Services: Therapies

Pediatric Developmental and Behavioral Services, Wasilla, Alaska

We strive to connect children and families to the appropriate resources, whether within Ptarmigan Connections or with one of our community’s valued resources. See below for a list of services offered at our location:

 

Developmental and Behavioral Services, Mat-Su Valley, Alaska

Psychiatric Medication Management

Our Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioners help children and adolescents and their families by providing mental health education as well as diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. This includes complementary and alternative options, community resources, brief solution-focused therapy, and validation and encouragement. In diagnosing, our providers spend an hour with the patient and their family to give time for elaboration. They are able to order lab work to assess other causes of disease, and ask what path the family wants to take towards healing. In treatment, they can prescribe medications, discuss supplements, and answer questions about herbs and other natural aids.

Speech, Language, and Feeding Therapy

Our Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) specialize in working with infants, toddlers, and adolescents to evaluate and treat speech and language difficulties, as well as feeding difficulties. Speech and language therapy can help connect families and care givers to communication strategies to grow with each child. It is often recommended for children who experience disorders such as Autism, Down’s syndrome, Cleft Lip and Palate, or other genetic disorders.

Speech Sound Disorders
• Articulation – the way your child says speech sounds is not what you’d be expecting (Says “poptorn” for “popcorn”
• Phonology – the patterns in speech
• Apraxia – difficulty planning and coordinating movements for speech sounds
• Fluency – stuttering
• Voice – difficulty with the way the voice sounds, such as hoarseness or quietness


Language Disorders
• Receptive Language - difficulty understanding language, trouble following directions
• Expressive Language - grammar errors, limited verbal language, non-verbal communication
• Pragmatic Language - social communication; the way we speak to each other


Feeding Problems
For most children, eating is a fun and routine part of each day. One in four children, however, will experience some type of feeding problem in their life. Feeding issues can prevent children from eating enough to grow and develop. Our speech-language pathologist can provide feeding therapy to address difficulty swallowing and food aversions.
Feeding therapy is appropriate for families with infants (12 months and older), toddlers, or school age children who:
• Are at risk for not meeting nutritional needs and /or requiring supplemental tube feedings
• Have oral motor or swallowing difficulties that interfere with appropriate food intake
• Have food aversions or behaviors that interfere with mealtime and adequate food intake
• Are resisting the transition to age appropriate food textures or utensils

 

Behavioral Health Counseling for Children, Adolescents, and Care Givers

We have licensed professional counselors who specialize in working with children from birth through adolescence. Our counselors are invested in helping individuals and families find adaptive ways of coping with issues associated with development and changing family structures, as well as diagnoses of anxiety, depression, PTSD, autism and ADHD. Using individual, family and group therapy, we focus on increasing the ability to choose pathways that lead to improved functioning in the world

Group Therapy

We currently provide two groups for middle-school aged (approximately ages 11-14) clients.

Our Self-Regulation Group for boys focuses on boosting attention and executive functioning, in order to improve the ability to control emotions, resist impulses, get organized, work independently and resolve conflict.

Our Expressive Arts Group for girls uses art to help improve communication, resist peer pressure, improve mood, express feelings and build resilience.

Our Our Circle of Security™ Parenting group is for care givers of children ages 0-6. This 8-week class teaches care givers to strengthen their relationship with their children, be present even during the toughest of times, and make sense of challenging behaviors.” – see flyer for more content info…

 
CALL US at 907-357-4400 for current dates and times for these groups.