A “wait and see” approach may be fine for other aspects of child development, but when it comes to speech and language development, it’s best to get an evaluation by a licensed Hermosa Beach speech therapist as soon as you suspect there may be an issue—even if your pediatrician says otherwise.

We don’t mean to disparage pediatricians. There are many great ones out there, but they are generally not experts in speech and language development. They may not have read the research about the importance of early intervention for speech and language delays. Starting your child in speech therapy early can be beneficial for several different reasons.

Speech Therapy Now May Mean Fewer Challenges in School

You may be thinking, “Why does it matter if my child gets speech therapy now or later?” Or you may be of the mindset that if you wait, your child can get speech therapy through the public school system. However, when a child starts school with communication issues, it can often lead to other academic challenges, creating sort of a domino effect. For that reason, it is best to work on your child’s speech issues before they enter school. Also, speech therapy in South Bay schools requires that your child is pulled out of class to receive therapy, causing him or her to miss valuable classroom time. With an early start, you may be find that your child has no need to continue in special education once they reach school age because their delay has already been completely overcome!

Early Intervention Can Help Achieve Better Outcomes

In some cases, it has been shown that starting speech therapy at an early age is necessary to achieve optimal results. Especially when there is a more severe issue, early intervention is key! Waiting to start speech therapy could mean that your child’s speech and language development never reaches its full potential.

Consulting with a Speech Therapist Can Help Your Own Peace of Mind

If your pediatrician or another health professional has told you to wait, but you still have concerns about your child’s speech and language development, you should go ahead and contact a Hermosa Beach speech therapist for a consultation. A speech language pathologist from Lil’ Chit-Chat can meet with you and your child for an evaluation, and we will always be completely honest with you. If we have no concerns about your child’s speech development, we’ll tell you. But if there are issues that should be addressed by a speech therapist, we’ll determine the best therapy plan, based on their age and specific challenges.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have concerns about your child! We would love to talk with you! If you’d like to set up a consultation, we can set up a time to send a licensed speech language pathologist to your Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, or Manhattan Beach home to evaluate your child. We hope to hear from you soon!

A speech therapist might only see a child for an hour every week. And while a lot can be accomplished in an hour-long speech therapy session, you, as a parent, have many opportunities to positively influence your child’s speech and language progression during the rest of the week. Here are three specific things you can do to help your child become a better communicator.

Ask Questions

Often, as parents, we try to anticipate what our child wants and give it to them. While it’s good to be in tune with your child, you should also give them the opportunity to express what they want or need by asking them specific questions.

For most young children, especially ones with speech and language issues, answering open-ended questions can be difficult. It is better to provide them with choices. If you sense they are hungry and want a snack, instead of asking, “What do you want to eat?” ask, “Would you like a banana or an apple?” That way, they can mimic your words to express what they want rather than having to come up with the vocabulary on their own.

Read to Them

Reading with your child is another great way to teach them new vocabulary and also to bond with your child. Put him or her on your lap and have fun with it! You don’t just have to read straight through a book—ask your child questions as you go along. Model new vocabulary and point out the corresponding picture (“Do you see the boy’s blue shirt?”).

If your child is a preschooler, talk to him or her about what the characters in the story might be feeling. Again, don’t ask open-ended questions that are hard for young children to answer. Give them choices. (“Do you think the boy was happy or sad when he fell down?”)

Get Down on Their Level

When you speak or interact with your children, get down on their level whenever possible. Physically bring your body down, so you are eye level with them. Get down on the floor to play with them. This shows that you are interested and engaged. When children sense that you are engaged, they will be more likely to willingly engage in conversation with you, at whatever level they are able.

Keep playtime fun, but also use it as an opportunity to introduce new vocabulary when you can.

Contact Lil’ Chit-Chat for Speech Therapy in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, or Redondo Beach

If you think your child could use some extra help in the area of speech and communication, give us a call or contact us through our website to set up an evaluation with one of our licensed South Bay speech therapists. We look forward to hearing from you!

