Accent and Speech Improvement Services
In any industry, good communication skills are vital. If your current speech and accent patterns are interfering with your ability to be understood, if people constantly ask you to repeat yourself, if you feel that your speech is preventing you from advancing in your career, or if your voice is tired at the end of the day, than you can benefit from the instruction of a Speech Pathologist / Dialect Coach.
At iRise we offer proven speech / voice modification methods that will help you find your voice in the world. A licensed Speech Pathologist / Dialect Coach can work with you on improving the following skills:
Accent and Speech Improvement Services
- Voice Improvement and Modification
- Non Native Speakers – Eliminate Accent
- Regional Accent Elimination
- Corporate Speech Training
- Speech Improvement For Voiceover Artists
- Accent and Dialect Acquisition For Actors
- Public Speaking and Presentation Skills
Make sure that your speech and your voice allows you to make a good first impression. Speaking with clarity, precision, and confidence will help you excel in your chosen career. At iRise, we have experience working with an international population of actors, voice over artists and professionals who understand that speaking Standard American English, the accent without an accent, can lead to more successful communication.
How Can We Help You Improve Your Speech, Accent and Voice?
Clients seeking regional accent reduction are from a variety of locations in the US including New York, New England, the South and the Midwest. Most of those seeking foreign accent changes are from a wide variety of countries around the globe including Canada, England, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Thailand, Japan, China, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Greece, South Africa, and Haiti. Although all of the clients from these countries represent diverse cultures, they all share the desire to communicate without being misunderstood. At iRise, we have devoted our efforts to helping our clients achieve this goal.
Adult Speech Therapy
From the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to sleep at night, you spend the majority of your day communicating. Whether it is through speaking, writing, reading or listening, you are constantly engaged in activities that are linguistically and cognitively demanding using language.
For many, understanding what people say or the use of language to express ones self seems like second nature. However, millions of Americans suffer from speech and language disorders that make these tasks challenging.
To help rebuild skills or regain confidence with communication, adults may seek speech therapy after a stroke, when diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s disease or dementia, or to improve articulation and fluency. In addition, adults may seek elective services such as accent neutralization or support with public-speaking. We are here to help you understand what can happen throughout adult speech therapy.
Common Speech Disorders Requiring Speech Therapy
Approximately 40 million Americans have communication disorders. These disorders affect how you deliver words, sounds, and how you communicate with others.
Producing speech includes the coordination of many things, including:
Thinking, remembering, and organizing your thoughts
Listening and understanding what you hear
Retrieving words
Arranging words in the proper syntactic order
Coordinating respiration and phonation to speak with adequate volume and vocal quality
Using prosody and tone to convey emotion
Coordinating the speech mechanism to articulate desired sounds
Below, you will find three of the most common disorders that your speech language pathologists (SLP) can help with.
Aphasia
Aphasia is an acquired, neurological language disorder that can affect the way you understand and express verbal or written language.
Adults can develop aphasia following brain damage, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), cerebrovascular accident (CVA), brain tumors, or other neurological diseases.
There are several types of aphasia, all ranging in severity. Each person’s experience is unique and even a mild issue can significantly impact quality of life. Global aphasia, Broca’s aphasia (non-fluent), and Wernicke’s aphasia (fluent) are most common. Depending on your diagnosis, you may experience fragmented speech, problems with word retrieval, or difficulty understanding what you hear if people speak too quickly or within group conversation.
Apraxia
Acquired apraxia of speech is another type of neurologically-based speech disorder that can occur following a neurological injury, such as CVA, or from a progressive condition, such as dementia. Apraxia is a motor speech disorder, meaning that the brain has difficulty planning and sequencing the motor movements necessary to speak. The relationship between knowing what you want to say and making your tongue, lips and jaw make the requisite movements is interrupted.
You may show signs of verbal apraxia if you have slow, effortful speech, inconsistent errors when trying to speak, difficulty initiating words, issues with adding or omitting sounds, or groping (i.e., trying to move your lips, jaw, and tongue to make a particular sound but not quite being able to do so accurately).
Dysarthria
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that occurs when the muscles required for speech are weak or uncoordinated due to brain damage. Dysarthria can affect your respiration, phonation, and articulation, making it challenging to speak with adequate loudness and clarity.
This neurologically-based speech disorder may result from illnesses such as CVA, Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonism, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease, or multiple sclerosis (MS). If you have dysarthria, your speech may sound slurred, mumbled, or too fast or slow. People with dysarthria may find it difficult to participate in social situations such as speaking on the phone or meeting up with friends due to reduced intelligibility.
Speech Therapy Techniques
The techniques, methods, and intensity of your therapy depend on many factors. You will undergo a series of tests for your clinician to gather baseline data and to understand your needs and goals. Your speech language pathologist will consider your medical history, strengths and weaknesses noted during the evaluation process, responsiveness to trialed therapy techniques, and other factors that will impact your prognosis for recovery or improvement. Then, they will come up with a plan to help you rebuild your life, improve your communication, or enhance your delivery.
