Agape Speech Therapy, LLC

Roxanne Pope Barcroft, MS, CCC-SLP, is a licensed speech-language pathologist with over seven years of experience in evaluating and treating speech and language disorders. She is the founder and owner of Agape Speech Therapy, LLC, a pediatric private practice specializing in the assessment and treatment of children with speech sound disorders. Roxanne earned her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Mississippi College and her Master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Her expertise spans a wide range of speech and language disorders addressing areas of early intervention, language delays, Autism, and stuttering. However, her true passion lies in helping children with speech sound disorders and phonological disorders. Certifications and licensures: Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) in Speech-Language Pathology, awarded by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Certified Basic DIR/Floortime® Provider Speech Sound Disorder A speech sound disorder is a communication disorder where children have continuous difficulty producing sounds or words correctly. Most children will make mistakes as they are learning new words but a child who does not say sounds by their expected ages may have a speech sound disorder. A speech sound disorder includes articulation (production of sound), phonology (a pattern of sounds), Childhood Apraxia of Speech (related to motor planning difficulties), and some caused by structural differences (cleft palate/lip) or physiological deficits (tongue thrust, dysarthria). Phonological Disorder Children use phonological processes to simplify adult speech as they develop. These phonological processes are consistent patterns of sound substitutions or omissions. In typical development, most children stop using phonological processes between the ages of 3 and 7. When a child uses these processes beyond a certain age, their speech can become difficult to understand as their vocabulary grows.