Welcome to Speech Innovations
Of Central Florida
Of Central Florida
It is our mission at Speech Innovations to provide exemplary Speech, Occupational, and Physical Therapy services, allowing our clients. to reach their full communicative potential.
Speech Innovations currently accepts Medicaid, Wellcare, Simply Health, Sunshine, Aetna Better Health, Tricare, BCBS, UHC, Cigna, Aetna, private pay.
Oviedo Location:
253 Plaza Drive Suite C Oviedo, Fl 32765
Melbourne Location:
2080
W Eau Gallie Blvd Melbourne, FL 32935
It is our mission at Speech Innovations to provide exemplary Speech, Occupational, and Physical Therapy services, allowing our clients to reach their full communicative potential. We strive to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities; improving their quality of life and those who love them. We thoroughly evaluate each individual’s strengths and weaknesses, address family concerns, and together, we develop an individualized plan of care that will incorporate the most suitable therapy approaches and techniques, allowing that individual to reach their highest communicative potential.
We educate families on the techniques utilized during therapy, provide ideas for carryover through daily activities, and work collectively with the individuals’ teachers and/or other therapists to ensure optimal success. Therapy is provided through play-based, child-centered, and family-friendly approaches.
Articulation refers to the way we produce speech sounds. An articulation disorder refers to errors in our speech sounds by mispronouncing, substituting, omitting, or adding sounds. We use all of our articulators to produce speech sounds; lips, teeth, tongue, cheeks, vocal tract, jaw, soft palate, and uvula. It is in the way we utilize our articulators that affects our speech intelligibility.
Children who are unintelligible to others at age 3 or older, or are unable to correctly say sounds that the majority of their same-age peers have mastered, may have an articulation disorder. If they are unable to correctly say sounds that the majority of their same-age peers have mastered, then they may have an articulation disorder.
Please review our ‘ Speech Milestones’ tab if you are uncertian of what sounds your child should be producing and contact us to set up a speech evaluation with our speech language pathologists.
Language disorders can be either receptive or expressive. A receptive language disorder refers to the difficulties understanding or processing language. An expressive language disorder refers to the difficulties in putting words together, having a limited vocabulary, or an inability to use language in a socially appropriate way.
Therapy techniques and approaches vary depending upon what area(s) of language are disordered or delayed; content, form, and use.
1.Content, or semantics, refers to the meaning of words and how they are used, vocabulary comprehension, and use.
2.Form, or grammar, refers to the structure of sounds and how they are combined to make words, and sequenced to form sentences.; word order, verb use, plurals, pronouns, etc. Form is further divided into phonology, morphology, and sytanx..
3. Use, or pragmatics refers to how individuals use language in different contexts; such as eye contact, turn taking, body language, maintaining topics, initiating conversation, and greetings.
Please review our ‘ Language Milestones’ tab if you are unsure of what language skills your child should have acquired and contact us to set up a language evaluation with our speech language pathologists.
Oral motor development refers to the skills necessary for the use and function of the lips, tongue, cheeks, jaw and supporting facial muscles. The movement and coordination of these structures is very important in speech production, safe swallowing, and consuming various textures.
Oral motor therapy and exercises work to increase the physical movements and placement of the oral structures for proper speech and feeding. Activities may include sensory stimulation, visual prompts, and tactile reinforcement.
If you are uncertian of oral motor skills your child should have acquired, please contact us to set up a Oral Motor evaluation with our speech language pathologists.
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is the use of different methods to enhance, support, and/or supplement speech and writing for those who are unable to effectively communicate their own wants and needs. The goal of AAC is to achieve the most effective communication possible for individuals, NOT to replace verbal language.
An AAC device may be aided or unaided. Aided refers to systems which require a piece of equipment to aid in communication; such as a piece of paper and pen, or as high-tech as a computerized program. Unaided refers to the uses of sign language, or gestures.
There are various types of AAC devices. Please contact us to have our speech language pathologists evaluate your child’s need for the use of an AAC and recommend an appropriate system.
Occupational therapists address issues related to the sensory system. Each child reacts to sensory information differently and sensory issues are very complex because a child’s sensory systems could be a mixture of over reactive, under reactive, or typical. They could be under responsive in one area and over responsive to another area. An occupational therapist can determine which of a child’s sensory systems are over reactive and under reactive to sensory information.