While each of these areas requires different treatment techniques and intensities, all programs use core principles of neuroplasticity and motor learning. Improving a current skill or rebuilding an old skill is like anything in life: practice, repetition, and salience.
You will receive tailored exercises in a specific mode of treatment (e.g., intensive) to help you meet your individualized goals efficiently. Not only will you practice these in a professional setting, you will also incorporate them as part of a daily home exercise routine so the gains you make in therapy can be generalized to all aspects of your day-to-day life. The end goal is to transfer the skills learned in an intensive program or speech therapy to your career, personal life, and favorite hobbies.
Speech Therapy Exercises for Adults
Speech therapy does not end when you leave an appointment. For best results, follow all exercise recommendations provided by your speech language pathologist. Stay positive and be willing to participate, even if you are feeling frustrated. Remember, your SLPs are there to offer their expertise and support you in achieving your goals.
Speech therapy techniques and exercises will vary for each individual. Here are examples of how exercises are incorporated within a program to help treat these various conditions:
Rehabilitation After a Stroke
Your SLP may use a combination of drill-based exercises and functional activities to improve your ability to understand, speak, read, and write after a stroke. This can include cognitive exercises such as visualization techniques to increase attention and memory; sentence generation tasks to improve your vocabulary and word retrieval; or vocal exercises to improve the clarity of your speech.
You may also take part in functional activities such as role-play conversations or preparation of functional tasks that can help you regain your confidence with your professional and personal responsibilities.
Schedules will vary with each individual, but you can expect to spend 5 to 10 hours per week online and 5 to 15 hours per week in-person. The schedule includes exercises, activities, relaxation, rest, and other recommendations important for your individualized program.
Improving Voice, Fluency, and Articulation
The focus here is to target exercises that allow you to speak more clearly and be better understood. Voice problems can result from a variety of medical causes, including vocal cord lesions or muscle tension. After consulting with you and your otolaryngologist/ENT about your specific symptoms and medical history, you will then receive a comprehensive assessment that examines your breathing, voicing, and speech habits that may contribute to your decreased intelligibility.
The focus in articulation treatment for adults is to target exercises to allow you to speak more clearly and be better understood. During an initial assessment, your SLP will determine which specific sounds would benefit from improvement and target production of these sounds within a hierarchy, first in isolation, followed by words, sentences, reading, and conversation. Conversational skills progress from casual dialogue, such as greeting someone and making “small talk,” to more complex conversations such as work-related topics.
You can also take part in exercises to target stuttering, or fluency disorders. These resonant-based exercises help you find a “forward voice” that helps you maintain a strong voice while decreasing laryngeal tension. The focus is on moving resonance forward in the oral cavity and finding the healthiest way to phonate. You can also benefit from more traditional fluency techniques such as “easy onset,” where you practice bringing your vocal folds together gently when saying words beginning with a vowel to reduce hard glottal attacks. These exercises progress from a foundational sound, to syllables, then words, sentences, and conversations.
Enhancing Public-Speaking Abilities
It is common for people or employees in forward-facing roles to want to enhance their delivery. Certain techniques will improve the efficiency of your message and will teach you how to confidently engage an audience. You will be able to speak publicly with less anxiety or hesitation, becoming a better communicator during meetings, when communicating with clients, and when leading presentations.
Examples of exercises include reading techniques where you shift pacing, intonation, and stress. These exercises change your overall delivery so you can learn how to emphasize various parts of your message. You may also take part in role-playing tasks where you can prepare for an upcoming meeting at work or a public speaking engagement.
Accent Reduction
To neutralize an accent, your SLP will help you target your perception of speech, accurate production of speech sounds that contribute to the accent, and improvement in intonation and coordination of speaking. You will progress from working on individual sounds in isolation to producing sounds at the word level, as well as in sentences, paragraphs, and conversations. Once you reach paragraph and conversational levels, they will help you shift your manner of speaking and improve intonation that will help reduce your accent.
Vocal Coaching for Professionals
Attorneys, executives, public speakers, voice over artists, teachers, actors, actresses, and anyone who uses their voice in a professional setting can experience communication challenges. Your SLP will determine if those difficulties are due to overuse, misuse, or abuse of your voice (requiring therapeutic intervention), or from lack of voice and speech training (requiring education and communication training).
How Long Does Speech Therapy Last for Adults?
As adults, we have deeply ingrained habits that impact how we speak and communicate. Working on these habits may take some time to master and feel natural. Motivation and intensity of practice are factors that most significantly affect how quickly you see results in your individual program. Other factors include your specific goals (e.g., returning to life in retirement or regaining skills for the workplace as an attorney), the extent of your neurological injury, and your feelings or beliefs about your communication difficulties
For example, participating in an intensive program post-stroke or for cognitive-communication disorders with speech sessions four to five times a week for one or more hours each day combined with a home exercise program will generally lead to significant improvement in one month. You can then renew the program on a monthly basis until you meet and exceed your goals.
