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Huntington Speech and Feeding Services

EVALUATION SERVICES

We conduct formal evaluations to determine your child’s current skill level and overall communication profile in the areas of speech, language, literacy and feeding. Evaluations are customized to fit the needs of YOUR child. We use the most current instrumentation as well as extensive checklists from parents and teachers/interventionists to guide in our assessment choices and to gain a deeper understanding of your child's strengths and areas of need. Findings, recommendations, diagnosis (if applicable) and measurable goals are determined in our assessments.

INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

We offer 1:1 speech, language, feeding and early literacy intervention in our child-friendly office and within the home setting within a certain radius. We also provide teletherapy.

Articulation/Phonology:

Articulation Therapy teaches a child how to produce and shape speech sounds using placement and movement techniques. Phonological therapy works on improving sound processing and correcting sound error patterns (e.g. leaving off word endings, substituting one sound for another) through various modalities. Both interventions work on improving speech clarity working from the sound level toward the word, phrase, sentence, and conversational levels.

Language Therapy:

Language is composed expressive language (what we say), receptive language (what we understand) and pragmatic language (social communication). Expressive language therapy targets expanding vocabulary, grammatical development, storytelling etc. Receptive language intervention targets following directions, understanding question forms, absurdities, categorization, language concepts, auditory and reading comprehension. Pragmatic language intervention targets such skills including; developing theory of mind, conversational skills, understanding idioms/multiple meanings, interpreting situations and developing inference with video tools as well as developing the ability to inference from text.

Myofunctional Therapy

Myofunctional Therapy addresses atypical and adaptive patterns within the oral facial complex.

  • Swallowing- tongue thrust during swallow (reverse swallow)
  • Resting posture - forward tongue posture /open mouth posture
  • Sound development- distortion of sibilant sounds (s, z) and forward placement for t, d, n, l
  • Chewing skills- weak or immature
  • Jaw growth and facial structure

Early Reading Instruction

Targets improving phonological and phonemic awareness skills, phoneme-grapheme mapping, encoding, decoding, high frequency words, word attack, vocabulary growth, and reading comprehension skills for struggling readers.  Multisensory and explicit teaching approach grounded in the Science of Reading.  

Motor-Based Praxis Therapy

 DTTC is a motor-based approach, meaning it is designed to improve the brain’s ability to plan and program movements for speech, which most experts believe is the underlying cause of Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Play Therapy 

Play encourages speech, language, and social development within a natural environment. Turn-taking, sharing and generating ideas, assigning roles, initiating questions, requesting for needs functionally and joint attention are some of the skills that are targeted through play.

Social Skills Therapy

Social skills training enables your child to use their language to better communicate their needs and ideas, understand the feelings of others, inference, use language for various functions and initiate and maintain communication and topics with others. Social stories may also be a component of social skills therapy. Sessions are held in small groups when children can be optimally matched.  

Feeding Therapy and Consultation

Feeding therapy/consultation services are specifically designed for children who experience difficulties chewing, swallowing, or accepting a variety of nutrient rich foods. These barriers often result in compromised nutrition and growth as well as family stress and resultant social implications. There are a variety of factors that can impact children from becoming competent feeders including feeding aversions, sensory processing challenges, food anxiety, immature chewing patterns, tethered tissues, counterproductive feeding practices and underlying medical issues including reflux, food allergies/intolerances, and other underlying gastrointestinal disorders.  

Lori addresses such difficulties by taking an extensive intake from family members and then looking closely at history, symptomology, and skill deficits, mealtime dynamics. Lori utilizes an eclectic approach when addressing feeding issues including but not limited to the Sequential Oral Sensory Approach (SOS), Food Chaining, Responsive Feeding, Satter’s Division of Responsibility, Behavioral Intervention, Desensitization, and Family Training.

Baby Led Weaning and Modified Baby Led Weaning- Lori is skilled in assisting families transitioning their childen to solids in a safe and responsive manner. She provides support for families during this transition, taking into account the child's oral motor skill level, self feeding skills and interest. She provides clear guidance on food choices that will help to improve sensory motor skills, parent roles and mealtime structure.

Independent Educational Evaluation

Parents of a child with a disability have a right to obtain an independent educational evaluation (IEE) for their child at public expense subject to the conditions outlined in the following procedures. An Independent Educational Evaluation is an evaluation conducted by a qualified examiner who is not employed by the public agency responsible for the education of the child in question. We provide such evaluations and cover speech, language and literacy domains.


Boy writing in notebook

Boy eating eggs

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97 Little Neck Road
Centerport, NY 11721

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