Kioko Center provides comprehensive, individualized therapies which facilitate overall development and independence of a child. We serve the schools, therapists, and families that support them. We are a pediatric therapy organization that specializes in occupational therapy and speech therapy.

1. What Is Speech Therapy?
Whether it be talking with co-workers around the water cooler, saying “I love you” to your spouse, sharing a joke with your
neighbor, texting your brother, or sending an email to your boss, people love to communicate, it’s what we do. Communication, in
all its forms, is what creates and maintains the bonds and relationships in our lives, and the ability to communicate is what defines
us as humans.
Communication can be divided into three main categories: comprehension, expression, and production. Comprehension or receptive
language is the ability to receive a message from someone and understand the meaning of that message whether it be spoken,
written, or via gestures such as American Sign Language (ASL). Expression or expressive language is the ability to send a meaningful
message to someone verbally, in writing, or by using gestures. An additional goal of expressive language is that it is socially
appropriate, which means knowing what and how to say something in a given circumstance. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs)
refer to the social part of language as pragmatic language. Production is how the message is created. With speech, we can think
about fluency, speech sounds, and their sound quality or intelligibility. With writing, we can look at legibility, and with signs, you can
think of well-formed readable signs. The goal of production is that the person you are trying to communicate with can understand
your message. When something interferes with somebody’s receptive language, expressive language, pragmatic language,
articulation, fluency, voice quality, or even swallowing, speech therapy can help a person to improve both communication and
swallowing.
What is Speech Therapy?
Speech therapy aims to improve a person’s communication. Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are professionals who specialize in
speech language therapy. They must go through a rigorous university program, get a master’s degree, complete a 9-month clinical
fellowship year (CFY) where they are under the supervision of a senior speech-language pathologist (SLP), get credentialed by the
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and then get their state license to practice.
If you or a loved one is seeking speech therapy please make sure that the person you are considering has ASHA certification and
state licensure for the state you live in.
A speech-language pathologist (SLP) will first conduct a speech-language evaluation for the client to identify how to best address the
complaint. Once the evaluation is completed, the SLP will explain the results to the client or caregiver and develop a treatment plan.
A treatment plan will contain goals and objectives that are created specifically for the client, explaining exactly what the client and
SLP will be working on.
Which Language Disorders Do Speech Therapists Treat?
Receptive language disorder: Affects the ability to comprehend spoken language and, in some cases, written language. Individuals
suffering from a receptive language disorder may struggle to understand spoken language, respond properly, or both. This makes it

2. difficult to communicate and causes difficulties at school. Therefore, to overcome this disorder, a child needs receptive language
treatment.
Expressive language disorder: The inability to effectively express needs and thoughts by words is known as an expressive language
disorder. Children with this condition can misspell terms, mix up verb tenses, and repeat phrases or parts of sentences. Expressive
language disorders cause issues in social situations, at work, and in school.
Pragmatic language disorder: Also known as “social language disorder”. This is the inability to use socially appropriate language. This
disorder occurs when a person uses inappropriate or unrelated language for a given context. Has difficulty turn-taking in a
conversation, has poor eye contact, has difficulty matching their tone and facial expression to message, and has difficulty
introducing and maintaining a conversation. This causes problems with forming and maintaining relationships.
Cognitive-communication disorder: Difficulty with every aspect of the conversation that is hindered by a disturbance of cognition
(thought). Attention, memory, organization, problem-solving/reasoning, and executive functions are some examples of cognitive
processes. This type of disorder impacts all facets of life.
Which Speech Disorders Do Speech Therapists Treat?
Articulation disorder: An articulation disorder is when a person’s speech contains one or more of the following: sound errors,
omissions, distortions, or substitutions. These types of production errors affect the quality or intelligibility of the speaker’s speech.
In some cases, making it is difficult to understand what the person is saying.
Fluency disorder: Also known as “stuttering,” is distinguished by repetitions of sounds, syllables, or entire words; prolongations of
sounds; or blocks of airflow or voicing during speech are examples of primary behaviors.
Resonance disorder: Also known as “voice disorders”. Voice disorders occur when the speech signal produces too much or too little
nasal and/or oral sound energy. It may be caused by physiological or functional (e.g., neurogenic) factors, and it may also be caused
by mislearning (e.g., articulation errors that can lead to the perception of a resonance disorder).
How Does It Work?
By completing a thorough speech-language evaluation the SLP determines what kind of speech-language difficulty the client has and
the best treatment method to address it. SLPs work in a variety of settings including schools, clinics, and hospitals. In schools, SLPs
work with children mostly in small groups or the classroom. In clinic and hospital settings, speech-language therapy is usually
provided by the speech-language pathologist (SLP) to one client at a time.
The first goal of every speech-language pathologist (SLP) is to create a relationship or “build rapport” with the client. It’s essential
that the SLP has patience, empathy, and caring for the client they are working with to help the client make the most progress
possible. Most oftentimes speech-language goals are not achieved overnight, therefore the SLP needs to be respected by the client
to get through the tough work that is speech-language therapy.
Practice is the ultimate treatment for speech and language disorders. If a child has difficulty with articulation, the speech-language
pathologist (SLP) will spend time teaching them how to produce the correct sounds. The speech language therapist will make the
sounds and encourage the child to learn to imitate them.
That entails mimicking the speech therapist’s (SLP) movements of the lips, mouth, and tongue to produce the desired sound. Mirrors
can be useful in this situation. The SLP can instruct a child to make these speech sounds when looking in the mirror. Speech
therapists find this process more enjoyable when using games.
SLPs employ techniques that are adapted to the specific needs of each child. Some of the techniques are:
Language intervention activities: To promote language learning, the SLP can communicate with a child by playing and interacting,
using images, books, objects, or ongoing activities. To develop language skills, the SLP can model correct vocabulary and grammar
and use repetition exercises.
Articulation therapy: The SLP imitates the speech sounds that the client is having trouble with. This may involve showing how to
adjust the tongue to make different sounds.
Feeding and swallowing therapy: The SLP teaches the client movements to improve the mouth muscles. This may include facial
massage as well as different tongue, mouth, and jaw exercises. He/she may also experiment with various food textures to increase
sensitivity when chewing and swallowing.