SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY
Speech and Language Therapy, often abbreviated to SLT, is an allied health profession that supports the communication needs of children, adolescents and adults. Speech and Language therapy focuses on all areas of communication including language, speech sounds, voice, social interaction, AAC (alternative and augmentative communication), and language fluency. At Insights, our goal is to develop communication skills in order for clients to be able to engage and enjoy communicating with the people in the world around them.
The process starts with a consultation with one of our therapists, and when an assessment of need has been conducted, goals for the therapy are established. When we work with children, we encourage parents, teachers, nannies and other communication partners to be part of the therapy journey. This approach is considered an affirmative approach to supporting children’s needs and celebrating their strengths. It enables strategies to be generalized across settings and communication barriers can be reduced more effectively.
Sessions can be delivered in a variety of ways in order to meet the needs of clients, including play based activities, active learning opportunities, table top activities, paired or group work with other children. Our SLTs have training and experience in delivering therapy to children with a wide range of needs, including but not limited to, developmental language needs (including difficulties with vocabulary, grammar, concepts, following directions, storytelling), speech sounds and pronunciation difficulties, social communication differences, global developmental delays and unexplained speech and language delays. Dubai Health Authority Autism guidelines, published in 2021, cite SLT as an evidenced based, non-pharmacological intervention for autism spectrum.
When working therapeutically with adolescents and adults, SLTs use consultation, counselling and specifically designed activities to target particular skills for the person. Therapy can be delivered at our specialist psychology clinic in JLT that offers privacy and comfort. Our SLTs have a range of experience and training in working with adolescents and adults with a variety of difficulties including emotional and social communication differences.
SLT services at Insights include but are not limited to:
- Individual therapy
- Group therapy
- Parent-child interaction training
- Comprehensive speech and language therapy assessments
- Multi-disciplinary assessments
- Parent and community education and training
- Consulting
Typical difficulties addressed as part of these services, include supporting and assessing individuals for such difficulties as:
- Developmental language needs
- Speech sounds and pronunciation difficulties
- Social communication differences
- Global developmental delays
- Unexplained speech and language delays
SLT services that Insights do not provide at present:
Adult neuro rehabilitation services (e.g. post stroke or brain injury)
Dysphagia (eating/drinking/swallowing difficulties)
Staff members
Sarah Wedel
Leah Karacinski
Geraldine Rowell
