About Mary-Jane
My name is Mary-Jane Slingerland and I have worked as a certified Speech-Language Pathologist for over 30 years with children as young as 6 months. My training as an Early Childhood and School Aged Educator, and Speech-Language Pathologist has provided me with the developmental knowledge base and experience to work with children presenting with communication difficulty. I also have extensive experience working with toddler to adult aged individuals with global developmental delays, but presently work mainly with children 6 years and under. I am sole owner of my private practice.
My Approach to Working with Young Children and Service Modality
I believe children’s early communication, language and speech learning needs to be experienced in a naturalistic environment and with responsive adults.Parents need support as well, so education and guidance around communication and speech/language skill development is provided. I am able to meet with you and your child virtually "in person" if you are using a desk or lap top computer, tablet or smart phone. I do provide individual and group virtual care services (consultation, assessment and therapy). Virtual care via the internet has been researched and found to be an effective modality to inform and improve overall communication and speech and language skills.Fun and laughter are still
byproducts of the experience.
Speech-Language Pathologists interact virtually with children and parents/caregivers in their homes sharing motivating materials. Children respond favourably in game or play based virtual therapy sessions.Parents are amazed that their child can be so attentive to speech/language practice online.
Early communication intervention with toddlers (under 30 months) depends on teaching and coaching parents, and caregivers the essential skills to support their children's early communication development through play interactions.During my virtual assessment and consultation sessions, I work with you to determine your toddler’s needs in a play based setting in your home.
Areas of Clinical Interest and Experience
My Approach to Working with Young Children and Service Modality
I believe children’s early communication, language and speech learning needs to be experienced in a naturalistic environment and with responsive adults.Parents need support as well, so education and guidance around communication and speech/language skill development is provided. I am able to meet with you and your child virtually "in person" if you are using a desk or lap top computer, tablet or smart phone. I do provide individual and group virtual care services (consultation, assessment and therapy). Virtual care via the internet has been researched and found to be an effective modality to inform and improve overall communication and speech and language skills.Fun and laughter are still
byproducts of the experience.
Speech-Language Pathologists interact virtually with children and parents/caregivers in their homes sharing motivating materials. Children respond favourably in game or play based virtual therapy sessions.Parents are amazed that their child can be so attentive to speech/language practice online.
Early communication intervention with toddlers (under 30 months) depends on teaching and coaching parents, and caregivers the essential skills to support their children's early communication development through play interactions.During my virtual assessment and consultation sessions, I work with you to determine your toddler’s needs in a play based setting in your home.
Areas of Clinical Interest and Experience
- Early Intervention with children under the age of 36 months
- Articulation and phonological disorders for children 3-6 years (speech production delays)
- Social Language Delays and Challenges ( conversation skills including turn taking, eye contact, initiating and ending conversation, staying on topic, etc.)
- Childhood Receptive Language Delays (auditory processing of language difficulties which impacts following directions and understanding questions)
- Childhood Expressive Language Delays including: narrative/discourse skills or the organization of thoughts into sentences to retell a past event or experience), vocabulary (naming skills), grammar or syntax may be impaired
- Phonological Awareness Deficits: pre-reading skills like identifying and generating rhymes, identifying sounds heard at the beginning,middle and end of words,identifying syllabic structure of words, identifying sounds in a word, etc.
