Enhance

Improving the quality of children’s speech/language and feeding abilities to aid in their development by providing holistic interventions.

Educate

Incorporating family members by providing information, tools and techniques to achieve maximum outcome in their child’s speech/language and feeding skills.

Empower

Including the child as an intricate part of their development and focusing on their individual abilities while building confidence.

Who We Are

Welcome to PYR Services, LLC., where a “Smile is a language that even a baby understands”.

PYR Services, LLC is a team of licensed and ASHA certified Speech-Language Pathologists. We are dedicated to helping children develop their communication abilities from birth through age 14.

Here at PYR Services, LLC., we provide treatment for the diverse needs of our clients in the areas of speech, language, fluency, swallowing, and voice disorders. PYR Services, LLC. strives to Enhance, Educate, and Empower each client and their families, as well as improve their overall quality of life, in the development of effective communication skills. We are guided by best practices when servicing the needs of our clients and stand by the evolving research of speech therapy techniques.

PYR Services, LLC. has provided quality speech therapy services to the Chicago-land area for over 20 years in the area of early intervention. Our clinicians understand the importance of listening, observing, evaluating, and tailoring treatment sessions that best suit the unique needs of our clients and families!

We look forward to serving you and your child!

PYR Services, LLC. provides outpatient pediatric speech and language services in two different locations: 
Chicago Southside
Downtown Homewood 
 
We also provide speech and language services through the Illinois Early Intervention (E.I.) program to children from birth to 3 years old. 

PYR therapy sessions are:

  • One-on-One
  • Personalized to meet the unique needs of each client
  • Supported by evidence-based practices
  • Most importantly, FUN!

Based on the evaluation results, our licensed and qualified clinicians create a therapy treatment plan that is tailored to fit your child’s unique needs.

PYR provides services in:

  • Our outpatient clinics
  • Clients’ homes (E.I. Only)
  • Your child’s daycare/preschool (E.I. Only)
  • Tele-therapy 

Offering therapy services in these settings allows us to better accommodate our families based on the child’s age, availability, and need. Caregivers are always welcome and encouraged to be active participants in our therapy sessions. 

Testimonials

Staff

Owner

Paulette Y. Robinson Gulley

Paulette Y. Robinson-Gulley is the owner and Clinical Director of PYR Services, LLC. She has over 25 years of experience working in a variety of settings in the field of Speech-language Pathology. She is currently licensed in Illinois and holds a Certification of Clinical Competence with the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA). She has an abundance of knowledge and understanding in speech pathology, and she loves to share what she has learned with others!

Paulette has had opportunities to work in many settings. It was not until she began servicing children that she found her passion as a therapist. Paulette unquestionably understands the important role a SLP can contribute to a child’s overall social growth and speech development.

Witnessing children thrive in communication and social development made her realize the importance of utilizing her knowledge and skillset to further assist early child development. Her realization led to the founding of PYR Services, LLC., with the vision and determination to provide speech services to children and their families in her local communities.

In service to our clients, PYR Services, LLC. upholds three key principles in order to provide a holistic therapy approach. Paulette and PYR Services, LLC. are strongly committed to improving the lives of children one smile at a time by ENHANCING, EDUCATING, and EMPOWERING each client and their family.

Director of Operations

Cozette Y. Pettigrew

Cozette Pettigrew has served as the Director of Operations at PYR Services since the company’s inception. Cozette holds a very crucial role as she is responsible for the daily
operations, directing and planning operations, designing policies, monitoring and supplying program materials, and developing human resources. She also coordinates with our support
operations and agencies to ensure our operations are consistent with Illinois state laws and
regulations.

Cozette’s internal role certainly carries a great impact here at PYR Services. She oversees her
extensive responsibilities all while remaining accessible to interface with our clients, ensuring
that our staff consistently exceeds their expectations.

services

The clinicians at PYR Services don’t do it all, but what we do, we do very well! We are specialists in a
few niche areas, and we strive to provide the best evidence-based therapy in these areas. When
working with children, we take a child-led, family-centered approach.

Our experienced and knowledgeable clinicians have advanced training and specialize in the
following areas:

  • Expressive and/or receptive language delays
  • Motor-planning challenges, such as Childhood Apraxia of Speech
  • Articulation/phonological disorders
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Social language deficits
  • Fluency/stuttering disorder
  • Fluency/stuttering disorder
  • Auditory and/or language processing
  • Down syndrome
  • Voice disorders
  • Hearing impairment
  • Orafacial Myofunctional disorders
  • Feeding concerns (sensory or oral motor

Call us and let’s work with some amazing and very qualified therapists.