Why Do Schools Need Speech Therapists?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) require that public schools offer services, at no cost, to students who have been determined to have a speech or language impairment (or any other eligible disability). If a child is eligible for speech therapy services at school, and has speech therapy as a part of their Individualized Education Plan (IEP), their school is legally required to provide this service.

Why Would Schools Use Online Speech Therapy, Rather Than Have a Therapist on Staff?

While most school districts staff licensed Speech Language Pathologists to provide therapy in their local schools, some are out of compliance with the law because they don’t have a qualified speech therapist on hand for children in need of therapy. This may be because they have had difficulty filling the position because of the school’s location (which is sometimes the case in rural or inner city areas), or simply because the position was suddenly vacated, and the school has not yet been able find a qualified replacement.

To ensure that a school district remains in compliance, Lil’ Chit-Chat is now offering online speech therapy with our licensed Speech Language Pathologists. The beauty of online therapy, is that we can work with any school, regardless of where they are located or where our speech therapist is located, as long as the therapist is licensed to work in the state in which the school is located, as well as the state in which he or she is located.

Even schools that are currently in compliance with the law can benefit from contracting with Lil’ Chit-Chat for online therapy because it allows them to provide another option to parents of children with speech and language delays—one that doesn’t involve their children missing class to attend therapy. Contracting with Lil’ Chit-Chat for online speech therapy can also benefit smaller districts that only have a few children in need of speech therapy services, since then they wouldn’t need to staff a full-time therapist.

In addition, online therapy is a great option for students not attending their local public school, such as those attending an online school, or those in charter schools or private schools who would have to leave their campuses during the day to attend therapy sessions somewhere else. For these types of students, teletherapy can be an extremely convenient option. Therapy sessions can be tailored to the students’ schedules and allow them to not miss out on large amounts of class time.

Find Out More About Online Speech Therapy for School Children

If you’re a parent who thinks online speech therapy would be a good fit for your child (maybe you find your student is falling behind because he or she is missing class, or perhaps group speech therapy doesn’t suit your child’s personality), don’t hesitate to contact your local school district and request that they contract with Lil’ Chit-Chat to provide online therapy for your child. If you’re a school or school district that could benefit from working with a quality online speech therapist, contact us at Lil’ Chit-Chat. We’d love to talk with you about the various options available and how we can help your school or school district be in compliance, while still providing quality, individualized speech therapy services.

Recently, we received a glowing testimonial from the parent of one of those clients. This client, who we’ll call “Jackson”, started speech therapy with Lil’ Chit-Chat therapist  Sabrina when he was two years old. Because of his age, Sabrina provided speech and language therapy through play-based methods and traditional articulation therapy. She also used the Hanen technique, which empowers parents to implement the things that were targeted during therapy into a child’s daily routine.

When he started therapy, Jackson had a very limited vocabulary. He used some phrases, but they were not very intelligible. After completing six months of speech therapy with Lil’ Chit-Chat, Jackson had made tremendous progress. He was speaking clearly and with a rich vocabulary in four to five-word sentences, and quickly learning more and more new words.

Here’s what Jackson’s mother had to say about their experience with Lil’ Chit-Chat:

“Our son made tremendous strides while working with Sabrina [at Lil’ Chit-Chat] last year. They worked together for six months while he was two years old, and in that time we saw huge development in our son’s speech. He couldn’t wait for her to arrive at our home each week and to discover which fun games and toys they’d be playing with together. Sabrina’s amazing bag of tricks, her warm and fun rapport, and her very clear and consistent routines helped to create a calm and positive learning environment. We quickly began to see progress in our son’s articulation and expressive language.”

