Anna Rooney Speech Therapy       

Anna Rooney is a dedicated, experienced, licensed speech language pathologist who provides in-home or in-daycare speech therapy in Chicago's near north and north side.  She provides speech therapy for children of all ages who have a wide variety of speech-language needs. Therapy  builds upon the individual student’s strengths and interests so that it is meaningful and fun.  Children and teenagers are active participants in therapy; they are invested in their own progress.  Multi-sensory supports such as visual schedules, videos, and written prompts are used to accommodate different learning styles.   Literacy development is an important part of therapy because students with oral language issues often need help with reading and writing.    

Anna is an in-network provider for Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO insurance.  She is an early intervention specialist who is committed to helping young children become successful communicators.  Anna is Hanen® certified so parents play a very important role in speech language therapy.  She partners with parents to encourage communication development.  Anna believes that social emotional development is the basis for all development.  Children make progress when they are invested in their learning, they are interested, they are having fun, and they feel secure.

Member of :            The Hanen Program^®           

Anna Rooney’s speech services include:

• A comprehensive speech language assessment that includes a parent interview, child-observation, and formal standardized testing.
• A written assessment report and therapy plan.
• Consistent therapy services in your child’s home or daycare.
• Personalized, one-on-one therapy sessions. 
• A home therapy program that will include communication strategies to be used throughout the week.
• Continuing family support and family education.
• Consultation with other professionals who help your child, such as; teachers and caregivers. 

 If you are interested in getting started with speech language therapy, please visit the getting started page.

It is recommended that your toddler have a speech and language evaluation between the ages of 18 and 24 months if he or she does any of the following:

• Does not appear to be progressing in his/her communication skills from month to month.
• Does not yet initiate communication with others by saying words on his/her own.
• Is not talking or saying very little.
• Talking mostly in vowels (e.g., "ah" for ball).
• Using one catch-all sound or syllable to represent many words.
• Not yet combining words into phrases or sentences.
• Not yet waving "by/hi" or playing "peek-a-boo"
• Not yet responding to simple requests and commands like "come here" or "get your shoes."
• Not yet pointing to request.
• Not yet pointing to identify a named object in picture books (e.g., "Where is the ball?").
• Not yet responding when his or her name is called.

 It is recommended that your school age child have a speech and language evaluation if he or she exhibits one or more of the following behaviors:

• Difficulty pronouncing words clearly.
• Difficulty expressing ideas clearly, as if words are on the tip of the tongue but won't come out. What the child says may be vague and/or difficult to understand.  
• Using unspecific vocabulary, such as "thing" or "stuff" to replace words that cannot be remembered. Filler words like "um" may be used to take up time while the child remembers the word.
• The word order in sentences is "jumbled", indicating problems with sentence grammar (e.g., "He inside go").
• The child often uses gestures to "fill in" words and ideas in conversations.
• Difficulty staying on topic during a conversation.
• Difficulty with re-telling a story/movie plot and sharing recent events. The child may "jump around in time" as he/she tries to retell an event.
• Difficulty learning new vocabulary that a child hears.
• Difficulty understanding questions and following directions that are heard/read.