If you are participating in speech therapy to improve the clarity of your speech, fluency, voice, or public speaking skills, you can expect to see results within one to three months. Individual goals may vary, and you can continue speech exercise sessions to meet your specific needs.
Adult Speech Therapy at IRISE
Whether you are recovering from an illness or trauma, need to overcome speech or voice difficulties, or want to professionally communicate with excellence, we help you navigate your personal journey to achieve a successful, meaningful outcome.
What Is Aural Rehabilitation?
Aural rehabilitation involves helping or assisting an individual to adjust effectively to and manage his or her hearing loss. It is important to know that the methods undertaken focus on helping the individual to overcome the challenges caused by hearing loss, therefore improving the quality of day-to-day life. Strategies for rehabilitation differ for adults and children.
Adult rehabilitation may be offered in individual or group settings and generally encompasses the following:
- Adjusting to and learning about your specific type of hearing loss
- Improving communication skills
- How to use, care for, and make the most of your hearing aids
- Exploring accessories for your hearing aids
The Different Parts of Aural Rehabilitation
Aural rehabilitation is different for everyone. In order to get which is best for you, ensure you talk to your hearing care provider.
- Adjusting To and Learning About Your Specific Type of Hearing Loss
Generally, hearing impairments aren’t the same which is why it’s important to find out what caused yours, it’s characteristics and how it affects your functional hearing and communication abilities. This will not only help relieve frustrations when retraining your brain, it will also help you explain to your loved ones and friends what you go through.
- Improving Communication Skills
Communicating involves more than just verbal skills; there are many things involved.
- Retraining Your Brain
Your hearing aids allow you to hear sounds you may not have heard in a very long time. It takes time for your brain to get used to those sounds, and aural rehabilitation services offer you strategies to help with this.
- Actions speak louder than words
You can also learn to use visual cues. The adage “actions speak louder than words” is very true; the ways in which people augment verbal communication with their facial expressions and gestures help us to understand what they are saying.
- Lip-reading
Lip-reading helps you understand what sounds look like when people say them. This is more than just being able to read lips — it’s about being able to differentiate words that have similar mouth movements but different meanings.
- Finding your place
Communication skills can be improved by learning what environmental settings are best for you to socialize or work in, and how to effectively manage them.
How to Use and Make the Most of Your Hearing Aids
Your provider chooses a hearing aid for you because it offers the best features for you. Understanding exactly what your technology is designed to do will help you get the most out of it. Using hearing technology doesn’t mean everything is fixed, so having realistic expectations about what to expect with your devices will help you adjust more successfully to them.
Exploring Accessories for Your Hearing Aids
With technological advancements in hearing aids also come an array of possible accessories! Assistive listening devices that connect to your phone, TV, and music players are just some of the integrative options to accompany your technology. Plan to discuss augmented technologies with your hearing health care provider.
Support
There are legal support and support groups for those with hearing impairment.
First, there are laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act, which offers accommodations for people with hearing loss in the workplace and other places you frequent (hospitals, churches, and courtrooms).
Second, support groups provide significant help in meeting the daily challenges associated with living with hearing loss. Though your family and friends may support you, it’s important to talk to someone who knows exactly what you’re going through. Support groups can be found online or through your audiologist.
Aural Rehabilitation for Children
Rehabilitation is for those who have lost a skill, while habilitation is for those who never had it. For young children with hearing loss, rehabilitation is needed. Children with hearing loss from a very young age face significant communication challenges and delays requiring habilitative interventional techniques to catch up to their normal-hearing peers.
Your child’s habilitation depends on the following factors:
- How severe the impairment is.
- The child’s age at which the hearing loss occurred, was diagnosed, and was treated
- The type of hearing loss
Development
Identifying hearing loss as early as possible in a child is essential, because their impairment affects their ability to learn speech and language. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, early detection and early use of amplification has been shown to have a dramatically positive effect on the language abilities of a child with hearing loss.
The Different Parts of Child Aural Rehabilitation
“Auditory perception” is a clinical term that means helping your child do the following:
- Identify sounds
- Tell the difference between sounds
- Attach meaning to sounds
Visual cues
Communication skills can be improved by learning what environmental settings are best for you to socialize or work in and managing it.
Speech improvement
Help them learn to pronounce and enunciate correctly, with more normal voice quality, rate of speech, loudness, and rhythm.
Hearing aids
When kids first get their technology, it is maintained on a daily basis by caregivers or loved ones. As they grow older, it is important to help them get used to adjusting and maintaining the devices themselves at age-appropriate levels, eventually leading them to be the main point of contact with the audiologist.
