What ages do you work with?
WaveMakers Pediatric Therapy works with infants, toddlers, preschool-aged children, school-aged children, and adolescents depending on each child’s individual needs and goals.
What services do you offer?
We currently offer comprehensive speech-language therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services, social skills groups, caregiver collaboration and coaching, AAC support, and individualized evaluations. Services are designed to support communication, social-emotional development, regulation, independence, and meaningful participation in daily life.
Do you accept insurance?
WaveMakers Pediatric Therapy is currently in the process of credentialing with insurance providers. Anticipated insurance plans include Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, TRICARE, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, AmeriHealth, and select Medicaid plans. We also offer private pay options and can provide superbills for families seeking possible out-of-network reimbursement.
Do you offer evaluations?
Yes. We provide comprehensive evaluations to better understand each child’s communication, developmental, social-emotional, sensory, and functional strengths and needs. Evaluations are individualized and used to create personalized treatment recommendations and goals.
How do I know if my child may benefit from speech therapy?
Children may benefit from speech-language therapy if they have difficulty communicating wants and needs, understanding language, producing speech sounds clearly, interacting socially, following directions, regulating emotions during communication, feeding difficulties, or delays in expressive or receptive language development. If you have concerns about your child’s communication or development, we encourage you to reach out for a consultation.
What is ABA therapy?
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an evidence-based therapy approach that helps children develop functional life skills, communication, independence, emotional regulation, and social skills. At WaveMakers Pediatric Therapy, we provide child-centered, play-based, and neurodiversity-affirming ABA services that prioritize connection, autonomy, and meaningful participation in everyday life.
What is PROMPT therapy?
Home | PROMPT Institute
PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) is a specialized, hands-on speech therapy approach designed to support individuals with motor speech disorders and speech sound difficulties. PROMPT is a holistic, multisensory therapy method that integrates tactile, kinesthetic, visual, and auditory cues to help facilitate speech production and improve overall speech intelligibility.
Developed by speech-language pathologist Deborah Hayden, PROMPT focuses on the motor control, coordination, and sequencing of the lips, jaw, tongue, and larynx needed for clear and functional speech. During therapy sessions, a PROMPT-trained therapist uses gentle tactile cues to guide and support accurate speech movements while helping children develop improved motor planning and coordination for speech production.
PROMPT is commonly used to support children with childhood apraxia of speech, dysarthria, articulation disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and other speech motor challenges. Because PROMPT takes a whole-child approach, therapy also considers sensory processing, regulation, social-emotional development, and functional communication skills to help children become more confident and successful communicators.
How PROMPT Works
PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) is a specialized speech therapy approach used to support individuals with motor speech disorders and speech sound difficulties. PROMPT is a hands-on, multisensory approach that incorporates tactile, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic cues to help children develop the motor movements needed for clear and functional speech.
During PROMPT therapy, a trained speech-language pathologist uses gentle tactile cues to the child’s jaw, lips, tongue, and facial muscles to support the planning, coordination, and sequencing of movements required for speech production. Rather than focusing only on individual sounds, PROMPT looks at the whole child and how motor planning, sensory processing, regulation, cognition, social engagement, and communication all work together to support speech development.
PROMPT therapy is highly individualized and begins with a comprehensive assessment to identify each child’s unique strengths and areas of need. Treatment is then designed to help children build increasingly accurate and coordinated speech movements in meaningful and functional ways.
PROMPT can benefit children with:
- Childhood apraxia of speech
- Motor speech disorders
- Speech sound/articulation disorders
- Dysarthria
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Speech intelligibility difficulties
- Other communication challenges impacting verbal speech production
Do you provide AAC evaluations and support?
Yes. We have experience supporting children who use or may benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), including both low-tech and high-tech communication systems. We believe every child deserves access to communication and work closely with families to identify systems that best support their child’s communication needs and independence.
What is your approach to therapy?
Our approach is child-centered, neurodiversity-affirming, play-based, and relationship-focused. We believe meaningful progress occurs when children feel safe, connected, supported, and engaged. Therapy is individualized and may incorporate PROMPT, DIRFloortime-informed principles, Natural Language Acquisition (NLA), AAC support, sensory-informed strategies, and evidence-based developmental approaches tailored to each child’s unique strengths and needs.
