Services

Speech, language, feeding, and occupational therapy are provided in various settings including the home, private school, daycare environment, or our office location. Sessions are conducted one-on-one with a certified speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist. Families are always encouraged to actively participate in our therapy sessions to support the carryover of skills beyond the therapy setting.

Pediatric Speech & Language Therapy

Speech therapy helps children understand the world around them and enables development of effective communication skills.

Therapy supports your child with:

  • Speaking clearly
  • Understanding spoken words
  • Communicating verbally
  • Increased vocabulary
  • Social skills
  • Fluency and Stuttering
  • Using alternative means of communication (AAC)

Feeding Therapy

Feeding Therapy helps children develop age appropriate feeding skills.

Therapy supports your child with:

  • Picky eating
  • Transitioning from bottle to solids
  • Increasing food intake and weight gain
  • Maladaptive behaviors around eating
  • Swallowing deficits
  • Transition off enteral feedings to oral feeding

Adult Therapy Services

We provide speech therapy for adults for the following disorders:

  • Myofunctional Disorders
  • Stuttering
  • Cluttering
  • Imprecise Articulation

Specialized Therapy Approaches

Our pediatric speech therapy team prides itself on taking continuing education courses to stay current with the latest evidence-based speech therapy interventions. Many of our pediatric speech therapists have advanced training and/or certifications in:

  • PROMPT
  • Social Thinking
  • Early Intervention
  • Talk Tools Trained
  • Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program (LIPS)
  • Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
  • Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP)
  • Qualified Orofacial Myologist

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy helps children to improve independence and well-being.

Therapy supports your child with:

  • Fine motor skills and handwriting
  • Attention and focus
  • Self-regulation
  • Body awareness
  • Self-care independence
  • Sensitivities to touch, taste, vision, smell, and sound

Teletherapy

Here at Back Bay Speech and Occupational Therapy, the global pandemic of 2020 brought about new challenges in meeting the needs of our patients whom we could no longer see face to face. We transitioned to an exclusive teletherapy model and were excited to see the amazing successes that continued. Our therapists were able to adapt their services to deliver an interactive and tailored experience to each patient.

Our teletherapy model creates opportunities where they didn’t previously, or don’t exist, including:

  • Flexible scheduling – meeting with patients at times more convenient to them
  • Coaching opportunities – increasing caregiver involvement in the patient’s goals
  • Greater access to services – therapy for patients who can’t make weekly in person appointments

Most patients can benefit from teletherapy but it does work slightly different for each patient depending upon factors like their diagnosis, goals, age, and attention span. For younger patients, we engage a caregiver coaching model which allows goals to be worked on between sessions. For older children who are comfortable with technology, our therapists work directly with them as they would in a face to face setting.

What technology and other requirements are needed?
  • Internet access
  • Computer or tablet with a webcam and a built in microphone (or headphone/microphone combo)
  • A quiet, private space to minimize distractions
Will teletherapy be effective for my child/family/myself?

Teletherapy is typically just as effective as in-person sessions because we apply the same therapy approaches online. Our therapists customize each session to ensure engagement and progress, whether online or face-to-face. Recent studies have shown that individuals receiving teletherapy make comparable progress toward their goals as those receiving in-person services.

If you have any questions or concerns about the effectiveness of teletherapy for your child, family, or yourself, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly. We’re here to provide more information about our services and discuss whether teletherapy is the right fit for you.

Are the rates and services the same for teletherapy and in-person treatment?

Our rates, cancellation policy, and services are the same for teletherapy as they are for in person sessions. Insurance companies typically provide the same coverage for teletherapy sessions as they do for in person services as well, but it is important that you check with your insurance company for your individualized benefits.

Tiny Tots – Ages (1-3)

This group looks similar to a preschool circle, building upon language and social skills that the children already have or are developing in therapy. The small group setting facilitates carryover of skills learned in therapy and provides opportunities to engage with peers with the support from speech-language pathologists. Classes are approximately 45 minutes each. The general format of the group is: Hello Song, Word of the Day, Book Reading, Weather/Color/Shape songs, Book Activity (game, craft, motor play) related to the Book, Structured Free Play (time for questions), and Goodbye Song. The goal is not to have the group feel like forced learning, but rather encourage language and social skills (eg. turn taking, sharing, waiting) growth in fun ways. After class there will be time for parents to ask questions and gain more information about speech and language development.

Classes are held in our office in Charlestown, MA