Speech and language therapy
Articulation difficulties inhibits understandable communication due to the challenge to make the correct sounds.
Receptive disorders are problems with the understanding or processing the English language.
Expressive disorders are problems in putting words together to form complete thoughts, issues with vocabulary and or not being able to communicate in a correct way.
The therapy to counteract these concerns includes exercises, often using age appropriate play activities and games to stimulate correct language development. We work together with the child to practice making sounds, words and sentences, building vocabulary and grammar. Depending on the age (usually therapy is most effective for children ages 4 – 12) I use pictures, books, discussions about school activities or current events to engage the child and motivate learning. I also like to involve a parent or other family members to ensure sustainability for the child in therapy.
Here in Belgium, many parents are faced with the additional challenge of raising children in a bilingual or even multilingual home environment. Based on my specialisation in Multilingualism, I offer counselling sessions to parents on how best to deal with these challenges.
Voice therapy
Problems with the voice can be caused by the presence of an organic lesion and/or incorrect use of the voice.
This can cause hoarseness, tired voice, tension in the throat, frequent
throat clearing, high respiration...
During the therapy we work together with various exercises to achieve the desired voice quality.
You can also come to me if you wish to get more breathing control while singing.
Manual facilitation
When we speak or sing we use a lot of muscles. We use larger muscles such as those of the neck, shoulders and diaphragm.
However, there are a lot of other muscles such as those jaw and larynx.
These muscles can be tense because of improper voice use or reflux.
By applying certain techniques we can stretch the muscles so that the voice will feel and sound freer. We can do this both preventively and as a supportive measure in case of voice problems.
