Welcome to Arbuckle Speech Therapy
helping your child find their voice
With over a decade of experience as a licensed, ASHA certified speech language pathologist and certified brain injury specialist, I specialize in pediatric speech therapy, helping children overcome communication challenges. My mission is to provide personalized, compassionate care that helps children thrive.
Expert Care for All Needs: Expertise in fostering communication growth for:
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Speech and language delays
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Early intervention (0-3 years old)
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Articulation and phonological disorders
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Autism, Down Syndrome and other developmental disabilities
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Deaf or hard-of-hearing children
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Traumatic brain injuries and neurological conditions
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Cognitive-communication impairments
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Feeding and swallowing difficulties
Holistic, Family-Centered Approach: I work closely with families to offer:
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Customized therapy plans to meet your child's unique needs
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Parent support groups to provide strategies for communication success at home
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AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) for non-speaking or minimally-speaking children
Diverse Experience Across Settings: I’ve provided speech therapy in top-tier settings, including:
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Children’s Hospital Los Angeles: Pediatric rehabilitation for brain injuries, stroke, and more
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Early Intervention Programs: Supporting infants and toddlers with developmental delays
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Schools and Preschools: Helping children with speech impairments thrive in academic settings
Why Choose Arbuckle Speech Therapy?
At Arbuckle Speech Therapy, I am dedicated to helping your child find their voice, grow their confidence, and reach their fullest potential.
Our Goal:
Every child deserves to express themselves.
What to expect from a
Speech Therapy Session
At Arbuckle Speech Therapy, our in-home sessions are designed to be supportive, engaging, and focused on your child’s unique needs.
Here’s what you can expect:
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Warm Welcome & Rapport Building
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Our licensed speech therapists create a comfortable, fun environment to help your child feel at ease and build trust.
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Personalized Assessment
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We’ll review your child’s progress and discuss any observations you’ve made. Your input is key to tailoring each session to your child’s needs.
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Engaging Activities
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Therapy sessions include interactive games, storytelling, and exercises that support speech, language, and social communication skills.
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Skill Development
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We work on specific goals like articulation, vocabulary, sentence structure, and social skills through activities your child enjoys.
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Parent Involvement
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We’ll provide you with strategies and activities to practice at home, helping to reinforce progress between sessions.
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Positive Reinforcement
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Celebrating each success, big or small, boosts your child’s confidence and motivation.
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Progress Updates
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At the end of each session, we’ll review accomplishments, set goals, and answer any questions you have.
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What We Can Help With
Fluency / Stuttering
Is your child’s speech characterized by repetitions of sounds/words, hesitations when attempting to start a word or sentence, or does your child appear like their words are getting “stuck?”
Impairments in fluency can cause disruptions in the smooth flow of speech, often marked by repetitions or prolonged sounds. Fluency disorders, like stuttering, may make a child feel annoyed, frustrated or discouraged. These speech interruptions can affect your child’s social interactions and performance at school.
Language
Is your child having trouble communicating, leaving you feeling frustrated and unsure of how to help? We specialize in treating language disorders that impact a child's ability to express themselves, follow directions, and engage in conversation.
A language disorder may present as difficulties with:
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Expressing their basic wants and needs
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Saying their first words or combining words later than expected
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Following directions or understanding what is being asked
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Participating in conversations or answering basic WH questions
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Speaking in grammatically correct sentences
If this sounds familiar, we’re here to support your child in developing stronger language skills and help ease the frustration that comes with communication challenges.
Pragmatic / Social
Communication
Is your child struggling to connect with others or make friends? Social communication difficulties can impact their ability to engage in conversations, read body language, and maintain friendships.
Signs of a social communication deficit include:
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Trouble maintaining eye contact
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Difficulty understanding body language or non-verbal cues
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Struggling with abstract language like idioms or figurative speech
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Inability to keep up with the flow of conversations
Our social communication therapy helps your child improve their conversational skills and build meaningful connections.
