Children's Speech Therapy Corner

Apps Mania

2011-07-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

I have been going Apps Mania for the past few hours.I couldn't emphasis much more on how effective, great, easy, did I mention great.. Apps from Itunes can be.
Apps have been proved to help children and especially children with special needs relate to skills we try to teach them. These Apps allow us to use low cost, space efficient, fun and interactive, multi sensory and organized resource material for us to use with our clients.These are a list of some of the Apps that I use:
1.The first ever App to use as an Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) device such as Proloquo2go
.
2.Smarty Ears by Barbara Fernandes ,a SLP who has opened up a whole treasure chest of resources for us to use.
3.Grammar Jammer with its fun rap singing explanation to what Adjectives, nouns, verbs, punctuations and more,allowing you to check the skill that you have learnt.
4.Kindergarten.com using the principle of ABA(Applied Behavioral Analysis)
5. and many relevant Apps if you look into the Education section.

Also, to hear from Barbara Fernandes writing for ADVANCE on Apps to revolutionize you Therapy.

Enjoy Apping!

A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words: Using Photo Books to Increase Vocabulary, Grammar, and Narrative Skills

2011-07-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

2011 JULY 6
tags: literacy, reading comprehension
by Becca Jarzynski

Photo by DeusXFlorida

Making photo books with your kids is a fabulous way to help increase their language skills. It matters not if you are a mom simply looking for creative ways to provide your toddler with a language-rich environment or a dad looking for ways to help your kindergartener learn to tell stories– photo books are a flexible tool than can be used in a huge variety of ways.
How to use picture books? The general idea goes a little something like this:

1.Take pictures during a fun event such as a trip to the zoo or the beach,
2.Capture key moments in the pictures,
3.Print the pictures that highlight the key moments from the event,
4.Spend a few afternoons gluing the pictures onto construction paper, letting your children help cut, glue and color around the pictures; if your child is old enough, help him to write captions for the pictures, and
5.Laminate the pages and have them bound into a book that can be read over and over.
6.One you’ve done this, you’re all set up to use the books to help increase language. Kids love these books because they are based in experiences that they had; this makes the books both meaningful and fun. And children usually want to read the books over and over again– as annoying as this can be, it makes picture books the perfect vehicle for developing language.

With toddlers, you can use the pictures to build on language. Most toddlers love to start looking at pictures of themselves around 12-24 months, right when they are starting to rapidly increase their vocabulary and move from one-word phrases to two-word phrases. Photo books create excellent opportunities for using parallel talk, description, and expansion to help children develop new vocabulary and help them make the jump from one to two words.

I use expansion with my daughter, who is looking at a picture of herself riding a toy motorcycle with her brother, James. First, I wait for her to say something (“ride!”). Then I build on her words by putting them into short phrases, two different times. As a result, she comes back with a two-word phrase of her own (“James riding”)! No, it doesn’t always work this quickly….I’ve been using parallel talk, description and expansion with her for the past year and it’s only really starting to pay off now.

Toddlers aren’t the only ones who benefit from photo books, though. Using these books with preschoolers and early elementary age children can be great way to work on a whole variety of language-related skills. You can:

1.Work on sequencing by having your child lay out the pictures in the right order as you make the book,
2.Work on pre-writing and writing skills by having your child trace words you write or write his own words and sentences as you make the book,
3.Work on vocabulary by defining new words and integrating those words into the story and by using time words such as first, next, then and finally,
4.Work on language by using indirect correction, in which you correct errors in your child’s grammar by restating what he said, correctly and conversationally (e.g. Your child: “I runned really fast!” You: “You did. You ran so fast!”), and
5.Work on memory by having your child practice telling the story with and without the picture book in front of him.
6.Finally, photo books are a fantastic way to work on narrative (story) development. Developing an understanding of narrative structure (the typical flow of stories) is essential to being able to engage in conversations, tell others about things that have happened, and understand academic texts later in the elementary years. Enhancing narrative development is an asset for any child; I work on it with my son, often. It’s also a skill that can be very hard for children with language delays and specific diagnoses such as autism, so working on it with these children is essential. Using photo books to visually show stories in which children actually participated helps make narrative structure more concrete and easier to understand. At first, you can use photo books to help your child understand that the story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Later, during the early elementary age years, you can help your child form a story that has the following elements:
1.Setting (“We were at the zoo”)
2.Goal (“We wanted to see the animals,”)
3.Problem (“But Sally was scared of the lion.”)
4.Feelings (“I was so mad, because I wanted to see the lion.”)
5.Attempt to solve the problem (“So we went to see the owls instead. Then Sally was ready to see the lion. Mom just covered her eyes.”)
6. Conclusion (“After that, we had a really fun day.”)
It doesn’t have to be perfect, of course. Stories are messy, just like life. They won’t fit perfectly into those elements, nor should they. But telling stories in a way that wraps loosely around those story elements, over and over and over again, will help your child begin to internalize the flow of stories.
There is so much to do with picture books that the possibilities seem endless. What’s more, at the end of the day, you also have a book full of memories that your children will cherish for years to come. And that’s just priceless.

Becca Jarzynski, M.S., CCC-SLP is a pediatric speech-language pathologist in Wisconsin. Her blog, Child Talk, can be found at www.talkingkids.org and on facebook at facebook.com/ChildTalk.

Word Acquisition in toddlers

2011-06-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

A team of cognitive scientists have good news for parents who are worried that they are setting a bad example for their children when they say "um"and "uh".

A study conducted in the Baby Lab at the University of Rochester, in Rochester, NY, shows that toddlers actually use their parents’ stumbles, hesitations and other disfluencies to help them learn language more efficiently.
For instance, a mother walking through the zoo with a 2-year-old may point and say, “Look at the, uh, rhinoceros.” While fum- bling for the word, the parent also is sending a signal that the child is about to learn some- thing new and should pay attention.

The researchers aren't advocating that parents add dysfluencies in their speech, but it is okay to have these verbal pauses.

From an article cited in the ADVANCE magazine . June 13,2011 Vol.21 No.10

Research Shows that Books without Text Can Increase Literacy, Vocabulary Skills in Children with Developmental Disabilities

2011-06-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

Utah State University Study Shows Parents Are More Engaged With Their Children When Reading Books Without TextEarly Literacy Skills Are Indicative of Later Academic SuccessEmma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services Ranked Fifth for External

Compared to books with text, wordless books have been shown to increase literacy and vocabulary skills in toddlers with developmental disabilities, according to research from the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University – ranked fifth in the nation in terms of external funding for research.

The research, led by professors Sandra Gillam, Ph.D., and Lisa Boyce, Ph.D., examined the type of language mothers used when their children made comments during shared reading of a wordless picture book and compared it to the language used when comments were made during the reading of a book with text. The findings showed that more complex language and interaction were present between mother and child with the wordless book.

“We found that when creating a story or just responding to pictures, the parent used many words and complex sentence structures while engaging with their child. That level of engagement wasn’t as present when reading books with text,” said Gillam. “These results fall in line with the generally accepted belief that less structured activities, such as playing with toys or creating things with Play-Doh, elicit more productive language interactions between parent and child. These findings in no way diminish the importance of reading printed books, but incorporating interactions with wordless books is a way to build a more solid literacy foundation in children with developmental disabilities.”

Previous research has shown that early literacy skills are predictive of later academic performance, and while interventionists have encouraged parents to engage in interactions that involve traditional books, this study indicates that mothers may be more likely to respond to their child’s language attempts while sharing wordless books with their children than in interactions surrounding printed text.

“These findings are particularly important for speech pathologists who have long believed that parents of children with developmental disabilities must be taught how to respond to their children’s attempts to communicate. In actuality, many parents naturally respond to their children when sharing wordless books with them. Parents may need assistance in recognizing the skills they are already using and be encouraged to transfer them from less structured activities to literacy-based activities,” added Gillam.

“The research Sandi and Lisa are doing is really indicative of the mission of the education college at Utah State University, which is to help people lead richer, fuller lives through education,” said Beth Foley, dean of the College of Education and Human Services. “In order to best prepare our future educators at the college, we first have to have a solid understanding of how children best learn, both in the classroom and at home. This research is just one of many projects currently in progress at the college that will help us as we continue to develop the most productive and effective instructional strategies in education.”
The research “Maternal Input During Book Sharing: Wordless vs. Printed Books” was most recently presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech Language and Hearing Association in Philadelphia.

Best Practices in the Evaluation of Autism Spectrum Disorders (Ages 0-3) WEBINAR

2011-04-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

Date: Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Time: 3:00–4:30PM Eastern
Presenter: Amy Dilworth Gabel, PhD

Register here: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=an9g1u3nst4k
Putting together an appropriate battery to assess infants and toddlers with suspected Autism Spectrum Disorders can be challenging. Early intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders leads to better outcomes. Good assessment data helps to promote effective intervention. During this session we will review some of the best practices as you consider which types of measures could be used to answer specific referral questions.

Amy Dilworth Gabel, PhD, is the Training and Client Consultation Director with Pearson Clinical Assessment. She earned her PhD and MS in school psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. Her undergraduate training is in psychology and elementary education from Gettysburg College. As a licensed school psychologist in Virginia, her specialty is the comprehensive evaluation of preschool and school-aged students.
Prior to joining PsychCorp, Dr. Gabel worked in the Fairfax County Public School system in Virginia. In Fairfax, she served in positions as a school psychologist, special education administrator, and due process specialist. She has provided training workshops on a wide range of topics, including linking assessments to effective teaching, AD/HD, reading disorders/literacy, executive function disorders, and a variety of assessment and intervention methodologies.

April is Autism Awareness Month

2011-04-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

The United Nations declared the first official World Autism Awareness Day on April 2, 2008.

Since that time, April 2 has been the designated day to highlight the need to help improve the lives of children and adults who suffer from the disorder.

The State of Qatar and Autism Speaks spearheaded World Autism Awareness

10 ways to honor Autism Awareness Month
Posted by
Kathie Harrington, MA, CCC-SLP
Occupation: SLP, author, speaker, mother of a son with autism.
Setting: Las Vegas, NV

1.Brainstorm with other SLPs about one child in particular, not at school or in the clinic, but over a cup of coffee or a soda.

2.Find a new app on your iPad or iPhone that you can use with a client with ASD.

3.Take a client with ASD on a field trip and explore a new environment together.

4.Find three new motivators to use with students with ASD. I scavenger around in dollar stores myself.

5.Make a bulletin board for your room/office that announces April as Autism Awareness Month.

6.Call one or all of your clients with ASD on the telephone and have a conversation. I would suggest telling them ahead of time that you will call them tonight to talk about ___________.

7.Turn on some soft music, sit back for 10 minutes, close your eyes, and allow your mind to drift into the world of a person with autism. They are sensory people, so you must see, hear, feel, smell, and perceive the world as they would.

8.If you team in a school/clinic with teachers, PTs or OTs, call a 15-minute "Autism Awareness Chat." Hey, buy a dozen cookies and make it a friendly, mind-freeing experience for everyone. Fifteen minutes may lead to more, and a chat in April may lead to one in May and June.

9.Invite the parents/caregivers of your clients with ASD into the therapy setting. Demonstrate strategies and pick one or two that you want the parent to carry over in the home environment.

10.Number 10 is probably the most important of all: read something new about autism, such as a story, poem, research, therapy strategy, etc, etc. Always be informed because as SLPs we are #2 in line to help children/adults with ASD. Who is #1? You tell me.
"Speech pathologists make good things happen."

