No. The regulations of our professional Order, the Ordre des Orthophonistes et Audiologistes du Québec (OOAQ), stipulate that reports be provided summarizing assessment findings and that the cost of report writing be factored into the overall fee for assessment instead of being charged separately.

No, you can self-refer to a speech-language pathologist. However, in some cases we may recommend additional testing or services that would require a doctor’s referral. In addition, some insurers require a medical referral.

Upon request, we will provide you with our complete fee schedule. Rates vary depending on the service provided. Rates for assessment vary depending on the number of sessions required to evaluate the client and the amount of time needed to analyze assessment findings and write an evaluation report. Rates for treatment depend on the time spent in the session.

No. The regulations of our professional Order, the Ordre des Orthophonistes et Audiologistes du Québec (OOAQ), stipulate that reports be provided summarizing assessment findings and that the cost of report writing be factored into the overall fee for assessment instead of being charged separately.

Yes. If your child has significant difficulty communicating with others in a daycare setting, he or she may be eligible for the Quebec government allowance for the integration of a disabled child in a childcare establishment. A speech-language assessment report is required along with completion of specific forms provided by the Ministère de la Famille et des Aînés to the speech-language pathologist, daycare director and parents.

This is a tax credit to reduce income tax payable for individuals with disabilities. It is provided by the government of Canada to help families who have a child deemed to suffer severe and prolonged impairment of physical or mental functions. The tax credit is to help offset the costs of caring for and providing help for the child. If you apply for this benefit, the speech-language pathologist can support your application by completing the appropriate documents and providing a speech-language assessment report.

This is a tax credit to reduce income tax payable for individuals with disabilities. It is provided by the government of Canada to help families who have a child deemed to suffer severe and prolonged impairment of physical or mental functions. The tax credit is to help offset the costs of caring for and providing help for the child. If you apply for this benefit, the speech-language pathologist can support your application by completing the appropriate documents and providing a speech-language assessment report.

We do not offer regular week-end hours at the current time although occasionally we will schedule an assessment on the week-end. We have a limited number of evening hours that we offer to our adult clients.

Speech refers to pronunciation of sounds in order to speak words. When a person’s speech is difficult to understand, communication can become frustrating for both the speaker and the listener. There are a variety of reasons why a child might have difficulty learning certain speech sounds or patterns of sounds and/or combining or sequencing those sounds for intelligible speech. Adults can also have speech sound errors that they wish to fix. At Speech Express, we use standardized tests and informal measures to determine the nature of the speech problem and the best therapy approach to help improve pronunciation in our clients.

Language involves both the ability to understand words and sentences spoken by others and the skill of using words and sentences to express thoughts and ideas. Good language skills are essential in social interaction and in academic performance. The development of language over childhood follows an expected path: There are milestones for when a child should start talking, the number of words expected at a given age and how complex sentences and stories should be compared to other children of the same age. Similarly, there are age-related expectations for a child’s ability to comprehend vocabulary, grammatical structures and stories. At Speech Express, we use standardized tests along with observation and informal measures to help us determine if language comprehension and language expression are developing as they should be. The findings that come out of assessment are used to set goals for treatment.

Many parents of children who stutter receive the advice to “Wait and See”. This advice is based on the idea that most children will outgrow their stuttering. This is partly true as research indicates that about 75% of children who start to stutter will spontaneously recover, many of them within the first 12 months following onset. However, to date we don’t know which children will recover and which ones will develop a persistent stuttering disorder. Another reason to seek assessment as soon as possible is that the way others react to a child who is stuttering can either reduce the impact or worsen the course of the disorder. Appropriate interaction and communication with a child who starts to stutter is paramount in promoting recovery and keeping the negative impact of the disorder at a minimum.
If your child has only recently started to stutter, we recommend a counseling session at our clinic to answer your questions and provide advice about how to support your child at this point. We will advise you on how to monitor your child’s speech and when to commence treatment.
We recommend assessment and treatment if you are distressed about your child’s speech or if your child has exhibited one or more of the symptoms below. For example, He or she:
– started stuttering over six months ago
– has shown no improvement in speech
– has stuttering that has increased over time
-has stuttering that has become more tense and effortful
– is showing symptoms such as eye-blinking, body or head- movements,
audible breathing
– is starting to withdraw from communication
– has a family history of persistent stuttering
– is distressed about their speech

A voice assessment for Parkison’s Disease includes an extensive case history interview to gather information regarding the client’s medical, surgical, neuropsychological, employment and swallowing history. In addition, the interview provides an opportunity to explore how the disorder has affected the client’s speech, communication abilities and quality of life so far. The interview is followed by a speech assessment. During the assessment a variety of speech and voice measurements are taken and analyzed , including measures of loudness, pitch range and quality of voice. These measures provide the baseline for individualized therapy decisions and for monitoring progress over the course of treatment. The assessment will also involve a test to see if the client is able to increase vocal effort and loudness. These two skills are a prerequisite for the successful implementation of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment. Following the assessment the client has the opportunity to ask question regarding Parkinson’s Disease and its impact on voice and communication abilities. Initial and ongoing counseling is an important part of Parkinson’s Disease treatment at Speech Express. The overall duration of speech assessment is between two and two and a half hours. The assessment results and treatment recommendations will be summarized in a report.

Yes! Adults can benefit from therapy for stuttering. Although there is currently no cure for stuttering in adults, there are variety of treatment approaches that have been shown to be effective in reducing stuttering and changing attitudes towards communication. Treatment for adults aims at providing speaking techniques and other strategies to better manage stuttering so the person who stutters can become a successful communicator. Treatment aims to reduce the negative impact stuttering might have on overall quality of life. This can be achieved by either learning to modify the speech and thus stutter in a more relaxed way or by using other techniques that support a more fluent way of speaking. In recent years, a combination of these two approaches has been shown to be successful. Adult clients also benefit from addressing speaking fears and avoidance behaviours that have developed over the years and become obstacles to achieving social and professional goals.

Lee Silvermant Voice Therapy (LSVT) is a highly effective voice treatment for clients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). It has extensive research that shows it is successful in improving loudness, articulation and overall communication in PD clients. It has also been found to be significantly more effective than other traditional treatment approaches.
Treatment targets the development of a stronger voice by increasing loudness and effort. The LSVT is delivered in an intensive format. It involves one initial assessment session followed by 16 standardized treatment sessions. Treatment takes approximately one month, with the client attending three to four weekly sessions. Each session lasts one hour. The LSVT also requires the client to practice one to two times daily at home to stabilize and maintain the louder voice. In order to ensure proper implementation of this program, LSVT should only be delivered by LSVT certified clinicians who update their knowledge on a regular basis through continuing education. LSVT clinicians also have to pass exams at the LSVT Global – Institute.

Yes. Improvement is directly related to home practice. Much like learning an instrument or playing a sport, a certain amount of practice is required to change existing patterns of behaviour.

As a general rule, parents attend therapy sessions with their child in order to learn how best to help their child and to ensure that practice done at home will be effective. Parent training and coaching is ongoing over the course of therapy. In some cases, such as when working with teenagers, parent involvement may be less intensive.

It depends. After completing a thorough assessment, we will have a better sense of the nature and impact of the communication difficulty. Then we can estimate the length of time needed to see improvement in therapy. Some speech and language disorders require a few months of treatment while others may require a longer-term commitment.