Pediatric Speech & Voice Therapy Services in New York, NY

By 18 months, children are expected to be saying at least 20 words. If your child is between 12 and 18 months old and is not yet talking or has only a few words, we recommend taking action. Studies show early intervention is most effective in helping children develop language.

A speech language pathologist (SLP) will help determine whether your child’s language skills are age-appropriate. They will examine areas of strength and needs, and help identify the root cause of your child’s difficulties. At Open Lines®, we know that your child’s development is one-of-a-kind. That is why every program begins with an individualized assessment. We prioritize working with you to set goals for your child, give you answers to your questions about your child’s specific challenges, and work with you to see those goals achieved as quickly as possible.

Between 18 months and 2 years, children begin to combine words to form short phrases such as, “more milk,” and “all done!” If your toddler is using words to communicate, but you are concerned that their speaking skills are not developing as rapidly as their peers, it is strongly recommended you seek an evaluation by an SLP. A parent’s intuitive sense is usually spot-on.

Some children may have a difficult time stringing words together due to difficulties with motor speech coordination and articulation, while others may exhibit a weakness in expressive language skills. In the latter case, children may benefit from more explicit strategies to help them combine words to communicate using short phrases and sentences.

A licensed SLP will conduct a comprehensive and in-depth evaluation of your child’s speech, language, and overall communication skills to determine whether your child’s language skills are age-appropriate. The underlying factors that contribute to and maintain the difficulties will also be examined and addressed. Results of this evaluation will help your clinician design a plan of action with tailored exercises and evidence-based strategies to help your child address their specific challenges. The earlier a child receives intervention, the faster gains are made to help language flourish and communicative confidence increase!

Speech motor coordination is immature when children first learn to talk. As a result, it is common for children to simplify words containing multiple syllables (e.g., “nana” for “banana”) or substitute certain sounds for others that are easier to produce (e.g., “tup” for “cup”). This process of simplifying and substituting sounds is considered a normal part of typical speech development in young children.

These patterns usually disappear between the ages of 3 and 4 as children have more practice talking and acquire typical adult-like articulation. However, sometimes these patterns of substitution and simplification persist beyond the typical ages of elimination. This makes it difficult for your child to be easily understood by others and can become even more challenging as the length and complexity of their sentences grow. This can negatively impact relationships and play with peers and the ability to share their ideas with confidence.

If your child is 3 years old and is understood less than 75% of the time by friends, teachers, and family members, it is appropriate to seek a speech evaluation. An assessment will determine whether your child’s skills are age-appropriate and whether they may benefit from support to enhance their speech development.

At Open Lines®, a licensed SLP will conduct a one-on-one comprehensive evaluation of your child’s ability to accurately perceive and produce all sounds in the English language. The SLP will also look at how production changes if a sound is produced in the beginning vs. at the end of a word and will examine if the length of the utterance also influences production and speech intelligibility. This will help your SLP establish the nature of the speech sound errors and whether those errors are developmentally appropriate.

Further testing allows an SLP to try treatment techniques to determine if your child is able to accurately produce target sounds with models or multimodal cues (i.e., verbal, visual, and tactile cues.) This information is used to customize tailored treatment plans and exercises to help your child correctly and naturally modify how they produce sounds. This improves speech intelligibility, which also boosts confidence while speaking.

Articulation Disorders Program

If your child does not consistently turn towards a person when their name is called or has difficulty following directions at home or at school, your child may have difficulty with attention and/or language. If your intuitive sense makes you feel as though something is wrong, a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s speech and language skills is strongly recommended to set your mind at ease. If your child is demonstrating difficulty with paying immediate attention, sustaining attention, or has difficulty following along at home or at school, it could indicate possible weaknesses in executive function, comprehension, and/or social-pragmatic language.

A licensed SLP at Open Lines® will guide your child through a series of in-depth tests which will examine cognitive communication to define the nature of the difficulties and why they are presenting themselves. Your SLP will work with you to design an action plan to build on your child’s strengths and address specific challenges and help them make progress and succeed as quickly as possible!