Early Signs of Autism

2011-04-19T01:40:00.001-07:00

ADVANCE Magazine
By Jason Mosheim

The barriers to diagnosing autism before age 2 threaten to keep children from receiving early intervention. However, now that clinicians are beginning to understand what to look for-and when-those barriers may crumble sooner rather than later.
Until the last few years, professionals didn't know what to look for in children who were only 9, 12 or 15 months old. They are gaining ground in this area, but the typical age for diagnosis remains between 2 and 3 and sometimes 4.
Clinicians may hesitate to make an early diagnosis or mention red flags to parents because of the variability in early child development. Although children may appear to have early delays, some will improve and go on to develop normally while others may fail to make gains or even regress. "You might see a 12-month-old and think everything's going great, but then things begin to look worse over the next six to eight months," said Elizabeth Crais, PhD, CCC-SLP, a professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
One way to see what children with autism look like prior to a diagnosis is through the use of retrospective video analysis. When children are diagnosed, Dr. Crais and colleagues Grace Baranek, PhD, OTR/L; Linda Watson, EdD, CCC-SLP; and Steve Reznick, PhD, director of the Program in Developmental Psychology, ask parents to provide home videos of their children made before the diagnosis in order to review early behaviors. Currently, they are looking at videos of children in two age groups: 9-12 months and 15-18 months.
"If we can get videotapes of the kids between 9 and 12 or 15 and 18 months, it allows us to see them potentially before anybody has a suspicion and look at their characteristics or behaviors," Dr. Crais said. "Some children begin to look worse as time goes on."
According to the literature, repetitive and stereotypical behaviors appear later in development, but they can appear early on in some children. These children may turn to repetitive behaviors as a way to engage themselves because of a significant deficit in their social skills.
"We are trying to identify children early so we can prevent some of the repetitive behaviors," Dr. Crais told ADVANCE. "Opening up their social world at an early age also allows them to take advantage of all the social and? play interactions that come afterwards."
Many children also engage in sensory-seeking behaviors, she said. "We look for things like pushing themselves against you or demonstrating atypical behaviors with their hands, bodies and eyes."
Her team also looks at broad communication skills like eye gaze and vocalizations.
Videos contribute to the study of gesture development, she noted. "We look at the early gestures that kids produce or ones they don't produce. There are patterns of gesture use even at these early ages. For example, categories such as joint attention have fewer gestures. A pattern of use begins to exemplify kids even in the 9- to 12-month range."
One interesting finding, she reported, is that "gestures, or lack of them, in the 9- to 12-month range are highly predictive of later language skills at ages 3 and 4. That's pretty powerful." As a result, researchers now are paying more attention to gestures, specifically joint attention behaviors of showing, giving and pointing. Dr. Crais has seen many 2-year-olds over the years who aren't talking but are gesturing, smiling, and using other ways to communicate. In many cases these children are late talkers who probably will catch up with their typically developing peers.
"If one 2-year-old gestures, communicates, vocalizes, looks at you, and understands much of what you say and another has limited or no gestures, few vocalizations and limited comprehension, the one that has all these means of communicating is probably going to be more successful. The other child likely will continue to have language problems," she said.
Gestures can be a powerful, discriminating set of behaviors that can help clinicians decide if they need to see children in intervention or can wait, monitor them, and let them mature.
In joint attention behaviors an individual attempts to direct a person's attention to something. For example, a parent points out an airplane to a child; a child shows an object to someone; or a child gives a rattle to an adult, wants it back, and repeats the interaction. "Many little children who have something in their hand want to show it to you and will look at you to make sure you're seeing it, too, and enjoying it with them," said Dr. Crais. "Little kids with autism are less likely to engage in some of these social behaviors that represent joint attention."
The most well-known gesture is pointing. Typical children point to things with the intent of sharing the experience with someone else. Children with autism often use behavior regulation acts to try to get a person to do or not do something. "Even very young children with autism focus on those kinds of behaviors. They grab your hand to get something or take your hand and guide you to the refrigerator to get you to open the door," said Dr. Crais. There are fewer joint attention acts and less variation in social interactions but not a total absence of either type, the researchers have found.
What makes it difficult to identify some children with autism earlier is that they may participate with others in games like peek-a-boo and communicate by smiling, laughing and looking when they are younger.
"If I raise the possibility of autism, some parents say, 'But he smiles, laughs, plays with us, and looks at us.' The notion that these children don't smile, laugh, or socially interact is incorrect," said Dr. Crais. "Some are very hard to reach, but even they have times where they can be reachable. The public has the idea that these children aren't social, and that's not the case in a number of situations."
At 12 months children should be demonstrating some behavior regulation, social interaction and joint attention acts. At 15 to 18 months, they should have a variety of behaviors in each area as they begin using words. "Words are coming in and begin to replace gestures," said Dr. Crais, "but there's a period of time where words and gestures are both used. The child will point and say 'airplane.' As words become more powerful and prominent to them, gestures begin to slide away."
Another important early behavior is play. The four common levels of play are exploratory, relational, functional and symbolic. Children with autism have an easier time with exploratory and relational play. They begin to falter when they encounter functional play, which is built on relational play. At this stage, for example, children put things together or line up blocks. In order to move on to functional play, they need to have a good sense of what other people are doing.
"Some activities require children to look around, see what everybody else is doing, and repeat the behaviors," she said. "Kids with autism traditionally are not that aware of peers around them and therefore don't learn ways to play functionally with toys."
Symbolic play also can be difficult for this population. "A child who blows on an empty cup and says 'hot!' is pretending to have a hot drink. Or they put scraps of paper on a plate and say, 'Do you want some chips?' They're symbolizing that something is there," explained Dr. Crais. "Those are very hard skills for children with autism. Many researchers feel the cause is a lack of social interaction."
Research has demonstrated that the development of play and language skills runs parallel at some point, she said. "We can look at both sets of behaviors and say, 'How is this child doing in both domains, and can we use that?' If their play is good but their language is poor, can we use play to enhance their language, or vice versa?"
Dr. Crais and her colleagues are conducting an intervention study using a parent report tool they developed.1If parents score their child high on the First Year Inventory (FYI), indicating many risk factors for a possible autism diagnosis, the researchers test the child. Those children who appear to have symptoms characteristic of autism are placed in a randomized control treatment trial, where they receive project-specific intervention or are referred for community services.
"Only a few children have finished the study, but already we're seeing really nice changes," Dr. Crais said.
A number of sources have identified effective components of intervention for children with autism.2Among the most important are enrolling them in intervention as early as possible and actively engaging them in intensive instructional programming for at least 25 hours. Also key is building spontaneous functional communication, as well as the amount of time spent in speech and language intervention.3-5"It's a pat on our backs to say that it's critical for children to get into speech-language therapy so they can begin to enhance their communication and social skills," she said. "It's affirming for us as speech-language pathologists to see that."
All children should receive a 12-month well baby check-up, which is a perfect time to begin looking at behavior, Dr. Crais said. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all children be screened for autism twice by age 2-at 18 and 24 months.6"We would like to see a tool like ours used even earlier, at 12 months, to see if there are any signs that might be a concern," she said. "Ultimately, we would like to get early identification down to 12, 15 or 18 months because these are critical periods for some children."
References
1. Baranek, G., Watson, L., Crais, E., et al. (2003). First-Year Inventory (FYI). Unpublished manuscript. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
2. National Research Council. (2001). Educating Children with Autism. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
3. Rogers, S. (1998). Empirically supported comprehensive treatments for young children with autism. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 27 (2): 168-79.
4. Rogers, S., Vismara, L. (2008). Evidence-based comprehensive treatments for early autism. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37 (1): 8-38.
5. Turner, L., Stone, W., Podzol, S., et al. (2006). Follow-up of children with ?autism spectrum disorders from age 2 to age 9. Autism, 10 (3): 245-65.
6 Plauche Johnson, C., Myers, S.M., et al. (2007). Identification and evaluation of children with autism spectrum disorders. Pediatrics, 120 (5): 1183-1215.
For More Information
•???Elizabeth Crais, PhD, bcrais@med.unc.edu
Jason Mosheim is a Senior Associate Editor at ADVANCE. He can be contacted at jmosheim@advanceweb.com.

Early Signs of Autism

2011-04-19T01:40:00.000-07:00

May is better Hearing and Speech Month

2011-04-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

This annual event provides opportunities to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing. ASHA have many resources to help you celebrate BHSM every day.

Even though this is mainly celebrated in large scale in the U.S, what can we in Europe doing to raise awareness among professionals, parents and schools.

Being in the Netherlands, with a wide population of expats, families find it difficult to find a native speaking English Speech therapist for their child. Parents feel helpless and not being able to provide help for their child.

Online Speech Therapy can be the answer.Your child can continue to receive Speech Therapy from the same therapist from back home, or find other English speaking therapists in the country. Being in the comforts of your home(both you and the child) with games to practice on their own, TinyEYE Speech Therapy Services opens a whole new magical world for you and your child.

TinyEYE has goal focussed games and you as the therapist is able to provide structured therapy, while the child plays and has fun. A tinyEYE session is usually 20 minutes filled with adventure going to Mars and swimming under water.The fun and excitement is new everytime!

Reconnect

2011-03-23T01:08:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time.. so I wish to reconnect!
Whats been happening in the last year?
1.Our second son was born.
2. We kick started TinyEYE Netherlands and started training Dutch speech therapists to use TinyEYE
3. More clients at the Higher secondary and primary international school.
4. I joined a EAL course at the International school with the teachers.

Well, thats what has been happening and its only getting more exciting and busier.
Stay tuned for some new articles and information.

Play in Autism To improve social interaction and comprehension.

2010-07-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

Advance for Speech and Language
By Jason Mosheim
Posted on: July 19, 2010

Restricted play skills are one of the hallmarks of autism. Among the handful of reasons that children on the spectrum have trouble branching out in their play is that many lack ideation, which is necessary for understanding how to interact with new objects.

"Many kids with autism reject novelty," said Lisa Audet, PhD, CCC-SLP, assistant professor in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Kent State University in Kent, OH. "When something is new and they don't have a mental template or schema in their heads for how to engage with the object, they reject it." They prefer to play with only a handful of predictable items.

"Limited ideation results in them doing 'same old'-playing with the same thing all the time," she told ADVANCE. Comfortably stuck in one mode, they don't accumulate a well-rounded knowledge of basic concepts over time.

Many children with autism have motor planning deficits. They have difficulty using their hands to operate and explore toys in a way that most parents expect.

One boy who lacked fine motor skills and had difficulty using his fingers to operate cause-and-effect toys, like a See 'n Say®, only wanted to dump and throw objects, Dr. Audet recalled. His play skills did not evolve much beyond those motions because he didn't have good hand use. "As he got older, it looked more aberrant because you have a 10-year-old who's dumping and throwing like a 2-year-old," she said.

Older children with autism often display play skills that are similar to those of much younger, typically developing children. For example, 18-month-olds often derive great pleasure from filling containers or rolling a ball. Older children whose play skills closely match this age group may have language skills at about the same level.

Restrictive play also could be caused by anxiety. Children with autism often feel uneasy when they are presented with novel objects because they are forced out of their comfort zone. "They play with particular objects as a way of calming themselves, to self-regulate," Dr. Audet said. "Kids with limited ideation don't move to pretend play, where it becomes symbolic, and that parallels the absence of language, which is also a symbolic act."

Many children with autism also have trouble with turn-taking. The two types of reciprocal interactions to be on the look-out for are dyadic, between two people, and triadic, which involve two people and an object. Adults can teach dyadic interactions by singing a song that contains gaps for the child to fill with lyrics or sounds.

"We use strategic wait time and a lot of rhythmic information and melodic intonation to create predictability, which can be helpful in getting reciprocity around something dyadic," said Dr. Audet.

When children are engaged in sensorimotor activities that provide them with movement, such as bouncing or swinging, speech-language pathologists can seize the opportunity to assist them in maintaining the dyadic interaction and reinforce the predictability of a routine.

Only when a child is able to engage in one-on-one joint interactions can clinicians begin to facilitate triadic interactions. Unfortunately, many clinicians start with the triadic events when attempting to increase joint attention and reciprocity. "The triadic interaction can be difficult for kids with autism," she said, "yet so often we start there, especially if the child is older, and doesn't yet understand reciprocity."

To qualify for kindergarten, children need to be able to occupy themselves with a solitary, adaptive activity for at least seven minutes. When working with a child prior to school enrollment, speech-language pathologists and parents must keep this in mind in addition to other social aspects of play, including parallel play, trading and sharing, and cooperative play.

"If we're working on parallel play, we know that imitation is difficult for kids with autism," said Dr. Audet. One way to facilitate imitation is to imitate a child's natural play behavior. For example, a speech-language pathologist can join a child in the activity of filling and dumping when trying to introduce a new tool.

"If a child is putting corn in a bucket and then dumping it, we begin to model so he knows he has a partner," she explained. "In addition to imitating, we work on parallel play by modeling with our own shovel. We then offer the shovel to the child and wait expectantly. The child may pick up the shovel and imitate us. If they don't, we continue to present an exaggerated model of the behavior and continue to present the shovel to the child."

The speech-language pathologist is building on the natural play of filling and dumping and modeling the next level of play.

The first cooperative play skill to teach is sharing. The child has to relinquish control of an object, probably a highly preferred one.

