Spring Speech, Language, and Learning is located in Belmont, CA, and serves families in the greater Bay Area. We specialize in comprehensive speech, language, learning evaluations, and therapy.
We believe that each child has unique strengths that need to be encouraged and celebrated. Our approach is family-centered and individualized to meet the needs of your child.
We strive to make therapy fun, rewarding, and meaningful in order to gain engagement and accelerate progress towards goals!
If you have questions about how we can help your child, and your family, please do get in touch.
Spring Speech is not contracted with any PPO insurance plans, at this time. We are happy to provide a superbill that you may submit for reimbursement using out-of-network benefits, as stated in your plan. Spring Speech Therapy does not guarantee reimbursement.
LANGUAGE DISORDERS
SERVICES
Young children with receptive, and expressive language disorders exhibit difficulties with following directions, understanding language concepts, answering questions, telling stories, and using age-appropriate grammar and sentence structure. This may also impact early reading and writing skills, and should therefore be addressed as soon as possible.
Salomi uses child-directed, play-based therapy to engage children and create communication opportunities. She uses her training in The Hanen - It Takes Two to Talk program (http://www.hanen.org/Programs/For-Parents/It-Takes-Two-to-Talk.aspx), to systematically guide caregivers in providing language stimulation throughout the child's day.
AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction. Children may demonstrate difficulties with eye contact, lack of joint attention in play, repetitive behaviors, heightened responses to sensory input, delayed language development and overall inflexibility (in routines, play, and language). Click here for more information: http://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Autism/
Salomi has had extensive experience working with children on the Autism spectrum.
FLUENCY DISORDERS (STUTTERING)
Children and adults with stuttering may present with disfluencies such as part-word repetition (e.g. "wh-wh-wh-what is your name?"), prolongations (e.g. "sssssssomeone is coming"), and blocks (silent pauses with difficulty initiating the sound). These disfluencies may often be associated with secondary characteristics, such as, body movements, and head jerks. Younger children with fluency disorders may be unaware of their disfluencies initially, but may begin to demonstrate frustration with speaking overtime. Click here for more information: http://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Childhood-Fluency-Disorders/
Stuttering intervention varies based on the age of the child. Salomi utilizes her training in the Lidcombe Program for early childhood stuttering when working with preschool age children. With school-age children and teens, it is important to address goals, expectations, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and self-advocacy.
ARTICULATION & PHONOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Children are likely to present with difficulties in producing certain sounds or groups of sounds that impact their speech intelligibility. They may be substituting one sound for another, or omitting sounds/syllables within words. Click here for more information: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/SpeechSoundDisorders/
A detailed evaluation can determine the sounds errors that must be addressed, in order to improve speech intelligibility. Therapy involves systematically addressing those errors in isolation, words, sentences and conversation.
APRAXIA OF SPEECH
Children are likely to experience difficulties with producing sounds, syllables and words in sentences, in the absence of muscular weakness. The child may know what they want to say, but their brain has difficulty coordinating muscle movements to produce sound sequences. Errors patterns differ from children with articulation disorders, in that, they are inconsistent across syllables, and words.
Salomi uses a high intensity, multisensory approach to allow for several opportunities to practice sound and syllable sequences.
LANGUAGE BASED LEARNING DISABILITIES (DYSLEXIA, DYSGRAPHIA, ADHD, AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER)
Children with language based learning disabilities can experience significant academic difficulties with reading decoding, reading comprehension, writing, spelling, and processing auditory information, despite average or above average cognitive abilities. Click here for more information on these disorders: https://ldaamerica.org/parents/
Salomi has extensive experience helping students diagnosed with dylexia, dysgraphia, ADHD and childhood auditory processing disorder. She is trained in, and incorporates strategies from an Orton Gillingham based program called Wired for Reading (http://wiredforreading.com/), while supplementing it with other research based programs such as Lindamood Bell's Visualizing Verbalizing, Handwriting without Tears, and Read Live Naturally.
ALTERNATIVE AND AUGMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION (AAC)
Individuals with severe expressive communication disorders may use alternative methods or devices to augment speech or, in some cases, to replace speech. For some children, this may be a temporary solution, while for others a more long-term one. Either way, use of AAC can be powerful in decreasing frustration that can arise for difficulties in sharing one's wants, needs, thoughts, and ideas.
Salomi has extensive experience using both low-tech (e.g. picture exchange, communication boards) and high tech (e.g. Dynavox devices, Prentke Romich devices, Proloquo2Go App) AAC solutions.
TONGUE THRUST
Tongue thrust (also called “reverse” swallow) refers to a behavioral pattern, where the tongue protrudes through the anterior incisors during swallowing, speech and while the tongue is at rest. This impacts dental occlusion, articulation, and overall speech intelligibility.
Salomi has worked extensively with dentists and orthodontists to identify and remediate tongue thrusting patterns, at rest, during speech and in swallowing.