WHAT IS A SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST?

Speech-language pathologists—also referred to as speech therapists—assess, diagnose, treat, and
help to prevent disorders related to speech, language, cognitive-communication, voice, swallowing,
and fluency.

Speech-language Pathologists work with people who:

  • Cannot produce speech sounds or cannot produce them clearly, which is a distortion of production at the phonemic level and/or the phonetic level; (phonological deficits and articulation deficits);
  • Have problems with receptive and expressive language (comprehension and production);
  • Have fluency problems such as stuttering or cluttering;
  • Have voice problems which include inappropriate pitch, hoarseness, or harshness; all of which can be reduced with vocal training and accent modification;
  • Have difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), which can be in the oral phase or pharyngeal phase;
  • Have cognition deficits that affect attention, memory, problem-solving, reasoning, learning, and thinking;
  • Have hearing loss and require aural rehabilitation that focuses on adjusting to hearing loss, making the best use of hearing devices, and managing conversation;
  • Require augmentative and alternative communication devices (assistive technology)

INSURANCE & PRIVATE PAY

PYR Services offers a variety of billing and payment options to support your child’s treatment. There is a dedicated and knowledgeable on-site staff that are here to answer any of your questions. PYR Services is in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois PPO, Blue Choice PPO, Cigna PPO, UNHC PPO and Aetna PPO plans. PYR Services also accepts Illinois Early intervention program payments.

What are some of the causes of these language, speech, and/or swallowing disorders?

Speech, language, and swallowing difficulties can result from a variety of causes including prematurity, stroke (which can cause aphasia and other problems), traumatic brain injury or deterioration, developmental delays or disorders, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, cleft palate, voice pathology, mental retardation, hearing loss, or emotional problems. Problems can be congenital, developmental, or acquired.

How are individuals diagnosed/treated for their disorders?

Speech-language pathologists use special instruments and qualitative/quantitative assessment methods like standardized tests. These are used to analyze and diagnose the nature and extent of impairments. Medical conditions such as autism, cerebral palsy, and mental retardation are diagnosed by a medical doctor or psychologist. A child’s level of engagement in classroom activities and other school programs can also be considered during assessment.

Who governs over the field of speech-language pathology?

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), which is the national organization that governs over the functions of speech-language pathologists. ASHA fulfills a plethora of research for the field, legislation of the profession, regulation of the profession, academic training, and public information.

Who Will Benefit from Speech Therapy?

Speech therapists work with babies and children on a variety of problems.

Most often speech therapists treat:

  • Babies who have problems with feeding or swallowing.
  • Children who have voice problems.
  • Children who have difficulty understanding language.
  • Children who have difficulty with the production of language.
  • Children who have difficulty building or using vocabulary and grammar.
  • Children who have difficulty chewing or swallowing.
  • Children who stammer/stutter.
  • Children diagnosed with learning disabilities.
  • Children who have impaired hearing.
  • Children suffering from a cleft palate.
  • Children diagnosed with dyslexia.
  • Children diagnosed with autism.
  • Children who are apraxic.
  • Children with hearing problems and/or have hearing aids or cochlear implants
What Can Parents Do to Help their Children Receiving Speech Therapy?

Parents often feel helpless and frustrated when they don’t understand their children. Fortunately, there are a number of things parents of children receiving speech therapy can do to help.


If you are the parent of a child in speech therapy, be sure to:

  • Listen patiently as your child communicates.
  • Give your child the time he/she needs to communicate their thoughts and emotions.
  • Allow your child to speak, don’t hurry to fill in missing or misused words.
  • Praise your child’s attempts at communication, whether successful or not.
  • Speak slowly and clearly yourself.
  • Speak to your child about their therapy so they do not feel secretive or ashamed.
  • Ask your child’s speech therapists if there are activities you can engage in at home.
  • Help your child do their therapy homework in-between sessions.
  • Reward your child after the desired outcome.
FAQs

Speech and language impairments are defined as disorders of language, articulation,
fluency or voice which interfere with communication, pre-academic or academic
learning, vocational training, or social adjustment. Source: Florida State Board of
Education Rules.

Sometimes a child has difficulty making speech
sounds correctly. They may distort, substitute with another sound, or omit the sound
completely. If the child is young, he may not be expected to have developed these
sounds yet. These are called developmental articulation errors. If the sounds are no
longer considered developmental, then therapy may e warranted when the following
factors are considered: intelligibility (how easily the speech is understood), interference
with reading, spelling, acquisition of phonetic skills, physical problems that may be
interfering (cleft palate, cerebral palsy), reluctance to communicate within the school
setting due to embarrassment or frustration.