Most children learn to trade before they learn to share. This is important to keep in mind when working with children with autism because they must never be left without anything to keep them occupied as they wait for their play partner to return a toy. Otherwise, they are likely to succumb to frustration and act out.

Clinicians can teach trading by having children play with cause-and-effect toys such as cars or tops. "Give the kids different ones so they trade," she said. "They will get something similar but not exactly the same. Trading becomes important as a steppingstone to learning how to share."

Speech-language pathologists should be supportive so children will request help when needed. Nonverbal cues are a good place to start in providing children with the means to ask for help. Don't rush in to provide assistance whenever a problem arises, however. "Provide a mechanism for them to ask for help, whether it's a picture icon, a voice-output device, a hand-over-hand movement or signing," she said. "We let them know before they get too frustrated with an event that we're there to help. It's really important to read the nonverbal cues that are really subtle."

To spark spontaneous language in children with autism, speech-language pathologists can tap into their knowledge of normal childhood development. For example, typically developing children begin to speak in two-word combinations when they have approximately 75 words in their repertoire. Before attempting to elicit spontaneous speech and to get a sense of what expectations to set, clinicians need to ask themselves how many words are in the child's repertoire, if they are spontaneous words, and whether the words are approximations, imitative or echolalic.

Clinicians often advance too far ahead in treatment. "If children have 25 words in their repertoire and are echolalic, using a five-word sentence like 'I want more cookie, please' is a big jump if we expect that utterance to have true linguistic meaning," said Dr. Audet.

After determining the level of spontaneous language, speech-language pathologists can start building single-word vocabulary to help children reach the 75-word mark. "Begin to work on semantic relations, then reinforce those two-word combinations. When the child says, 'My cookie,' we say, 'Yes, Jimmy's cookie,' versus 'Tell me, 'I want more cookie, please,' and jumping to that rote utterance, which the child is going to comply with if he is echolalic," she said. "We sabotage ourselves if we reinforce echolalia vs. spontaneous language."

A child may need some echolalic chunks to ask for help, protest, or engage in adaptive behaviors, but that's only one prong, Dr. Audet said. The other prong is building up spontaneous vocabulary by reinforcing the use of single words and two-word combinations without making the child produce a complete sentence. "That's like a three-year developmental leap for a child who has a disability," she said. "We wouldn't expect that from a typically developing child."

For More Information

*
Lisa Audet, PhD, laudet@kent.edu

Jason Mosheim is a Senior Associate Editor for ADVANCE. He can be contacted at jmosheim@advanceweb.com.

First Iphone application for Speech Therapists.

2010-06-25T07:14:00.001-07:00

Smarty Ears releases their first of many to come Iphone Applications for Speech and Language Therapists and parents of children with language and articulation disorders. Mobile Articulation Probes © was released to the public on January, 4th 2010.

MAP main image
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Jan 06, 2010 – Smarty Ears releases their first of many to come Iphone Applications for Speech and Language Therapists and parents of children with language and articulation disorders. Smarty Ears is a publishing company designed to infuse the use of technology in the field of speech therapy.

Mobile Articulation Probes © was released to the public on January, 4th 2010. MAP (Mobile Articulation Probes) is one of the first Iphone Applications in the field of speech therapy. MAP is a practical option for Articulation therapy and evaluation. MAP can be used for therapy as well as to collect additional information regarding a child’s articulation skills during assessment.

With this App Speech Therapists will be able to add an entry for all their students and keep track of their articulation performances. MAP provides accuracy scores for each session. MAP also displays which specific sounds/words were not produced accurately. With MAP speech therapist move to the next level of data tracking because there is no need to count errors on paper- MAP will do it for you.

MAP provides more than 400 words classified by manner of articulation as well as individual phonemes in all positions of the word. All you have to do is add new user, add new session, select which phonemes or class of phonemes you want to target, select which position of the word you are working on and begin session. MAP is the easy way to show parents their child’s progress in therapy.

MAP was designed by Barbara Fernandes,M.S CCC-SLP a Speech and Language Pathologists. She has obtained her Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech and Hearing Association.

Mobile Articulation Probes © is available in English. The release of the Spanish version is scheduled for January, 20th 2010.

For more information visit: www.smarty-ears.com

To purchase this application visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobile-articulation-probe ...

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Smarty Ears, LLC (c) 2009 is a publishing company that believes technology can help reduce the gap between language proficiency and language abilities.

For more information visit www.smarty-ears.com

Play Routines In early language development.

2010-06-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

By Harriet Englander, MS, CCC-SLP
this article was taken from the ADVANCE magazine

I enjoy working with toddlers and observing their obstinate focus on one activity. When parents referred to a child's favorite toy or pursuit as a fixation, I began to wonder, "Is this a symptom of a speech and language delay, a behavior on the autistic spectrum, or a step in language development?"

When we go into the home, we want to show parents that talking to their toddlers about what they are doing, where they are going, and how they are going to get there during their daily routine is how they can help their children develop language. Parents and caregivers can help toddlers make good progress if they have consistent involvement in their routines of eating, dressing, brushing teeth, going out, and going to sleep.1

The toddlers I work with learn to produce language through shared attention during play routines. Why not repeat the same activity that the toddler feels comfortable with? Letting a child begin the session with a favorite toy or activity can lead to listening, labeling, commenting and communicating.

I began speech therapy with Peter when he was 2-and-a-half and his favorite activity was Thomas the Train. We sprawled on the floor together, putting down tracks and lining up the small cars. Peter could name "Percy," "James" and "Emily" early on, but his communication skills were slow to appear.

A few weeks after we began, we were ending a session on the front steps of his house, playing with small airplanes and waiting for his older brothers to get off the bus. I suggested he say "hi" to his brothers when they approached us. Peter did, and his 6-year old brother looked at me as if I were a magician. "Peter never spoke to me before," he said.

Peter's behavior seemed to be obsessive and uncommunicative, but he was beginning to make eye contact as I talked about what we were doing. He began to indicate preferences: these tracks instead of those, this train instead of that one. His mother watched the progress, and we discussed her busy schedule. She admitted that Peter spent a lot of his day in a car seat. I told her they didn't have to be silent in the car. She could talk to him about where they were going and what they were going to do. She began to ask him to indicate what he wanted to eat. Peter was dialoguing by age 3 and became a talker by 3-and-a-half. He soon was thriving in a pre-K program with rules and schedules, communicating easily and intelligibly.

Lois Bloom, PhD, reminds us, "A language will never be acquired without engagement in a world of persons, objects and events. The motivation for learning a language is to express and interpret contents of mind so the child and others can share what each is thinking and feeling."2

Devin was not yet 2 when I began to work with him. He had a basement filled with toys and liked his kitchen. We played kitchen every session. He allowed me to vary the play as long as the basic sequence remained the same. We had a shopping cart, canned goods, and a doll to sit in the cart for shopping.

We had a stove, pots and pans, and a rotisserie with noise and orange light to prepare the food. We had a tea set, plates and spoons, and a table and chairs to enjoy our "meal." Devin had a feeding problem, but once we established this routine, he began eating the raisins, fruits pieces and crackers that were part of our "meal" as long as we fed the doll first.

Devin developed his own feedback therapy. During our play routines, he pointed and named what he wanted. I clearly and slowly repeated what he had said, he repeated it, and I reinforced it. We completed his early intervention program in a year, moving from silence to single word utterances and jargon and then nearly full intelligibility. He communicated easily with his family.

Real words are embedded in the jargon of children when they begin to combine words. If we pay close attention to their utterance and know the content, we can deduce the meaning, repeat the word or words for them, reduce their frustration, and initiate real communication. If the parent is doing the same, it is a winning situation.3

Other 2-year-olds who needed to do the same activity over and over have done simple puzzles, pushed their miniature cars off a coffee table, and begun each session with the alphabet song. When these toddlers could not talk or communicate, they wanted to do what they could do easily. They created their own play routines. It was easy to do intensive modeling while going along with their preference. Repeating the activity they chose seemed to increase their motivation and led to overcoming language delays.

References

Woods, J.J. (2010). Getting into the family routine: Intervention strategies for early intervention. Long Island University, Feb. 5.
Bloom, L. (1998). Research perspectives: Language development and emotional expression. Pediatrics (Supp.: New Perspectives in Early Emotional Development), 102 (5): 1272-77.
Marshalla, P. (2005). Apraxia Uncovered: Seven Stages of Phoneme Development. Anaheim, CA: Marshalla Speech and Language.
Harriet Englander works in the Early Intervention Program in Port Washington, NY. She can be contacted at hmenglander@yahoo.com.

Copyright ©2010 Merion Matters
2900 Horizon Drive, King of Prussia, PA 19406 • 800-355-5627
Publishers of ADVANCE Newsmagazines
www.advanceweb.com

Baby Wordsworth Babies: Not Exactly Wordy

2010-04-02T01:12:00.000-07:00

<i>Baby Wordsworth</i> Babies: Not Exactly Wordy

Tuesday, Mar. 02, 2010
Baby Wordsworth Babies: Not Exactly Wordy
By Alice Park
It's hard to avoid logging screen time of some kind on a daily basis, and that's true even in young children. Babies in the U.S. start watching TV early on, with educational DVDs and television shows designed to encourage early language development in pre-preschoolers.

The question is, Do instructional DVDs actually help babies learn? To find out, researchers at the University of California at Riverside designed the most definitive study of the issue to date. The study used a DVD called Baby Wordsworth (part of the Baby Einstein series), which is aimed at teaching babies new vocabulary words, and assigned a group of 12-to-24-month-olds to watch it daily for six weeks. Turns out, the videos didn't work. There was no difference in language acquisition between children who were assigned to watch the DVD and a control group. (See pictures of kids' books coming to life.)

The results, published on Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, are in line with several other studies. In fact, past analyses have found that infants who watch educational DVDs learn fewer words and score lower on certain cognitive tests by the time they reach preschool than kids who haven't watched the videos. These studies, however, were all observational — meaning that rather than assigning babies to watch videos or avoid them, scientists simply asked parents about their babies' viewing habits and then correlated that information with the kids' performance on tests of word acquisition and language skills later on.

This time, psychologist Rebekah Richert and her team did those studies one better. She randomly assigned two groups of babies to either a Baby Wordsworth or control group, then carefully tracked how many of the 30 target words highlighted in the video the babies were able to learn. The words were those that children would commonly hear around the house, such as table, ball, piano, fridge and chair. Parents were asked to evaluate how many of these words their babies understood and how many they could speak, while toddlers were tested separately for their recognition of pictures associated with the target words. Each of the 96 infants and their parents were followed for six weeks, and were evaluated four times in that period. While all the kids added new words to their vocabulary over the course of the study, watching Baby Wordsworth had no added benefit. (See the top 10 children's books of 2009.)

"We found that over the course of six weeks, the children watching the DVDs didn't learn any more words than children not watching," says Richert.

Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle, whose studies were the first to dispute the claim that educational DVDs improve babies' language skills, noted the importance of Richert's findings in advancing our understanding of how babies learn — or, in this case, don't learn — language. "The novel thing here is that this is actually the first experiment in the real world using these products to robustly test their claims," he says.

It's not entirely clear why the videos are so ineffective, but there may be two potential explanations. One has to do with the idea that such videos and DVDs overstimulate the brain. Researchers believe there is a critical window during early development in which language skills are acquired and developed; the sounds that babies hear and repeat in this time period are essential to establishing their language ability. And babies are better able to learn these sounds if they hear them from a live speaker (a parent) who engages with them directly and uses language in a repetitive, reinforcing way — where, for instance, an adult and the infant interact with each other and with a new object, as they learn its name. By contrast, a video that provides multiple and different stimulating sounds, but in a passive, one-way flow of information — perhaps overstimulating the brain to the point of paralysis — may fail to engage babies in learning. (This is why nonnative speakers of a language, even if they are fluent, find it difficult to reproduce the same sounds of a native speaker, because they were not trained to hear them as infants, says Christakis.) (See "The Year in Health 2009: From A to Z.")

Another reason videos inhibit word-learning may simply be that they replace precious parent-child time that could be spent learning the same words. If babies are watching a DVD, they are not engaging or communicating with their parents. In Richert's study, her team found that the most learning occurred when parents directly taught children new words by pointing at an object, saying its name and repeating it. In the final session in the lab, the researchers observed parents and their youngsters as they watched Baby Wordsworth together; the children's ability to learn words in these situations was enhanced. "What we are finding in our study is that the DVD itself is not a substitute for that kind of live social interaction," says Richert. "For children under the age of 2, social interaction is key to their ability to learning something like words." (See nine kid foods to avoid.)