Cognitive-Communication Treatment Program

Speech refers to the physical production of sounds and words. It requires the coordination of several subsystems, including respiration (breathing), phonation (voicing), and articulation (using the jaw, teeth, lips, and tongue to make sounds). Children with speech delays or disorders may make speech sound errors, such as “wamp” for “lamp” or “gog” for “dog”.

Language can be thought of in terms of semantics (i.e., meaning), morphosyntax (i.e., word and sentence level grammar), and pragmatics (i.e., the ability to use language for a variety of functions.) Language refers to the ability to understand and express vocabulary, or meaning. We then manipulate and use words in different ways within sentences to reflect changes in meaning.

Finally, we use language with different functions (e.g., ask, answer, comment, negate) to share our thoughts and ideas with others. Children with language delays may not have many words to express their ideas, which can be frustrating, especially in the presence of other difficulties. They may speak in shorter, simpler sentences than is typical for their age or may have a hard time organizing and clearly expressing their ideas for others to understand.

Children may experience delays in speech, language, or both skill sets, but intervention will help to alleviate frustration and build communicative confidence so children fully participate in their relationships and activities.

At Open Lines®, we recognize that every child’s learning and development is unique. For this reason, every program begins with a comprehensive, individualized evaluation of your child’s speech and language with a licensed SLP. These tests help your SLP understand your child’s strengths, determine whether your child’s language skills are age-appropriate, and examine their areas of need. We then work with you to customize a plan of action including setting goals for your child, designing a plan of action, and answering your questions about your child’s specific challenges.

During sessions, your SLP will customize exercises and activities including drill-based exercises, games, and activities that simulate everyday experiences in ways that are fun and motivating for children and tailored to address your child’s specific needs. We also prioritize providing parents and other caregivers with the education, materials, and techniques needed to participate in the treatment process in order to continue practice at home and help see those goals achieved as quickly as possible.

The earlier the better! Studies show that the earlier the intervention, the faster the child will meet their goals. If you suspect that your child is exhibiting delays in their communication whether that be turning toward someone calling their name, saying their first words, or if they are struggling to read and write at grade level, we recommend taking action early and seeking a comprehensive speech and language evaluation.

A licensed SLP can help you determine whether your child’s language skills are age-appropriate, identify areas of strength as well as areas of delay or weakness, help assess the root cause of their difficulties, and design a plan of action to support your child’s growth and development.

We recommend taking early action if you are concerned that your child may not be meeting their speech and language milestones. Research indicates children are neurologically primed to learn, so the earlier they receive support and intervention, the quicker they will make gains and meet their goals.

If you are unsure whether your child is developing age-expected skills, a licensed SLP can help you determine whether your child’s language skills are age-appropriate. At Open Lines®, every program begins with a comprehensive one-on-one evaluation with one of our expertly trained licensed speech language pathologists.

Our clinicians guide your child through a series of tests that will examine various aspects of their speech, language, and communication in order to determine whether your child’s language skills are age-appropriate, identify areas of strength as well as areas of delay or weakness, help assess the root cause of their difficulties, and design a plan of action to support your child’s growth and development.

Knowing how to act in different kinds of social situations, join others in play, or make conversation with others can be confusing and anxiety-inducing for some children. Many children benefit from explicit instruction and guidance on how to navigate various social experiences.

The Open Lines® team developed a program to enhance social participation and help children develop meaningful friendships through various games and exercises that teach children how to vary speech style and language according to the situation, take the perspective of others, initiate and maintain conversations, focus attention, understand and appropriately use body language, expressions, and pitch and volume of voice to effectively interact with other people.

Social and Language Program

Right away! Typically, stuttering onset begins after the age of 3. Studies have shown that while many children will recover from stuttering on their own, there is no way to know which children will recover spontaneously and which will not. Moreover, research has revealed less than 10% of children will recover during the first year of stuttering making early intervention exceedingly important!

