Resources for Professionals

RESOURCES FOR PROFESSIONALS

Whether you are just entering the maze of treatment options, or have been on the trek for some time, Center for Therapeutic Strategies is available to provide a plan of prioritized goals and treatment strategies to light your way to the next step and offer hope for a fulfilling, productive future.

There is no “magic bullet” to address linguistic processing issues, so no single approach will correct every problem area. Consequently, these problems cannot be corrected overnight. After gathering the diagnostic and informational pieces, the Center for Therapeutic Strategies will develop an individualized approach to best serve each person, as well as the integrity of the family as a whole.

Treatment roadmaps are multi-step plans that address foundational areas of highest priority in order to create the most effective and efficient plan of action. Continuing supervision is available throughout the treatment journey in order to pursue the highest potential possible for those with processing issues.

Why is Center for Therapeutic Strategies needed?

Processing issues are now affecting a wider range of children and adults with marked increases in the past fifteen years.

• ADD/ADHD
• Dyslexia
• Learning disabilities
• Mood and Regulatory Disorders (OCD, Aggression, Depression, Bipolar, Anxiety, etc.)
• Sensory Integration/ Sensory Processing Dysfunction
• Auditory and Linguistic Processing Disorders
• Developmental delays
• Non-Verbal Learning Disorders
• Autism Spectrum Disorders

In 1993 one out of 10,000 children were diagnosed with autism. Five years later the rate had climbed to one out of 500 children having this most severe form of processing dysfunction. In 2003 the rate had escalated at epidemic proportions until one out of 150 children were officially diagnosed with autism according to the Center for Disease Control. These figures did not include others with milder forms of processing issues.

A plethora of modalities have emerged to address the various needs of individuals with processing disorders. It is easy for families to get overwhelmed with the numerous needs present. How do you determine who to go to first? How do you know how which strategies to try? How do you know which strategies are the most urgent and which can be put off until later? Which therapy model is the most beneficial for your family?

Center for Therapeutic Strategies offers Speech/Language Evaluations and Therapy

Center for Therapeutic Strategies also provides speech and language services using a multi-sensory approach with an activity based, sensory integration therapy model designed to maximize the client’s strengths to address areas of weakness. Licensed Speech and Language Pathologists and Assistants evaluate and provide therapy to address disorders related to speech production, receptive/expressive language delays, cognitive-communication, oral and written language deficits, auditory-linguistic processing disorders, voice disorders, swallowing and feeding, and fluency of speech. Therapy is provided to help facilitate effective communication for daily functioning, social development and academic success.

Speech Language Pathologists can help children:

• Improve oral-motor skills
• Be a verbal communicator
• Be an intelligible speaker
• Process and comprehend spoken language
• Put words together to formulate thoughts with age-appropriate language
• Understand directions and language beyond memorized routines
• Desensitize children to their difficulties
• Instill confidence, trust, and self-esteem
• Increase social skills and social language

Who benefits from our Consulting and Therapy services?

• Preschool and early elementary children, middle school and high school aged children, and non-aphasic adults with problems with word recall, memory, attention, reading comprehension, focus, concentration, motor coordination, and organizational issues.
• Individuals with oral motor apraxia of speech, fluency, hoarse or nasal voice, sensory processing, auditory/linguistic processing, attention and mood regulatory disorders, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Pervasive Development Disorder, Nonverbal Learning Disorder, OCD, Tourette’s Syndrome, learning disabilities, dyslexia, attention deficit disorders.

Signs and Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of possible speech or language challenges in children include:

• Non-verbal at age 2 years
• Difficulty following verbal directions
• Echolalia- repeating back words and phrases without comprehension
• Unintelligible speech, but with adequate vocal inflection and gestures
• Word retrieval difficulties, difficulty naming objects or talking in circles around subjects with lack of the appropriate vocabulary
• Misnaming items
• Difficulty acquiring the rules of grammar
• Difficulty with word meaning
• Articulation difficulties

Signs and symptoms of possible speech, language or auditory cognitive challenges in adolescents and adults include:

• Misunderstanding words in conversation
• Word retrieval difficulties, misnaming objects or can’t recall labels of familiar objects
• Misarticulating words in conversation such as a “lisp” or mispronouncing [l] or [r]
• Mumbling so others have difficult understanding the speaker
• Academic performance lags behind intellectual capabilities
• Gets sleepy when reading or listening to others
• Over reacts to sudden noises or extremely bothered by noise
• Trouble staying focused when listening or reading
• Difficulty following more than two or oral directions
• Chronic hoarse or nasal voice problems
• Dysfluencies of conversational speech
• Tongue “thrust” posturing tongue between teeth when speaking or swallowing
• Trouble organizing thoughts, ideas, making plans, or problem solving

Therapy Modalities

Center for Therapeutic Strategies offers traditional and cutting-edge Therapy Modalities

• The Listening Program clinical and home program via bone or air conduction
• Therapeutic Listening
• Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention
• Interactive Metronome
• Oral Motor stimulation/exercises
• Feeding/Swallowing (Myofunctional) Therapy
• CranioSacral Therapy
• Intensive Therapy programs (consist of 1-2 hours of therapy per day for ten days scheduled within 2–4 weeks; traditional therapy is combined with other modalities listed above; results are often similar to 4–6 months of traditional once-a-week therapy)
• “Connections” Classes (social language classes that use language instruction and interactions with others to develop successful social communication; games and fun activities help children see themselves as part of a group, value others and learn effective communication skills)
• Media Center (contains DVD’s, CD’s, books and newsletters on some from the nation’s leading practitioners and authors in the field of processing disorders)

Note: Center for Therapeutic Strategies, Quantum Treatment Solutions, and Therapeutic Strategies, P.C. do not diagnose, treat, nor prescribe for a specific medical condition or illness and any recommendation made is not intended to replace the advice of a licensed medical practitioner.