A child with a language disorder may have difficulty with language form, content and
use. Disorders of language form can affect the child’s ability to use word endings to
form plurals, past tense verbs or other grammatical forms they should be using at their
age. A child who has difficulty understanding and choosing words to express ideas has
difficulty with language content. A child with disordered language use does not know
how to use language appropriately in different situations.

The most common voice disorder among children is vocal nodules, a hard callus that forms on the vocal folds. These occur when a child abuses their voice by screaming, frequent throat clearing, and coughing and/or talking at the wrong pitch. A child with vocal nodules sounds hoarse and breathy. Treatment includes education about this disorder as well as methods for reduction in abusive behaviors. Often a child will be seen by an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor to determine the origin of the voice disorder.

Children who have difficulty saying sounds, words, and phrases with smooth flow may have a fluency disorder. Many times young children have disfluent speech when they are first beginning to express themselves verbally. It is important that a speech‐language pathologist be consulted to determine if a child is experiencing normal disfluencies or developing stuttering behaviors.

Talk to your child’s classroom teacher and the SLP (Speech‐Language Pathologist) who serves your child’s school. If the problem is also being seen in the classroom, you will be invited to an Intervention Assistance Team meeting with the teacher, SLP and others who may work with your child. You will have the opportunity to discuss your concerns at that meeting and the classroom teacher will discuss educational implications of the communication problem. You and the classroom teacher will be given some intervention strategies to try for a period of time. If those interventions are
unsuccessful, you will sign a “Permission to Evaluate” form. Your child might also be
tested for other learning problems at this time. Once testing is completed, you will be invited to an eligibility meeting to discuss the results of the evaluation and any proposed services that may be offered.

The IEP team (staffing committee) will review all records, observations, and evaluation information to determine your child’s present level of performance and their needs. Consideration will be given to the amount of time the child can benefit from the general education instruction in the classroom, the child’s ability to generalize skills, and all other pertinent information. Our goal is for your child to remain in the general education setting as much as possible.

The first step is to determine if your child’s communication disorder is interfering with
the educational process. If this is the case, then the referral process will be followed.
You may be asked to sign a “Release of Information” form so that the private agency
can release records. The school SLP will then review your child’s current assessments and therapy progress notes to determine if further assessment is needed. Your child will still need to meet district criteria for speech‐language services before an IEP is written.

If parents have concerns regarding the speech‐language development of their children
(birth to 3 years), a primary physician or health-care provider should be contacted.
Service coordinators are then notified, and he/she contacts the family and schedules
free evaluations of your child’s development. The evaluations are usually done by a
team of professionals consisting of a speech-language pathologist, an occupational
therapist, a physical therapist, and a developmental therapist. If a child is found to have
a developmental delay requiring early intervention services, the state’s early intervention program works with the family to develop an Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP). Your service coordinator will be in contact with you during your entire early intervention process.

There are differences in the age at which a child understands or uses specific language
skills. The following list provides information about general speech and language
development.
Compiled from www.asha.org “How Does Your Child Hear and Talk?”

Birth – 3 Months:

  • Startled by loud sounds
  • Quiets down or smiles when spoken to
  • Seems to recognize your voice and quiets down if crying
  • Increases or decreases sucking behavior in response to sound
  • Makes pleasure sounds (cooing, gooing)
  • Cries differently for different needs
  • Smiles when they see you

4 – 6 Months

  • Moves eyes in direction of sounds
  • Responds to changes in tone of your voice
  • Notices toys that make sounds
  • Pays attention to music
  • Babbling sounds more speech-like with many different sounds including, p, b, and m
  • Vocalizes excitement and displeasure.
  • Makes gurgling sounds when left alone and when playing with you

7 Months – 12 Months

  • Enjoys games like peek-a-boo and patty cake
  • Turns and looks in direction of sounds
  • Listens when spoken to
  • Recognizes words for common items like “cup”, “shoe,” “juice”
  • Begins to respond to requests (“Come here,” “Want more?”)
  • Babbling has both long and short groups of sounds such as “tataupup bibibibibi”
  • Uses speech or non-crying sounds to get and keep attention
  • Imitates different speech sounds
  • Has 1 or 2 words.

