Category Archives: Articulation

Chatterboxes Private Speech Therapy Services

No, We don’t Accept Insurance Directly for Speech Therapy:

See Why Parents & Kids Love It

Prior to her work at Chatterboxes, our founder, Megan Rozantes., M.S., CCC-SLP used to provide insurance-based speech therapy services.

She knows first hand the differences between Insurance-Based and Out-of-Network Speech Therapy. Based on her previous insurance-based experience as a speech therapist, Megan learned everything she didn’t want in a private speech therapy practice, and everything she did want!

Our practice’s mission is to shine the therapy spotlight directly on each child, every time. We’ve alleviated administrative duties, external challenges, red tape and time constraints for our therapists, so our therapists have the ability to focus intensely on each child’s needs and abilities. This is truly the cornerstone of Chatterboxes. Our support staff ensures that each speech-language-pathologist has the administrative support, time and resources she needs in order to maximize her clinical impact, allowing therapists to work smarter, not harder.

Now, more families are choosing the Out-of-Network and Private Pay model for Speech Therapy. Here’s Why:

Low Caseloads

Speech therapy services are in demand! The average Speech Therapist is helping so many more kids than is reasonable for her schedule. At Chatterboxes, our caseloads are 50% lower than industry average so that we are able to devote more time to each child’s therapy session each and every time.

What do lower caseloads mean? Plan, Prepare, Plan: We can provide twice the planning time and premium resources for rapid progress. It’s not uncommon for a Speech Therapist at Chatterboxes to plan for a 1-2 hours for a single 45 minute therapy session.

The more time our team puts in behind the scenes to prepare for each child’s visit, the better the therapy results. Why? because kids are engaged and it matches their needs. Know a lover of Paw Patrol or Red Matchbox Cars? We guarantee that our kids are super-motivated to participate, as we’ve thoughtfully crafted up a personalized session based on their interests every time.

Fresh, Top Talent

We provide speech therapy with a personal connection and friendship, creating trust from which progress is built. We are not a factory. We do not churn out visits. That means, our talented private speech therapists are bright-eyed and are honored to be providing services to each child! Our Speech-Therapists are eager to share their clinical knowledge via in-person conferences, phone talks, countless emails and text messages, highly customized home programs and family training to make a difference in each child’s abilities!

The Child’s Ecosystem & Skill Progression

In order for Speech Therapy to be effective, each child must be able to demonstrate skills outside of the therapy environment. Each child is surrounded by their own ecosystem. If the important adults in each child’s life are not trained in targeting speech therapy goals, progress will be affected. We train parents, teachers, grandparents, nannies, babysitters, etc in our vivid and clear home programs. Each adult has access to specific instructions and understands how to offer support to the child toward speech therapy goals. To keep everyone updated, we offer free speech therapy progress reports and phone conferences.

The Bottom Line

In Conclusion, at Chatterboxes, our team feels that Highly-Individualized speech therapy is not possible in an Insurance-accepted paradigm due to limitations on time and resources driven by financial constraints

Our mission at Chatterboxes is to increase each child’s ability to succeed with better speech therapy services and transform the process of speech therapy to be a highly-customized, delightful and effective experience for kids and parents.

Eager to learn more? Contact Heather for your Complimentary Initial Consultation at 617-969-8255, or visit us at www.TeamChatterboxes.com

Proudly Serving Massachusetts via our two easy access locations:

35 Bedford Street Lexington MA 02420

10 Langley Road, Newton Centre 02459

Articulation Testing: What to Expect

By Chatterboxes

The process of testing of any kind can be nerve-racking, especially when you have concerns about your child’s development. Knowing what to expect can help ease your worries and in turn, you can help your child understand and be prepared for the testing process.

If you have concerns regarding your child’s speech/articulation skills (i.e. the way in which he pronounces words, sounds, phrases and sentences), it is likely your child’s therapist will select the Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation, or (GFTA-2). Here’s a more in-depth look at the GFTA-2:

The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation- Second Edition (GFTA-2):

The GFTA provides a wide range of information by sampling both spontaneous and imitative sound production. This includes single words and conversational speech. Descriptive information about the individual’s articulation skills is obtained through three sections of the GFTA-2, which include: Sounds-in-Words, Sounds-in-Sentences, and Stimulability.

Sounds-in-Words uses 34 picture plates and 53 target words to elicit the articulation of 61 consonant sounds in the initial, medial, and/or final position, as well as 16 consonant blends (groups of two or three consonants in words that makes a distinct consonant sound, such as “bl”) in the initial position.