Speech therapy for children
We go above and beyond when it comes to the treatment for our young patients. Our goal is to make their experience as close to “playtime” as possible. Our specially-trained pediatric therapists work one-on-one with our young patients to help them, encourage progress, and form lasting bonds. In addition, we work closely with physicians, parents, caregivers, and teachers with a collaborative approach to care to facilitate great clinical and functional outcomes. Our therapists work closely with each patient to create the best, individualized recovery plan. We are dedicated to helping children reach their full potential, faster!
Speech Therapy For Schools in NJ
We offer in-school services for New Jersey schools, providing speech therapy for NJ BOE approved-cases and private pay. Contact us if you are an educator in NJ and would like to schedule Speech and Language Screenings for your students.
Literacy & Learning Support
Provide tutoring for children of all ages and abilities.
Improve reading and comprehension skills.
Help a child overcome or manage a learning disability such as Dyslexia, ADHD, CAPD, etc.
Help your gifted child develop their talents.
Provide Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS) for your child with special needs.
Prepare your child for standardized testing .Each session incorporates a structured, systematic, multi-sensory approach to reading.
Students access information through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities.
Speech Sound Disorders
Speech sound or articulation disorders occur when children continue to have difficulty producing sounds that are expected at a certain age. This can lead to reduced intelligibility of speech and frustration.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Childhood apraxia of speech is an impaired ability of motor planning movements necessary to produce speech even when there’s no obvious muscular problem. This typically results in reduced clarity of speech and frustration.
Reading Accuracy
Reading accuracy involves learning the names of the letters of the alphabet, and the sounds those letters represent. Difficulties decoding letters into sounds and then words may affect a child’s ability to comprehend what they read
Receptive Language
Receptive language is the ability to understand auditory messages. If your child has difficulty following directions or understanding vocabulary, he may have a language-based learning disability.
Expressive language
Expressive language is the ability to produce language. It is based on the content (semantics), form (grammar), and use (pragmatics) of language at different developmental levels. If your child has difficulty answering questions accurately or telling stories, you may want to learn more about language-based learning disabilities.
Voice
Many different things can lead to voice problems for children, such as frequent shouting and poor vocal hygiene. If a voice is rough or a child runs out of air when he or she is speaking, this may be indicative of a voice problem. There are many different types of voice disorders that can be helped with therapy.
Phonological Awareness
Phonological Awareness involves being able to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in words that are spoken. It also includes recognition and manipulation of rhyme, syllables, and words. Difficulties in this area may lead to reading difficulties later.
Written Language Expression
Written language expression involves using writing mechanics such as appropriate punctuation and capitalization. Children who are able to use these skills have an easier time expressing themselves through writing.
Children needing help in this area may show difficulty following a logical sequence, including appropriate and descriptive story-grammar elements or writing essays and stories that have a beginning and end.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is an essential skill. Longer texts requiring higher-level reading skills, such as inferencing, may be difficult for some children. As a result, meeting academic standards can become very challenging.
Evaluations
Speech-language evaluations
Individual Speech-Language Therapy
Speech articulation screenings
1:1 and GroupTherapy
Dysphagia Therapy
Pragmatic Language Groups
Educational assessments including administration of : CELF, PPVT, CASL, GFTA, KLPA
Resources for pediatric patients: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-in-action.html
DIR® FLOORTIME™
Assessing and Supporting the Development Of Children Who Have Different Traits With Developmental Approach
Assessing and Supporting the Development Of Children Who Have Different Traits With Developmental Approach
Infancy and early childhood are very important in terms of emotional, social, language, cognitive, motor, and sensory perception of children. It is essential for developmental approach to consider the relationship between the baby/children parent, family, and environment, while observing the infant/child
Dr. Stanley Greenspan, Child Psychiatrist, suggests transforming the relationship between children and their family into an interactive relationship that contains trust and pleasure and play. Briefly, with the approach called FLOORTIME™ by Dr. Greenspan, shows that parents understand their children better and it is possible to support their development, while it is easier to cope with everyday problems of children. Dr. Greenspan has published scientific articles and books about FLOORTIME™ which is the product of his long years of work that is supported by NIH (National International Health Organization). Later on, he started to apply this approach with children who have severe difficulties and their families, while he developed the model DIR® FLOORTIME™ with Psychologist Serena Wieder.
DIR® FLOORTIME™ presents a multi-dimensional system to support the assessment and development of babies and children, who show different developmental characteristics. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), developmental retardation, Down Syndrome, speech and language disorders, attention, emotional and impulsivity problems are the children who are part of this group.
