Valley Family Therapeutics, LLC


Valley Family Therapeutics is dedicated to providing quality speech therapy services within the school setting. Additionally, we have provided links to various evidence-based resources in an effort to bridge the gaps between school-based interventions, carryover into the classroom, and transfer of skills to other settings. While these resources are separated by targeted skill, overlap of skills will likely occur. The intent of these resources is not to replace speech therapy interventions provided by skilled professionals, but rather to provide ideas in support these skills between home, school, and clinical environments. If you have any questions about speech therapy, or if your child qualifies for school-based intervention, please contact your school's speech therapy professional or director of special education for further information.

Resources


Speech Therapy

School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists goal is to help improve how well a child is learning and performing in the classroom. To do this, they often focus on a child’s ability to understand and use language.  (understood.org)

What is the Role of a School Based Speech-Language Pathologist?

Frequently Asked Questions About School-Based Speech-Language Pathology

Communication Development (Kindergarten - 5th Grade)

Speech

Speech is how we say sounds and words. Speech includes:

  • Articulation: How we make speech sounds using the mouth, lips, and tongue. For example, we need to be able to say the “r” sound to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit.”
  • Voice: How we use our vocal folds and breath to make sounds. Our voice can be loud or soft or high- or low-pitched. We can hurt our voice by talking too much, yelling, or coughing a lot.
  • Fluency: This is the rhythm of our speech. We sometimes repeat sounds or pause while talking. People who do this a lot may stutter.(asha.org)

Language

Language refers to the words we use and how we use them to share ideas and get what we want. Language includes:

  • What words mean. Some words have more than one meaning. For example, “star” can be a bright object in the sky or someone famous.
  • How to make new words. For example, we can say “friend,” “friendly,” or “unfriendly” and mean something different.
  • How to put words together. For example, in English we say, “Peg walked to the new store” instead of “Peg walk store new.”
  • What we should say at different times. For example, we might be polite and say, “Would you mind moving your foot?” But, if the person does not move, we may say, “Get off my foot!” (asha.org)

Pragmatics/Social Skills

Social communication includes three major skills:

Using language for different reasons, such as:

  • Greeting. Saying "hello" or "goodbye."
  • Informing. "I'm going to get a cookie."
  • Demanding. "Give me a cookie right now."
  • Promising. "I'm going to get you a cookie."
  • Requesting. "I want a cookie, please."

Changing language for the listener or situation, such as:

  • Talking differently to a baby than to an adult.
  • Giving more information to someone who does not know the topic. Knowing to skip some details when someone already knows the topic.
  • Talking differently in a classroom than on a playground.

Following rules for conversations and storytelling, such as:

  • Taking turns when you talk.
  • Letting others know the topic when you start talking.
  • Staying on topic.
  • Trying another way of saying what you mean when someone did not understand you.
  • Using gestures and body language, like pointing or shrugging.
  • Knowing how close to stand to someone when talking.
  • Using facial expressions and eye contact. (asha.org)
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