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Talk and Play

Speech Therapy

SPEECH and LANGUAGE

Milestones

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Our speech services are provided in your home, virtually, or in your child’s daycare or school.

Personalize Your Experience

Speech therapy is usually scheduled for one to two visits per week for a 3–6-month period before completing a re-evaluation to determine continued need (per requirements of certain insurance). Length of speech therapy services for children ranges from 30-50 minutes of direct/indirect therapy, depending on your child’s specific needs.

Consistent attendance is important to demonstrate progress and is often required by insurance to ensure continued coverage.

Click here to schedule a free 15 minute phone screening.

Services and Treatment

FREE 15 minute Communication Consultation:

a complimentary consult by phone or Zoom to identify areas of concern in the child’s speech and language skills

Free Consultation

Speech-Language Evaluations:

Along with standardized tests, we conduct a developmental history review plus observation of and play with the child to make an accurate assessment of his/her skills; for school aged children, a full battery of tests are also given including a case history and observations as necessary.

Individual Speech Therapy:

Specialized, play-based therapy along with parent education. Therapy can be provided at school/daycare, home or virtually.

We work with children with ...

Receptive/expressive language delays, articulation errors, developmental delays, and

motor speech disorders.

SEVICE AND TREATMENTS

Locations and Payments

Locations:

We primarily serve Gwinnett County.

Services can be provided in person in your home or in your child’s school or daycare.

Insurances:

We currently accept Medicaid (Care Source and Amerigroup).

We also accept Aetna.

If paying via private pay, please use a credit card or a health savings account card.

Locations and Payments

Meet the therapist

Owner and primary speech-language pathologist (SLP) for Talk and Play Therapy, Inc.

Chari Sutherland, owner and primary speech-language pathologist (SLP) for Talk and Play Therapy, Inc., has been a speech therapist for 30 years. Her experience spans many settings including home health, hospitals, schools, nursing homes and early intervention. From 2003 to 2006 she owned and operated her own private practice, serving early intervention clients (ages 0 to 3) in homes and daycare settings. It was during that time, that she fell in love with educating caregivers while providing quality therapy – through play techniques. Collaboration with families, primary caregivers and other specialists is at the heart of Chari’s mission. She is passionate about the inclusion of caregivers in therapy sessions.

Chari is Hanen Centre trained in their “It Takes Two to Talk” program. This program’s focus is on caregiver education to encourage speech and language skills in young children.

Working with ‘late talkers’ and children with speech sound disorders are her particular focuses.

She earned her master’s degree in communication disorders from St. Louis University in 1992 where she was recognized as “Outstanding SLP Graduate Student”. She has been nationally certified by the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) since 1993.

Meet the Therapist

Children develop at their own rate. Your child might not have all skills until the end of the age range.

Information source: American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). www.asha.org

Speech and Language Milestones

Hearing and Understanding

Points to a few body parts when you ask.
Follows 1-part directions, like "Roll the ball" or "Kiss the baby."
Responds to simple questions, like “Who’s that?” or “Where’s your shoe?”
Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes.
Points to pictures in a book when you name them.

Talking

Uses a lot of new words.
Uses p, b, m, h, and w in words.
Starts to name pictures in books.
Asks questions, like “What's that?”, “Who’s that?”, and “Where’s kitty?”

Puts 2 words together, like "more apple," "no bed," and "mommy book."

Hearing and Understanding

Understands opposites, like go–stop, big–little, and up–down.
Follows 2-part directions, like "Get the spoon and put it on the table."
Understands new words quickly.

Talking

Has a word for almost everything.
Talks about things that are not in the room.
Uses k, g, f, t, d, and n in words.
Uses words like in, on, and under.
Uses two- or three- words to talk about and ask for things.
People who know your child can understand him.
Asks “Why?”
Puts 3 words together to talk about things. May repeat some words and sounds.

Hearing and Understanding

Responds when you call from another room.
Understands words for some colors, like red, blue, and green.
Understands words for some shapes, like circle and square.
Understands words for family, like brother, grandmother, and aunt.

Talking

Answers simple who, what, and where questions.
Says rhyming words, like hat–cat.
Uses pronouns, like I, you, me, we, and they.
Uses some plural words, like toys, birds, and buses.
Most people understand what your child says.
Asks when and how questions.
Puts 4 words together. May make some mistakes, like “I goed to school.”

Talks about what happened during the day. Uses about 4 sentences at a time.

Hearing and Understanding

Understands words for order, like first, next, and last.
Understands words for time, like yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Follows longer directions, like “Put your pajamas on, brush your teeth, and then pick out a book.”
Follows classroom directions, like “Draw a circle on your paper around something you eat.”
Hears and understands most of what she hears at home and in school.

Talking

Says all speech sounds in words. May make mistakes on sounds that are harder to say, like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, and th.
Responds to “What did you say?”
Talks without repeating sounds or words most of the time.
Names letters and numbers.
Uses sentences that have more than 1 action word, like jump, play, and get. May make some mistakes, like “Zach gots 2 video games, but I got one.”
Tells a short story.
Keeps a conversation going.
Talks in different ways, depending on the listener and place. Your child may use short sentences with younger children. He may talk louder outside than inside.

TESTIMONIALS

What People are Saying

“My son had another therapist before Chari. We saw little to no progress for 5 months. After just two months with her, he has begun to make strides in his improvement.” – G.T.

“I have found Chari to be knowledgeable – giving great ideas for me and my husband to help our daughter at home. My daughter is so excited to see her on therapy days!” – R.L.

"My 3 year old had speech issues and I remember the therapist providing awesome advice and exercises. It truly did make a difference in my son’s development! Thanks so much!!!!!" - R.S.