THE PROCESS:

 Intake call with our admin team:

At either Pathways To Hope or Brant Mental Health Solutions our admin team is trained to take you through some screening questions which help us to place you with the right speech team at our office. We do currently have a waitlist, but we have hired an additional Speech Thrapist and Communicative Disorders Assistant to help us get through our waitlist quicker.

Initial visit and assessment:

The SLP will complete an in-person or virtual assessment based on the information collected during your intake call. Our approach to assessment ensures we take the time to understand your child’s needs and adapt our service delivery to meet their individual engagement and interaction style.

Assessment can include some or all of the following:

• Case History
• Parent Interview
• Communication Concerns
• Informal Observation
• Behavioural Observation
• Formal Standardized Assessments
• Obtaining a language sample
• Oral Motor Examination
• Discussion of results and recommendations

We encourage families to bring any previous Speech-Language Pathology assessment/discharge reports, or other relevant service provider documentation (e.g., Occupational Therapy, Behaviour Therapy, etc).

To ensure true patient-centered care, our clinicians believe in the importance of collaboration with other service providers to ensure continuity of service both within and across disciplines.

Intervention:

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP) are regulated and licensed healthcare professionals with the College of Audiologist and Speech Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO).

SLPs support the identification, education, assessment and intervention of both communication and/or feeding swallowing disorders in both children and adults.

WHAT AREAS DO WE TREAT?

• Receptive Language: Difficulty understanding or processing language.
• Expressive Language: Difficulty putting words together, having a limited vocabulary, or being unable to use language in a socially appropriate way.
• Articulation (Speech Sound Production): Difficulty making sounds or saying words incorrectly to the point that listeners can’t understand what’s being said.
• Oral Motor Concerns: Difficulty with moving and/or coordinating the lips, tongue, jaw and other oral motor muscles required for speech production.
• Voice & Resonance: Difficulties with pitch, volume, or quality of the voice.
• Social Communication & Play: Difficulties using verbal and non-verbal language for a variety of reasons or using language to build relationships.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder: Communication concerns are one aspect of autism spectrum disorder, which can include difficulties with social skills and language. Individuals with Autism may have difficulty understanding and using words, learning to read or write, or engaging in communication exchanges.
• Literacy: Difficulties with phonological awareness, reading and/or writing.
• Feeding & Swallowing: Difficulties with chewing and swallowing, coughing, gagging, texture sensitivity, and/or refusing foods.

If intervention is recommended, the SLP will design and implement various activities to target your child’s communication goals. Activities will range from low to highly structured depending on the clients’ interests and communication/learning profile. Caregiver involvement is an important component of intervention to promote and help parents feel confident supporting their child’s speech and language progress at home. The SLP will provide take-home activities that the caregiver can use to support the ongoing development of their child’s speech and language skills. Clinicians will track progress of therapy goals across sessions to inform the need for ongoing assessment and intervention.

Our speech program will provide you or your child with a weekly or bi-weekly spot that will remain on the same day and time. This will be communicated to you prior to your assessment so that you can let us know if the day and time available will work for your schedule.

For more information about our speech program, call us at 519.751.0728 or email pathwaystohopebrant@gmail.com