School Speech

The Shelton School Speech department was created to meet the needs of students in Early Childhood through 8th grade who would benefit from speech and language therapy. Students initially qualify for speech therapy based on their admissions testing and annual re-evaluation. Therapists offer services in groups of 2 to 4 students twice a week for approximately 30-minute sessions. Groups are matched based on the students’ grade-level and test scores.

In addition to group therapy, the school speech department offers communication skills groups. These groups each meet once a week. Meeting in groups helps to provide natural opportunities for interaction with other students and "on the spot" therapy. Students work on specific skills to help in social settings like: conversation, reading body language, and making friends.

Several times throughout the school year, speech therapists provide lessons within the classrooms in collaboration with the teachers. This ongoing collaboration helps provide a meaningful and cohesive learning experience for the student.


How does a student qualify?
All students applying for admission to Shelton School are given a battery of tests, including a speech and language evaluation. Eligibility is determined by these results, prior diagnosis, and professional recommendation. Students are seen twice weekly for 30-minute sessions.

Common speech and language disorders which may be addressed during group speech:
Speech Disorders
  • Articulation - the way we say our speech sounds
  • Phonology - the speech patterns we use
  • Apraxia - difficulty planning and coordinating the movements needed to make speech sounds
  • Fluency - stuttering
  • Voice - problems with the way the voice sounds, such as hoarseness
Speech Disorders
  • Receptive Language - difficulty understanding language
  • Expressive Language - difficulty using language
  • Pragmatic Language - social communication, the way we speak to each other

What can I do at home?
Engage your children in everyday activities to create a language rich experience. For example, when inquiring about their school day choose open-ended questions. It’s most effective to ask about the most unstructured portions of their day (i.e. Tell me about recess?, What happened during lunch today?, What was the best thing that happened today?, What was the worst thing that happened?, What can you change so it doesn’t happen again?)