Speech / Language Delays

If a child's brain is not processing sound properly, they may exhibit:

Difficulty with articulation (speaking clearly)
Difficulty with expressive language
Difficulty recognizing sound patterns
Reluctance to engage in conversation
Trouble telling stories
Poor vocabulary

Many speech language problems are related to poor language processing skills. Strong language processing skills occur when the brain receives clear auditory signals. The sooner a child who struggles with speech and language can develop strong processing and listening skills, the sooner their speech and language issues will be resolved.

PATHWAYS specializes in the administration of programs that significantly improve auditory and phonological processing skill deficits. The programs we use are one of the most widely used speech/language programs in the world.

If your child's speech / language delay is related to poor language processing skills, we can help. If your child's speech problems have an anatomical origin, you will require the guidance of a speech language pathologist and we are happy to give you some referrals.

Language Delay Treatment

The speech therapy programs we use help children to develop strong language procesing skiils. These programs are in wide use around the world by Speech and Language Pathologists. The programs are adaptive and target all areas that pertain to expressive language including:

sound discrimination
phonemic awareness
listening comprehension
vocabulary
language structure

Expected outcomes:

Participation in conversation. Improved processing improves receptive language skills, effectively slowing conversation and teacher instruction down, making it easier to participate.

Significant vocabulary gains. Because your child will be able to listen more accurately, more words will be absorbed and then used. This applies particularly to longer words and words with blends — both of which will be easier to pick up — and words relating to intangibles, that without a concrete item to point to, were hard for a child with processing difficulties to pick up.

Improved articulation. Improved listening will help your child hear the sounds inside words more clearly, leading to better pronunciation.

Conversational skills, relating a story. Fast ForWord can eventually help children with speech delays learn how to relate a story, in sequence and with detail. Improved listening will allow a child to improve the ability to hear how others communicate, and over time this will translate into better communication skills, although given the integration with other aspects — reasoning, knowledge, perception — improvements in communication, relating a story in particular, will occur more slowly over the year or so after completing our online speech software.