For 15 years Ability LLC excelled in Foxworth, but the business grew too large and has now moved to 502 S. High School Ave., behind Columbia Auto Service.
Ability is a pediatric therapy group, specializing in speech/language and swallow/feeding services for children ages 0 to 21. It takes both a medical and educational approach and assists children with a variety of conditions.
“We address their issues with speech, which can be anything, not just unclear words. It can be their way they express or try to communicate with others. It can be sign language, emotions, gestures, facial features or written — anything you try to express and want somebody to know,” owner Karen Price said. “Most people think of us as only here kids that don’t have clear words, but that is very small part of what we do.”
Price, who is also a speech language pathologist, added Ability can help children with both expressive and receptive conditions.
“Receptive means the way people take in information from their world,” she said, “whether it’s reading signs or interpreting people’s gestures and body language or the way they process the words they hear.”
There are often cases where children struggle with the shaping of words or can pronounce words but have complications stringing together words in sentence form.
“That might be affected by some sensory component that causes them a lot of problems with swallow feeding and the way they shape words. When you have one, you want to look at the other,” Price said. “You have to look at the muscular component.”
Swallow therapy isn’t just limited to children having difficulty with the physical act of swallowing, according to Price. She said there are cases where adults believe a child is just a picky eater, but in reality there may be a sensory input issue that causes a child to not be able to take in nourishment the way they should.
“That’s an untapped area where a lot of people don’t realize their child would qualify, and insurance most of the time will pay for that service,” she said.
Price said oftentimes people don’t realize there’s a serious issue at play until a child is 3 or 4 years old when they start to see that their child doesn’t sound like everyone else or follow directions.
“Maybe they don’t comprehend what you’re telling them and you have to raise your voice or repeat it several times or rephrase it. A lot of times people think their kid is being hardheaded or say, ‘We’ve had their hearing tested. He can hear just fine.’ They could have a processing problem affecting how they understand,” she said.
Ability doesn’t just work with the child but also works with the caregiver to teach them how to help their child outside of therapy.
“We’ll invite (them) into the therapy as long as the child can tolerate that extra presence in the therapy room. We want to train the families to do what we’re doing so that the children get continual therapy all day long every day. We empower the families,” she said. “Our slogan is ‘God has given us the ability and empowered us to share our skills with others.’”
Price and three other therapists, Sharon Stewart, Missy Gibson and Leah Foxworth, work regularly at Ability, but it also has several contractors who assist children in therapy. Price said Ability has a family atmosphere with employees taking care of each other the same way they do the children.
Price added Ability is always looking for more therapists and children to assist. Ability also works with schools, daycares and Head Start programs.
Ability accepts both medical referrals and walk-ins and is a Medicaid provider. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and can be reached at (601) 736-3111. Ability can also be reached by call or text at (601) 441-9821, email at kjprice44@hotmail.com, or online at ability-therapy.com. Ability also has an office in Monticello.
