speech therapy
Speech Development Milestones for Kindergarten Readiness
Parents of 5-to-6-year-olds in Southwest Florida are gearing up to get their children ready for a big next step: Kindergarten. While this is an undoubtedly exciting time for everyone, when you have concerns about a child’s speech delay or lagging…
Researchers: Speech Disorders Examined Through Songbirds
A new study on the way songbirds learn to sing has piqued researchers’ interest for what it might teach us about how humans learn to talk – and more specifically, about how to tackle certain speech disorders. Children who struggle…
Why Our FOCUS Speech and Occupational Therapists LOVE Puppets
Power to the puppets! For children with a range of difficulties and disabilities, our speech and occupational therapists in Fort Myers have seen striking benefits in working with puppets during our sessions with kids. Puppets, first and foremost, are fun…
Communication Delays Spur Problem Behaviors
Communication delays occur when a child doesn’t meet key milestones that would reflect typical speech development. For example, by 8 months, a child should be responding to their name and recognizing themselves in a mirror. By 12 months, they should…
Interconnected Speech, Behavior, Physical and Occupational Therapy Leads to Best Outcomes
At FOCUS Therapy in Fort Myers, we understand that when children are lagging behind developmentally, interconnected services are vital to helping them catch up. For instance, children with language delays who clearly need speech therapy many times also benefit from…
Breakthrough Florida Study Predicts Speech Therapy Needs for Children With Hearing Loss
Researchers at Florida State University’s School of Communication Science and Disorders just announced a breakthrough study regarding anticipated speech therapy for children with hearing loss. Teaming up with a group of international scientists and accessing high-tech brain scans and algorithms,…
Speech Therapists: Play Dates Are Positive for Your Child’s Social Skills
Play dates are often a welcome respite for many parents, offering an opportunity for the adults to interact as much as the children. What many parents may not realize, though, is that these are golden opportunities to model socialization for…
Speech Therapists Use Social Stories to Spur Language Development
Sometimes children with speech and language delays need a bit of additional help learning about social situations and appropriate responses. Our speech therapists in Fort Myers know one tool that has proven extremely useful is “Social Stories.” A social story…
Speech Therapist Answers: “Why Does My Child With Autism Echo Words and Sounds?”
Staff Report, FOCUS Therapy When a child with autism is first learning how to speak, it’s often delayed and it may not develop in the same way as typically functioning children. As your Fort Myers speech therapist can explain, many…
“Bad” Behavior in Kids Could Signal Need for Occupational & Speech Therapy
Staff Report, FOCUS Therapy At some point, most parents have been on the receiving end of judgmental looks due to a child’s behavior. Tantrums in the cereal aisle are practically an official rite of passage for all toddlers. But “bad”…