Based on the evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended for several years that toddlers under age 2 not watch videos or television, and Richert's findings support that advice. But she notes that it's not an all-or-nothing situation. "Given that media is becoming a consistent aspect of children's environment, there are ways that parents can use these DVDs," she says. "They can use them to sometimes teach children, but they should be aware that without being involved themselves, children aren't likely to learn." As enticing as new technologies may be in improving children's development, there is no substitute for a parent's attention and time.

News!

2010-03-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hello to all those who read my blog!(I know there are a few of you)
I have been away for sometime as my family and I have been busy caring for our newborn son Elijah Jacob Daniel and our older son Benjamin Roy Daniel.Elijah was born on the 13th of Feb 2010.
So updates on the blog are going to be slow !
Would love to hear from any of you and also any ideas you have for a post you would like to see or questions!

Regards
Manju

Guide to Communication milestones

2010-02-10T00:42:00.000-08:00

Here is an exceptionally great guide to communication milestones prepared by LinguiSystems. It is comprehensive and easy to look up for all those Language and Speech Categories and to know at what age and details children learn concepts.

http://www.linguisystems.com/pdf/Milestonesguide.pdf

There are other free downloads on wonderful articles and guides that are a great source.
Enjoy!

“The Brave New World of the Cyber Speech and Hearing Clinic,” The ASHA Leader, Vol. 6, Dec. 11, 2001

2010-01-26T03:00:00.000-08:00

Just imagine ….
A future when patients log on to cyber speech and hearing clinics from the comfort of their homes. Three-dimensional and holographic imaging enable viewing situations similar to face-to-face contact. Parents or spouses of the patient will complete intake forms by answering questions of a computer-generated composite face and voice. The hearing evaluation will be completed in less than a minute. The patient will simply sit in the cyber center with headset and earphones snugly in place while the function and status of the hearing mechanism are tested. Clicks, tones, buzzing sounds, and the sensation of pressure changes will be the only things heard or sensed by the patient. The completed hearing evaluation report will be created including colorful graphic charts of the brain, external, middle, and inner ear.
Speech production will be acoustically analyzed. Each sound will be compared with norms for intelligibility and precision for the patient’s particular language. Each phoneme of the 10,000 languages and dialects of the world will have its specific acoustic parameters analyzed. Technology will permit analysis of the articulation of people suffering from brain damage and neurological diseases, and not only acoustically determine the precision and intelligibility of their motor speech, but also identify the site and nature of the peripheral or central nervous system damage. Although phonetics courses will still be taught, clinicians will rarely use their ears to make judgments about a patient's articulation.
A patient's pitch, loudness, emphasis, shimmer, jitter, spectral characteristic, voice onset times, and other parameters will be automatically assessed and analyzed in seconds. The computer will detect early signs of progressive neurological diseases such as ALS, MS, and Parkinson's disease, as early symptoms of these disorders sometimes show up as minor voice irregularities.
Tests for language delay and disorders will be automatically chosen and adapted to the patient's interests. For children, these interactive tests will use colorful cartoon characters that playfully ask questions and probe for responses. Talking dogs, rabbits, cats, and chipmunks will have the child remember, repeat, name, discuss, describe, and point, while the computer analyzes and categorizes each response. The child's cognitive, linguistic, and social-communicative abilities will be assessed using the latest tests. Phonological process will be identified as well as the speed and accuracy of motor responses and visual scanning times. Length of utterances and vocabulary will be computed in every possible way and charted in three-dimensional bar, pie, and line graphs. Everything from the patients’ cognitive-linguistic functioning to their metalinguistic awareness will be assessed by fun-loving cartoon characters. Aphasia, apraxia of speech, and fluency tests will be similarly conducted and structured around the patient's age and interests.
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The oral facial examination will also be assessed via the Web. The talking cartoon characters will have children open their mouth widely and face the embedded camera. The computer will note salient facts about tongue, lips, teeth, and palatal vault using pattern recognition algorithms. Everything from tongue tremor to speed of ongoing oral-muscular movement will be assessed. A three-dimensional picture of the child's oral structures will be created and added to the ongoing report.
In the future, a simple click of the computer keyboard or voice command will load the appropriate treatment program for each objective listed on the evaluation and merge them into a comprehensive treatment protocol. Goals will be chosen from thousands stored in treatment banks. The treatment program will be specifically adapted to the patient's age, gender, education level, and interests. Daily suggestions and recommendations will automatically be sent to the patient's family, home health agencies, or teachers for their assistance in meeting goals. Via the Web, the clinician will regularly review improvement with parents, physicians, nurses, and teachers and adjust the treatment programs when required.

(Taken from the prologue to Telepractices and ASHA:Report of the Telepractices Team December 2001 with permission from Dennis C. Tanner’s article, “The Brave New World of the Cyber Speech and Hearing Clinic,” The ASHA Leader, Vol. 6, Dec. 11, 2001, based on the author’s original short story ,“Welcome to the Cyber Speech and Hearing Clinic,” in Communication Disorders: A Literature and Media Perspective to be published in 2002 by Allyn & Bacon.)

Helping your child to love reading

2010-01-22T02:37:00.000-08:00

Taken from:
www.babycentre.co.uk/toddler/development/stimulating/lovereading/

There are lots of fun ways to help your little one learn to love books and stories. And, surprisingly, not all of them involve sitting down with an actual book.

Use books to bond

It's not all about reading the words. At this age it's more about enjoying the interaction with Mum or Dad. When your child sits in your lap as you read aloud, she doesn't just enjoy books, she also enjoys the security of your undivided attention.

Set up a ritual

A regular reading time establishes a calming routine young children love -- that's why the bedtime story is a time-honoured tradition. But don't forget that many other daily events also provide good reading opportunities. Once in a while try establishing a new ritual with a breakfast story, a bathtime story, a just-home-from-nursery story or even an "on the potty" story. Some toddlers (and older children) who are heavy sleepers are much better able to face the day when their parents "read them awake" rather than hustle them out of bed.

Choose appropriate books

Toddlers love board books, bath books and pop-up books -- any type they can hold easily and manipulate themselves. They love stories accompanied by bright, clear realistic pictures. And, of course, they love rhymes. That's not to say your two-year-old won't appreciate the stories her big brother chooses -- who knows, Harry Potter may end up being her favourite book! Just make sure she has access to simpler books as well.

Repeat, repeat, repeat

Stifle your yawns if you've read The Very Hungry Caterpillar every night for the past month and your child still asks to hear it again. Repetition is a hallmark of the toddler years. The reason children love to read the same stories over and over and over again is that they're so thirsty to learn. You'll soon find that your toddler has memorised her favourite passages and is eager to supply key phrases herself -- both signs of increasing readiness to read.

Ham it up

Lose your inhibitions when you read to your child. Growl like the Papa Bear in Goldilocks, squeak like Piglet in Winnie-the-Pooh. Kids love drama as much as adults do -- in fact, your youngster may love to pretend to be the scary wolf in The Three Little Pigs. Encourage her, even if it slows the story's progress. She'll get more out of the story if she's participating actively.

Follow her interests

Choose books about her favourite activities -- visiting the zoo, swimming, playing catch. Back up her favourite videos and TV programmes with books about the characters. You may be mystified by the appeal of Teletubbies, but if your child loves the cheery little creatures, she'll love the books about their exploits as well. Follow her lead, but do experiment with a wide variety of books. Your little girl who loves dressing up and dolls may, to your surprise, also be the one who asks to hear stories about dinosaurs and monsters again and again, too.

Go to the library

Even babies like library story-hours, and they're wonderful adventures for toddlers. Your child may well discover a new favourite when it's presented by the beguiling librarian with her soothing voice and perhaps some pictures or puppets to illustrate the action. And, of course, libraries allow parents -- and toddlers -- to take home countless stories without spending a penny.

Turn on the tape

Many wonderful books exist on cassette or CD. You can feed your child's eagerness to hear Puss in Boots for the umpteenth time, even though you need to go start dinner, by turning on a cassette, instead (with or without the accompanying picture book). You could also tape books and stories yourself, or ask a beloved friend or relative to do so. Hearing granny's voice reading a favourite story is a special treat.

Don't make books a reward

Don't tell your child she can listen to a story if she finishes her dinner. When reading is associated with systems of reward and punishment, it isn't a positive experience. Instead, pick times to read that feel natural, such as when you want your toddler to quiet down before her nap.

Dealing with a wriggler

Some wriggly youngsters just won't sit still through all of Spot's Birthday Party. Don't worry about it. Just leaf through something short for a few minutes (or even seconds) and then let them go. The next day you can try a slightly longer session. Some children will always be more interested in running around than in reading. If your toddler is the physically active type, she may respond best to the non book-related activities described below.

Make storytelling a part of life

While you're at the dinner table or in the car, tell stories -- standards like Goldilocks and the Three Bears are fine, or anecdotes from your own childhood or stories that feature your child as a central character. Make books of your child's drawings or favourite photos, and tell stories about them -- or ask her to be the narrator.

Point out words everywhere

Wherever you go, you can show your child that words are an important part of everyday life. Even the youngest toddlers quickly learn, for example, that traffic signs say STOP. Alphabet refrigerator magnets are staples in many homes. Other families label objects around the house, such as the shelves that house BLOCKS, DOLLS, and other toys. If your child is in playgroup or nursery, slip a daily note into her lunchbox. Even if she can't yet read CAT, seeing the word printed on a piece of paper, along with a drawing or sticker of a cute kitten, will be a high point in her day and help excite her interest in reading. If this seems too ambitious, try drawing a heart or smiley face with a simple "I love you", which will help get your toddler excited about the meaning behind words.

Talk

Children from families who talk at the dinner table have larger vocabularies, according to researchers at Harvard University in the States. Talk with your toddler, and don't be afraid to use complex words and phrases. Encourage her questions and explanations. Toddlers are curious and wonder endlessly about the world, so don't be shy about trying to explore her interests with her.

Demonstrate your own love of books

Your child wants to imitate you. If she sees books all around the house and knows that you like to settle down with one whenever you have a moment to yourself, she'll learn that books are essential to daily life. Showing her your own love of reading is more powerful than making your child sit through a rigid story time.

Gene Discovered in Childhood Language Disorder Provides insight into reading disorders.

2010-01-15T03:32:00.000-08:00

Gene Discovered in Childhood Language Disorder Provides insight into reading

The recent discovery of a gene associated with specific language impairment (SLI), a disorder that delays first words in children and slows their mastery of language skills throughout their school years, offers new insight into how our genes affect language development [Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 1(4): 264-282]. The finding is the result of a collaborative team effort headed by Mabel Rice, PhD, a University of Kansas professor and NIDCD-funded scientist.
The gene, KIAA0319, appears to play a key role in SLI, but it also plays a supporting role in other learning disabilities such as dyslexia. The finding is important for children with SLI and their families, and it is also likely to improve the classification, diagnosis, and treatment of other language, reading, and speech disorders.

SLI affects an estimated 7 percent of 5-6 year olds. Yet it is often overlooked as a diagnosis because children with SLI typically don't have severe communication problems or an obvious cause for the impairment, such as hearing loss. "These children are less likely to start talking within a normal timeframe," said Dr. Rice. "They may not begin to talk until they're three or four. And when they finally do talk, they use simpler sentence structure and their grammar may seem immature." Language impairments such as SLI also appear to increase the risk for reading deficits.

Often childhood language difficulties are seen as only a mild problem, or something kids eventually grow out of, but Dr. Rice says that's not true. "It persists. We know they don't catch up and their limitations in language continue as they move forward in school and then out into the workplace."

Because SLI tends to run in families, scientists suspected that genes played a role. But tying the presence of a specific genetic mutation to SLI, or to any inherited language impairment for that matter, had eluded researchers until recently.

A total of 322 individuals took part in the study, selected from a large pool of children, parents, and other family members participating in an ongoing investigation of the long-term outcomes of children with SLI. Each individual in the study was put through a battery of tests to assess speech, language, and reading skills. Standard diagnostic tests-the same tests that speech pathologists use to diagnose language and learning disabilities-were used to establish measurable behavioral traits that can act as symptoms of SLI, much as how fever is a symptom of the flu.

