The Speech Center of Katy provides individualized therapy for each child’s unique personality and needs.
Services
Hours
Monday – Friday: 9am – 7pm
Saturday: 9am – 5pm
Sunday: Closed
1. Speech & Language Therapy
The Speech Center of Katy provides therapy that is individualized to each child’s personality and needs. Sessions are typically 45 minutes once or twice a week. A variety of techniques are used so your child has the best chance to make substantial progress in his/her speech and language goals.
We try to incorporate therapy techniques into daily activities, as your child is able to directly relate the therapies into practice at home. Parents are welcome to be present during therapy. In cases where it is not ideal for the parents to be present, we will provide ongoing consultation on the progress made and updated program plans designed for therapy at home or in coordination with other therapists.
Indicators of Speech & Language Disorders
Children can require speech and language therapy for a variety of reasons. If your child is not meeting typical developmental milestones in speech and language, an evaluation and subsequent therapy might be warranted.
Some other key signs include:
Your child does not use early developing sounds
Your child is non-verbal at the age of two
Your child is in a habitual open mouth posture
Your child continues to drool excessively after teething
Your child has feeding issues
Your child is over three and not easily understood
Your child becomes frustrated when not understood
Your child says a sound in isolation, but not in connected speech
Your school-aged child still has difficulty with specific sounds such as R, L, or S.
The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Autism Spectrum Disorders vary in severity of symptoms, age of onset, and the presence of various features, such as mental retardation and specific language delay. The manifestations of ASDs can differ considerably across individuals and within an individual over time.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that 1 in 68 children identifies with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Autism Spectrum Disorders affect 3 areas of a child’s life:
Social Interaction
Communication – both verbal & nonverbal
Behaviors and Interests
Each child with ASD will have his or her own pattern. Sometimes, a child’s development is delayed from birth. Some children seem to develop normally before they suddenly lose social or language skills. Others show normal development until they have enough language to demonstrate unusual thoughts and preoccupations. In some children, a loss of language is the major impairment. In others, unusual behaviors (like spending hours lining up toys) seem to be the dominant factors.
Core Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder
The severity of symptoms vary greatly from person to person, but all people with Autism Spectrum Disorder have some core symptoms in the areas below:
Social Interactions & Relationships
Problems with nonverbal communication skills, (eye-to-eye gazing, facial expressions, body posture).
Failure to establish friendships with children the same age.
Lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people.
Lack of empathy and difficulty understanding another person’s feelings, like pain or sorrow.
Verbal & Nonverbal Communication
Delay in, or lack of, learning to talk.
Problems starting a conversation, and difficulties continuing a conversation after it has begun.
Stereotyped and repetitive use of language, such as repeating a phrase over and over (echolalia).
Difficulty understanding their listener’s perspective, such as understanding when someone is using humor.
Interprets communication word for word, failing to catch the implied meaning.
Limited Interests in Activities or Play
An unusual focus on pieces (i.e. Parts of toys like wheels on a car, rather than playing with the entire toy).
Preoccupation with topics. (i.e. Older childre/adults might be fascinated with video games or trading cards).
A need for sameness and routines. (i.e. Insisting on driving the same route every day).
Stereotyped behaviors (i.e. Body rocking and hand-flapping).
Symptoms during Childhood
Symptoms of childhood autism are usually noticed first by parents and other caregivers during the child’s first 3 years. Although autism is present at birth (congenital), signs of the disorder can be difficult to identify or diagnose during infancy. Parents often become concerned when their toddler does not like to be held; does not seem interested in playing certain games, such as peekaboo; and does not begin to talk. Sometimes, a child with autism will start to talk at the same time as other children the same age, then lose his or her language skills.
Parents may also be concerned or confused about their child’s hearing abilities. It often seems that a child with autism does not hear, yet at other times, he or she may appear to hear a distant background noise, such as a train whistle.
With early and intensive treatment, most children improve their ability to relate to others, communicate, and help themselves as they grow older. Contrary to popular myths about children with autism, very few are completely socially isolated or “live in a world of their own.”
Evaluations
Initially, we ask for as much information as possible including birth history, diagnosis, medical history, developmental milestones, and other relevant family history.
A comprehensive home treatment program monitored by a speech pathologist trained in TalkTools™ may take up to two hours in length. During this meeting, we analyze the oral structures as the child moves through his/her environment using a variety of food and non-food items to determine how oral motor functioning and motor planning are impacting sound production and feeding skills.
A task analysis approach is used to develop an individual program plan with specific exercises to address any areas of deficit. A formal language assessment is completed utilizing standardized testing materials. An informal language evaluation is also completed to assess how well the individual communicates within his daily routine. Furthermore, parental input is incorporated into the findings. We provide you with a full report and individualized program plan.
Renee Hill or a staff member from TalkTools™ is available for full day consultations at schools and therapy facilities. Workshops for parents and staff members can also be arranged.
2. The DIR / Floortime Model
The Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR / FT) Model is a framework that helps clinicians, parents and educators conduct a comprehensive assessment and develop an intervention program tailored to the unique challenges and strengths of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental challenges. The objectives of the DIR / FT Model are to build healthy foundations for social, emotional, and intellectual capacities rather than focusing on skills and isolated behaviors.
