Speech Therapy for Adults and Teens
Speech-language evaluation and therapy services for teens, adults, and seniors are provided for the areas below. Regardless of the area, my goal as a clinician is to build my client’s ability to be a confident communicator.
Click on the links below to find out more about the speech-language therapy services provided at Purposeful Speech!
Stuttering
There are different types of stuttering, including developmental (from childhood) and acquired (occurring due to a neurological condition such as stroke or brain injury). Regardless of the type of stuttering, there are strategies and support that speech therapy can provide. Stuttering may lead to feelings of anxiety about speaking and avoidance of social situations, but it doesn’t have to. If stuttering is having a negative impact on your life, speech therapy can help. I have significant experience working with teens and adults who stutter, and I provide evidence-based therapy reflective of current clinical knowledge. I have training in the ISTAR Comprehensive Stuttering Program as well as the Avoidance Reduction Therapy for Stuttering (ARTS ®) program. I also recently participated in a workshop from the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research, on their CARE™ model.
Accent Modification
Sometimes people who have a non-North American English accent wish to modify their accent, in order to be understood more clearly by colleagues or friends, or because they would like to feel more comfortable when interacting with North American English speakers. Whatever your reason, if you’re interested in modifying your accent, a speech evaluation can help identify the speech sounds and patterns that are unique to your accent, select goals that fit with your communication needs, and then support your development of new skills to help meet those goals.
Speech Clarity
Have you ever been told that you mumble, sound monotone, or speak too quickly? Do others frequently ask you to repeat, because they didn’t understand what you said? Have you always had a bit of a lisp on certain sounds? If so, then speech therapy can support you to learn correct productions of sounds, modify your speech rate or intonation patterns, and provide you with strategies to improve the clarity of your speech.
Professional and Social Communication
Communicating effectively, whether it is in the workplace or in a social setting, can be tricky. Speech therapists can help you improve your communication skills, whether it is making your presentation style more engaging, providing guidance about how to read non-verbal cues from others, helping you reduce your use of filler words, role-playing “small talk” situations, or developing your ability to organize your thoughts and ideas when you speak. In particular, I have significant experience working with people on the autism spectrum (ASD), supporting them to navigate social situations more confidently.
Voice
A person’s voice can be essential to their work, their social life, and their sense of self. Sometimes our voices get impacted by how we’re using them, our lifestyle choices, or a medical condition. They may start fatiguing, feeling strained, or sounding rough, weak, or breathy. Speech therapists, together with other professionals such as Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists, can support people to take care of and use their voices more optimally.
Aphasia
After a neurological event like a stroke or brain injury, people sometimes develop difficulties with understanding and using language, called aphasia. There are different types and severities of aphasia, as it can manifest in a variety of ways. Research shows that early speech therapy for aphasia following a stroke is recommended to maximize progress. Therapy can target everything from object naming and expanding utterances, to improving reading skills and providing communication partner training. Specifically, I have experience with the Aphasia Institute’s Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA™) approach to communication partner training.