Breana Herren is an incredibly hardworking, and kind mother to her three children - Kaiden (5) Max (3) Madalynn (1). Bre and her husband, KC, take Kaiden to Circle Creek Therapy for help with his articulation skills. Bree is an obvious candidate to add in our interview series since she has so many amazing qualities! Read along to read more about her and Kaiden. :) 1. What are some of your favorite qualities of Kaiden's personality? He is helpful, kind and he is eager to pleas

Stephen is a hardworking, personable, & kind father. Courtni & Stephen own Circle Creek Therapy, and they have their son, (Noah), attend Occupational, Speech, & Physical Therapy because Noah has some developmental delays due to a seizure disorder. Read along to learn more about Stephen & Noah! What is your favorite thing about Noah? “My favorite thing is his personality. Even though he’s not talking, he’s very expressive, and he has a lot of character.” 2. How has Noah’s pro

Our waiting room has power. No, I’m not talking about the power in the waiting room, but instead the power of the waiting room. I never realized how much power a waiting room could have until my first graduate student started seeing some of my patients. Up until then, I spent more time getting to know my patients than their families, which of course was my job. However, as my student became more independent, I was able to spend more time getting to know the families as well,

Courtni: Someone: “So, you’re a speech therapist, huh? You help people with their sounds, like when they have a lisp?” Me: “Yes but so much more…” I cannot tell you how many times that I have had this conversation, even with my family members. Speech therapists do so much more than working on speech sounds--what we call articulation. We do provide articulation therapy a lot, but there’s so much more. In fact, one of my favorite things to do is aphasia therapy for my clients t

Maria: It's not all "speech" sound work like working on /s/ or /r/, although we do love articulation! Some clients work on their social skills (pragmatics) and participating meaningfully in conversations. Others work on voice disorders, or feeding/swallowing, or using language after a stroke. We think we have a pretty cool and diverse caseload ;) Everyday is different and we embrace challenges and changes! Our clients keep us on our toes because everyone is unique. That's why

I haven't been an SLPA for a very long time, but I do love what I do! I received my BS in Communication Disorders from the Speech & Hearing Science Program at the University of Washington in 2017. I started shadowing at Circle Creek Therapy last fall and accepted their offer for an SLPA soon after! There are a lot of differences between being an SLP (speech language pathologist/therapist) and a SLPA (speech language pathologist assistant) that you might not even know about! S

Audrey: I always look forward to people asking what I do for work, because most people don’t know what it is Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) actually do. I often receive confused looks or questions such as, “Ohhhhh. . . So what does that mean?” or, “Oh, so you help kids who have lisps!” I then smile and launch into my elevator speech, which I adjust depending on the number of floors the person is willing to ride in the conversational elevator with me. The fact is, we do S

My son isn’t talking. There, I said it. I’m a speech-language pathologist; I own my own rehabilitation therapy clinic. This is what I do for a living, and my son has an expressive language delay. My son spends his days in my clinic, interacting with clients, parents and siblings, and the rest of my therapy team, and he has me at home too. He gets “speech” from all sides, all the time, but he’s still behind. I feel guilty for feeling frustrated with him when he’s getting upset

Rachael Conrad is an incredible, loving, & devoted mother. She has two children, & her youngest son, Seeley, is diagnosed with autism. Autism is a disorder that is usually diagnosed when a person struggles with forming or maintaining relationships, communicating well with others, or they experience having to repeat certain behaviors many times. A person with autism is not the same as the next person, since there are some individuals who range from high to low functioning. Rac

What is Form Constancy? It is the ability to see a form & find it among other forms, even if it may be sized different or rotated. Visual form constancy reflects a child's ability to recognize forms, letters, or words regardless of their orientation. If your child struggles with this, you would notice that it would: - make reading difficult as the child might not recognize familiar letters when presented in different fonts, sizes or colors. - result in being slower to master

What is Visual Discrimination? This refers to a child's ability to differentiate between objects & forms. It gives us the ability to notice subtle differences & to identity if something does or doesn't belong. If your child struggles with Visual Discrimination, you might notice that he or she has problems with: - dressing themselves (i.e. matching shoes or socks) - correcting errors in school work - distinguishing similarities & differences in the formation of letters or obj

What is Sequential Memory? It is the ability to remember a series of forms and find it among four other series of forms. Visual sequential memory reflects a child's ability to recall a series or sequence of forms. But if someone struggles in this area, it can cause problems with: sequencing letters or numbers in words or math problems remembering the alphabet in sequence copying from one place to another (from board to book, or from one side of the paper to another) spelling

Megan Morton is a devoted mother to her four children. She has one girl and three boys. Two of her boys are twins, and they are both diagnosed with apraxia. Apraxia is when someone knows exactly what they want to say, but when they go to move their mouth, the sounds do not come out the way that they want. People with apraxia do not typically struggle with muscle weakness. But instead, their struggle has to do with the ability to get messages from their brain to their mouth,

When thinking about this fall, let’s not forget some basic principles that promote an environment most conducive to learning to listen and the development of spoken language! Below are some tips and tricks! 1. Keep within a close proximity of the child. This means that I need to sit either behind or beside the child, and near the microphone of the equipment. 2. Reinforce what they are doing that you like. This means giving the child positive feedback for being engaged and

Shout out to Play-Doh! We LOVE Play-Doh here at Circle Creek Therapy. Exploring creativity, encouraging imagination, providing kids with a sensory outlet - no wonder it is hands down one of our all-time favorite therapy materials. The best part? You can easily use it at home, too. Play-Doh is so versatile - I’ve used it in therapy to target language, social skills, articulation, and fluency with our preschoolers and school-age children. Some ideas: -Squash Play-Doh with items

What is Visual Spatial Relations? This is the ability to determine that one form or part of a form is turned in a different direction than the others. Can cause problems with: planning actions in relation to objects around him/her spatial concepts such as "in, out, on, under, next to, up down, in front of" differentiating between "b, d, p, or q." poor sight vocabulary reading charts, maps, & diagrams inconsistent symbol reversals & transposing numbers or letters losing place