Sounds-in-Sentences provides a semi-structured observation of the individual’s spontaneous sound production used in connected speech by asking him/her to retell one or two simple, picture-based stories that the speech-language pathologist has previously read aloud.

Stimulability can be used to assess the individual’s ability to correctly produce a previously misarticulated sound when asked to watch and listen to the examiner’s production of the sound.

This test can provide a record of growth in articulation skills across a broad time span. The wide range allows tracking articulation skills from preschool through primary and secondary school years and into young adulthood with the same instrument.

A significant milestone in the normal language development of very young children is their ability to produce at appropriate ages the various consonant sounds. When screening preschool children, speech-language pathologists use the first level of testing and the colorful, appealing pictures of Sounds-in-Words. This gives the speech-language pathologist the ability to screen very young children for possible delays in the development of articulation skills.

The GFTA-2 also has the ability to screen for expressive language difficulties. The individual must retell the stories in the Sounds-in-Sentences section in their own words. During the duration of this task, the speech pathologist may become aware of deviations in an examinee’s vocabulary and syntax (structure of sentences) that indicate the need for an evaluation of language as well as articulation.

How to Prepare Your Child for Articulation Testing:

You can explain to your child that he will be asked to take a look at some pictures in a book of some very common objects (cup, girl, duck, etc). He will be asked to label these pictures, and may have to say the word a few times.

From there, (if age appropriate) he will be told a few short stories with pictures. He will be asked to retell the stories using the picture cues. The first story is about a little boy having a bad-day; and the second story is about a boy and girl who go fishing.

Finally, he may be asked to complete stimulability testing, whereas the therapist will model specific sounds and sound combinations to learn if your child can produce particular sounds with direct instruction.

The Chatterboxes Way:

At Chatterboxes, we feel an important piece of testing is to collect a Spontaneous Speech/Language Sample during play. That said, your child will be engaged with age-appropriate toys/materials either before or after the standardized testing described above. We feel the collection of this spontaneous speech & language sample should be analyzed and considered alongside of testing results in order to obtain a comprehensive clinical impression of the child’s articulation skills.

A typical evaluation may last 45 minutes, and parents may choose if they would prefer to be present in the room with their child, or wait in the waiting room. Following the testing, you will receive our initial clinical impressions as to their child’s articulation skills.

A comprehensive written report with specific sound errors and goals and strategies is shared with you 10 days following the evaluation. Your child’s therapist will then contact you to discuss the report, review the recommendations and answer your questions via scheduled phone conference. If therapy is indicated, and you would like to pursue services with our practice, visits can be scheduled at this time.

For more information, or to discuss your child’s articulation abilities, please contact Heather at anytime via email at Heather@teamchatterboxes.com or call our Newton Centre location at 617-969-8255.

Targeting Articulation with the Cycles Approach

By Chatterboxes

What is The Cycles Approach?

The Cycles Approach is designed for children who have multiple speech sound errors, exhibit patterns in sound errors, and are very difficult to understand. The goal is to facilitate the emergence of speech patterns. Carefully chosen target words are chosen to help children develop auditory (how it sounds) and kinesthetic (how it feels) models of target sounds and improve self-monitoring skills.

What is a cycle?

A cycle is the amount of time it takes for all targets to be practiced. A typical cycle may last weeks to months. Within each cycle, each sound within a pattern is targeted for about 60 minutes. At the end of each cycle, sounds/patterns are recycled: those that have been acquired are removed and new, more challenging sounds/patterns are added before the next cycle begins.

A typical session incorporating the Cycles Approach:

1) Review of the previous session’s target words.

2) Auditory Bombardment with amplification: The child listens to a list of 12 words through an amplification device. The child is not required to repeat the words, but simply listen to them attentively.

3) The child makes flashcards of the target words by coloring or pasting pictures representing the target words. The child produces the words during the activity.

4) Experiential Play or Language-Based Activity: The Child engages in a fun, motivating and meaningful play activity involving the target words. Activities are designed to facilitate both articulation and language skills.

5) Stimulability Probing: The child produces a list of potential target words for the next session. The sounds which are the easiest for the child to produce are chosen.

6) Amplified auditory bombardment is repeated with the same list of 12 words.

7) Home practice for a least 2 minutes per day is strongly recommended. This can include simply reading the target word list to the child and having him practice saying each of the words 1-2 times.