Melissa Heller, M.S., CCC-SLP, now offers her Speech Booster program, a speech therapy that involves parents and promotes the home-school connection, to children in Manhattan.
As part of the Speech Booster program, Heller works privately with children in the early intervention population to strengthen auditory processing skills, reading comprehension, writing, motor skills, and sequencing. The program is designed to promote carryover of speech and language skills in all settings, she says.
The key to the program’s success is parental engagement, Heller says. “When parents can sit in on their own child’s speech sessions to observe and learn the strategies, techniques, and methodology, and then implement those lessons with their child, that makes all the difference,” says Heller, who is launching the program this fall in Manhattan.
Speech sessions take place after school in the child’s home. Communication among parents and the child’s teachers is emphasized, says Heller, whose goal is to strengthen the home-school connection.
Children in the program will have access to a lending library and parents can use the same materials Heller uses in therapy, such as books, games, and sequencing devices.
Heller, whose website is currently in the works, offers free consultations for private therapy sessions.
