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Hi, I am proud to let you know that I have been working for the Pawling Central School District since September of 1997! When I first began in the district I worked with all grade levels kindergarten through twelth grade. Currently, I am servicing students kindergarten through fourth grade at the elementary school. I provide speech and language therapy individually and in small group settings according to the student's needs. After school, I work part time for Dr. Volz and Associates to provide speech and language therapy itinerantly for children ages birth through five.
I am New York State Licensed Speech-Language Pathologist ad I hold the American Speech Language Hearing Association's Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC). I maintain New York State Certification as a Teacher of the Speech and Hearing Handicapped (TSHH). I received my Master of Arts degree in Speech-Language Pathology from SUNY Geneseo and my Bachelor of Science degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology with a minor in Human Development also from SUNY Geneseo.
Common Terminology in
Speech-Language Pathology →
Articulation: movement of the jaw, tongue and/or lips (“articulators”) that obstruct/interrupt airflow in order to produce speech sounds. Speaking involves accuracy in placement, timing, speed, pressure and integration of the oral structures.
Auditory Processing: the ability to attend, discriminate, recognize, comprehend, organize, sequence and/or retain complex sounds/verbal information. To have a breakdown in this process is called an auditory processing disorder/delay. This deficit is present despite having normal hearing.
Expressive Language: the ability to use language. In other words, to communicate thoughts, feelings, ideas, and/or intentions via spoken word, written word, or symbols.
Communication: the act of transferring information from one place to another. An individual can communicate in a variety of ways:
Verbal/Spoken Communication = face-to-face, telephone, radio, television, etc.
Non-Verbal Communication = body language, physical gestures, facial expressions, etc.
Written Communication = letters, books, magazines, newspaper, email, etc.
Fluency: the smoothness or flow with which sounds, syllables, words and phrases are joined together when speaking. A fluent speaker produces speech with rhythm, inflection/prosody, and an appropriate rate. Dysfluency is a term used to describe individuals who demonstrate irregularities in the flow of speech (aka stuttering or cluttering).
I.E.P.: Individualized Education Plan
Motor-Planning: the brain organizes a plan and sends a signal to the necessary muscles in order to coordinate, sequence and execute specific movements to produce speech.
Oral-Motor: encompasses the integrity, strength, coordination, and precise movement of the structures in the oral cavity needed for sound production.
Phonemic Awareness: the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is a pre-literacy skill needed to learn how to read. A child who has difficulty with phonemic awareness may demonstrate weakness in rhyming, blending sounds to make words and segmenting words into individual sounds.
Phonological Processes: sound error patterns in a child's speech that account for substitutions, omissions, or additions of speech sounds that make a child difficult to understand.
Pragmatic Language: an individual’s use of language in a socially appropriate way. Pragmatic language includes appropriate use of eye contact, body language, conversational skills, turn-taking, topic initiation, topic maintenance, and termination of topics when speaking to others.
Receptive Language: the ability to understand spoken language to derive meaning. This includes an individual’s ability to attend, listen, interpret and process information effectively.
Semantics: word knowledge, vocabulary, and the meaning of language.
Syntax: the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in language. It includes an individual’s ability to formulate grammatically correct and appropriate utterances.
Visualizations: pictures, graphs, charts, maps, etc.