Using saliva samples to collect the DNA, the team identified a group of candidate genes-genes that previous studies indicated might have an association with speech or reading disabilities-and looked for mutations that corresponded with SLI's behavioral traits. Dr. Rice and her team scanned millions of letters of genetic code looking for mutations that family members have in common.

They discovered that mutations in one of the candidate genes for reading disability, KIAA0319, had a strong effect on the language traits that are characteristic of SLI, traits that can also be present in dyslexia, some cases of autism, and speech sound disorders (conditions in which speech sounds are either not produced, or produced or used incorrectly).

The next question, according to the researchers, is what does this gene do to affect how we learn language? "It could be a gene that's necessary in the development of the cortex, the area of the brain where we do most of our language processing," said Dr. Rice. "Or maybe it's a gene that's important for setting up neural pathways that are responsible for allowing language to emerge on time. It could be a gene, or one of a family of genes, that sets the stage to make language happen."

Dr. Rice contends that these findings lend support to the idea that difficulties with reading and understanding printed text may be coming from the same genes that influence difficulties in learning language. If this is so, she says, early detection and diagnosis will be the key to helping children with SLI close the reading gap between themselves and their peers. Interventions targeted to the preschool years, she adds, when neural pathways in the brain's language regions are still plastic and open to change, can give preschoolers the chance to develop their vocabulary and language skills in play settings and improve their ability to communicate once they enter school.

Even better, this discovery takes the shame and blame out of SLI. In the past, parents were often blamed for their child's disability and told that they hadn't read to them enough. Children with SLI were called lazy or accused of not working hard enough. Now, with the evidence that SLI is caused by a genetic mutation, parents and children know that talking on time or speaking correctly isn't something that youngsters with SLI can will themselves into doing.

Telespeech Practice: Reaching the Underserved

2009-11-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

Rebbecca is a 4 year-old with a severe language learning disorder. She lives in a remote area where she has access to speech services twice in six months. In another part of the country or the world, an SLP looks for opportunities with flexible hours, avoid traveling costs and tremendous amounts of paper work. How can both their needs be met? This is where ‘Telespeech Practice’ (TSP) comes in. In ASHA's recent position statements (2005), telepractice is defined as "the application of telecommunications technology to delivery of professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client, or clinician to clinician, for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation."
Speech-Language Pathologists are increasingly applying tele-health technology to provide training, education, assessment, and intervention. Here is an example of an existing system for a school environment: the student at the school (with the help of teacher’s aide) will connect to the SLP at her online office with a secure login. The SLP will work on goal-directed activities established in her lesson plan via the webcam and conclude the ses-sion by assigning homework and video messages for later viewing in a Virtual Backpack. The child can login at home or at school and do the assigned homework with a caregiver. Progress notes and reports are generated during and after each session so that the special education team including parents have access to the child’s goals, progress, and related activities.
Benefits and Challenges
Increasing need for services, shortage of personnel in rural areas, and the benefit of receiving services in clients’ home community makes telepractice critical (Kully, 2008). Besides being cost effective and environment-friendly, all documentation can be stored, completed and sent securely online. Students can also avoid missing school days by not travelling to a distant hospital or practice. A good clinical relationship can easily be achieved with the client (Brick, 2008) and active involvement of teachers and parents also helps with generalization of goals beyond the clinical sessions. School administrators welcome the idea of helping a child whose clinical needs might not be met otherwise. The biggest drawback of telespeech practice is the unavailability of hands-on treatment for clients with issues such as articulatory placement. Technical problems can also pose a glitch at any time. Despite these, telespeech therapy for stuttering, articulation, dysphagia, and stroke have shown reliable results in various programs of telespeech practice across the United States (Mashima, Birkmire-Peters, & Holtel,1999; O'Brien, Packman, & Onslow, 2008).
The children I work with are excited each time they see me on the computer and often have others students vying for this online attention! They achieve goals via fun interactive games and often have to be forced to end the session. I have found that telepractice is a wonderful service deliv-ery model that has the potential to fill the gap in speech-language treatment services.

References:
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2005). Speech-Language Pathologists Providing Clinical Services via Telepractice: Position State-ment [Position Statement]. Available from www.asha.org/policy.
Brick, M. (2008). Addressing Rural populations and the Speech language Pathologist shortage with Telepractice. Presented for ASHA 2008, Chicago.
Mashima, P., Birkmire-Peters, D., & Holtel, M. (1999). Telehealth applications in speech-language pathology. Journal of Healthcare Information Man-agement, 13(6), 71–78.
O'Brien, S., Packman, A., & Onslow, M. (2008). Telehealth Delivery of the Camperdown Program for Adults Who Stutter: A Phase I Trial. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51(1), 184-195.

Narrative Skills

2009-11-21T06:23:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Narrative Skills

View more presentations from William Breitsprecher.

Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All

2009-10-26T16:56:00.000-07:00

Here is an article that a friend forwarded.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html?cnn=yes

Digg

The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.

It's not the first blow to baby videos, and likely won't be the last. Mounting evidence suggests that passive screen sucking not only doesn't help children learn, but could also set back their development. Last spring, Christakis and his colleagues found that by three months, 40% of babies are regular viewers of DVDs, videos or television; by the time they are two years old, almost 90% are spending two to three hours each day in front of a screen. Three studies have shown that watching television, even if it includes educational programming such as Sesame Street, delays language development. "Babies require face-to-face interaction to learn," says Dr. Vic Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "They don't get that interaction from watching TV or videos. In fact, the watching probably interferes with the crucial wiring being laid down in their brains during early development." Previous studies have shown, for example, that babies learn faster and better from a native speaker of a language when they are interacting with that speaker instead of watching the same speaker talk on a video screen. "Even watching a live person speak to you via television is not the same thing as having that person in front of you," says Christakis.Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."

This growing evidence led the Academy to issue its recommendation in 1999 that no child under two years old watch any television. The authors of the new study might suggest reading instead: children who got daily reading or storytelling time with their parents showed a slight increase in language skills.

Though the popular baby videos and DVDs in the Washington study were designed to stimulate infants' brains, not necessarily to promote language development, parents generally assume that the products' promises to make their babies smarter include improvement of speaking skills. But, says Christakis, "the majority of the videos don't try to promote language; they have rapid scene changes and quick edits, and no appearance of the 'parent-ese' type of speaking that parents use when talking to their babies."

As far as Christakis and his colleagues can determine, the only thing that baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids. "There is an assumption that stimulation is good, so more is better," he says. "But that's not true; there is such a thing as overstimulation." His group has found that the more television children watch, the shorter their attention spans later in life. "Their minds come to expect a high level of stimulation, and view that as normal," says Christakis, "and by comparison, reality is boring."

He and other experts worry that the proliferation of these products will continue to displace the one thing that babies need in the first months of life — face time with human beings. "Every interaction with your child is meaningful," says Christakis. "Time is precious in those early years, and the newborn is watching you, and learning from everything you do." So just talk to them; they're listening.

Nursery Rhymes And Language Development

2009-10-20T01:34:00.000-07:00

My son, who is 2.5 years old has been learning a few nursery rhymes over the past 6 months. He has been hearing it since he was a baby. Recently , I bought a second hand book of common nursery rhymes which had a CD in it too. He was just too captivated , listening to the CD and also following the song in the book. It's only been a few weeks and he has learnt 3 rhymes and 2 rhymes (earlier heard and learnt)have become clear, speech vice.

Some observations:

He pays more attention to the words and music. Consequently, I have seen he plays more by himself (giving me some time to do things)(Increased attention ans concentration span with creative play)
Tries to follow the words in the book for each individual rhyme, thus building awareness of print and sounds heard( building up Phonological awareness). Exploring the illustrations and talking about them.
Sings along with the music and has improved catching up with the words.

Some researchers have found that children’s early knowledge of nursery rhymes is related to their development of emergent reading abilities, specifically phonemic awareness skills (i.e. the awareness of sounds and their association with letters within words). Reading skills are the not the only skills they develop. Listening and thinking skills are developed along with singing rhymes.

What you can do:

Expose your child to a rhyme either through you singing or through a CD repeatedly. So they will become familiar to it.
Associate actions along with those that you know. Encourage them to participate but don't force them.
If you have a book with the rhymes , show them and read along with them pointing your finger to each word. Explain the illustration and talk about the rhyme.Stimulating discussions are a great way to build oral language and comprehension skills.
Repeat , Repeat and repeat. Is the key to your child learning and enjoying the rhymes.

Have fun singing and dancing with your children!

Listening to the Whole Sentence

2009-10-02T00:11:00.001-07:00

Listening to the Whole Sentence

How to deal with listening and comprehension difficulties caused by complex sentences.

By Susan Zimmerman, MA, CCC-SLP

Many of the students we work with have difficulties with listening and comprehension, especially when they encounter sentences that are longer than five to seven words. They usually can interpret simple declarative and interrogative sentences, but they may need to have them repeated.

What happens to children's ability to listen and comprehend when sentences are longer and more complex and express gradations in meaning? How can they "listen their way" through these sentences and interpret the meaning? We can express great thoughts with simple sentences, such as "Love is kind" or "It hurts to be hungry." But what if we want to talk about relative values or conditional truths? We have to use more complex language, like "Because love is kind, I will show I love you by being kind to you," or "It hurts to be hungry, but it's worse to be hungry and alone."

One of the great rewards of practicing speech therapy is taking complex skills and breaking them down into parts. Not only does this help students learn how to manage the parts of speech and language, it helps them put everything together.

There are many ways to create complex sentences. We typically use coordinating or subordinating conjunctions and adverbs to combine phrases and clauses. I present the main part of a complex sentence and help students understand how to manipulate it to refine meaning.

The first step is to get some sentence strips big enough so all students at the therapy table can see them easily. Write adverbs and conjunctions on individual slips of construction paper or index cards, and give each student a small pile. Each child should have identical stacks of words. I suggest using the following words or phrases: "because," "since," "or," "when," "although," "however," "but," "except" and "even though." I would not put "and" in the stack because it doesn't help with auditory complexity.

Present a simple sentence on the sentence strip. Leave an underscore at the beginning and end of the sentence to allow room for the adverb or conjunction. Read the written sentence, such as "I like apples," to the group, then alter the sentence by saying something like, "Although I like apples, I like oranges better." You then can perform the following steps in any order:

Students repeat the expanded sentence.
They find the adverb or conjunction in their pile.
They identify whether it came at the beginning or end of the original sentence.
Question students about the meaning of the sentence. Does this person like apples? Do they like oranges? How do you know? If they had a choice, which one would they pick?
Do they agree with the expanded sentence? How would they change it if they could? Would they turn it around? Would they add another fruit?

Depending on the needs of your group, you can stay with this one sentence for the entire session or move on to another sentence, such as "Basketball is fun to watch." You can expand this sentence in the same way depending on the needs of your group. For example, you can say, "Although basketball is fun to watch, I like football better," or you can expand it to say, "Basketball is fun to watch, although it gets very noisy!"

Go through the steps each time you expand a sentence. I do not recommend writing down the expanded sentence because the main point of the lesson is to improve auditory processing. We are working on helping students understand what they hear the first time they hear it, and we want to give them as many trials as possible in the time we have with them. Writing down sentences can come a little later when they are sure of what they have heard.

One reason I like this therapy activity is that all preparation can be done ahead of time and saved for many sessions. Since only the basic sentence is written on the sentence strip, you can expand it differently the next time without the need for more preparation.

You can use this lesson at any age, depending on the needs of your students. They don't have to be able to read. As long as one student in the group can find the written adverb or conjunction, he or she can show the others. Students also can guess until they find it.

After completing a sufficient number of lessons, students will become comfortable with the process and demonstrate an increased understanding of complex sentences. You then can let them make up their own sentences. Either you or the students can suggest a core sentence, and they can take turns expanding it in different ways. Make sure they are listening to and understanding each other. It's important to check for comprehension frequently by asking questions.

I do not use this as a grammar lesson about parts of speech. I don't even use the words "adverb" or "conjunction." I just call them words to help us tell more.

Susan Zimmerman is on staff at Madison Elementary School in Madison, ME. She can be contacted at szimmerman@mes.sad59.k12.me.us.

Summer is over!

2009-09-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Summer is over!

After a great relaxed summer, things must get back to how it used to. Work, New clients, new learning, new discussions.
Look out for new developments, articles and discussions in this blog. I will be posting once a week on Wednesday.
Have a great week!

Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily

2009-07-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer Tue Jul 21, 3:08 am ET

WASHINGTON – The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?

New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.

"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.

Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.

Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.

Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.

Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.

"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.

It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.

Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.

The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns — nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time — like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba — while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.

While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.

"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."

Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.

What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.

Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.

Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.

"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.

But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.

"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."

___

EDITOR's NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Strategies for Summer Reading for Children with Dyslexia Dale S. Brown (2007)

2009-06-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some summer strategies to help your child with dyslexia remember what they learned in school and see that reading can be useful and enjoyable:(picked up from the website for reading rockets)

Give them material that motivates them to read, even though they might find it hard to do. Try comic books, directions for interesting projects, and mystery stories. Have them read information on possible activities as you plan your summer vacation. Let them decide what they want to read.
Support them as they read. Read their book aloud to them, help them decode, and make it easy for them to get the meaning. Even if a question is asked again and again or if you feel irritated, act happy that they asked. Show them that reading is a way to find out what they need to know, or even to entertain themselves.
Give them easy reading. Summer is supposed to be relaxed. Let them succeed and get absorbed in the book.
When you read with them, make it your goal to enjoy the book together. You don't have to make them read perfectly! Avoid too much correction. In school next year, the teacher will help them improve their skills.
Let younger children "pretend" to read. Read the story aloud together. Let them follow your voice. Have them look at the words as you point to them, even if they aren't actually reading. When they say the wrong word, say the word correctly and cheerfully while pointing to the word.
Read aloud to them as you do daily chores, sightsee, or sit on the beach. Read an instruction manual with them as you try to fix something. While visiting a museum, read the interpretive materials. If you see the slightest sign they want to read aloud to you, let them!
Model and teach persistence. When you are working on something that is hard, model the discipline and patience that you want them to show while learning to read. Teach them explicitly the value of working hard to do something challenging. Tell them inspirational stories about famous people -- or members of your own family -- who have overcome obstacles.
Accommodate their dyslexia. For example, if they have to read aloud in public, have them memorize their passage ahead of time. Ask the teacher or camp counselor to request volunteers to read rather than pass the book from one person to another. If you give them a recipe for cooking (or any project involving written directions), be sure that it is at their reading level and that the print is large enough for them.
Be a model of reading. Bring books to the beach and read them. If you are traveling, find a book for the whole family to read and discuss. If you are dyslexic, "read" your taped books on vacation, letting your child see you or give them their own tapes. Show and tell them how you overcome your own difficulties.
Have reading matter conveniently available. You might carry small children's books and magazines with you and have them ready when you must wait in line for those crowded amusement park rides and popular sightseeing destinations.

The summer months are important to your child's academic development in two ways. First, they need to be reminded of what they learned during the school year so that they remember it when they return in the fall. Second, and perhaps more important, children with dyslexia can discover the joys of reading and other academic skills in the relaxed summer season. If nobody tells them they have to read to get good grades, they might just pick up a book and enjoy it.

Reaping the rewards of reading to your child

2009-06-02T03:52:00.000-07:00

Nothing can be more satisfying and rewarding than reading to our children. My son is 2 years old now. And after reading to him these past two years, he has started to say bits of a story. The other day after reading the story of Jonah and the whale many times over the months, Benjamin sat narrating the story to me.
Jonah said no. Big fish AAA UM(expression for ate him). Jonah said yes God. Big Fish toop(spat him out).
As simple as that.
He is learning to construct short phrases.
He is learning to fit together the connection in the story.
He is learning to narrate out the story to me with sound effects and gestures.
He is having a conversation with me.

Continue reading... reap the benefits.....

The hardships and blessings of raising a special needs child

2009-05-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview with a mom, with a special needs child. Read and find hope and peace in any situation you are in.

Up Close & Personal with Maura Weis

The hardships and blessings of raising a special needs child.

by Mary Darr

Friday, November 28, 2008

Maura Weis co-authored Miles from the Sidelines: A Mother's Journey with Her Special Needs Daughter (Sorin Books, 2008). This heartfelt book describes the emotional and spiritual journey the Weis family has experienced with Hannah (13), whose name means grace of God. Maura has been married to Charlie, the football coach for the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, for 16 years, and also has a son Charlie, Jr. (15).

In 2003, they started Hannah and Friends (hannahandfriends.org) to give out grants of up to $500 to people with low to moderate income who have kids with special needs and need a special bike, or therapeutic horseback riding lessons or music therapy. A year ago they purchased 30 acres in South Bend to build 16 residential homes for adults with special needs.

MomSense Editor Mary Darr talked with Maura about the challenges and blessings of raising a special needs child. Editorial assistance was provided by MOPS Area Coordinator Peggy Brinkmann from Wisconsin.

Describe your daughter's developmental delays

Although Hannah was diagnosed with autism when she was 2½ years old, that diagnosis never sat right with me. My maternal instinct told me that something wasn't right with Hannah, but it wasn't autism. I'd tell the physicians, "She's really not talking." And they'd say, "That's OK, but does she understand?" I wasn't sure what she understood. But I knew something was wrong with her diagnosis.

Ten years later we discovered Hannah has a rare seizure disorder called Landau Kleffner Syndrome, which starts around age 15 to 18 months. That's when Hannah's developmental complications emerged. We didn't see the seizures happening because they occurred at night. But they caused her mental retardation and developmental delays.

How is Hannah doing today?

She's 13, and the doctors told us her seizures will end in her mid-teens. But we did an EEG back in April, and found out she's seizure-free!

Every night when I put Hannah to bed, she asks me, "Are you happy?" She's so sweet! Other people have 13-year-old daughters with whom they're struggling with so many issues, and we have the sweetest teenager ever. Hannah is like a 4- or 5-year-old who has a limited vocabulary of about 50 words. She perceives much more than what she verbalizes. She's a smart girl, though, and knows how to get her point across. And she's very independent. You can sit with her for awhile, and when she's had enough of you being around, she'll escort you to the door and say, "See you later."

We take care of all her daily hygiene—we have to brush her teeth and bathe her. But she's really great about it; a lot of kids with special needs are not. I look at our life with Hannah as something God wants us to do. We love her no matter what—that's unconditional love.

Did you struggle with how and why this happened to your daughter?

I don't know how this happened to my daughter. Maybe it was from the extensive kidney surgery she had at two months old. The doctors can't answer those questions. I do struggle knowing none of the seven specialists I took her to over the years thought to give her an overnight EEG to determine if she was having seizures. Why did it take until she was 10 to discover she was having seizures, and then to age 12 to learn there was a name for it? I try not to think about it much because I want to remain positive. At least we found out what was happening to Hannah. If we'd found out earlier, I'm sure she'd still have delays, but they may not have been as severe.

Did you blame yourself?

I asked myself, What had I done wrong while I was pregnant with her? I thought of everything I'd eaten during my pregnancy. I didn't drink. I've never done drugs. I knew I'd had a virus and was sick for two days. But I cannot blame myself. And I don't blame my husband. We both know this is the child God wanted us to have. She was supposed to be in our lives no matter what. We were meant to be together.

How has Hannah impacted your family?

My husband and I are super close, and one of the reasons is because of Hannah. Our whole family is closer because of Hannah. We're a team; together we figure things out. Hannah has taught me every day is a blessing. She wakes up with a smile on her face even when she hasn't gotten much sleep. And she never complains about all the things she has to deal with: limited vocabulary, fine motor and major motor skill problems, poor eyesight.

Where have you found support as a parent of a special needs child?

I'm a happy person by nature, but after Hannah was diagnosed with autism, I felt sad and depressed. Having a child with special needs is so devastating early on. I knew my kids deserved a happy mom, so I went to counseling one hour a day, once a week for nine months. I was able to talk through my grief.

Some people with special needs kids like to join groups. But those groups didn't work for me. I found help on the Internet. I also found help at Hannah's school from other moms who had older children with special needs. They thought positively about their situation and embraced it. And my husband, Charlie, has been a tremendous support. Both parents of a special needs child experience separate times of mourning and then of moving forward to embrace their child for who she is. Kids with special needs are God's special children. That's why I say in my book that parents who receive them are special, too. But God has helped me the most. And I feel closer to him now more than ever. My trust in him leads me along the path I follow.

How can someone sensitively ask about your child's special needs?

I've felt a lot of prejudice toward Hannah from other people. But there also were some adults and children who would say to me, "Can I ask what's wrong?" I embraced them because I'd rather a person be honest. Sometimes Hannah would have a meltdown in the store. But if only someone would have just said, "Could I give you a hand?" It doesn't cost anything to offer help instead of looking at someone as though their child's a brat. It's been difficult because Hannah looks normal and then will have a complete meltdown. I understand people are scared, but it's time for us to step out of the box and be kind. And people who've extended their hand to us have been happy they've gotten to know Hannah.

How can moms offer support to a mother with a special needs child?

Offer her an hour to go to the gym, to read a book, to go for a walk or even to go to the store without her child. That hour is like gold! It doesn't cost any money. Yes, it's going to be a difficult hour. But once you get to know that child, you'll look forward to your time together. And your friend will be so grateful.

Or help a mom attend church. For instance, we can't bring Hannah to church because she can't sit for an hour.

It's also like gold to a parent when you say, "I know you're going through a really hard time. If you ever need me, I'm here to listen to you." Moms of normal children may feel uncomfortable reaching out. I've lost friends because they couldn't accept my daughter. But when you can reach out, your friendship will be deepened for life.

How do you create a "normal" life for the sibling who doesn't have special needs?

Parents of special needs kids should never forget they have another child. Our son has had a good childhood because we've made sure he's gotten the attention he deserved. We've taken him on vacations with us by himself. That's important, especially since he's a teenager. Hannah doesn't travel well, and he needs his alone time with us. When he was younger he'd say to me, "Mommy, that's enough Hannah time; time for me now." And the normal children will be the ones to help your special needs adult when you're gone. You want to make growing up a good experience for them so they don't resent their sibling for getting all the attention.

What would you say to a mom who's struggling to accept her special needs child or who's angry at God for "allowing her child to suffer"?

There is always so much guilt surrounding parents of a special needs kid. I tell people, "Don't feel guilty because that's another negative emotion you're going to put on top of the ones you feel already."

I don't think God points his finger at us and says, "This is what's going to happen to you!" Some things just happen in life. It's difficult to realize your child is never going to do the things normal children do. And being angry at God can be a very natural response. But God can take it if we're angry at him for a period of time. He's there for us no matter what. He understands.

This article first appeared in November/December 2008 issue of MomSense. Used by permission of MOPS International, Denver, Colorado 80231. You can find this article at:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/momsense/2008/novdec/10.8.html

www.ChristianityToday.com

Playing,Reading and Talking to your 2 year old(Part 1)

2009-05-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

Regular play times together build up a bank of shared experiences which provide wonderful conversational topics.He is at a stage when adult suggestions sensitively given can do much to help him make imaginative leaps in his pretend play and also to find out many wonderful ways in which play material can be used.

Make sure that the setting is quiet. Switch of T.V or radios. Sit at his level.
Make sure the toys are intact and are kept in the same place so that your child knows exactly where they are and doesn't need to be distracted by searching for them.
Have a clear area of floor or table top so that he has plenty of room to play.
During play, for e.g. fixing Lego blocks ;you are creating an imaginative space for him and later, him wanting to try his hand in creating different things.
Give a running commentary of what you are doing with funny sounds and play words. Wait for responses from him, ask questions(Do you want this red block?Is it hard to fix? Do you want help? Is that a car you are making?).
If he walks away or takes something else , don't stop him and force him to play that activity. Their attention and concentration is only so much. Insist on putting away that toy and then take the new one.
Wanting the best for our child , we buy a lot of toys. Electronic, plastic,talking, interactive, educational..... A simple set of stacking cups and a cardboard box is one of the many simple inexpensive toys you can provide for your child and his imagination. So chill out! Don't feel bad that you cant afford to buy these expensive toys.
Do not display all his toys in his toy box or play room. He is more likely to play and mess with everything and naturally loose value for these toys and not to mention their various parts and pieces. Put a few of them away and bring out after a few months. When you bring out some new ones , put away some old ones. This helps you a lot , when they easily get bored with their toys. Old ones seem to look so new again!
Teaching them to put away their toys in the respective place is very important. Or you end up always putting them away a million times. Make strict rules. Tell them,'You don't put them in their boxes, you don't get to play with them'. Enforcing this can take time and effort. But once established , its worth all the time and effort. They also develop respect and value for their things.
Do not direct the play and conversation during play so much. Give way for them to develop their own pace and their own optimum learning situation. Giving streams of directions like ' Come and look at this', 'Now do this jigsaw', Finish this', put it this way' is not what your child wants to hear. It can now, however be enormously helpful to make some suggestions in order to help her extend her pretend play.
It is also very important to show her the various ways in which different play materials can be used. It's best, when showing her a new activity, to start it and then to withdraw and let her try it out for herself. She will let you know as soon as she wants your further involvement. A Canadian study , found that a group of children whose mothers showed a high level of intrusiveness into their children's play had significantly lower language attainments than did a group whose mothers followed their children's lead.

