What are Speech Sound Disorders?
A speech sound disorder is when a person has difficulty producing speech sounds, impacting their overall ability to communicate. Children are expected to have some speech sound errors as their speech develops, however there are ages in which certain speech sounds are expected to be mastered or errors are expected to no longer be present.
Symptoms
Melissa treats children and adults that exhibit signs and symptoms often related to speech sound disorders:
- Difficulty with the development of phonological awareness and phonological processing
- Leaving off sounds from words, such as saying “pi” instead of “pig”
- Adding sounds to words, such as saying “puhlay” instead of “play”
- Distorting sounds in words, such as saying “thith” instead of “this”
- Substituting sounds in words, such as saying “wadio” instead of “radio”
Treatment
Melissa provides clinical services and support to children and adults that have speech sound issues. Melissa prides herself on being able to remediate extended articulation errors (such as R and S sound distortions that persists after years of treatment). She is trained in the Beckman Oral Motor Protocol, which uses assisted movement and stretch reflexes to quantify response to pressure and movement, range, strength, variety and control of movement for the lips cheeks, jaw, tongue and soft palate.