Are parents involved in therapy?
Absolutely. We believe parents and caregivers are essential members of a child’s team. Collaboration, caregiver education, and support are integrated throughout the therapy process to help children generalize skills across home, school, and community environments.
Do you offer social skills groups?
Yes. Our social skills groups focus on building meaningful relationships, communication, collaboration, emotional regulation, flexible thinking, problem-solving, and peer interaction skills within a supportive and engaging environment.
How long are therapy sessions?
Session length varies depending on the child’s needs and treatment plan. Most therapy sessions range from 30 to 60 minutes.
How often will my child need therapy?
Frequency recommendations are based on each child’s individual needs, goals, strengths, and areas of support identified during the evaluation process.
What should I expect during the evaluation process?
Evaluations are comprehensive, individualized, and designed to better understand your child as a whole. Assessments may include formal testing, play-based observation, caregiver interviews, language sampling, speech analysis, sensory and social-emotional observations, and functional communication assessment.
Do you collaborate with schools and other providers?
Yes. With parent consent, collaboration with teachers, physicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, behavioral providers, and other professionals is encouraged to support consistency and carryover across environments.
What makes WaveMakers Pediatric Therapy different?
WaveMakers Pediatric Therapy combines evidence-based therapy with a compassionate, relationship-centered, and neurodiversity-affirming approach. We prioritize connection over compliance and focus on helping children build meaningful communication, confidence, and independence within naturalistic and engaging environments.
Our partnership with We Rock the Spectrum Kid’s Gym also allows children access to a unique sensory-safe and inclusive setting that supports movement, regulation, social interaction, and play.
Where are you located?
WaveMakers Pediatric Therapy is proudly located inside We Rock the Spectrum Kid’s Gym in Mayslanding, New Jersey located in the Festival Plaza next to Acme. 4450 Black Horse Pike, Mays Landing, NJ 08330.
What is We Rock the Spectrum?
We Rock the Spectrum Kid’s Gym is an inclusive sensory-safe indoor play gym designed for children of all abilities. The gym provides opportunities for sensory exploration, movement, social interaction, regulation, and community inclusion in a supportive environment.
How do I get started?
Families can contact us through our website, phone, or email to schedule a consultation or learn more about services. We are happy to guide families through the intake and evaluation process.
Is your practice neurodiversity-affirming?
Yes. We believe neurodiversity is a natural and valuable part of human variation. Our goal is to support children in ways that honor their unique communication styles, sensory needs, interests, strengths, and autonomy while helping them build meaningful and functional skills.
Do you offer private pay options?
Yes. We offer private pay services and can provide superbills for possible out-of-network reimbursement depending on your insurance plan.
What diagnoses do you work with?
We support children with a wide range of developmental and communication needs including autism spectrum disorder, childhood apraxia of speech, speech sound disorders, expressive and receptive language delays, social communication challenges, AAC users, motor speech disorders, developmental delays, and other communication-related diagnoses.
Do you work with gestalt language processors?
Yes. We utilize principles from Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) and support gestalt language processors through meaningful, child-led, and neurodiversity-affirming intervention approaches that respect each child’s communication journey.
What is DIRFloortime?
Home of DIRFloortime® (Floortime) – What is DIR®? What is DIR.pdf – Google Drive
DIR® is the Developmental, Individual-differences, and Relationship-based model (pronounced saying each letter as an initialism: D.I.R.). DIR provides a foundational framework for understanding human development and learning, and how each person individually perceives and interacts with the world differently. It outlines the critical role social-emotional development has on overall human development starting at birth and continuing throughout the lifespan. The model highlights the power of relationships and emotional connections to fuel development. Through a deep understanding of the “D” ( the developmental process) and the “I” (a person’s individual differences) we can use the “R” (human relationships) to promote healthy development and to help everyone reach their fullest potential.
DIR® is rooted in the science of human development and can sound technical at times, but it is also simple. It is a pathway to promote healthy development in a respectful manner that builds connections, understanding, love, communication, and engagement.
Do you offer feeding therapy or myofunctional therapy?
Additional specialty services may be added in the future as WaveMakers Pediatric Therapy continues to grow. Please contact us for the most updated information regarding available services.