Language Therapy

Language therapy addresses the skills a child needs to process information and express themselves effectively. Victoria Stockton provides individual therapy sessions—typically scheduled once weekly or more frequently based on clinical need—to support children who demonstrate significant deficits in understanding or using language.

By collaborating with families and related professionals, Victoria develops a customized treatment plan focused on incremental skill development tailored to each child’s specific requirements.

Areas of Focus in Language Therapy

Language therapy encompasses the various ways children interact with and interpret their environment.

Treatment plans may address:

  • Prelinguistic Communication: Foundational skills such as joint attention, intentionality, communicative signaling, babbling, and the production of first words.

  • Syntax and Semantics: The structural rules of word order (syntax) and the study of word meanings (semantics).

  • Pragmatics: The social aspects of communication, including how language is used in different contexts and social interactions.

  • Literacy: The development of skills related to reading, writing, and spelling.

Understanding Language Disorders

Clinical language impairments are generally categorized into receptive and expressive challenges. While they often overlap, each requires specific therapeutic strategies.

Expressive Language Disorder

A child with an expressive language disorder has difficulty with verbal expression.

This may manifest as:

  • Word Retrieval: Difficulty finding the specific word they wish to use.

  • Limited Vocabulary: Using a narrower range of words than expected for their developmental age.

  • Complex Sentence Formulation: Challenges in producing longer phrases or using proper syntax, semantics, and morphology (the study of word forms).

Receptive Language Disorder

A receptive language disorder involves difficulty attending to, processing, and comprehending spoken language.

Clinical Indicators: A child may have difficulty following multi-step directions, answering questions accurately, or integrating and recalling details from spoken information.

Executive Functioning and Communication

Effective communication requires the regulation of feelings and behaviors to guide actions toward a specific goal. This "command center" of the brain is known as executive functioning. When a child experiences executive function impairments, it often impacts their ability to communicate and learn.

Victoria provides support for deficits in:

  • Attention and Impulse Control: The ability to stay focused on a task and manage immediate reactions.

  • Organization and Planning: Managing the steps required to complete a task or relay information.

  • Hierarchical Thinking: Organizing thoughts and ideas in a logical order of importance.

"Victoria worked with my son for over 3 years.

She always greeted my son with a warm smile and always made time to fit in a "short story" of his during their session. Victoria was helpful with executing effective speech goals for my son when his IEP needed to be rewritten. She never rushed me at the end of the session with my son and she would always have an up-date on their sessions together.

My son loved working with Victoria and he was upset when it was decided their sessions would be ending due to the progress he made with her.

I would highly recommend Victoria if you are looking for an outstanding, effective and thoughtful speech therapist."

Michelle | Parent, Wakefield, MA