Something to talk about

Babble & Beyond offers speech-language services to all ages

More than 10 per cent of school-aged children in Canada have some sort of communication difficulty. Speech and language difficulties can have significant impact on a child’s social, emotional, and intellectual development.

“Speech and language are crucial for a child’s ability to make sense of the world around them, to express their ideas and observations, to communicate their wants and needs, and to connect with others,” says Linda Levy Fisk, a speech language pathologist, and operator of Babble & Beyond Speech-Language Services in Wolfville.

May is Speech and Hearing Month. Each year SpeechLanguage & Audiology Canada dedicates this month to raising public awareness about communication health. This includes the importance of early detection and treatment.

Communication difficulties can cause children to become easily frustrated, express themselves through emotional outbursts, or become excessively shy, Levy Fisk points out.

“They are sometimes mislabelled as having behavioural problems, when in fact they are not understanding,” she points out. “Older children with communication difficulties may be teased by other children, become isolated or withdraw from their peers and social situations, and may miss opportunities because of this. Academic achievement may also be negatively affected.”

Levy Fisk opened the Babble & Beyond Speech-Language Services in 2009. She offers assessment and therapy for people of all ages, from infants, preschool, school-age, young adults, and older adults.

Speech language pathologists can help with a range of issues, including:

-speech delays and disorders, including articulation, phonology, and motor speech disorders

-Language delays and disorders include expression and comprehension in oral and non-verbal contexts

-Fluency disorders include stuttering

-Voice and resonance disorders

-Swallowing and feeding disorders

-Cognitive communication disorders, including social communication skills, reasoning, problem solving and executive functions

-Pre-literacy and literacy skills, including phonological awareness, decoding, reading comprehension and writing

-Communication and swallowing disorders related to other issues. This could include hearing impairments; traumatic brain injury; neurological impairments; dementia; as well as intellectual, developmental or genetic disorders.

“When people think of our profession they think of fixing lisps or stuttering, and that is the bulk of what we do,” Levy Fisk says. “But expressive and receptive language – syntax, grammar, pragmatics – is another big part that people don’t often know about.”

Levy Fisk and her husband Tim Fisk are both native Nova Scotians and returned to the province in 2007. Tim runs the Wolfville Hearing Clinic in the same building as Babble & Beyond.

“It’s beneficial to clients to have both services available under one roof, and also for ease of collaboration and referral,” Levy Fisk points out.

As many as three in every 1,000 children are born with some degree of hearing loss. Frequent or untreated middle ear infections cause transient or fluctuating hearing loss, which can be detrimental to speech and language development.

“By the age of three at least 75 per cent of children have had at least one ear infection,” she points out. “It is common practice to screen a child’s hearing any time there is concern for their speech or language development.”

In addition, the clinic meets or exceeds all Public Health cleaning and safety protocols to keep everyone safe, she points out.

“I am also pleased to now expand my speech-language services, offering tele-health as well.”