DIR:
The word or acronym is obtained using the first letters of the words the developmental, individual and relationship based, which summarize what kind of an approach it is for assessment and therapy of the model
D Developmental
I Individual
R Relationship Based
D - Developmental:
Dr. Greenspan specified six developmental levels, which defines cognitive and emotional development, in order to understand and assess better the development of the baby and the child. These developmental levels provide us the possibility to approach the child in a way that, not only considering the child’s chronological age, but understanding, which level that the child belongs to developmentally. This is the important difference that distinguishes the developmental approach from the other methods.
If we were to summarize the developmental levels briefly:
- To be able to stay calm and obtain attention,
- To maintain and establish shared attention,
- To be able to receive and deliver emotional and social messages, which includes all kinds of communication signals,
- To be able to solve problems together and to organize behaviors in the direction of a certain thought with another person.
- To play symbolic and creative games, associating by building bridges between thoughts.
- Developing logical thinking.
These developmental characteristics are important to develop academic skills as well as establishing and maintaining social relationships automatically.
I – Individual:
Each child has individual characteristics to regulate themselves, such as, calm oneself and response to stimuli. Some children might react extremely to stimuli that they perceive with their senses, such as, light, sound, taste, touch, etc. They might show differences when using the process of the stimuli. It is important to take in consideration that these characteristics will influence the child’s communication and his compatibility with the environment that he/she is included in. Accordingly, these characteristics, also, will influence the development and the apprehension of the child.
R- Relationship based:
The child meets with lots of people such as parents, relatives, peers, educators and therapists in the social environment that they belong to. These individuals will constitute a foundation which supports the child’s development with interaction that is based on warm and trustful reciprocity.
How Does The Assessment Applied In Dir® Floortime™?
A developmental assessment is presented in this model, instead of obtaining the child’s chronological age and applying a question & answer test on the table in order to retrieve certain scores to compare the child with their peers. Outline of this assessment can be summarized as follows:
Detailed information is obtained about a child’s development since birth by interviewing the family.
The essential part of the assessment is to observe the interaction of the child with his mother, father, or caregiver. Thereby, it becomes possible to notify the pathway that the parents must follow throughout the therapy process and to support their child. Separate sheets of assessment forms are utilized for child and parent in the course of observation.
The assessment is functional. It does not assess a child’s skills or IQ levels. However, it observes a child’s performance as a social individual by assessing the child’s coherence and relaxation in their environment, interaction with individuals, the way they play with the toys and the way they use the materials.
Starting from the level of 0-3 months within FEDL Functional Emotional Development Levels, a child’s performance and the level of his performance are determined according to the observation. With this, it executes what affects and restricts a child’s performance in these levels.
-Child’s individual differences and the way they cope with these differences are assessed according to the observation effect of the way the child assesses the information perceived through senses, sensory sensibilities and general development are determined. This is the essential part of assessing individual differences such as, overreacting to certain sounds, inability to touch slippery and flexible materials, unable to touch different surfaces, disliking when the child is touched, and having a hard time tolerating grainy foods.
The child’s strong aspects and aspects that are needed to be supported are determined by monitoring peer interaction and socialization skills of the child.
While communicational characteristics and speech and language skills are evaluated, not only word usage and comprehension of the receptive language are assessed, at the same time, non-verbal communication, the way emotions are expressed, reaction to emotions of others, intention to communicate and shared communication are also assessed.
The DIR model is presenting various scales that depend on observation, in respect of the developmental road map, so the babies and the children with different developmental characteristics could be assessed. Professionals who have completed their education in different lines of work such as psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, speech and language therapists, and occupational therapists could use the DIR model within their occupational education and they could apply the assessment and choose appropriate goals to support the development.
Therapy:
The goals that are determined for the therapy are shared with the family. It is important for families to meet with the child’s level according to development age, which the results of the assessment showed, as well as it is important for families to identify the developmental characteristics of the level that their child belongs to. Then, how the individual differences affect daily life is shared with the family. For example: It should be taken into consideration that in order to interact with the child if the child is affected by bright light and loud noise it is important to eliminate these factors. This is important to take into consideration these factors when interacting with children. For instance shutting the curtains and dimming the light could help children with these differences to interact.
The essential part of therapy is to have mutual interaction with the child while maintaining a relationship, which promotes warmth, love and trust. FLOORTIME™ can be summarized as interacting and playing with this principle while supporting a child’s emotional, social, and intellectual development.
What is FLOORTIME™?
Briefly, FLOORTIME™ can be summarized as, playing with interaction that includes warmth, emotion and trust, while considering a child’s individual differences and the characteristics of the developmental level that he belongs to. It is important to develop and learn a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive capacities by deriving from the child’s emotions and the subject and materials that he is interested in. The therapist, who is applying FLOORTIME, interacts with children according to specified goals that are derived from the assessment results. However, the main goals are to educate and support the parents about the ways that they can apply these principles into their daily lives. The role of the therapist is to guide the family, develop new goals, and be a model about the ways in reaching these goals. Also, the therapist looks for solutions and presents proper ways to approach the problems that are encountered in the daily life of the child, according to the characteristics and individual differences that are special for them.