Early intervention is additionally important because studies show children younger than 6 years old who stutter experience social consequences such as bullying from peers. If stuttering continues into school years, it is increasingly more difficult to treat and can cause problems later in life.

If your child is experiencing difficulties with reading, early intervention is the key. Parents should seek support to bolster these skills as soon as possible. This will facilitate a child’s ability to fully participate and excel in academic settings by helping the child access written information and knowledge needed for success in a variety of settings. Delays in reading often have a compounding effect on learning and can impact a child’s development across many subjects. However, intervention has been proven to be effective and can help your child establish a love of stories.

Reading difficulties can arise due to several factors. Phonological awareness skills may be weak, which impacts a child’s ability to be able to discriminate, identify, and manipulate sounds in spoken words. A child may have difficulty identifying sounds in the beginning, middle, or end of words. They may also have trouble segmenting sentences into words, words into syllables, and syllables into sounds.

Delays in reading can also stem from challenges when trying to read words by sight or when attempting to determine what sounds letters make, and how the sounds change when they are paired or grouped with other sounds. All of these difficulties may affect a child’s ability to comprehend what they read. Reading comprehension also requires other skills, such as attending, remembering, and inferencing, and integrating these skills may be difficult for some children. As a result, meeting academic standards can become very challenging.

At Open Lines®, our expertly trained licensed SLPs will guide your child through a comprehensive and in-depth evaluation of their literacy and language skills to determine strengths and weaknesses as well as the underlying cause of reading challenges. An appropriate plan of care will then be established to help your child strengthen skills and establish a love for reading at home and school.

Our therapists are licensed by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) as Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities and registered with New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). Additionally, many team members are specially certified and trained in several literacy-specific programs including the Orton-Gillingham literacy Approach and the Lindamood-Bell method. Whether your child is at the “learning to read” or “reading to learn” stage of academics, we are here to help your child become a successful, confident reader!

Reading & Writing Program

Bilingual or multilingual children typically acquire language skills at the same rate as children learning one language. First words are typically expressed between 10-14 months old, and two to three-word phrases are produced between 18 months to 2 years of age (e.g., “more milk”).

Some studies have shown children may exhibit a “silent period” when a new language is introduced. During this time, your child may use less language as they begin to understand and use a new language. However, this typically only lasts for two to three, after which children quickly catch up to their age-matched peers.

Some bilingual and multilingual children may also mix grammatical rules or use words from both languages in a sentence. This is considered a normal pattern of dual-language acquisition and does not reflect a delay in language development.

Don’t be afraid to continue speaking all languages in your household! It is not detrimental for children (including those with speech-language impairments) to learn more than one language.

However, if you are concerned your child’s language skills are delayed, or if your child is frustrated by difficulties speaking in one or all languages, we recommended you seek an evaluation by a licensed SLP to ease your concerns. An SLP will perform a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s speech, language, and overall communication skills to determine whether their language is age-appropriate.

The assessment will identify areas of strengths and need and will confirm whether their language skills reflect typical patterns of dual language learning or a true delay. With this information, your clinician will work with you to design a plan of action with specific, targeted exercises customized to your child’s unique developmental needs to reduce frustration and improve their language skills and communicative confidence as quickly as possible!

Any time a language delay is suspected, early intervention is always recommended. Studies indicate that the sooner a child receives intervention, the faster they will be able to improve.

Absolutely! Public speaking is a valuable life skill, although many children (and adults!) find it causes them a great deal of stress and anxiety.

Our Open Lines® licensed SLPs will help foster your child’s sense of ease and confidence speaking in a variety of settings. This is achieved by addressing both the physical, cognitive-linguistic and emotional aspects of communicating to maximize the impact of their delivery.

Following a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s speech and language skills, your clinician will determine your child’s strengths and needs — whether it be projection, breath support, pitch, tone, vocal quality, speech rate, clarity, or language organization and use — to better understand their unique skill sets and needs. We work with you and your child to develop a plan of action to optimize your child’s delivery, reduce stress, and enhance their comfort and ease across communicative contexts.

Pediatric Public Speaking & Vocal Strengh Program