I hope these tips prove useful when you play with your little one. More to follow soon on reading and talking to your 2 year old.
Any comments or more ideas on playing with your children are appreciated.

Marnee Brick at ASHA

2009-05-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to watch Marnee at an interview at ASHA. Marnee Brick is an experienced Speech-Language Pathologist and business owner. Marnee has worked in many management capacities including the elected position of Director of Human Resources for the Board at a multidisciplinary therapy firm. In addition to partnering in private practice, Marnee worked as a speech-language consultant and supervisor for school boards, public health units, and medical centers in Canada and the United States. At TinyEYE, Marnee is lead contributor to software development and Director of Speech Therapy Services. Marnee believes in giving children a better tomorrow than they had yesterday and is an advocate for Speech Therapy Telepractice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xVJ13ZwRrk&feature=channel

Choosing Books for your Toddlers

2009-04-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

By now your toddlers may or may not be past the book nibbling,tearing stage. If they are you can move on gloss paper books. Here are some tips to remember while looking out for new books for your toddler:

Simple subjects that are related to your toddlers world
Make sure there are only a 2 to 3 lines in every page and the illustration as the background.
Include in your search , books containing Rhymes, repeated words, Noisy words(wow! hey! crash! boom! croack!bow wow!) .
Simple and bold graphics.
Have several basic concepts embedded in the book such as colors, numbers, shapes etc...
You don't always have to buy new books. Look out for School fairs where they sell second hand books, keep your eyes and ears open to friends selling their now grown children's books. Use your imagination on where you may get books!
Publishers sometimes indicate on the cover of the book the age level or grade level for which they think that book is most suitable. Don't hesitate to choose a book that may be suggested for someone older than your child.

As someone once quoated,"A book is an unlimited investment in the human mind and spirit. Its selection deserves thoughtful attention".

Early TV Viewing No benefit in cognitive development.

2009-04-24T01:09:00.000-07:00

Here is an article from ADVANCE. Even as a SLP I am often tempted to put my son infront of Bob the builder or Little Einstein,or Postman Pat so I can just go on with my work or do some household chores. Sadly,I have overcome my temptation fewer times. We tend to convince ourselves its educational. What I believe and end up practicing are worlds apart. And I know this holds true for many of you. Nevertheless, I hope to reduce my son's TV viewing time to 30 minutes a day. Start early or otherwise they whine and put up a fit when they want to watch something. This can begin from as early as 1.5 years.

Early TV Viewing
No benefit in cognitive development.

TV viewing before age 2 does not improve language and visual motor skills, according to a longitudinal study of infants, ages 0-3, at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. The findings reaffirm guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that recommend no television under the age of 2 and suggest that maternal, child and household characteristics are more influential in cognitive development [Pediatrics, 123 (3): e370-75].

"Contrary to marketing claims and some parents' perception that television viewing is beneficial to children's brain development, no evidence of such benefit was found," said lead author Marie Evans Schmidt, PhD, of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital.

The study analyzed data of 872 children from Project Viva, a prospective cohort study of mothers and children. Researchers visited mothers and their infants immediately after birth, at 6 months, and at 3 years of age. The mothers completed questionnaires regarding their child's TV viewing habits at ages 1 and 2.

The study is the first to investigate the long-term associations between infant TV viewing from birth to age 2 and both language and visual-motor skills at age 3. Researchers used the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test III (PPVT III) and the Wide-Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities (WRAVMA) test. The former measures receptive vocabulary and is correlated with IQ, while the latter assesses for visual motor, visual spatial and fine motor skills.

The researchers controlled for sociodemographic and environmental factors known to contribute to an infants' cognitive development, including household income and the mother's age, education, marital status, parity and postpartum depression, as well as the child's gender, race, birth weight, body mass index and sleep habits. They used linear regression models to equalize the influences of these factors and calculated the independent effects of TV viewing on cognitive development. Once these influences were factored out, associations in the raw data between increased infant TV viewing and poorer cognitive outcomes disappeared.

"TV viewing in itself did not have measurable effects on cognition," noted Dr. Schmidt. "TV viewing is perhaps best viewed as a marker for a host of other environmental and familial influences, which may be detrimental to cognitive development."

While increased TV exposure was found to have no benefit to cognitive development in infants, it was not found to be a detriment either. The overall effects of increased TV viewing time were neutral. However, TV and video content was not measured, only the amount of time children were exposed to it.

While follow-up studies need to be done, the researchers warned parents and pediatricians that the body of research evidence suggests TV viewing for children under age 2 does more harm than good.

"TV exposure in infants has been associated with increased risk of obesity, attention problems and decreased sleep quality," stated pediatrician Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health and contributing author of the study and the current AAP Guidelines. "Parents need to understand that infants and toddlers do not learn or benefit in any way from viewing TV at an early age."

Diploma in Special Education (Autistic Spectrum Disorder)

2009-04-24T00:44:00.000-07:00

Here is some information about 'Admission Notification for
Diploma in Special Education - Autism Spectrum Disorder 2009-10'

Diploma in Special Education (Autistic Spectrum Disorder)

Training Course 2009-2010

Admissions are open for Action for Autism (AFA)'s RCI(Rehabilitation Council of India) recognized course in Autism starting July 2009. A premier organization training therapists and teachers to work with individuals with autism and communication handicaps, AFA offers training in one of the most challenging and exciting areas of Special Education. AFA has pioneered teaching strategies based on extensive practical experience and internationally used sound behavioral principles, adapted to Indian condition. As in past years successful candidates receive placements in leading organizations in India.

Eligibility

Energetic and enthusiastic candidates who are creative, logical, intelligent, open to learning and willing to work hard are invited to apply. Graduates in Psychology, Education, Child Development, and Social Work preferred, though others including10+ 2 pass with 50% may also apply. Seats limited. Last date for submission of application is 29 May 2009.

For prospectus, application forms, or further queries contact:

Shikha Bhardwaj, Training Coordinator
National Centre for Autism

Pocket 7 & 8 Jasola Vihar
New Delhi 110025

Tel: 91 11 65347422, 40540991/92

Email: shikha.afa@gmail. com
Website: http://www.autism- india.org

Please mark envelopes 'DSE (ASD) 2009-10'

Twin Language .....Talking the Same Talk

2009-04-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

I was researching my new virtual collegue Mindy Hudon. I haven't met her (virtually) or had spoken to her yet. I was amazed at her achievements and am proud to say...''Hey, I work with her!''. These are yet one of the many advantages of working with Telepractice. Bless TinyEYE's Greg Sutton and Marnee Brick (with whom I work with) for making Telepractice happen. I am enjoying the new games the tech guys have introduced and enjoying figuring its possibilities with my speech therapy kids.

Coming back to Mindy Hudon, I found this article she wrote and not stress more than she has about the importance of language enrichment and importance of reading to toddlers (not to forget and stress more.. during pregnancy and to new borns as well). Enjoy reading her article and benefiting from her insights and experience!

Twin Language: Talking the Same Talk
By Mindy Hudon, M.S., CCC-SLP
When I visit a shopping or grocery store with my twin boys, well-intentioned people often ask, "Do they have their own language?"

"Yes," I say. "English!"
Idioglossia or "twin language" has been the focus of many research studies and has interested the public for years. It was once believed that twins could develop their own language unrecognizable by others. Today, research indicates that twin language is actually one twin modeling the immature or disordered speech pattern of their co-twin, which results in the incorrect use of speech sounds and grammar by both twins. If you've ever heard two children talking with delayed speech and language, you too may think they're talking in a foreign language.

Why do twins have trouble developing sounds and words? Well, research has suggested that twins are at greater risk for speech and language delays because of higher incidence of prematurity, low birth weight or limited individual communication with their parents.

If your twins are demonstrating delayed speech and language skills, then you know what I'm talking about. It's hard enough trying to communicate with twins, but when one or both are experiencing speech delays, your job gets even harder. "We knew at 18 months old that one of our twins' speech wasn't developing like his brother," says Maria Revell of Dallas, Texas, mother of twin boys. "His brother was talking in words and a few sentences. He was still putting words together and labeling things."

What's a Parent to Do?
As parents of twins, it is our role to help reduce their risk by providing a language-rich environment. Parents have a critical role in their twins' speech and language development. "We do everything we can. We let our son lead, find out what he is interested in and try to initiate language that way," says Revell. "These are the most important years, and we are trying to take advantage of that."

There are many things that you can do on a daily basis to encourage your twins' language development. First, you are in the best situation to help your twins. Because there are two children involved, you have a ready-made language group, and your twins always have a great communication partner! Also, they have an invested speech coach you! "Almost everything we do is play," says Revell. "Anything that we use (to encourage language) with one, we use with the other."

As a parent, you're the most important guide to language enrichment. What you say and how you say it will directly impact your twins' development of speech sounds and sentence length. Here are some suggestions:
You can never talk enough when you are with your twins. Talk about what you're doing and why you're doing it. Also, talk about everything your twins are doing. If you're pouring a glass of milk say, "Mommy is pouring some milk for you. You are thirsty. Here is your milk." When your twins are drinking the milk say, "Mmm, that milk tastes good. The milk is cold. Oh, you are drinking the cold milk." When you're talking to two children like this all day, you may find yourself sounding like a broken record. Rest assured, your efforts will pay off in the long run. Talking to each of your twins is one of the best ways to encourage language.

Avoid using "baby talk." If your twins say a word that is pronounced incorrectly, repeat it back to them the correct way, emphasizing the sounds in the words. Don't expect them to repeat it correcty back to you at that moment. However, praise any attempts they make to say the word. Your job is to provide them with the correct pronunciation of words. If you repeat baby talk, that's what your twins will use. Remember, even though baby talk may sound cute now, it won't when they're 3 or 4 years old.

Encourage your twins to talk! If your twins shake an empty cup at you and grunt, hold back the urge to take the cup and fill it. Instead, ask questions to encourage words, "What do you want? Tell Mommy, use your words." In the early stages of language development, it is important to praise any verbal attempts. If your twins say "oo," reinforce their attempt and say "juice." Expand on the word and say "I want juice." If your twins are using words and short sentences, then it is important they use words rather than gestures or grunts to communicate their needs. "Tell Mommy, 'I want juice.'" In the busy life of a parent of multiples, grabbing the cup and filling it is much easier than encouraging language. However, by taking the extra time to encourage language, you're helping your twins learn to be effective communicators and to learn that words are often more important than actions.

Take time to sit down on the floor with your twins and play with their toys. Children love to play, and it's a great way to build vocabulary, expand language and teach social communication skills like turn-taking, facial expressions, emotions and greetings. Make the toys come alive! For example, a stuffed teddy bear can walk, sleep, eat, ask for help, feel sad or happy and say "hi" and "bye." It is amazing what a teddy can do! Your twins will love the interaction time with you, and you can encourage so much wonderful language by just using puzzles, stuffed animals or even a ball.
Read, Read, Read

It's never too early to start reading to your twins. Research has indicated that even infants can benefit from being read to. As your twins grow, make reading a daily part of their routine. Finding the time to sit down and read a book after a long day can be difficult. Sometimes it feels easier to tuck them in bed than to take the time to read. I encourage you to spend a few minutes reading a book because the benefits will last your twins a lifetime. Reading to your twins will improve their language, vocabulary, attention and future reading success.

Here are some helpful tips when reading to your twins:
When you read to your twins, try to limit distractions with other books or toys.
Reading time should be "together time" with Mommy or Daddy and books.
Read with animation in your voice to gain their attention.
Talk about other pictures in the books that may be unrelated to the actual story.
Once your twins are familiar with the books, encourage their participation.
Allow them to finish a line in the story or point and name pictures in the book.
Ask them to find pictures in the book, and ask questions about the book as you read.