“Sabrina is wonderful and professional, and not only worked with our son, but took the time each session to discuss parenting tips and tools for us to continue to work on reaching our speech goals throughout the week. The clarity of our son’s speech and his confidence to communicate and express himself grew tremendously. We feel so fortunate to have had Sabrina as our speech therapist and hope to stay connected! We would highly recommend her!!”

Part of what makes Jackson’s story such a successful one is that his mother was fully dedicated to the speech therapy process. She never missed a therapy session, and she worked diligently with Jackson in between sessions to reinforce what he was learning. She also made sure to get speech therapy for Jackson as soon as she noticed a delay in his speech. So many parents choose to wait, hoping that things will get better on their own, and some are even encouraged by their pediatricians to wait to begin speech therapy. At Lil’ Chit-Chat, we are huge proponents of early intervention when it comes to speech and language therapy. If you think your child may need some extra help with their speech and language, contact us for a consultation with one of our licensed Speech Language Pathologists.

As everyone knows, technology is the way of the future. Children are now going to school online, patients are receiving medical care online, people are working from remote locations, and so much more. The speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat are also taking advantage of technology to provide quality service to our clients while our clients remain in the comfort of their own homes.

What is Telepractice?

Telepractice is basically online speech therapy. With telepractice through Lil’ Chit-Chat, our clients still interact with a live speech therapist who guides them through a therapy session. It is not a one-size-fits-all online program—it is a session that is tailored to our clients’ specific needs, just like the sessions we conduct in person. However, telepractice allows our speech therapists to also access fun and engaging computer programs that can be used to enhance the speech therapy sessions and capture the attention of our young clients.

Who is a Good Candidate for Telepractice?

Almost anyone in need of speech therapy could be a good candidate for telepractice. For our youngest clients—those in the range from birth to 3 years old—parents or caregivers serve as the facilitators in telepractice. They follow the speech therapist’s lead, helping their child work toward their speech and language goals. Parents and caregivers receive a great deal of coaching that is very useful in helping their children between sessions. More independent school-age children can engage on their own with a speech therapist online, and get personalized help in addition to the therapy they may receive at school.

Telepractice is also a great option for our clients who have been in therapy and are ready to be discharged, but still need some follow-up support to achieve all of their goals.  And for those living in a remote area, telepractice is a great way to receive quality therapy that might not otherwise be available.

We’ve also used telepractice with some of our clients who have busy schedules. For example, one of our speech therapists used to work with a high school student who had a hard time getting to regular therapy sessions, but was highly motivated to address his stuttering issue. He enrolled in speech therapy via telepractice, and in the six months our therapist worked with him online, his stuttering significantly improved!

The speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat have received extensive training in online speech therapy through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Offering this service allows us to help more clients, even those outside of the South Bay area. We can literally help anyone in the world who has a computer and an internet connection!

The majority of our speech therapy clients are still those that we see in their homes in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and Torrance, but for those outside of those cities, we can still provide quality, personalized care and help them reach their speech and language goals.

If telepractice sounds like something you might be interested in pursuing, contact us at Lil’ Chit-Chat. We’d be happy to answer all of your questions and set up a plan that will work for you.

Featured Interview in VoyageLA,

Recently, Lil’ Chit-Chat owner Sabrina Conway was contacted by VoyageLA, an online publication dedicated to sharing the stories of the people and businesses that make Los Angeles unique. They wanted to interview Sabrina to find out more about her as a small business owner, and also to learn more about Lil’ Chit-Chat and how it’s making an impact in the South Bay.

The interview, which you can read here, allowed Sabrina to talk about her approach to speech therapy and how she has turned her experience and passion into a thriving business. She also talked about how Lil’ Chit-Chat caters to the specific needs of its clients, and also offers some unique programs, like online speech therapy and a Parent Enrichment Program.

We want to thank VoyageLA for taking the time to get to know Sabrina and Lil’ Chit-Chat, and for shining a light on small businesses that are doing great work throughout the Los Angeles area.

