I may be a good fit for your child or teen if they are between 6 and 16 years old and are….

• Struggling with speech articulation or language and would benefit from further evaluation and treatment. Signs of a speech disorder include errors on specific speech sounds and/or reduced intelligibility. Signs of a language disorder may include any of the following:

  • Difficulty understanding instructions or following directions

  • Reading comprehension challenges

  • Reduced vocabulary or word-finding challenges

  • Grammatical errors

  • Difficulty organizing and expressing thoughts and ideas

  • Difficulty with higher level communication skills that may have been missed by conventional language assessments (e.g., inferential reasoning and verbal problem solving)

  • Difficulty navigating the pragmatic or social aspects of communication including conversational and play skills, perspective taking, and nonverbal communication

• Experiencing cognitive communication challenges or executive function difficulties including time management, organization, memory, and learning.

• A neurodiverse communicator who would benefit from support to navigate a neurotypical world. You may also be seeking parent/family services to better understand and support a neurodiverse communicator.

• Showing picky or restricted eating habits and would benefit from strategies to expand their food repertoire. I work with medically stable clients* who can safely swallow, but are struggling with feeding just the same! Parent concerns may have been dismissed because your child hasn’t fallen off their growth curve, however meal times may be constant stressor. Your child may be a messy or slow eater, you may work very hard to make sure they get adequate calories, and/or you worry that their limited food repertoire may be negatively impacting their wellbeing.

  *If your child has severe feeding challenges including unsafe swallowing or failure to thrive, check with your primary care provider about referral for an interdisciplinary feeding services such as those offered through OHSU.

Individual therapy almost always includes parent training, and often includes some care coordination and case management. Sometimes these indirect services* are what families need most. Consultative services including parent training or care coordination without direct therapy may be appropriate for you if:

• Your child can’t take on more direct services right now, but you’d like strategies to support communication development, increase language learning opportunities, and reduce communicative frustration during your daily interactions with your child.

• You need help putting a team together to meet your child’s needs. Or, you’ve got a team but need help getting everyone on the same page.

• You are trying to do everything, everywhere, all at once and are feeling totally overwhelmed. Let’s talk priorities. Interventions are most effective when the timing is right.

* Please note, indirect services without the client present are typically not billable to insurance