How Does The Floortime Practiced?
The first step is getting to know the child. The therapist guides the family about this subject. Shortly, we can start by observing the child, understanding his intention and joining the child. With the lead of the child, the interaction is started with a game or a toy that interests the child. However, the aim is to develop this interaction in accordance with specified goals. Meanwhile, the aim is to bring up the child within his developmental levels by rendering an enjoyable and prolonged interaction. At this point, it is important to apprehend why FLOORTIME™ is a therapeutic approach and it is crucial to understand the difference between any type of playing style and FLOORTIME™.
Many parents/guardians emphasize the importance of emotional and social bond by using the expressions such as, “I understood that I am a mother”, “I feel that there is a bond building between us” after meeting with this technique.
Who Can Practice The Floortime?
Everyone. The adults who want to become FLOORTIME™ practitioners, could retrieve meeting seminars that are made over the Internet through ICDL’s website. So, they can have broad information about DIR® FLOORTIME™; www.icdl.com. Also, you may join family seminars that we can get you in contact with.
However, if you wish to create your child’s therapy program by implementing FLOORTIME™, you will need a therapist who can identify the educational goals by doing an assessment and maintain your education by working with you and your child. This therapist may belong to any one of the various occupational groups such as psychologist, speech and language therapist, and educator. However, this therapist should be a clinician who has received the proper training from ICDL in order to become a sufficient practitioner.
We received and are still receiving FLOORTIME™ training and our FLOORTIME™ team members are composed of different occupational groups such as speech and language therapists, clinical psychologists and developmental psychologists. We are pleased to pioneer FLOORTIME™ in our country. As a team, we are maintaining our training by attending the summer institute programs that are provided in the USA and we are receiving clinical supervision from the professionals, who are abroad by video conference connections.
Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) evaluate the behaviors that are based upon IQ, pre-academic skills and reaction. However, DIR FLOORTIME evaluates and supports the development in a functional way. In the National Research Council, 2001, the importance of being able to initiate communication skills of one self in functional activities and generalizing the language skills in different environments and activities, in order to evaluate development, is emphasized.*
Early Intervention Services
At times, developmental challenges are noticed and seen immediately when a child is born. Some reasons for the development delay include prematurity, low birth weight or diagnosed illnesses. These can result in a child having delays in developmental milestones. Usually, the doctor’s evaluation can be the first step to early intervention. A multidisciplinary approach by clinicians that have experience to work with babies and toddlers provide early intervention services.
Our team of therapists provide early intervention services and evaluation in the following areas:
- Cognitive development
- Social /emotional development
- Adaptive development
- Communication development
- Motor development
Our services include:
- Family training
- Home visit.
- Counseling
- Feeding therapy
- Speech therapy
Psychological services
Early intervention services are basic and it helps the child to develop new skills during the first years of life such as;
- Physical (reaching, rolling, walking)
- Cognitive (thinking, learning, problem solving)
- Communication (attending,understanding,talking)
- Social emotional (interaction skills, play skills)
- Self-help (drinking, eating, dressing)
Some specific approaches that we use for early intervention are;
- DIR Floortime
- Hanen
Why Early Intervention?
Child development research has established that the rate of human learning and development is most rapid in the early years. If there is a delay in the development, intervening early can provide maximum benefits. Many studies and literature reviews report that the earlier the intervention, the more effective it is.
Early intervention is one of the areas that we have experience and training in different subjects.
Parent Support Groups
For parents with children in our programs, it is often stressful and worrisome as it affects the family dynamics and social relationships of members with parents forced to question their parenting skills and roles.
Nevertheless, concerns over the permanency and the ambiguity of the condition, poor acceptance of problem behaviors by society, and the ultimate effects of the situation on the family life are stressful factors resulting in the feelings of hopelessness and loneliness. A guardian or parent who shoulders the responsibility of caregiving to the child with special needs can get exhausting and they can even be criticized for not doing enough. Sometimes, they might feel that they do not receive the support they need from others, even from their spouses or partners which can result in feelings of loneliness and exhaustion. Some people ignore these kinds of feelings and ultimately isolate themselves from social life. Research studies evidenced that these people who isolate themselves from social networks are declared to be more depressed, anxious, and pessimistic about their children’s situation; whereas mothers who received more social support scored lower on depression, anxiety, and anger scales, and reported lower levels of marital problems. Moreover, members who received social support became more optimistic about their children’s situation and were better able to communicate with their children.
For us at iRise, we developed support groups for our caregivers/parents for weekly sessions in order to help them feel that they are not alone in this stressful process. It is aimed to bring about what is not verbalized during daily chores, which they live as an individual, as a parent of a child with special needs. We intend to talk out feelings, how to deal with these feelings, support sources and the moments when they feel less support. Eventually, we aimed to alleviate this depression and anxiety so that you can be better able to be there for your child(ren).
