Supplementing Your Child’s School Speech Services With Private Services | Stamford Moms

Parents everywhere are trying to achieve a new sense of normalcy with their children as we slowly exit the pandemic, but nagging questions about their growth, development and well-being abound. Are my kids where they need to be academically? Can they catch up during this next school year? How can I reverse the social impacts from remote learning? These questions are in addition to the common questions I’ve received from many parents: My child didn’t qualify for school-based speech therapy, should I hire a private speech therapist or will my child grow out of it? Should I supplement my child’s school speech services with private services?

As a licensed and certified speech-language pathologists, parent and owner of Seagull Speech & Language Services LLC, my team and I can help guide you through those answers. Seagull Speech was created primarily as a teletherapy based practice. While a return to in-person learning and socializing is best for most children, teletherapy can still be a convenient and effective supplement. In addition to improving a child’s speech and language skills, teletherapy gives parents the gift of time. Logging in from home eliminates the need to spend time driving to appointments (and possibly having to load other children in the car). Teletherapy also allows our practice to draw from excellent therapists who may not live in the local area. Having these benefits doesn’t mean a trade-off in results and progress. A combination of a multitude of studies and our own experiences over the years proves that speech services by teletherapy is usually just as effective as traditional “in-person” speech therapy. If we feel that in-person speech therapy is best for a child, we communicate that to the parent, but that experience has been rare.

Seagull Speech is equipped with a multitude of online tests to gain a full assessment of a child’s speech and language needs. We also have many therapy activities to target an array of speech and language skills. Most of all, we make things fun! A child needs to have fun and like their speech-language pathologist before any progress can be made. However, behind the fun, our team works hard to ensure that all activities are “evidence-based”. This means that all therapeutic methods and strategies are backed by research for optimal progress. Because we have a school contracting division, we are very familiar with the school process. We utilize that knowledge to provide services that complement school based speech therapy if needed.

Contact Seagull Speech for a free initial consultation to listen to your concerns and answer your questions. Here are some testimonials from parents of past clients:

“My daughter’s speech has improved considerably since she started working with Michelle. Her pronunciation is much clearer and it’s easier now for others to understand her. And having the sessions online is very convenient on busy weeknights!” Parent, CT

“Alison was an invaluable resource for our preschooler daughter; she was able to provide us with an understanding of how the local birth to three and transition speech services worked and how they would assess her. Our daughter is a borderline case who could clearly use these resources but with the high level of demand in our area she equipped us to navigate the landscape and get her into sponsored services. All the while, Alison was able to provide excellent therapy that had a material impact on our daughter’s communication while we waited for local services during the pandemic. I would highly recommend Alison’s advice and services; as mother of two herself, she is great with kids of all ages and is a deep fountain of knowledge” Parent, CT

 

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