Speech Therapy
Listening. Speaking. Learning Together.
All students at DePaul School receive intensive individual speech therapy as part of their educational program. Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) at DePaul work closely with Audiologists, Certified Teachers of the Deaf and parents to provide a customized educational program for each child. SLPs focus on a variety of skills including production of speech sounds, auditory discrimination, language comprehension and use, natural voice patterns, listening in noise, and social communication skills.
Some children who are deaf and hard of hearing also have a Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) diagnosis. CAS is a speech disorder that impairs a child’s ability to plan the motor movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, etc. that are needed to produce clear speech. With intensive and appropriate therapy, children with CAS can learn to develop intelligible speech. Most children diagnosed with CAS have normal hearing.
Speech therapists at DePaul have the knowledge and ability to provide the frequency and type of therapy that is appropriate for children with hearing loss and CAS. At the preschool level, DePaul is able to support children with CAS with or without an accompanying hearing loss.
