A speech or communication impairment will affect many area’s of a person’s life. For children, a communication disorder can impact normal social and academic development. Adults will find it difficult or impossible to function independently and may be at increased risk of social isolation and depression. Swallowing disorders can be profoundly life changing, and they may even be life threatening.

Make a referral:

Submit online referral form:
HIPAA-Compliant Online Referral Form

Download referral forms (PDF):
Referral-Orofacial-Myology or Referral-general

Pediatric referrals

According to the American Speech-Language Association, the following behaviors in children should trigger a pediatric SLP referral. By age 3 years cannot:

• be understood by family and/or caregivers
• correctly produce vowels and such sounds as p, b, m, w in words
• repeat when not understood without becoming frustrated

By age 4 years cannot:

• be understood by individuals with whom they do not associate regularly
• be understood by family and/or caregivers
• correctly produce t, d, k, g, f
• be asked to repeat without becoming sensitive

By age 5 years cannot:

• be understood in all situations by most listeners
• correctly produce most speech sounds
• be asked to repeat without exhibiting frustration

Some of these challenges can be related to orofacial myofunctional disorder. Others can be associated with speech sound disorders or expressive or receptive language delays.

• A disturbance in neuromuscular control causes difficulty in learning to produce sounds appropriately. Speech is usually slurred; there is difficulty in controlling respiration for speech; and there may be abnormal loudness, rhythm, or vocal quality.
• A disturbance in programming, positioning, and sequencing of precise muscular movements will lead to sound errors that are prevalent but variable (i.e., “dog” could be produced “dog,” “tog,” “gog,” “god” by the same child).

• A disturbance in performing voluntary movements with mouth and vocal mechanism prevents an individual from producing the precise movements necessary for sound production, or may cause the sounds they make to be produced in a whisper.

• Deafness or severe hearing loss can cause severe prosodic disturbances in intonation, duration, and rhythm in addition to sound errors.
• Autism, emotional disturbance, and/or intellectual disabilities may cause very unusual prosodic variations, including intonation and/or rhythm of connected speech that may sound abnormal; and speaking volume may be consistently or intermittently too loud or too soft.