Psycho-Developmental Assessment and Therapy
Our mission is to support families to help their children to achieve their optimum developmental potential. This is done by providing a team-work approach and intervention designed for each child’s abilities, while offering emotional support and training to the entire family. Additional services include counseling for family members, parent training programs, home-based therapy, developmental assessments, preschool interaction playgroup, school visits.
We use our assessment procedure to determine whether the developmental skills of the child are as expected, or if there is a concern for his or her development and further evaluation is necessary. By developmental assessment; we can understand the child’s strengths and weak points so we can plan our educational program and help the family and the child to make fullest use of his or her developmental potential.
Our assessment is done using the following instruments:
- WISC-R (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children)
- DENVER Developmental Screening Test
- BAYLEY-3 Scales of Infant and Toddler Development 3rd Edition
- Vineland Social-Emotional Early Childhood Scales
- Daberon-2 Test for Screening School Readiness
- Bracken School Readiness
- PEP-R (Psychoeducational Profile Revised)
- AEPS
- Ages and Stages
The following are common problems we deal with:
- Developmental delay
- School related problems such as school refusal, separation anxiety, school anxiety, learning disabilities, attention problems, behavior problems, adjustment problems,
- Emotional Problems frequently encountered in childhood years such as fears, anxieties, obsessions, self-esteem problems,regulation,childhood depression, sibling problems, peer rejection and isolation etc.
- Problems in relation to school readiness
- Eating problems
- Sleep problems
- Problems related to toilet training
Adults and seniors
In treating adults and seniors, iRise Speech Therapy creates treatment plans that allows individuals to resume participation in all activities of daily living.
For adults suffering from strokes, dementia, head injuries and diseases that impact cognition, behavior, swallowing and problem solving, therapy focuses on effective communication skills in the context of an actual environment. Some illnesses or injuries can affect an individual’s cognitive performance and learning. Every therapy is always tailored to the patient’s needs and utilizes functional materials that generate optimal recovery.
Methods & Techniques
PROMPT, OPT and other multi-sensory approaches are used to promote accurate productions for articulation issues. For language based treatment, therapy will focus on spoken and written language to improve precisions and yield comprehension. In severe and critical cases, individuals are taught how to use devices that facilitate communication through technology and other tools.
Structured Play Groups
We have been carrying out playgroups for awhile. These groups serve goals for enhancing the social interaction with peers, helping children get ready for school, and supporting their developmental capacities (cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional) while having fun with their peers.
Each child’s individual differences are essential for our work. We support each child with appropriate affect, gesture, language and sensory support that is sensitive to each individual child to facilitate their developmental capacities within the group.
Staff: In each group there is a Psychologist, M.A. supervising the group and there are shadow teachers giving one to one support to each child.
Group Program: Programs include structured activity time, free play time and snack/lunch time. Structured activities consist of circle time, art, craft time, story time. During free play time we support children with the DIR/Floortime approach to facilitate their ability to share attention with one another, to engage and be engaged, to read and respond to one another’s invitation to play and to sustain interactions during spontaneous play.
Parental Support: We schedule meetings in each month to discuss child’s developmental and behavioral program goals.
Stuttering Groups
Stuttering groups are being scheduled at our iRise Center.
Looking for a short term alternative to individual speech therapy for your child? Do you want an opportunity for your child to meet other children they can identify with whom they share similar interests?
Our stuttering group, running hourly, once a week for 6 weeks is the perfect opportunity for your child to still work on their therapeutic goals with a clinician yet do so with a peer who understands the same challenges and frustrations that they may face.
Each group has a maximum of three children per group based on younger ages (8-10), as well as middle school aged (11-13) and high school-aged range groups ages (14-16 and 16-18). Preschool aged groups for children who stutter will be considered based on demand.
Whatever skill your child has, be it a gamer, athlete, academic achiever, introvert, social butterfly, or anything in-between, there will be an interest and age-matched peer with a similar language barrier who will be grouped in with your child based on parent information and clinical observation.
Speech Therapy Techniques
The techniques, methods, and intensity of your therapy depend on many factors. You will undergo a series of tests for your clinician to gather baseline data and to understand your needs and goals. Your speech language pathologist will consider your medical history, strengths and weaknesses noted during the evaluation process, responsiveness to trialed therapy techniques, and other factors that will impact your prognosis for recovery or improvement. Then, they will come up with a plan to help you rebuild your life, improve your communication, or enhance your delivery.
While each of these areas requires different treatment techniques and treatment intensities, all programs use core principles of neuroplasticity and motor learning. Improving a current skill or rebuilding an old skill is like anything in life: practice, repetition, and salience.
