to address their hearing loss; however, it is likely your child may need speech therapy as a result of the time they were not hearing correctly. Many of the children we work with at The Speech Space end up doing very well and can quickly progress through therapy once the fluid in their ears is no longer present. There is no harm in getting it checked out-- better safe than sorry!
Feel free to reach out to us at The Speech Space if you are having concerns about your child's development. We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems! |
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