Articulation
Is your child often misunderstood by others when speaking or do they frequently have to repeat themselves so others can understand them better? This could be a sign of an articulation or phonological disorder. These disorders involve errors such as substitutions, omissions, or distortions, which can make communication less clear. While some sound errors are typical at certain ages, persistent issues may require intervention.
Signs of an articulation or phonological disorder may include:
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Difficulty being understood by others
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Producing incorrect sounds
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Deleting sounds or syllables
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Spelling or reading challenges (writing words as they speak them)
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Frustration from not being understood
Our speech therapy services are designed to address these challenges, helping your child improve their communication clarity and confidence.
We provide speech therapy to infants and toddlers up to young adults. Arbuckle Speech Therapy treats various delays and disorders including the listed specializations below.
Areas of Specialization
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AphasiaAphasia impairs the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing. There are varying types of aphasia. With some forms of aphasia, an individual may understand speech and know what they want to say, but they may speak in short phrases that are produced with great effort and errors. They may have difficulty naming objects even though they know what the object is and what it may be used for, or they may have difficulty understanding spoken language.
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Apraxia of SpeechApraxia of Speech is a neurological disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in planning the sequence of movements involved in producing speech. The brain knows what it wants to say, but cannot properly plan and sequence the required speech sound movements. This may be developmental in nature or acquired as a result of a brain injury, stroke, brain infection, tumor or related to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
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Articulation DisordersArticulation Disorders refer to speech sound errors characterized by distortions of a sound (i.e., thoap/soap) or substituting sounds (i.e., wain/rain). With articulation disorders, there may be difficulty producing a single sound or a few sounds, though most of their speech is intelligible to others.
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Phonological DisordersPhonological Disorders refer to the use of incorrect speech patterns. Sounds may be omitted (i.e., dropping off the final sound of a word [ba/bat]), substituted (i.e., using a /t/ in place of a /k/ [tar/car]), or syllables may be dropped off (i.e., “bay” for “baby”). With phonological disorders, the errored speech pattern may change the meaning of the word and severely affect the intelligibility of speech.
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Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC)Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) is any mode of communication an individual can use other than speech. AAC systems assist individuals with complex communication disorders to help support them in their expressive communication. AAC may take the form of signs, picture cards, communication books or communication applications such as Proloquo2Go, GoTalk, LAMP Words for Life or TouchChat. Research shows that AAC can be a great facilitator for speech development as well as language and literacy for children with delayed language!
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Cognitive-Communication ImpairmentsCognitive-Communication Impairments are difficulties with communication skills that involve executive functioning, memory, attention, perception, organization, regulation, and problem solving. Cognitive-communication disorders can stem from a brain injury, stroke, brain infection, tumor or can be related to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
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Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH)Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) is a term that refers to individuals who have a decreased ability to hear, whether it's permanent or fluctuating. This can impact a person's ability to communicate, learn, or socialize. We support children who are deaf or use assistive hearing devices such as hearing aids, bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHA), and cochlear implants with their communication!
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Early InterventionEarly Intervention describes the services and supports that are available to babies and young children with developmental delays and disabilities.
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Expressive Language ImpairmentsExpressive Language Impairments refers to difficulties requesting objects, asking or answering questions, formulating sentences or describing events. Expressive language impairments may also be characterized by difficulty putting words together, having a limited vocabulary, or being unable to use language in a socially appropriate way.
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Fluency Disorders (Stuttering)Fluency Disorders (Stuttering) is characterized by repetitions of sounds, syllables, or whole words, prolongations of single sounds, or blocks of airflow or voicing during speech.
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Receptive Language ImpairmentsReceptive Language Impairments refers to difficulties with understanding or processing spoken, written or gestural language. A child with a receptive language impairment may have difficulty following directions or answering questions, may interrupt others or appear off-topic, may not understand what they’re being asked or frequently ask for repetition.
