Speech Therapy

The staff of Building Blocks Speech Department focuses on treating infants to adults with autism spectrum disorder through the use of applied behavior analysis approaches, facilitating carryover into the home and daily settings by training family members and providing visual supports including picture schedules, picture icons, and other materials.   During therapy we incorporate developmentally appropriate play, use of peer volunteers, and favorite items or actions to promote gains in communication skills.

If patients do not produce verbal imitation in order to communicate, our staff utilizes augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).  AAC describes communication approaches other than the person’s voice, from Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), American Sign Language (ASL), to voice output devices or apps downloaded to an iPad that speak when a patient touches a picture.

Unique to our company is the use of typically developing peers as volunteers during pragmatic or social language groups.  Many patients have improved communicative language skills with their peers through the use of peer models in therapy.

We target improved feeding skills for our picky or resistant eaters, using an integrated behavioral and sensory approach, communicating closely with the patient’s family to assure that a home exercise program is developed and modified along with the patient’s progress.  Many of our parents find themselves driving to school to provide lunch to their children every day.  Our goal is for children to develop skills so that they may broaden their food preferences, including a healthy and appropriate variety of tastes, temperatures, and textures.

Although our company began with the intention of serving the needs of people with autism spectrum disorder, we accept referrals of people with any diagnosis that falls under our scope of practice.  We work with people with fluency disorder, receptive/expressive language disorder not secondary to autism, articulation disorder, childhood apraxia of speech, and phonological processing disorder.