Life Spirit Speech Patholgy, Inc.

Speech-Language Therapy Services

At Life Spirit Speech Pathology, Inc. we specialize in providing hippotherapy and individual clinical speech and language diagnostic and intervention services. Life Spirit Speech Pathology, Inc was established in 2006 an is located in beautiful San Juan Capistrano, California. Terri Hutchison M.A., CCC-SLP is the practicing speech language pathologist and the director of therapy services. 

Mrs. Hutchison provides a variety of intervention services for all ages, although her focus is with preschool and elementary school age children. Her treatments are directed at increasing each individual's communication skills to their fullest potential. Typical intervention services include working with receptive and expressive language impairments, autism spectrum disorders, pragmatic language deficits, speech disorders associated with stuttering, apraxia and dysarthria of speech, articulation/phonological deficits, tongue thrust and voice disorders.

The Horse as a Therapy Tool

Our method is to use the horse to facilitate an increase in communication skills. The movement promotes a calming and pleasing sensation to the rider. Some clients with severe behavioral deficits will completely eliminate those behaviors once mounted on the horse; therefore facilitating more attention to the therapeutic process.

Our treatment program is geared to assist with increasing each individual's motor speech skills, language understanding and expression, pragmatic/social language skills. Each patient's program is designed specifically to address their individual goals .

What is Hippotherapy?

Hippotherapy literally means treatment with the help of a horse, from the Greek word hippos meaning horse. The American Hippotherapy Association (AHA) has defined hippotherapy as “a term that refers to the use of the movement of the horse as a tool by Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Speech-Language Pathologists to address impairments, functional limitations, and disabilities in patients with neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction. This tool is used as part of an integrated treatment program to achieve functional outcomes.” (AHA, 2000)

Impairments that may be modified with
hippotherapy are:

• Abnormal tone

• Impaired balance responses

• Impaired coordination

• Impaired communication

• Impaired sensorimotor function

• Postural asymmetry

• Poor postural control

• Decreased mobility

• Limbic system function related to
  arousal, motivation, and attention

Functional limitations relating to the following general areas may be improved with hippotherapy:

• Gross motor skills such as sitting,
  standing, walking

• Speech and language abilities

• Behavioral and cognitive abilities

At Life Spirit Speech Pathology, Inc. those that we serve have a diversity of needs, yet share a common goal; "to increase each individual's communication skills to their fullest potential". We believe that being able to effectively communicate is a special gift and is an essential component of each individual's well being.