Benefits of early treatment
Early treatment will help children to:
- Understand and follow directions
- Develop the phonological awareness necessary for phonics acquisition.
- Make and keep friends
- Speak clearly without sound distortions
- Tell stories in correct sequence with a clear beginning, middle and end
- Speak fluently with few repetitions
- Use proper grammar
- Speak with detailed, descriptive vocabulary
- Understand books and answer questions about them
- Communicate easily with children and adults
- Speak clearly without hoarseness or other abnormal vocal characteristics
What can happen without early intervention?
Children who have speech and language delays often have difficulty learning to read and write. Pronunciation problems are frequently related to difficulties learning the sound-letter associations necessary for mastering phonics. Children who have language delays are at risk for reading comprehension problems.
Shouting, loud talking and other forms of vocal abuse can result in physical changes to the vocal cords, which may eventually require surgery. An unhealthy sounding voice can also affect a child’s self esteem.
Children who "stutter" and those with persistent pronunciation problems may develop social problems resulting from the inevitable teasing by their siblings and peers. These children may become withdrawn and unable to answer questions in class, give oral presentations or even communicate comfortably with their friends and family.
Our staff
The speech-language pathologists and educational specialists at Jodie Schuller & Associates are licensed by the State of California and certified by the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). They have master’s degrees in communicative disorders and have taken postgraduate training in fluency, apraxia, dysarthria, auditory processing, nonverbal disorders, and social language.