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Speech Therapy Services

We offer one-on-one speech and language evaluations and therapy for children who have difficulty with speech, language, communication, swallowing, feeding, stuttering, voice, and learning problems.  Some diagnoses we treat include, but are not limited to, articulation delays, autism, ADHD, tongue thrust, expressive, and receptive language delays, apraxia of speech, and phonological processing disorders.

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Early Childhood:

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At The SpOT Clinic, we believe in the importance of early intervention.  It is important for the therapist to have a relationship with family of the child to educate on the best ways to support the child outside of the treatment room for carry-over. The Speech-language pathologists are a part of an early intervention team to assist children in developing skills such as

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  • cognitive skills (thinking, learning, problem-solving);

  • communication skills (gesturing, talking, listening, understanding); and

  • social–emotional skills (playing, understanding feelings, making friends);

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Therapy for each child is individualized based on the needs of the child and the family.  The most important step is to begin therapy early.  Our treatment typically involves the use of games and play to utilize repetitive routines needed to teach children and to maintain attention and maximize responses.  

Preschool  Children:

Preschool speech therapy closely mimics the preschools classroom.  It â€‹involves a combination of play therapy as used in early childhood speech therapy coupled with structured activities.  The child begins to follow multi-step commands and maintain a longer attention span to complete tasks.  Lots of language stimulation, or the use of repetitive language, is used to introduce new and important vocabulary and concepts the child will need for beginning school to function in the classroom and to interact with teachers and peers.  Treatment may also include targeting those sounds that the child should be saying at his/her age.  All sounds have an age in which they should develop.  For more information about ages in which sounds typically develop, click here.

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"Intelligibility" is the amount of a child's speech that is considered to be understood.  This chart shows the percentage that should be understood by familiar adults (mom, dad, siblings, etc.) by age.

 

% intelligibility                              age

      50 - 75%                                     3

         85%                                         4                  

   nearly 100%                                  5

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School-Age Children:

The Speech-Language Pathologists at The SpOT clinic​ treat school-age children who may need services or additional support for speech and/or language delays.  We treat children with articulation delays (specific sound difficulties), expressive language (problems conveying their spoken message), receptive language (understanding), non-verbal children who need augmentative communication, stuttering problems, voice disorders, or tongue thrusts prior to having orthodontic treatment.  Although school-age speech therapy is structured, we do include goal appropriate games to maintain attention and to increase the child's engagement in their therapy progress.  Each child develops at his/her own pace and will vary from normative data, charts may be used as guidelines only.  For more information on school age developmental norms, please click here.

We offer treatment for the following diagnoses (not all inclusive):

Speech

  • Speech Sound Disorder/Articulation Disorder

  • Phonological Processing Disorder

  • Apraxia of Speech

  • Fluency (Stuttering Disorder)

  • Voice Disorder

  • Tongue Thrust/Swallow Disorder

  • Non-verbal comunication

  • Cleft Lip/Palate

  • Cerebral Palsy

Language

  • Developmental Language Delay

  • Receptive and/or Expressive Language Disorder

  • Social Pragmatic Language Disorder

  • Phonological Awareness Disorder

  • Reading Disorder (e.g., Dyslexia)

  • Writing Disorder (e.g., Dysgraphia)

  • Auditory Processing Disorder

  • Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorders

  • Down Syndrome

  • Various other syndromes

  • Sensory Processing Disorders

  • Traumatic Brain Injury/Non-Traumatic Brain Injury

Other

  • Writing Disorders (dysgraphia)

  • Reading Disorders

  • Birth Injuries/Birth Defects

  • Other chronic illnesses

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To schedule an evaluation:

Please contact The SpOT Clinic at 256-517-9277 (Owens Cross Roads) or 251-200-4750 (Gulf Shores) to schedule a speech and language evaluation. A physician's referral/prescription is required prior to scheduling.  Evaluations may be conducted over one to two days depending on your child’s needs. We want to ensure that each child is able to show us their current skill level to the best of their abilities. Depending on your child, a combination of age-level standardized assessments, clinical observations, as well as parent questionnaires and interviews will be used to obtain the most appropriate measures of his/her current level of functioning. If it is determined that your child would benefit from alternative or additional services, we work with each family to ensure that appropriate referrals are made. We will email client intake and case history forms that should be returned prior to scheduling an evaluation. 

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