Our Services
Putting Patients First
At Nurtured Beginnings Speech Therapy, we believe in providing the most effective, efficient, and compassionate care. If you are worried about your child's feeding or speech skills, don't hesitate- call for a free consultation today!
Pediatric Feeding Therapy
Feeding therapy involves building skills and teaching techniques to help your child develop normal feeding behaviors. Feeding therapy is helpful for infants who have trouble latching onto the breast or a bottle, or who have difficulty coordinating swallowing and breathing. Older children who refuse to try new foods or who exclude foods from their diet may also benefit from feeding therapy.
What are signs that my child needs feeding therapy?
Your child may benefit from feeding therapy if they demonstrate any of the following behaviors:
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labored, noisy breathing or gasping
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coughing, choking, gagging or retching
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gurgles or wet breaths
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loud and/or hard swallows or gulping
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unable to eat or drink enough for optimal growth
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excessively short mealtimes (< 5 minutes)
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excessively long mealtimes (> 30 minutes)
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need for thickened liquids
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need for special food or modified food texture
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need for special strategies, positioning or equipment
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grazing between scheduled mealtimes
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refusal to eat, drink or swallow certain food textures
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needs distraction to eat such as screen time
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needs excessive praise/threats/bribes to eat
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difficulty chewing age-appropriate foods
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unable to eat in new or unfamiliar situations
Infant Feeding Therapy
Infants sometimes struggle with bottles and breastfeeding due to oral motor issues along with tethered oral tissues. At Nurtured Beginnings Speech Therapy, Ashley can assess the mom and baby to determine the root of breastfeeding issues as well. These infants who are struggling with eating are assessed to determine the root cause of the feeding issue; therapy is then begun to help the baby have a successful feeding experience. If your baby is struggling with eating at the breast or bottle, contact NBST for an evaluation!
Other infant specific concerns include:
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unable to latch to breast or bottle without help
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weak suck
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need for pacing, flow management or rest breaks
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need for special equipment to breast or bottle feed
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often too tired to eat or quickly falls asleep when eating breast or bottle
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feeds best when asleep, i.e., dream feeds
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unable to transition to solids unable to wean from breast or bottle
Lactation Counseling
During this service, Ashley, a Certified Lactation Counselor, will complete a full assessment including pre/post feeding weights, observing a full feeding, assisting with latching, providing helpful adjustments and creating a personalized lactation care plan that supports your feeding goals. In addition, this visit will include a report for your primary care provider and email or call follow-up for additional questions.
Services include: Prenatal consultations, lactation consultations, bottle assessment, back-to-work consultations, and pumping plans.
Parent Coaching
It can be difficult to keep up with all milestones and skills your child should have and when they should be achieving them. we can help structure your home activities and plans to help your child thrive. During this in-home or virtual session, we can provide you with information and resources to succeed.
Nursing Classes
We teach prenatal courses both 1:1 and in small groups. We provide education using evidenced based information about lactation and breastfeeding as well as bottle feeding. This empowers expecting moms to understand normal and typical behaviors and when to ask for help.
Speech Therapy
Speech therapy helps your child develop their speech and language skills. For example, your child may not articulate sounds and words correctly or may not have a vocabulary that allows them to communicate their thoughts and needs. Your child may have frequent tantrums due to communication difficulties. A speech therapist can help your child develop both their speech and language skills.
Speech
Speech involves articulation, voice, and fluency. All three aspects of speech must come together for effective verbal skills.
- Articulation is the process of using the lips, mouth, and tongue to make sounds. A child that struggles with articulation may have trouble with certain sounds, such as the “R” or “TH” sounds.
- Voice is the use of breath and vocal cords to make sounds. Some voices are softer or louder than others, but a child needs to be able to use their voice to be understood.
- Fluency is the rhythm of speech. Disrupted fluency could lead to the repeated sounds of a stutter or getting stuck on a word in a stammer.
Language
Language involves both vocabulary and how a child uses their words to communicate. Children need to learn new words, what they mean, and how similar words can all have slightly different meanings. Learning to make word combinations and eventually formulating sentences, is an extremely important aspect of development.
What are the signs that my child needs speech therapy?
All children master the ability to speak at their own pace, and there is a wide age range that’s considered normal for certain speech and language milestones. However, some of the signs that your child may need support to improve their speech and language skills include:
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Lack of babbling and/or gesturing
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Uses fewer than 20 words by 18 months, and less than 50 by age 2
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Uses only a few sounds in all words
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Unclear or immature speech
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Not putting words together in phrases
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Talks infrequently
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Trouble using language socially
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Trouble following simple directions
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Difficulty recognizing letter sounds
Contact Us
In-person services: Lincoln, MA and surrounding area.
Virtual services: State of Massachusetts