Resources & FAQs

You can pay for speech therapy services by cash, personal check or credit card.  Payment is due at the time of the session.  If you have out of network coverage for speech, language or feeding therapy, you may choose to submit claims to your insurance company for reimbursement. Many major insurance companies cover speech language pathology services; however, each insurance plan varies.  We are committed to  keeping our therapy rates as affordable as possible while maintaining the highest quality care.  

Yes!  The early intervention and school systems provide services to children who have significant speech and language delays and disorders that will impact the child's education. If your child's speech or language difficulties do not impact his/her education, or are not found to be significant enough for them to be eligible for services through these programs, you still should help your child to overcome these difficulties by seeking private speech therapy.  

Yes, you can receive private therapy in addition to county/state/school therapy services.  Additional private therapy often helps children to make progress toward speech and language goals at a faster rate, and the focus may be different in private therapy than in educationally relevant models. 

Following the initial evaluation, if speech or language therapy services are recommended, we will make a recommendation regarding how often and how long you or your family member should come for therapy.   Each patient is unique; however we typically recommend speech therapy  1 to 3 times per week for 30, 45 or 60 minutes.   

We do not offer hippotherapy as a "stand alone service" at Speech Language Pathology in Motion.  

We want the best for our clients.  In our experience, clients make the greatest progress when therapy is provided using more than one treatment tool. This approach to treatment gives the therapist a great deal of information about how the client is doing with his or her skills in different settings and helps the therapist to ensure that the client makes gains as quickly as possible. 

In addition, consistency is critical for progress.  There are times when the horses are not available due to scheduling or weather.  Progress may be interrupted, or clients may even demonstrate regression in skills if therapy is not consistent. Clients are expected to attend therapy in accordance with their treatment plan, and come to therapy consistently to ensure continuity of care.

The positive benefits of interactions between horses and individuals with special needs have been recognized and researched for decades. There are a variety of services and activities available for individuals with special needs that incorporate horses. Two of the most common are "therapeutic/adaptive horseback riding lessons" and "hippotherapy".  

The most notable difference between the two is that hippotherapy is a  treatment strategy or tool that can be incorporated into a medical treatment, such as occupational therapy, physical therapy or speech language pathology services. These healthcare services require medical necessity, and can only be provided by trained and licensed professionals.
 

Riding lessons do not require medical necessity, as they are recreational in nature and are not intended to provide habitation or rehabilitation.  Riding instructors typically do not have a therapy license.  Riding instructors often have skills related to teaching horsemanship and are able to adapt their teaching style to meet the needs of individuals with special needs. They allow for the safe participation in the sport of horseback riding for individuals with a variety of needs.

Many complex processes contribute to a child’s ability to speak, including motor learning, motor planning, sensory processing and sensory integration. The production of a single syllable requires the  participation of 8-10 body parts and the coordinated action of 70  muscles. Because speech is a complex motor task involving so many different muscles and body parts, it is important the entire body be addressed.  Inadequate trunk control, instability at the shoulder girdle, and poor stability in the head, neck and jaw can all negatively impact speech production. Recognizing that speech is a movement task means we must also recognize the importance of an intact sensory  processing system, because the ability to move well requires feedback to the brain from the... 

Speech Language Pathology in Motion uses horses in our treatment for several different reasons.  The farm is a language rich environment and provides a lot to talk about.  Patients respond well to being around the animals and to being outdoors.  Many times the patients do not realize that they are working on therapy goals. The horse's walking gait moves the human body in a similar pattern to the human pelvis while walking.  The therapist is able to facilitate increased trunk control, stability and breath support through the movement of the horse.  These functions support speech and language. The horse’s walk provides sensory input through movement, which is variable, rhythmic, and repetitive.  While on the horse, the patient moves up and down, forward and back, side to side and through space as the horse walks. This type of  movement is not able to be replicated in a clinic. The therapist carefully chooses horses for each patient based on the type of movement they produce.  The variability of the horse’s gait enables the therapist to grade the degree of sensory input to the patient, and then utilize this movement in combination with other speech-language pathology treatment strategies to achieve desired results. A wide variety of speech and language goals can be addressed while on the horse, and around the farm. 

While many children and adults benefit from Hippotherapy and Equine Assisted Therapy, it is not for everyone. There are several factors that may make hippotherapy contraindicated.  

The treatment plan is different for each patient.  At the time of your evaluation it will be determined if Hippotherapy should be a part of the treatment plan, and to what extent. The scheduled session times are 30, 45 or 60 minutes, and typically are provided 1-3 times/week.  It is at the therapist’s discretion how much of that time is spent on the horse, in the barn, and in the treatment room.  Each patient tolerates different amounts of time on the horse. Spending time around the farm and in the clinic facilitates carry over of skills achieved while on the horse, and is a very important part of the treatment. The therapist has extensive training in conducting approach, and will use this expertise in determining how the session will be spent by taking into account many variables (including but not limited to the best way to address specific speech-language goals, safety, and patient performance). 

Hippotherapy is safe when provided by a trained therapist, with the help of a specially trained team. The use of equine movement at Speech Language Pathology in Motion is done with carefully selected horses, and well trained horse handlers and side walkers.  Our therapists have extensive experience working with horses and training in the use of hippotherapy and equine assisted speech therapy. A research study conducted by Rebecca Cook, OTR, HPCS found that "The hippotherapy injury rate (1/14,386) is significantly lower compared with recreational riders (1/100)." 

At Speech Language Pathology in Motion, we begin utilizing hippotherapy within treatment sessions for children as young as 18 months of age, when deemed appropriate by the treating therapist and primary care physician.  

"Traditional" speech language therapy relies on auditory and visual systems to provide information about sound production. PROMPT therapy adds another dimension to the process of learning to talk, by providing information to the tactile system.  This helps children and adults to better understand timing and placement for speech production by providing them with physical cues in addition to visual and auditory cues. Sensory feedback from movements is stored and as the child is provided multiple opportunities for practice muscle memory builds and movement patterns for speech improve. 

Yes! For many patients we are able to incorporate a variety of treatment tools or approaches at the same time or within the same session. Many of the approaches and tools utilized at Speech Language Pathology in Motion complement each other well and easily are integrated into sessions. For example, hippotherapy and PROMPT go together nicely because they both embody motor learning theory and both take the whole body into consideration when addressing speech and language goals. The same can be said for DIRFloortime and hippotherapy as these techniques also complement each other well and when combined are highly effective in the remediation speech and language difficulties and improving motor planning abilities.