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Providing Exceptional Speech, Language, Literacy and Swallowing Services to People of All Ages

Leaps and Bounds Therapy provides services in Knightdale, Wendell, Zebulon and Raleigh, NC via in-person, home, community based or virtual visits.

Services

Leaps and Bounds is a locally owned and operated company founded by AnnMarie Marchese; MSCCCSLP, a leading provider of services in Wake County for the past 20 years. Leaps and Bounds focuses on providing speech, language, swallowing and literacy services in Knightdale, Wendell, Zebulon, and Raleigh. We are dedicated to providing exceptional services to this fast growing, family oriented community.

Leaps and Bounds Therapy provides comprehensive speech, language, literacy and swallowing evaluations and therapy for people of all ages. Our goal is to identify areas of need and develop specific goals to improve a person’s communication, literacy or swallowing abilities. We work with our clients and their families to prioritize what is important to the individual and family life. Our priority is to provide direct one on one sessions and family coaching to empower family members to effectively help their loved ones improve their communication or swallowing abilities.

For children, we believe in the philosophy of psychologist Jean Piaget in that “Play is the work of Childhood.” Our approach to pediatric treatment is play based. A play-based approach to speech therapy is when speech and/or language activities are centered around a toy or play activity. Our Speech Language Pathologist will create opportunities for the child to practice skills while enjoying play with motivating toys and activities that are relevant to the child’s interests. The play based approach is also used with a sequential sensory oral approach to feeding therapy to allow children to gradually desensitize themselves to touch, smell, taste and texture while exploring and eating new foods. Our reading, writing and spelling tutoring follow the Science of Reading and Orton Gillingham methodologies; which uses multisensory activities to help children learn in a fun and interactive way. Pediatric and adult treatment approaches are guided by clinical expertise, evidenced based practices and client/caregiver goals setting.

Improving communication, literacy and swallowing abilities

Services

Specialties include evaluation and therapy for speech, language, literacy and swallowing disorders. Additional services include academic tutoring and executive function coaching.

Pediatric Services

  • Speech, Language and Literacy Evaluation – a customized evaluation aimed at identifying difficulty with language, reading, writing and/or spelling
  • Swallowing Evaluation – a customized evaluation aimed at identifying difficulty in one or more of the following areas:
    – Oral Motor
    – Sucking
    – Biting
    – Chewing
    – Swallowing
    – Picky Eating
  • Speech and Language Therapy – an individualized treatment plan is developed based on evaluation results. Specialized intervention is available for the following disorders:
    – Alternative/Augmentative Communication
    – Apraxia
    – Articulation Disorder
    – Autism
    – Developmental Delay
    – Dyslexia
    – Dyspraxia
    – Language Delay
    – Non-Verbal Language Disorder
    – Phonological Disorder
    – Specific Language Impairment
    – Stuttering
    – Voice Disorder
  • Literacy Tutoring – a multisensory approach used to improve phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, reading, writing and spelling skills; intervention is based on Science of Reading and Orton Gillingham Methodology
  • Swallowing/Feeding Therapy – an individualized treatment plan is developed based on evaluation results; specialized intervention is available for the following disorders:
    – Failure to Thrive
    – Coughing/Choking
    – Difficulty Biting and Chewing
    – Oral Dysphagia
    – Pharyngeal Dysphagia
    – Picky Eating
    – Restrictive Diet

Adult Services

  • Speech and Language Evaluation – a customized evaluation aimed at identifying difficulty in one or more of the following areas:
    – Comprehension of Language
    – Verbal Expression of Language
    – Word Finding
    – Reading
    – Writing
    – Voice
    – Fluency
  • Swallowing Evaluation – a customized evaluation aimed at identifying difficulty in one or more of the following areas:
    – Coughing/Choking
    – Difficulty Biting and Chewing
    – Oral Dysphagia
    – Pharyngeal Dysphagia
  • Speech, Language or Swallowing Therapy – based on evaluation results, an individualized treatment plan is developed to improve speech, language or swallowing difficulty resulting from the following conditions:
    – Cancer
    – Dementia/Alzheimer’s Disease
    – Muscle Tension Dysphonia
    – Stroke
    – Stuttering
    – Surgical Procedure
    – Traumatic Brain Injury
    – Vocal Fold Paralysis
    – Vocal Nodules

Speech, language, literacy and swallowing services

Our Founder

AnnMarie received a Master’s Degree in Speech Language Pathology from the University of Rhode Island. She has over thirty years of experience working with both children and adults with communication and swallowing disorders. AnnMarie is able to provide comprehensive evaluation and therapy services for all ages. She has specific experience working in early intervention and with children who have language and literacy impairments. She also has worked with adult patients who have suffered a stroke, traumatic brain injury or have a voice disorder for most of her career.  

She has the expertise to work with families to help children overcome feeding and swallowing issues related to oral motor and/or sensory processing issues. She has worked with children who are picky eaters and has taught them tools to use to try new foods. She frequently provides language testing to help with academic planning and development of an individualized education plan and is able to counsel and support families through the individualized education plan process.

AnnMarie is also skilled in working with adults who have speech, language or swallowing impairments resulting from a stroke, brain injury, anoxic episode, voice disorder or fluency disorder.  

She holds her Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech Language Hearing Association. AnnMarie is Orton Gillingham trained and Science of Reading trained with specialization in advanced language and literacy diagnostics. AnnMarie Triple P-Level 3 trained through the State of North Carolina’s Early Intervention/Infant Toddler Program. She enjoys working with individuals and the families with communicative or swallowing disorders to help them improve their abilities and navigate through life.

Get Started

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Contact

Phone: (919) 454-6610
Fax: (919) 882-8597
Email: info@lbounds.com

Leaps & Bounds Therapy accepts Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, CIGNA, Aetna, TRICARE, Medcost and Medicaid.