D is for Developmental
The D (Developmental) part of the Model describes the building blocks of this foundation. Understanding where the child is developmentally is critical to planning a treatment program. This describes the developmental milestones that every child must master for healthy emotional and intellectual growth.
The 6 Developmental Milestones:
Stage 1: Discovering your Child’s Sensory and Motor Profile
Stage 2: Intimacy, engagement, and falling in love
Stage 3: Opening and closing circles of communication
Stage 4: Expanding the Circles of communications to Solve Problems
Stage 5: Creating Emotional Ideas – A child’s ability to form ideas develops first in play.
Stage 6: Emotional Ideas and Logical Thinking
I is for Individual Differences
The I (Individual Differences) part of the Model describes the unique biologically-based ways each child takes in, regulates, responds to, and comprehends sensations such as sound, touch, and the planning and sequencing of actions and ideas.
For example, some children are very hyper responsive to touch and sound while others are under-reactive, and still others seek out these sensations. Biological Challenges describes the various processing issues that make up a child’s individual differences and that may be interfering with his ability to grow and learn.
R is for Relationship-Based
The R (the Relationship-Based) part of the Model describes the learning relationships with caregivers, educators, therapists, peers, and others who tailor their affect based interactions to the child’s individual differences and developmental capacities to enable progress in mastering the essential foundations.
How it Works
Central to the DIR / FT Model is the role of the child’s natural emotions and interests which has been shown to be essential for learning interactions that enable the different parts of the mind and brain to work together and to build successively higher levels of social, emotional, and intellectual capacities.
FloorTime is a specific technique to both follow the child’s natural emotional interests (lead) and at the same time challenge the child towards greater and greater mastery of the social, emotional and intellectual capacities. The DIR / FT Model is a comprehensive framework which enables clinicians, parents and educators to construct a program tailored to the child’s unique challenges and strengths. It emphasizes the critical role of parents and other family members because of the importance of their emotional relationships with the child.
3. Oral Sensory Motor & Feeding Therapy
Designed for clients with muscle-based articulation disorders related to poor or decreased muscle strength, low tone, apraxia, dysarthria, and/or tongue thrusting. Specific lip, jaw, tongue and cheek exercises are used with tactile cueing and feeding techniques to increase strength within the oral musculature to address the issues identified and analyzed in the evaluation. Techniques are used in conjunction with traditional speech therapy.
We Specialize in Treating the Following Feeding Disorders:
Food Refusals
Texture Transitions
Limited Food Repertoire: Picky Eaters vs. Problem Feeders
Gagging
Food Stuffing
Behavioral Feeders
Transition tube Feeders to Oral Eaters
Eating is considered a reflexive behavior until six months of age, from then on it is considered a learned behavior shaped by sensory-motor skills and experiences. It is reported that only 3% of children have a strictly behavioral feeding issue.
At Speech Center of Katy, we try to incorporate therapy techniques into activities of daily living as your child is able to directly relate the therapies into practice at home. Parents are welcome to be present during therapy. In cases where it is not ideal for the parents to be present, we will provide ongoing consultation on the progress made and updated program plans designed for therapy at home or in coordination with other therapists. We understand the strain feeding issues can cause on you and your family. That’s why we provide therapy that is individualized to each child’s personality and needs. Sessions are typically 45 minutes once or twice a week. Multiple therapy styles and techniques are utilized in each session.
The Sensory Motor Approach
This is a general approach used to identify sensory and motor components of feeding. These two concepts build on each other and help to address the issues as a whole. From a sensory perspective, we progress children through seeing, smelling and touching as well as tasting foods. From a motor perspective, we teach grading and dissociation of the jaw, lips and tongue for the skills necessary to eat the new foods. In this approach, we teach the motor skills first with non-food items and preferred foods, and then progress based on sensory-motor components to new or non-preferred foods. Our therapy includes Lori Overland’s feeding techniques and the SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) approach to feeding.
Indicators of Feeding Disorders
If your child is experiencing any of the following, a feeding evaluation and subsequent therapy may be warranted:
Mealtimes are overly stressful and negative
Your child eats less than twenty different foods
Your child is brand-specific (i.e., stuck on one brand of food)
Your child gags at the sight, smell, and/or taste of new or non-preferred foods
Your child eats only carbohydrates
Your child has had gagging/choking incidences secondary to difficulty chewing food
Your child is not gaining weight and there are no other medical explanations
Your child has been diagnosed with failure to thrive
Evaluations
Evaluations are generally about two hours in length. During our comprehensive evaluation, we analyze the oral structures as the child moves through his or her environment using a variety of food and non-food items to determine how oral motor functioning and motor planning are impacting sound production and feeding skills. A task analysis approach is used to develop an individual program plan with specific exercises to address any areas of deficit. We provide you with a full report and individualized program plan.
Duration of Therapy
The duration of therapy greatly depends on your child’s speech and language goals. A child with minor articulation, clarity disorders, or difficulty transitioning to new foods and textures may only need therapy for 12 months (or less), whereas a child with more severe issues and other complicating factors may require therapy for several years.
The following all impact your child’s overall progress:
Severity of the Disorder
Child’s Personality
Family Involvement
Carry-Over Practice at Home
Duration & Frequency of Therapy