Lil’ Chit-Chat Given Menifee Award for Small Business Excellence

Lil’ Chit-Chat was also recently recognized for the work we are doing in the Menifee area with our speech therapy clients. The Menifee Small Business Excellence Award Program chose Lil’ Chit-Chat to receive the 2017 award for speech therapists in Menifee!

According to the official press release issued by the Award Program, “Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value. These are small businesses that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Menifee area a vibrant and vital place to live.”

We work hard at making sure our business is an asset to the communities in which we are located, and we are grateful to the Menifee Small Business Excellence Award Program for recognizing Lil’ Chit-Chat as a business that is making the city of Menifee a better place to live and work!

Speech Therapy for Children in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Menifee

If you are looking for a pediatric speech therapist in the South Bay, or in south Riverside County, we would love to talk with you. Our speech therapists have experience working with children with all types of speech and language challenges and can develop a personalized plan for your child that addresses his or her specific needs. Contact us today to have your questions answered or to set up an appointment for an evaluation.

If you’re like most of our pediatric speech therapy clients in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and Torrance, your child likely just began receiving speech therapy at the beginning of the school year. With only a couple of months of therapy behind them, they are just now starting to gain some serious momentum toward their speech and language goals. Taking a break from speech therapy now can put a halt to all of that momentum.

You may be thinking: “Our family gets so busy over the holidays. We won’t have much time to work with our child in between therapy sessions anyway, so why even bother with therapy right now?” However, there is plenty you can do with your child to further their speech and language development, even with a hectic schedule. The holidays in particular offer some great opportunities to work with your child in the areas of speech and language. There are new things to see and more people to interact with, giving you a chance to incorporate new words into your child’s vocabulary. In addition, your child may also receive some new toys that will open up new opportunities for play-based learning.

If you’ve been thinking of starting your child in speech therapy, but have decided to wait until the new year begins to have your child evaluated by a speech therapist, we’d like to ask you to reconsider. If your child is delayed in their speech or language development, there is no better time to start them in therapy than now! We say it all the time, but it bears repeating: early intervention is key when it comes to speech and language development! If you’re not sure if your child actually needs therapy, we’d love to talk with you, answer any initial questions you have, and schedule a consultation with one of our licensed speech therapists in the South Bay.

We know it’s a busy time, or if it’s not busy for you yet, it will be soon! But don’t put off something as important as speech therapy for your child. You’d be surprised at the progress your child may be able to make in just a few short months, and you won’t ever regret the time you invested in your child’s speech and language development.

If you’re ready to get started, contact Lil’ Chit-Chat today. We hope to hear from you soon!

Often times, our speech therapy clinic receives new clients shortly after the new school year begins. Frequently, a child’s new teacher will notice that a student isn’t where he or she should be with regard to speech and language development, and suggest to parents that they should consider speech therapy for their child. Teachers are a great resource for identifying potential speech and language issues. Unlike pediatricians, teachers see children for extended time periods and have extensive interaction with them, and unlike most parents, teachers see children alongside other children of the same age, and they can clearly identify a child who may need some extra help.

For school-age children in need of speech therapy, the first stop is often the school district’s speech therapist.

There are some excellent speech therapists in the Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach areas working in the public schools. Some of the pediatric speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat used to work in those very schools. But even with the best speech therapists, there are some disadvantages to having your child only receive speech therapy at school. One of the main drawbacks to public school speech therapy is the missed classroom time. Another is that public school speech therapy is typically group therapy, as opposed to one-on-one speech therapy, so your child isn’t receiving individualized attention.

If your child’s delays are minor, and if your child’s personality is conducive to learning well in a small group environment, then the speech therapy provided by the school may be adequate. However, if you think your child could benefit from one-on-one attention, or if you’d just like some additional speech therapy sessions to help your child progress more quickly, you may want to consider supplemental speech therapy from a private speech therapist in Manhattan Beach.

The speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat can work with your child’s schedule and provide in-home speech therapy that is personalized for your child’s specific needs. Even just one day per week of private speech therapy to supplement the group speech therapy your child is receiving in school can make a world of difference!

In addition to the personalized, one-one-one attention your child will receive from the speech therapists at Lil’ Chit-Chat, he or she will also have the advantage of learning in a familiar environment, with family members present. We do our best to make our speech therapy sessions fun for the child, and involve parents and caregivers so they can learn how to support the child’s speech and language goals in between therapy sessions.

If you would like to learn more about the speech therapy we provide in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, contact us at Lil’ Chit-Chat. We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have or set up a speech therapy consultation for your child. We look forward to hearing from you!

March of Dimes

March of Dimes is an amazing organization that has been around for many years (since 1938 to be exact). It was originally founded to combat polio, but has since redirected its focus to globally help prevent birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Many of the children we work with were born prematurely, a factor that can have significant effects on a child’s overall development, including their speech and language development.

In the early days of Lil’ Chit-Chat, we had a young client whose family was very involved with the March of Dimes organization. This client was an amazing little girl who had been born prematurely at 28 weeks. Our therapists helped her with feeding, as she was on a g-tube, as well as with communication. It is in her honor that Lil’ Chit-Chat supports the March of Dimes and all of the great work they do.

Mitchell Thorp Foundation

Another great organization our speech therapy clinic supports is the Mitchell Thorp Foundation. This foundation was founded to support families with children suffering from life-threatening illnesses, diseases, and disorders. They are a financial and emotional resource for many families in California, providing individualized medical aid and help in purchasing wheelchair accessible vehicles.

We first learned about the Mitchell Thorp Foundation from another one of our speech therapy clients—a young boy with a seizure disorder and global developmental delays. Despite his various struggles, he is a true joy to work with. He works hard and has great support from his family.

Many of the treatments he requires are not covered by insurance, so the Mitchell Thorp Foundation has been a great resource for his family. We know there are countless families like this one, who are committed to providing the best care for their children but financially strapped. It is in these situations that the Mitchell Thorp Foundation steps in with support.

There are many more worthy organizations out there, and we wish we could support them all; however, we’ve seen firsthand how these two charities are making a difference in the lives of our speech therapy clients, which is why we have chosen to donate to their causes. If you feel so inclined, we hope you will join us in supporting the work of the March of Dimes and the Mitchell Thorp Foundation. You can find out more about both of the organizations by clicking on the links above.

We’re not looking for just any speech therapists, though. We want therapists and SLPAs who are passionate about what they do and who love working with children. Since we believe in early intervention when it comes to speech therapy, we accept clients as young as 18 months old for private therapy, so therapists should be comfortable working with toddlers and preschoolers, as well as with school-age children.

Any therapist we hire also needs to be willing to work with the families and caregivers of our clients (even including them in the therapy sessions) and working in their Temecula-area homes. We believe strongly in family involvement in the speech therapy process, knowing that when the family is on the same page as our therapists and supporting their efforts in between sessions, our clients are able to progress toward their goals much faster. We also believe that conducting speech therapy sessions in our clients’ homes helps them become comfortable with their therapists more quickly.

The current speech therapists on our staff have a variety of backgrounds—having worked in schools, hospitals, and other private speech therapy clinics. We always do our best to match the experience, skills, and training of our therapists with the individual needs of our clients to achieve the best outcomes for our clients. We also encourage our therapists to continue their education and learn new techniques and methods that will help them become better therapists.

We take our work seriously, but we also make sure to incorporate “fun” into our therapy sessions to help keep our young clients motivated and encouraged to reach their goals. We use a play-based therapy model that has worked well for us and for our clients.

If you are interested in applying for a position as a speech therapist with Lil’ Chit-Chat, we’d love to hear from you! Or if you know of someone who may be interested in applying, please share this page with them. Candidates can contact us through our Careers page to get the process started. We hope to hear from you soon!