Everyday tasks can become frustrating for a child who processes sensory information differently, which is why it’s so important for children with sensory issues to be in occupational therapy and have proper support from adults to help them become actively engaged and learn how to self-regulate.
Some signs your child may be having difficulty with sensory information are the following:
Therapy is designed to help a child attain his greatest potential for development and learning. An important part of development is the ability to organize information coming from the senses such as smell, taste, touch, sight, hearing, and movement.
Sensory integration approaches neurological problems in children by first evaluating the way the child’s brain is organizing sensations. The therapists then guide the child into therapeutic activities that produce sensory information and encourage its organization. These activities are based on normal development and are usually fun for the child. The younger the child, the better he/she responds to therapy because the brain is more flexible and easily changed. Therapy helps to improve gross motor, fine motor, speech and social skills, cognitive and academic abilities, self-confidence and self-esteem.
Do you think your child could benefit from occupational therapy. Contact us at (407) 694-3603.
Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscles of the hands, commonly in activities such as using pencils, scissors, constructing legos, manipulating fasteners, and opening lunch boxes. Fine motor skill efficiency significantly influences the quality of the task outcome as well as the speed of task performance. Efficient fine motor skills require a number of independent skills to work together to appropriately manipulate the object or perform the task.
Why are fine motor skills important?
Fine motor skills are essential for performing everyday skills as well academic skills. Without the ability to complete these everyday tasks, a child’s self-esteem can suffer, their academic performance is compromised, and their play options may be limited. They are also unable to develop appropriate independence in ‘life’ skills (such as getting dressed and feeding themselves) which in turn has social implications not only within the family, but also amongst the child’s peer relationships.
How can you tell if a child has fine motor skill difficulties at a glance?
Visual Motor Skills enable an individual to process information around them. The ability to observe, recognize, and use visual information about forms, shapes, figures, and objects makes up our visual motor abilities. Visual motor skills include a coordination of visual information that is perceived and processed with motor skills, including fine motor, gross motor, and sensory motor.
How can you tell if a child has visual motor skill difficulties at a glance?
Why are visual motor skills important?
Children need good visual-motor integration to be able to copy basic shapes (diagonal lines, circles, squares, triangles, intersecting lines) before they are able to learn to form their letters correctly. Visual motor integration delays may cause a child to struggle to copy numbers and letters correctly. The child’s handwriting may seem disjointed and lacking in flow. Handwriting may require a lot of conscious effort, out of proportion to the task.
Self-care skills are the everyday tasks children of all ages participate in including the following life activities (dressing, eating, buttoning, brushing teeth). They are often referred to as the activities of daily living (ADL’s). While these are typically supported by adults in young children, it is expected that children develop independence in these areas as they mature.
Why are self-care skills important?
Self-care skills are one of the first ways that children develop the ability to plan, sequence tasks, and organize the necessary materials for the development of skills required during daily tasks (e.g. opening lunch boxes, pull up pants, sequence toileting tasks, brushing teeth, etc.). Self-care skills set the foundation for many school related tasks as well as life skills. The term ‘self-care’ would suggest that these skills are expected to be done independently and in many cases, it becomes inappropriate for others to assist for such tasks (age dependent of course). More specifically, many preschools and schools will have a requirement for children to be toilet trained prior to starting at their facility.
Sensory processing refers to the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into responses. The goals of occupational therapy is to enable children with sensory processing difficulties to accurately detect, regulate, and interpret sensations, and then to execute appropriate motor and behavioral responses to sensations so that children are able to perform everyday activities in a functional manner.
“Red flags” when looking at sensory processing difficulties in a child:
Jane has been my sons speech and language therapist for the last 3 1/2 years. She has always considered our family's goals for [my son], teaching us valuable strategies to carryover with at home, and truly shows that she is dedicated to her job. My son loves when Jane is around; always engaged and smiling. He has made wonderful progress with his language. She is true blessing to have in our lives.
Jane has become like a part of our family. When Jane comes for therapy, our youngest child says, 'Jane's Home!'. She engages the whole family in therapy and makes the 'work' fun. My daughter loves all the games and activities they do; arts and crafts, games, puzzles, and even baking brownies! She has shown us how simple daily activities can be turned into really fun language activities for my daughter.