Peak Potential Therapy Scholarship Essay

For nearly nine years, I have been practicing speech-language pathology exclusively for the pediatric population. I established my private practice in 2007 specializing in working with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. However, in the past few years I have been expanding my scope of practice. At Peak Potential Therapy, we believe it is important to provide services where it meets the family's need best, whether in their home, school, community, or at our therapy center in Twinsburg, OH. For half of my clients, I go into the families' homes. We serve the greater Cleveland - Akron areas, since we are centrally located between the major metropolitan areas. Providing treatment in the kids' homes helps them learn where they will use their communication skills …show more content…
I am thrilled I am in this profession, because I love helping kids with disabilities. It is a reward in itself knowing that I am impacting their communication for life! Currently, there are 29 kids on my caseload, of which three were diagnosed with apraxia and three who have traits of apraxia of speech. Over the years, I have treated about eight kids with childhood apraxia of speech. For those who do not have the diagnosis, I do not feel comfortable in diagnosing them; I have never given an apraxia assessment. Over the years, my experiences and continuing education have provided me with the bare minimum to help clients with childhood apraxia of speech. Some strategies used included implementing visual cuing with visual phonics, using the "Noisy Stories" series, and pairing motor movements with speech. When looking into strategies to further help kids with apraxia, I read about how tactile cues and multisensory approaches can be beneficial. Furthermore, I know that specific verbal cues can be critical to provide the most accurate verbal prompts when teaching sound