You will receive tailored exercises in a specific mode of treatment (e.g., intensive) to help you meet your individualized goals efficiently. Not only will you practice these in a professional setting, you will also incorporate them as part of a daily home exercise routine so the gains you make in therapy can be generalized to all aspects of your day-to-day life. The end goal is to transfer the skills learned in an intensive program or speech therapy to your career, personal life, and favorite hobbies.
Speech Therapy Exercises for Adults
Speech therapy does not end when you leave an appointment. For best results, follow any exercise recommendations provided by your speech language pathologist. Stay positive and be willing to participate, even if you are feeling frustrated. Remember, your SLPs are there to offer their expertise and support you in achieving your goals.
Speech therapy techniques and exercises will vary for each individual. Here are examples of how exercises are incorporated within a program to help treat these various conditions:
Rehabilitation After a Stroke
Your SLP may use a combination of drill-based exercises and functional activities to improve your ability to understand, speak, read, and write after a stroke. This can include cognitive exercises such as visualization techniques to increase attention and memory; sentence generation tasks to improve your vocabulary and word retrieval; or vocal exercises to improve the clarity of your speech.
You may also take part in functional activities such as role-play conversations or preparation of functional tasks that can help you regain your confidence with your professional and personal responsibilities.
Schedules will vary with each individual, but you can expect to spend five to 10 hours per week online and five to 15 hours per week in-person. The schedule includes exercises, activities, relaxation, rest, and other recommendations important for your individualized program.
Improving Voice, Fluency, and Articulation
The focus here is to target exercises that allow you to speak more clearly and be better understood. Voice problems can result from a variety of medical causes, including vocal cord lesions or muscle tension. After consulting with you and your otolaryngologist/ENT about your specific symptoms and medical history, you will then receive a comprehensive assessment that examines your breathing, voicing, and speech habits that may contribute to your decreased intelligibility.
The focus in articulation treatment for adults is to target exercises to allow you to speak more clearly and be better understood. During an initial assessment, your SLP will determine which specific sounds would benefit from improvement and target production of these sounds within a hierarchy, first in isolation, followed by words, sentences, reading, and conversation. Conversational skills progress from casual dialogue, such as greeting someone and making “small talk,” to more complex conversations such as work-related topics.
You can also take part in exercises to target stuttering, or fluency disorders. These resonant-based exercises help you find a “forward voice” that helps you maintain a strong voice while decreasing laryngeal tension. The focus is on moving resonance forward in the oral cavity and finding the healthiest way to phonate. You can also benefit from more traditional fluency techniques such as “easy onset,” where you practice bringing your vocal folds together gently when saying words beginning with a vowel to reduce hard glottal attacks. These exercises progress from a foundational sound, to syllables, then words, sentences, and conversations.
Enhancing Public-Speaking Abilities
It is common for people or employees in forward-facing roles to want to enhance their delivery. Certain techniques will improve the efficiency of your message and will teach you how to confidently engage an audience. You will be able to speak publicly with less anxiety or hesitation, becoming a better communicator during meetings, when communicating with clients, and when leading presentations.
Examples of exercises include reading techniques where you shift pacing, intonation, and stress. These exercises change your overall delivery so you can learn how to emphasize various parts of your message. You may also take part in role-playing tasks where you can prepare for an upcoming meeting at work or a public speaking engagement.
Accent Reduction
To neutralize an accent, your SLP will help you target your perception of speech, accurate production of speech sounds that contribute to the accent, and improvement in intonation and coordination of speaking. You will progress from working on individual sounds in isolation to producing sounds at the word level, as well as in sentences, paragraphs, and conversations. Once you reach paragraph and conversational levels, they will help you shift your manner of speaking and improve intonation that will help reduce your accent.
Vocal Coaching for Professionals
Attorneys, executives, public speakers, voice over artists, teachers, actors, actresses, and anyone who uses their voice in a professional setting can experience communication challenges. Your SLP will determine if those difficulties are due to overuse, misuse, or abuse of your voice (requiring therapeutic intervention), or from lack of voice and speech training (requiring education and communication training).
How Long Does Speech Therapy Last for Adults?
As adults, we have deeply ingrained habits that impact how we speak and communicate. Working on these habits may take some time to master and feel natural. Motivation and intensity of practice are factors that most significantly affect how quickly you see results in your individual program. Other factors include your specific goals (e.g., returning to life in retirement or regaining skills for the workplace as an attorney), the extent of your neurological injury, and your feelings or beliefs about your communication difficulties
For example, participating in an intensive program post-stroke or for cognitive-communication disorders with speech sessions four to five times a week for one or more hours each day combined with a home exercise program will generally lead to significant improvement in one month. You can then renew the program on a monthly basis until you meet and exceed your goals.
Adult Speech Therapy at IRISE
Whether you are recovering from an illness or trauma, need to overcome speech or voice difficulties, or want to professionally communicate with excellence, we help you navigate your personal journey to achieve a successful, meaningful outcome.