Services for Teens

Voice

Adolescence is a unique time in voice development. The voice matures and differences between males and females emerge. We work with adolescents who are experiencing any of the following: hoarseness, breathiness, difficulty projecting the voice, too low/high pitch, losing voice, muscle tension while talking, throat pain while talking, changes in voice following athletic performance, chronic cough/throat clearing.

Adolescents may experience these symptoms due to behaviours (i.e., frequent shouting, throat clearing, and increased muscle tension), neurological disorder, or anatomical changes. It is important for your child to see an Ear Nose and Throat doctor for visualization of his/her vocal cords and to help decide if medical or surgical management is required. Voice therapy with the Speech-Language Pathologist will help identify behaviours that may be contributing to the voice difficulties and establish a set of vocal exercises leading to a better voice. These services are offered at the Barrhaven and Train Yards offices.

We also work with adolescents who have been diagnosed with Paradoxical Vocal Cord Movement Disorder or Vocal Cord Dysfunction. This pattern refers to the vocal cords not opening/closing correctly during breathing which creates episodes of dyspnea and stridor, especially in athletes.

Gender affirming voice therapy focuses on inflection, rate of speech, intonation, volume, choice of words, postures, and hand gestures. Our clients, as they undergo on their journey toward full transition, have different goals with respect to their voice. Our programs are customized to each client’s individual needs.

Myofascial release therapy is a hands-on technique that provides sustained pressure into myofascial constrictions such as tightness or scar tissue. It serves to eliminate pain and restore motion.

Articulation

Difficulty with the accurate production of sounds in speech can persist, though all sound errors should resolve by about the age of about 7 years. Some teens may continue to struggle with accurate “R” production, some may have a persisting lisp, and some may have difficulty maintaining the clarity of their speech due to motor speech disorders.

Stuttering

Teens who stutter know what they want to say but have difficulty saying it. Examples include prolonging a sound, repeating a sound, word, or syllable. We may use one or more of the following approaches: Camperdown Program, Fluency-Shaping exercises, Stuttering Modification. Treatment may not eliminate all of the stuttering; however, it can teach skills that help to communicate more effectively.

Language

Language skills continue to develop through childhood and into adolescence. This includes your child’s ability to understand and use more complex sentence structures, vocabulary, the ability to plan and organize the stories they want to write or tell, the ability to infer, the ability to understand figurative language, and more.

If you have concerns in these areas, assessment and treatment services are available at all of our office locations.

Executive Functions

What do you do when your brain’s CEO is not a good leader?

Executive functioning (EF) skill sets allow you to ACCESS information, FIND solutions, be EFFICIENT at problem solving, PLAN and EXECUTE, MANAGE your TIME, REGULATE your EMOTIONS and INHIBIT. It is challenging to isolate disruptions in executive functioning skills from other cognitive functions as they closely interact. They are required to successfully execute complex daily tasks such as reading comprehension, written expression, solving math problems, participate in social interactions, and plan short-term and long-term projects, to name a few.

Our goal is to provide a client centered approach assisting the client, and their families to develop an understanding of EF challenges as well as acquire skills and strategies to improve their learning processes within various environments.

Reading & Writing

Are you concerned with your teen not meeting grade level expectations? Do you have a teen who is disinterested in reading or struggling to put thoughts down on paper? Trying to decipher if or how to use technological supports?

The development of reading and writing is a gradual and multipart process. Since research tells us that there is no single approach to treatment, it is essential to identify and treat all of the underlying components that are contributing to their challenges. In addition to difficulties in the areas of reading and writing, your student may experience weaker language skills (for example, Vocabulary) as these are closely connected to literacy development. Our clinicians can provide a comprehensive assessment and treatment program in these areas, as well as providing guidance to support the acquisition of reading and writing in all settings.