Speech at the Beach, PLLC

Speech at the Beach, PLLC A pediatric speech therapy service provider in Virginia Beach, VA. Speech at the Beach provides in home speech therapy services.

04/04/2026

Additional communication boards are coming!

Almost three years after the first Community Communication Board made its debut September 2023 at Beach Garden Park, more are on the way, thanks to recent donations.

The communication board project was born when Ashley Causey (pictured with a communication board) saw first-hand the need for communication boards at local playgrounds to help children who are nonspeaking or have speech difficulties. Causey, a speech language pathologist and owner of Speech at the Beach, PLLC, says the boards help children feel included by providing a way for them to express themselves.

Partnering with us through our Parks Plus program, Causey initially raised funds for 11 boards, which have been installed at park playgrounds throughout the city. In response to ongoing interest, VBPRF is now looking at locations to place additional boards.

If you've had a positive experience using the boards or know someone who has, we'd love to share that story. Just email us at vbprf@vabeachprf.org.

04/04/2026

15 seconds of clips with a gestalt language processor 👂♥️

In these clips, we have a mix of immediate echolalia “keep going”, delayed echolalia “then we’re gonna read a story” (from earlier in the session) and stage 2 gestalts (mixing and matching) “good job, Ms. Ashley” 🥹.

04/02/2026

Before we even think about “therapy”… we zoom out 👇

We’re looking at autonomy.
Sensory needs.
Their routines + schedule.
How they slept.
Access to AAC.
Their favorite shows + scripts.
How are they already communicating ?🕵🏼‍♀️

When we truly understand the child, we can finally support them in a way that connects 🤍

03/30/2026

It feels backwards, right?

In Stage 1 & 2, kids use longer scripts like:
“let’s get in the car!” or “we’re going to the store!”

But here’s the key…
👉 they’re not building those sentences themselves.
They’re echoing whole chunks of language they’ve heard before.

Stage 3 is where the shift happens.

Now your child is starting to:
• pull out individual words from those scripts
• use words more flexibly and intentionally
• slow down speech

So instead of a full script, you might hear:
“car… go” or “balloon… big”

And this is HUGE. 🙌🏼

Because this is the stage where we start to see:
✔️ pointing emerge
✔️ stronger receptive language
✔️ following directions
✔️ answering simple questions

It’s not a step back… it’s a reorganization.🫶

They’re moving from memorized language ➡️ to self-generated language.

03/29/2026

I love being a private practice owner… but if I’m being real, this is what I want you to be prepared for:

Inconsistent insurance payments
Small business taxes that no one fully prepares you for
Unfair reimbursement rates
Working well over 40 hours a week
Last-minute cancellations and no-shows
Constant schedule gaps you’re trying to fill
Staffing challenges and turnover
Wearing all the hats: clinician, boss, marketer,problem-solver
Making hard decisions that affect families and your team
Feeling like you can never fully “turn it off”

There are so many beautiful parts of this job, but it’s not passive income, and it’s not flexible in the way people think. ♥️

It’s freedom… with responsibility.🫶🫶🫶

03/27/2026

You might be wondering…
Why didn’t my child’s other speech therapist talk about Gestalt Language Processing?

And the answer is actually pretty simple 🤍

Not all speech therapists were trained in it.

Most graduate programs have traditionally focused on teaching language as:
👉 single words → phrases → sentences

But some children don’t learn language that way.

Some children are gestalt language processors, meaning they learn in chunks or scripts first, then break them down over time.

This approach has been around (thanks to the work of Barry Prizant and Marge Blanc), but it hasn’t always been widely taught in grad programs. 😢

So many therapists are learning about it after school through:
✨ continuing education
✨ mentorship
✨ real-life clinical experience

And that means two amazing therapists can have very different approaches.

Here’s the important part 👇
It doesn’t mean your previous therapist did anything wrong. It just means they were using the framework they were trained in.

But when we understand how a child learns best…
we can support them in a way that actually makes sense for their brain 💛

Address

1630 Donna Drive Suite 103
Virginia Beach, VA
23451

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 7am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 7am - 5:30pm
Thursday 7am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+17575673649

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Speech at the Beach, PLLC posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share via Email
Share on WhatsApp Share on Instagram Share on Telegram

Category