12 Months

  • Responds to their name
  • Understands simple directions with gestures
  • Uses a variety of sounds
  • Plays social games like peek-a-boo 

15 Months

  • Uses a variety of sounds and gestures to communicate
  • Uses some simple words to communicate
  • Plays with different toys
  • Understands simple directions

18 Months

  • Understands several body parts
  • Attempts to imitate words you say
  • Uses at least 10 – 20 words
  • Does pretend play

24 Months

  • Uses at least 50 words
  • Recognizes pictures in books and listens to simple stories
  • Begins to combine two words
  • Uses many different sounds at the beginning of words

2 to 3 Years

  • Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time
  • Understands differences in meaning (go-stop, in-on, big-little, up-down)
  • Follows two requests (“Get the book and put it on the table”)
  • Combines three or more words into sentences
  • Understands simple questions
  • Recognizes at least two colors
  • Understands descriptive concepts

3 to 4 Years

  • Uses sentences with 4 or more words
  • Talks about activities at school or at friends’ homes
  • People outside of family usually understand child’s speech
  • Identifies colors
  • Compares objects
  • Answers questions logically
  • Tells how objects are used

4 to 5 Years

  • Answers simple questions about a story
  • Voice sounds clear
  • Tells stories that stay on topic
  • Communicates with other children and adults
  • Says most sounds correctly
  • Can define some words
  • Uses prepositions
  • Answers “why” questions
  • Understands more complex sentences
resources

Imagine that you are expecting your first child.  You have many thoughts, dreams, and ambitions for this baby and many things to do in preparation for the baby’s arrival.  One of the biggest tasks is assembling the baby’s crib.  You open the box; dump all its contents on the floor, when you realize the crib came without instructions or an assembly guide.  You’re in a panic and attempt to put the crib together without an aid; no luck.  You then remember you have a friend who is a professional carpenter and is very handy with his hands.  You seek his help and guidance and you both collaborate to build your baby the perfect crib.  This moment of panic may be all too familiar for parents who have children with special needs, disabilities, or speech-language concerns.  Children don’t come with an assembly guide so when there’s something wrong or a few pieces missing from the box, they don’t know what to do and seek help from a professional, that’s where a speech-language pathologist (SLP) comes in. 

Ultimately, the SLP’s goal is to help your child be rid of compensatory and habitual behaviors and become functional in his/her environment.  In order for the child to become successful during and after therapy sessions, the collaboration between the family and the therapist is vital.  It is important for the therapist to be able to collaborate with the child’s family in order to obtain any and all information available about the child in order to effectively treat the speech-language concerns.

Ways to obtain the information needed to successfully treat the child is by simply talking to the members of the family as a group and/or individually about behaviors the child exhibits that may cause concern or alarm.  They will provide different points of view.  Based on the family reports and the therapist’s observations, the therapist will be able to make better and more effective decisions regarding the child’s goals and treatment plans.  As the therapist, it is important to encourage the family to participate in this collaborative act.  Let them know that to ensure the child’s success is a team effort.  The collaboration can and will greatly benefit and encourage the child.  Involve the family in any decisions you make regarding the child and be open to any questions, comments, or feedback the family provides; their comments may spark an idea on what should be done during therapy sessions.   

 The collaboration between the child’s family and SLP is also vital for the progression of speech therapy.  As therapy moves forward, other concerns the family has may arise and need to be addressed by the SLP.  Because the SLP is not with the child 24/7, it is important that the family report their concerns to the therapist immediately so the therapist can be made aware and assess the concern. 

The collaboration between the two parties can also benefit the family of the child as well.  When the therapist involves the family in the goals and planning process for therapy of the child, they become more interested and involved to ensure that their child is successful.  When the family feels included in the decisions the SLP is making regarding their child, they may become interested in ways they can help their child on the days the child doesn’t receive therapy.  As the therapist, you can provide the family with tools, such as MERRILY Model book, so they can reinforce what their child is learning in therapy. Like anyone, when you are having service for something you want to see the progression and improvement.  The supplemental activities will help the family, as well as the child, see the improvement.

When the child begins to improve, the family and SLP will become extremely excited and even more encouraging.  The child will pick up on the cues and begin to improve provided the positive reinforcement.  The praise the child receives from the family and therapy will motivate them to want to improve, become success in the tasks given.  The family involved in the child’s success in therapy will have the child feel as though his/her family cares and wants nothing but the best for them.  Ultimately the family and SLP share a common goal: ensure the child is successful and is able to function is society.  If they work together this goal can be met!

Merrily Model Cover

You can purchase a copy through Amazon, or by contacting PYR services.

Available in Spanish

contact us

Two locations to serve you!

    7158 South Woodlawn Chicago, IL 60619

    773 667-7700

    1820 Ridge Road Suite 219, Homewood, IL 60430