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Speech Pathology & Audiology
The Stavros Niarchos Center for Speech Pathology and Audiology provides evaluations and therapy services to children with varying acquired, congenital, neurological and developmental disorders. The clinical expertise of the department leads to better outcomes for children with medical-based speech and feeding needs.
Speech and Feeding Therapy
Blythedale is skilled in diagnosing subtle developmental differences that are often difficult to identify. We provides services in the areas of language (understanding and expression of thoughts), speech (or clarity), voice, fluency (or stuttering), pragmatic (or social language) and feeding (dysphagia) .
Specialty services are available in the following areas:
- Assistive Technology which includes identifying and training children in use of a high or low-tech communication device when there is a mismatch between understanding and ability to express thoughts,
- Feeding therapy, which includes:
- working with infants as they acquire or improve the ability to coordinate suck, swallow eat and breathing
- behavioral feeders
- working with children who can eat but don't due to sensory or medical complications, such as Gastro Esophageal Reflux and allergies
- working with children with functional weakness of the muscles in the mouth that influences the ability to drink and eat foods of varying consistencies
- Traumatic Brain Injury, which includes working with children who have suffered an accident or medical issue (such as a stroke or tumor) has resulting in loss of language
The department provides both individual and group therapy services, depending on what best matches the child's needs at any given time.
We work diligently to include families in the therapy programs to enhance carryover and skill generalization. Blythedale has state-of-the-art evaluation, technology and therapy tools. We also strive for ongoing clinical education so that we can provide cutting-edge, evidence-based intervention programs.
These interventions support each child’s customized treatment plan to allow each child to realize his or her potential, restore function and move forward. Empowering families with knowledge and skills through ongoing education also enhances the rehabilitation process.
Audiology
The Audiology Department in The Stavros Niarchos Center for Speech & Audiology strives to identify hearing loss and manage the hearing impaired inpatient and outpatient pediatric populations at Blythedale Children’s Hospital.
To make a referral for outpatient therapy services, please click here to download our referral form.
Contact Information:
- Rita Erlbaum Kotorac, C.C.C.-S.L.P., Director of Speech Pathology and Audiology
- rerlbaum@blythedale.org
- (914) 592-7555 x 71621
Speech Pathology & Audiology Staff

Blythedale is has a staff of more than 25 highly trained Speech-Language Pathologists. These therapists are passionate about the field and dedicated to the children and families that they serve. They strive to optimize success by developing customized treatment plans which includes collaboration with other team members. The therapists also understand that parental involvement is a key component to a child's success, incorporating parents into the child's programs to optimize skill developmental and carryover to the home.
Treatments We Support
Assistive Technology
Assistive Technology expands opportunities for children with special needs to increase participation in school settings, build social interactions, and access their environments in a variety of specialized ways. Blythedale’s dedicated team includes Assistive Technology experts from speech...
Learn moreSpecialized Feeding
Children referred to Blythedale for Therapeutic Feeding have wide-ranging conditions including prematurity, short-gut syndrome, brain injury, oral-motor dysfunction, aversion behaviors, cognitive deficits or post-surgical complications. Services for these children include evaluations for both...
Learn moreAcquired Brain Injury
Blythedale Children’s Hospital is a longtime leader in the treatment of children recovering from brain injury including Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), post-infectious diseases such as meningitis or Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (ANMDAR), brain tumors and stroke. The extraordinary...
Learn moreCancer Rehabilitation
A customized therapeutic regimen enables patients to regain their strength and function while undergoing or recovering from surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. We recognize the vital importance of an ongoing relationship with the child’s referring oncology team, and we participate...
Learn moreCardiac Rehabilitation
As more infants and children are undergoing complex cardiac surgical procedures to repair congenital conditions such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome, tetralogy of fallot, transposition of the great vessels, coarctation of the aorta, or cardiac injury due to myocarditis or traumatic injury,...
Learn moreComplex Chronic Conditions
Many children come to Blythedale with multiple, complex chronic conditions that impact their function. These chronic conditions - including cerebral palsy, CHARGE syndrome, congenital and chromosomal abnormalities, severe epilipsy - can complicate recovery after surgeries, acute illnesses or...
Learn moreComplex Post-Surgical Rehabilitation
Patients are admitted for acute medical and rehabilitative inpatient care following major trauma (such as head and spinal injuries, extensive soft tissue trauma/burns, vascular injuries, major muscle/ligament injuries, amputations or fractures), extensive scoliosis surgery, selective dorsal...
Learn moreComplex Wound and Burn Management
The child’s clinical team works collaboratively with parents and other caregivers to identify developmentally appropriate medical and therapeutic goals. This team is also committed to meeting the psychological and social challenges that accompany burn and wound treatment and recovery,...
Learn moreNeuromuscular Disorders
The goal of our Neuromuscular Disorders program is to help children maximize their functional abilities through comprehensive medical care and rehabilitation, utilizing state-of-the-art technology, environmental modifications and adaptive equipment. Following an intake evaluation, the child’s...
Learn morePost Acute Neonatal Care
Whether requiring ongoing medical management and rehabilitation due to extreme prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, congenital cardiac disease, pulmonary hypertension , hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, short gut syndrome, feeding disorders or other complications occurring in the neonatal period...
Learn morePulmonary Rehabilitation
The goal of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation program is weaning from technology completely or to the least invasive support to facilitate the family's transition to home. Parents are involved in the care of their child every step of the way, and learn proper use of equipment, care of tracheostomy,...
Learn morePulmonary Hypertension
Blythedale’s expertise in caring for the most medically fragile of children is evident in our Pulmonary Hypertension rehabilitation program. Children come to Blythedale directly from the Intensive Care Unit while receiving intravenous, inhaled, subcutaneous or oral medications for pulmonary...
Learn morePre/Post Organ & Stem Cell Transplant
These children require the highest level attention of a multidisciplinary team of pediatricians, pediatric physiatrists, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists and physical, occupational, speech and feeding therapists familiar with the problems inherent in recovery from and living with a transplant. We...
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