Services
Folsom Advanced Speech Therapy (FAST) provides initial speech, language, or communication consultations to answer questions about available therapy programs. Additionally, we offer speech and language screenings and comprehensive evaluations with written reports. Regularly scheduled therapy sessions in collaboration with family, schools, physicians and other paraprofessionals are offered at the clinical site!
FAST offers assessment and treatment in the following areas:
Developmental speech and language delays
Language impairment
Language based learning disabilities
Articulation and phonological disorders
Fluency/Stuttering disorders
Voice disorders
Oral motor disorders
Apraxia
Social/Pragmatic language development
Communication impairments associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders/tongue thrust
PROMPT
Margaret’s specialized PROMPT training enables her to assist children in programming motor movement patterns for connected speech sound production in words, phrases and sentences. Research clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of building new motor pathways in the brain to facilitate speech development using PROMPT.
PROMPT, an acronym for PROMPTS for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets, is a multidimensional approach to speech production disorders has come to embrace not only the well-known physical-sensory aspects of motor performance, but also its cognitive-linguistic and social-emotional aspects. PROMPT is about integrating all domains and systems towards positive communication outcome. It may be used (with varying intensity and focus) with all speech production disorders from approximately 6 months of age onward. To achieve the best outcome with PROMPT it should not be thought of or used mainly to facilitate oral-motor skills, produce individual sounds/phonemes or as an articulation program but rather as a program to develop motor skill in the development of language for interaction.
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorder (OMD) stems from habitual atypical patterning of the muscle movements, structures and posture of the oral mechanism. Some identifying features include:
- Parafunctional habits (e.g. thumb sucking or sustained pacifier or bottle use).
- Lack of lip seal (e.g. open-mouth resting posture and mouth-breathing).
- Low tongue rest posture (e.g. tongue resting on floor of mouth or pressing through front teeth vs. resting along the upper alveolar ridge and palate)
- Increased vertical dimension of face over time
- Disorders of chewing
- Atypical Swallowing
- Articulation distortion patterns (notably /s/, /s/ “sh” “ch” and /r/).
Is there a cure?
- Yes! Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) can habilitate typical oral muscular patterning and restore facial balance, functionality and symmetry! It is common practice for Orofacial Myofunctional Therapists to take a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment. A trained specialist in OMT will make referrals or collaborate as needed with team members including physicians, dentists, orthodontists, sleep specialists and physical therapists for ideal treatment outcomes.
Does Folsom Advanced Speech Therapy have a thumb-sucking elimination program?
- Yes! The program is designed to be fun and is based on positive reinforcements like stickers and prizes!
What happens if OMD is left untreated?
- Speech articulation distortion patterns (Reed, 2007)
- Periodontal disease (Gulati, 1998)
- Forward Head and Neck Posture (Ozbek, 1998)
- Grinding and clenching of teeth (Wong et al., 2011)
- Temporal Mandibular Disorders (TMD) (de Felicio, de Oliveira, de Silva, MS, 2010)
- Airway disorders
- Sleep disorders
- Behavior or learning disorders
What are the goals of OMT?
Teach people how to functionally:
- Beathe nasally
- Develop proper oral rest posture – with lips closed and tongue gently pressed along the upper (maxillary) palate at all times
- Chew and swallow correctly
- Habituate normal muscular functions
Who can provide OMT?
- Only qualified personnel from specific disciplines are eligible to be OMT providers once they complete 32 hours of intensive coursework specific to the field.