FAQs

Who? 

My name is Jennifer Smith (she/her) and I am a pediatric speech-language pathologist based in the Bellevue area of Nashville, Tennessee. For more information about me, please click on the About Me link.

What? 

For information on what I do, please click on the Services Provided link. 

Where? 

I see my clients for therapy in their homes or schools in the Bellevue area of Nashville. As long as the location at which I see the client for therapy is located in this region, I do not charge for travel time to or from sessions.  I also provide teletherapy--a service delivery model that is often as effective as in-person therapy.

[Please note that public schools generally do not allow private practitioners on campus to conduct therapy. Private schools will sometmes allow private pay SLPs on campus to provide therapy, and I have had the opportunity to do this at a number of private schools in the area; however, I am unable to confirm if your child's school will make that concession for them. If, after speaking with me, you decide that you would like me to see your child for therapy at their school, you will need to contact the adminstration to determine if they will allow me into the school to conduct therapy. If I provide therapy at home, there will need to be at least one parent/caregiver in the home during the session.] 

When? 

My schedule is fluid because of the nature of my profession--after all, my ultimate goal is to help children graduate from speech. Therefore, it's best for you to contact me to see what availability I have. Please click on the Contact link and send me a message to find out more about what times/days I currently have available for therapy. 

Why? 

• Why Private Pay Therapy? 

Private pay therapy allows your child to be seen for therapy individually and to work on needs that may not necessarily be addressed in a public school setting. (For example, in public schools SLPs can only see a child for speech sound therapy if their errors are affecting their educational progress.) Year-round therapy is also available if needed. 

• Why does an SLP Treat Literacy? 

Reading is composed of numerous subskills, each of which are required to be an efficient reader. Dr. Hollis Scarborough created an infographic--the Reading Rope--to symbolize the complex and multifacted nature of reading (https://dyslexiaida.org/scarboroughs-reading-rope-a-groundbreaking-infographic/). Many of the necessary skills for fluent reading--including sufficient vocabulary, sentence structure knowledge, verbal reasoning, phonological/speech sound awareness--are within the scope of practice for SLPs. (Please scroll down to see the Reading Rope infographic.)

Many children with dyslexia have difficulties with the speech sound awareness (i.e., phonemic awareness) necessary to effectively map the speech sounds of language onto the appropriate letter patterns in words. These children struggle because, "[T]hey do not notice the logical/meaningful relationship between the word's pronunciation and the letters used to represent that pronunciation in print. This makes words extremely difficult to remember" (Kilpatrick (2016), https://www.equippedforreadingsuccess.com, p. 35). What better professional than a speech-langauge pathologist to help children learn to perceive speech sounds in words, a skill that must be present for a child to read fluently? 

Like reading, writing and spelling also require a number of skills that SLPs can treat as well. Please note that SLPs are not qualified to teach handwriting to children--that is often the purview of occupational therapists. We, instead, focus on what a child writes (e.g., sentence structures, grammatical markers, vocabulary, writing organization).

• Why Does an SLP Provide Executive Function Therapy? 

To acquire speech and language, children must utilize a number of executive functions (EFs). For example, a child must have adequate attention skills to listen to and, subsequently, learn speech and language from others (Sumpter; The Seedes of Learning; ELH Publishing LLC, 2021). Therefore, SLPs are uniquely qualified to treat EF skills because of their knowledge of language/speech development and the executive functions required to develop them.