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Services
Staff
Appointments Resources FAQs
What Consumers Say About
Speech-Language
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ideas?
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Speech-Language and Occupational Therapists, this list highlights
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perception, sensory, speech-language, and social skills.
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The Outpatient Speech-Language Services Department provides evaluation and
therapeutic services to individuals who are experiencing
language-based disorders, speech-sound production disorders,
voice disorders, fluency disorders,
and/or social-communication problems. 301.424.5200 x144 (phone)
301.424.8063 (fax)
Email
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| Services |
- Screenings
- Comprehensive evaluations
- Individual and group therapy sessions
- Computer-assisted diagnostic and therapy tools, such as Fast
ForWord
- Therapeutic summer camp
- Flexible therapy hours (including evenings and weekends)
- Workshops for parents and professionals
- Interdisciplinary treatment program
- Therapeutic Groups:
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Saturday Sensory Integration Groups
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Interaction Groups based on DIR®/Floortime
ModelTM
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Visual Spatial Group
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| Staff |
All of our speech-language pathologists
hold Masters degrees, are certified by the American
Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and are licensed by the
State of Maryland.
Janet
Graves-Wright, MSEd, CCC-SLP, Director of Outpatient
Services
Shawna Page, M.A., CCC-SLP
Shannon
Parnell, M.S., CCC-SLP, PC
Stacey Thompson, M.A., CCC-SLP
Renee Wilson, M.S., CCC-SLP
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| Appointments |
Please contact us at
301.424.5200, ext. 144 for more information
or to schedule an appointment.
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Success Stories
Tommy’s Story
The day Tom was diagnosed as autistic was a day I will never forget.
We kept trying to face the reality of what autism is, but we
couldn’t. It was too depressing. There was no hope in our lives.
Tommy did not live in the same world as we did. I feel like
someone who has woken up from a nightmare, and yet I am grateful for
the luxury of those nightmares. My wife hasn’t. She has stayed up
with Tom most of the nights when he couldn’t sleep since he was
born. She pioneered the routes we would drive him down in the middle
of the night to try to put him to sleep. Tommy has received
services from TLC for the past three years. Most recently, he began
participating in TLC’s Interaction Group for toddlers with autism
and related developmental disorders. Before he came to TLC, I
worried he would never grow to love either me or my wife. Now, we
think he does love us. And we never really saw him sleep so well or
laugh or enjoy being with us as when he began the Interaction Group.
This is what I thought would always be taken away from us – his
childhood. I feared he would have to be programmed like a computer.
Until there is a cure for autism, children like my son need people
to teach them to speak, to know what they should be looking at with
their eyes, how to socialize, and many more things so basic I took
them for granted before I tried to raise my son Tommy. I hope you
can appreciate my feelings of loss and how the therapists at TLC
have recovered for me some part of my son which I thought would
never be there.
Judy's story
After my son was evaluated for speech-language by both the County
and TLC, it was confirmed that he suffered from developmental
delays. When I heard the news, I had no idea how this could happen,
nor what could be done. His former preschool teacher recommended I
seek the help of TLC. Shortly thereafter, he began receiving speech
and language therapy through TLC. However, his insurance would not
cover sessions so I had no choice but to pay out of pocket.
Unfortunately, I lost my job a couple months later and could no
longer afford to send my child to his therapist. Therefore, I am
extremely thankful for your generous assistance. Without it, my son
would not be receiving the therapy he urgently needs. His
performance in school and behavior at home has improved, and for
that I am thankful.
Danielle's story
It was a little thing that brought us to TLC. Danielle’s “s” sounds
were still “th” sounds. When she was 5, 6, and 7, we thought it was
adorable. At 8, we were concerned that she wasn’t outgrowing it. At
9, Danielle was noticing that she spoke differently than most other
kids. We decided it was time for speech therapy. Danielle began
weekly sessions with Emily, a speech-language pathologist at TLC.
Danielle came out of her first session grinning ear to ear. Her
connection with Emily was immediate. Danielle had homework and
strategies that she could easily manage. Within a few months,
Danielle had mastered the “s” sound and she was thrilled. One day I
overheard a friend telling Danielle how good her “s” sounds were.
Danielle was glowing. This year Danielle decided to run for a
position on the student government which required a speech in front
of the entire school. Then, I knew that our time at TLC had been
invaluable.
Zoe's story
Enrolling our daughter, who has been diagnosed with Pervasive
Developmental Disorder (PDD-NOS) at TLC has perhaps been the best
intervention method for her. Before she began attending TLC, she had
very limited expressive language and social skills, very little eye
contact, multiple auditory and sensory issues, and in general, was
completely out of touch with the world outside her. At TLC, she
receives occupational and speech therapies both on a one-to-one
basis and in an interactive group which has dramatically helped her
communication and social skills. She is now, with prompting, much
more able and willing to communicate almost all of her needs and
desires, and much more willing to engage with her surroundings.
As she has continued to grow and develop new challenges, TLC staff
has been there to provide us with creative approaches to deal with
these challenges. She also receives a psychological consultation on
a weekly basis with the staff clinical psychologist. It has been an
immense blessing to have the advice and guidance of such a talented
and helpful team to support us through the constant challenges that
face our daughter from day to day. TLC also provides bi-weekly
parent meetings and workshops where staff members review children’s
progress and answer parents’ questions and concerns related to the
issues both at TLC and home. In addition to all of this staff
support, educational books, articles, software, many other related
materials are provided and sometimes lent to parents. We are so
grateful to TLC staff for all that they have done for our daughter
and are looking forward to seeing the progress she will make here in
coming years.
George's Story
My husband and I are raising a wonderful, adorable,
smart little four and a half year old boy. He is the joy of
our life. He has developmental delays that affect his
speech, fine motor and gross motor skills. Our son loves to
talk but he has an articulation problem that makes it hard
for people to understand what he is saying. Thankfully,
because of a scholarship that we received from TLC, we were
able to afford to give our son speech therapy lessons this
past summer. My husband and I learned a great deal about how
to teach our son to articulate his words. Now we can
understand much more of what our son tells us. We are very
grateful to TLC for helping us communicate with our son.
Resources
Please click here to
return to TLC's Web Resource Library.
Links:
- The American Speech-Hearing-Language Association (ASHA),
www.asha.org
Articles and Factsheets:
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FAQs
Q: What is the difference between a screening and an
evaluation?
A: A screening is a brief (less than 25 minutes)
assessment of your child's general developmental language
levels that is usually provided in a school or community
setting. The purpose of a screening is to determine if your
child should be further evaluated or whether they
demonstrate age appropriate skills. An evaluation is an
in-depth assessment of your child's speech and language
skills. At the end of that assessment, a complete written
report along with recommendations is provided. The
speech-language pathologist determines whether an evaluation
is necessary based on information provided.
Q: Is speech therapy covered by insurance?
A: Every insurance plan is different. Before making an
appointment, it is always a good idea to contact your
insurance carrier to determine if your plan covers
speech-language evaluation and therapy and if there are any
qualifying conditions to receiving services.
Q: How soon will my child complete therapy?
A: All children and families come to therapy with their
own strengths, needs, motivations, and support systems. The
rate at which a child moves through therapy is dependant
upon all of these variables, and cannot be predetermined.
Some children come to therapy for a very specific problem,
and are discharged in a short time, while others have more
long-term needs. These children may have goals that are
updated and changed as improvements are noted in various
areas. |
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