Reading tips for Preschoolers

2009-04-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

The importance of reading as early as possible has many benefits and only benefits. I read to my son often pointing to the print and the pictures and making it animated. He aboslutely loves it. Also, when my husband and I read a book separately he also pulls out a book and pretends to read it. He also pulls out some of my books and looks at the script and pretends to be reading aloud.(most of which is baby language). The importance of reading cannot be stressed more and that passion in me to not only let everyone know but do something about it runs high. Start a reading group with parents you know having small children. Read to a group of kids in schools or churches. Get passionate about reading. Read the following tips for preschoolers. More will follow for higher grades.

Read early and read often. The early years are critical to developing a lifelong love of reading. You can't start reading to a child too soon!

Read together every day.
Read to your child every day. Make this a warm and loving time when the two of you can cuddle close together. Bedtime is an especially great time for reading together.
Give everything a name.
You can build comprehension skills early, even with the littlest child. Play games that involve naming or pointing to objects. Say things like, "Where's your nose?" and then, "Where's Mommy's nose?" Or touch your child's nose and say, "What's this?"
Say how much you enjoy reading together.
Tell your child how much you enjoy reading with him or her. Look forward to this time you spend together. Talk about "story time" as the favorite part of your day.
Read with fun in your voice.
Read to your child with humor and expression. Use different voices for different characters. Ham it up!
Know when to stop.
If your child loses interest or has trouble paying attention, just put the book away for a while. Don't continue reading if your child is not enjoying it.
Be interactive.
Engage your child so he or she will actively listen to a story. Discuss what's happening, point out things on the page, and answer your child's questions. Ask questions of your own and listen to your child's responses.
Read it again and again and again.
Your child will probably want to hear a favorite story over and over. Go ahead and read the same book for the 100th time! Research suggests that repeated readings help children develop language skills.
Talk about writing, too.
Draw your child's attention to the way writing works. When looking at a book together, point out how we read from left to right and how words are separated by spaces.
Point out print everywhere.
Talk about the written words you see in the world around you and respond with interest to your child's questions about words. Ask him or her to find a new word every time you go on an outing.
Get your child evaluated if you suspect a problem.
Please be sure to see your child's pediatrician or teacher as soon as possible if you have concerns about his or her language development, hearing, or sight.

Reading to Toddlers

2009-03-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

How to Read :
For 2-4 year-olds

give your child time to look at the pictures before you read
ask, 'Where's the...?' 'What's that called?' 'What's she doing?'
always follow text with your finger as you read
with familiar stories, see if your child can join in or finish phrases
ask questions like: 'Why did he do that?' 'What happens next?'
discuss things you both liked/didn't like and why

Choosing Books - For Babies, Toddlers and Nursery Children

For children who understand most of what they hear, you need different books. Let your child choose, though some 'guidance' is often necessary.

You need these sorts of books:

a variety of different types of language to read to your child (including poetry, traditional stories and mystery as well as everyday stories)
a range of easier books with very few words, so that your child can begin to 'read' independently, by remembering a story which he has heard often
books which your child really likes for whatever reason

Don't forget: the written word is all around us. We don't only read books - we read shop names, road signs, shopping lists, advertisements, birthday cards.... All are a chance to show your child how reading works. There is even a bit of jargon to describe this writing: ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT.

Reading strategies in upper grades

2009-03-17T11:22:00.001-07:00

Here is a great presentation on various strategies for reading in upper grades. This is a great resource for those professionals involved in teaching dyslexics.
Uploaded on authorSTREAM by aSGuest4830

Picture Communication System:Points to Consider

2009-03-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

Stephanie Bruno Dowling, MS, CCC-SLP is a Speech Therapist currently working in Early Intervention in Delaware County, PA. Her blog serves as an open forum for Early Intervention in the ADVANCE newsletter.

Here is a line from her recent blog entry talking about how she shares her motto for an efficient communication system:

"The Four S's ? Simple, Sturdy and Supportive so that the child will be Successful! :I currently use a mix of several different methods to help the children I work with communicate at home. One technique incorporates the use of Mayer-Johnson Boardmaker® pictures."

To read the full article click on the link below:
The Four S's of a Good Communication System

Fun with '' R ''

2009-03-03T23:13:00.000-08:00

R MOVEMENT GAME

RACING FOR R Have your child act out some R words with you.
	Row	Run	Roll
	Race	Rake	Rope

R ANIMALS
Have your child pretend to be these R animals

	Robins	Road Runners	Rats
	Rabbits	Reindeers	Roosters

R LANGUAGE

RIDDLES & RHYMES

Here is a riddle, it’s also a rhyme. The word starts with “R”, every time
It’s long and coils and is often rough. Can you guess it, it’s kind of tough?	A: A rope
It’s round and red and grows on a tree. What do you think my riddle could be?	A: A red apple
It’s long and pointed and shoots through the sky. This riddle is hard and that’s no lie.	A: A rocket

RAINBOW RABBIT
Have your child make up a story about Rainbow Rabbit.
Include things in the story that start with the letter R.

Rural Speech Therapy Telepractice

2009-02-26T14:49:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Rural Speech Therapy Telepractice

View more presentations from Marnee Brick. (tags: pathology telepractice)

More recess time ,better behavior& increased learning

2009-02-20T02:06:00.000-08:00

Unstructured , more than 15 minutes recess time in school contributes to better social and cognitive skills, and they learn better. Now isn't that what we want in our children? The overall picture on the child's well being will always be important. These small changes contribute so much to their development.

Here is a part from the article that sums it up: The study suggests that a daily break of 15 minutes or more in the school day may play a role in improving learning, social development, and health in elementary school children. The study's principal investigator is Romina M. Barros, MD, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Einstein.

Read the article to know more on the current research:
http://speech-language-pathology-audiology.advanceweb.com/Editorial/Content/Editorial.aspx?CC=194190

On our toes with creativity

2009-02-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

Being a speech therapist, you need to constantly upgrade yourself on creativity. You need to have it in your gut too. When you see the child getting bored with one way of teaching, e.g. how to say a sound, you know its time to change strategy.

Here are two that I just discovered in between sessions:

1.When working on a target sound in the word level, instead of repetition and exaggerated production, you could sing the words to a familiar music to the child. We sang the other day (working on clusters st-) to Bob the Builder: story story,sto o o ry.its a new way of saying boring words. it teaches them to split words at different place depending on the music, working on intonation also.

2. We were learning to make short sentences with target words for articulation. Instead of making plain simple sentences like, "Spiders are scary" we made funny non sense sentences. For e.g.: "Spider: I saw a pink spider wearing a dress".

We have a great time laughing over it and child doesn't even feel its an exercise.

Come down to their level , when you teach them. It's a different view from where they are.

Who is using Telespeech Practice now?

2009-02-04T02:31:00.000-08:00

Among the various professionals using TSP(Telespeech Practice) here is an article in the website of LinguaCare who have taken steps to put this into practice. A special look at a few lines from the article:

The children loved the program and were disappointed if Vickie made an on-site visit and did therapy on-site instead of via Telespeech. At the end of the semester, questionnaires were distributed to students, teachers and parents in regards to the program with favorable comments made by all. Children were found to progress in their treatment program much as if they were seen directly by a therapist on-site.

Read more on the link below:
http://www.linguacare.com/professional-development/?page_id=2

What is Telepractice?

2009-01-28T04:48:00.000-08:00

What is Telepractice?

In ASHA's recent position statements, telepractice is defined as "the application of telecommunications technology to delivery of professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client, or clinician to clinician, for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation."

ASHA's position is that "telepractice is an appropriate model of service delivery for the professions of speech-language pathology [and audiology]. Telepractice may be used to overcome barriers of access to services caused by distance, unavailability of specialists and/or sub-specialists, and impaired mobility."

Telepractice offers "the potential to extend clinical services to remote, rural, and undeserved populations, and to culturally and linguistically diverse populations."

How Telepractice Is Being Used...

...By Audiologists:

* Infant hearing screening
* Hearing screening
* Hearing aid programming and counseling
* Auditory brain-stem response (ABR)
* Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs)
* Audiologic rehabilitation

...By Speech-Language Pathologists:

* To provide speech and language services to schools in remote or undeserved areas
* To provide voice, aphasia, or cognitive-communication treatment to satellite clinics from hospitals
* In clients' homes as an adjunct to home health visits
* For specialized services such as laryngectomy rehabilitation and augmentative and alternative communication

Client Selection for Telepractice

To select clients who are appropriate for assessment/intervention services via telepractice.

Knowledge and skills:

3.a. Understand the potential impact of physical and sensory characteristics on the client's ability to benefit from telepractice, and provide modifications or accommodations (as appropriate) for factors such as:

hearing ability,
visual ability (e.g., ability to see material on a computer monitor),
manual dexterity (e.g., ability to operate a keyboard if needed), and
physical endurance (e.g., sitting tolerance).

3.b. Understand the potential impact of cognitive, behavioral, and/or motivational characteristics on the client's ability to benefit from telepractice, and provide modifications or accommodations (as appropriate) for factors such as:

level of cognitive functioning,
ability to maintain attention (e.g., to a video monitor),
ability to sit in front of a camera and minimize extraneous movements to avoid compromising the image resolution, and
willingness of the client and family/caregiver (as appropriate) to receive services via telepractice.

3.c. Understand the potential impact of communication characteristics on the client's ability to benefit from telepractice, and provide modifications or accommodations (as appropriate) for factors such as:

auditory comprehension,literacy,
speech intelligibility, and
cultural/linguistic variables (e.g., availability of an interpreter).

3.d. Understand the potential impact of the client's support resources on his or her ability to benefit from telepractice, and provide modifications or accommodations (as appropriate) for factors such as:

availability of technology,
access to and availability of resources (e.g., telecommunications network, facilitator),
appropriate environment for telepractice (e.g., quiet room with minimal distractions), and
client's and/or family/caregiver's ability to follow directions to operate and troubleshoot telepractice technology and transmission.

Selection of Assessments and Interventions

To use technology to deliver appropriate assessments and interventions.

Knowledge:

4.a. Knowledge of the potential benefit of providing assessment/intervention in the patient's natural environment

4.b. Knowledge of the appropriateness of commercially available computerized clinical tools

4.c. Awareness of the potential impact on standardized tests, diagnostic procedures, and intervention strategies when administered via telepractice

Skills:

4.1. Selection and administration of formal and informal diagnostic tools at a distance

4.2. Identify supplemental tools/technology (e.g., fax machines, telephones) for clients to receive optimal services at a distance

Cultural/Linguistic Variables

To be sensitive to cultural and linguistic variables that affect the identification, assessment, treatment, and management of communication disorders/differences in individuals.

Knowledge and skills :

5.a. The influence of one's own beliefs and biases in providing effective services

5.b. The need to respect an individual's race, ethnic background, lifestyle, physical/mental ability, religious beliefs/practices, and heritage

5.c The influence of the client's traditions, customs, values, and beliefs related to providing effective services via telepractice

5.d. The impact of assimilation and/or acculturation processes on the identification, assessment, treatment, and management of communication disorders/differences when delivered via telepractice

5.e. The clinician's own limitations in education/training in providing services to a client from a particular cultural and/or linguistic community

5.f. Appropriate intervention and assessment strategies and materials, such as food, objects, and/or activities that do not violate the client's values

5.g. The need to refer to or consult with other service providers with appropriate cultural and linguistic proficiency, including a cultural informant/broker, as it pertains to a specific client

5.g. Ethical responsibilities of the clinician concerning the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services

Use of Support Personnel

To train and use support personnel appropriately when delivering services via telepractice.

Knowledge:

6.a. Guidelines for training, credentialing, use, and supervision of support personnel as described in the ASHA Code of Ethics (ASHA, 2003) and ASHA practice policy documents (ASHA, 1996)

6.b. State regulations regarding credentialing and supervision of support personnel

6.c. Information needed by support personnel about the technology and delivery of services via telepractice

Skills:

6.a. Selecting clients, clinical activity, and technology that are appropriate for support personnel during telepractice service delivery

6.b. Providing appropriate training to support personnel in the delivery of services via telepractice (e.g., patient and family/caregiver instruction, equipment check and maintenance, clinical task performance, record keeping, universal precautions)

appropriate training for privacy and electronic data interchange consistent with state and federal regulations

6.c. Providing appropriate supervision to support personnel (e.g., developing an effective relationship, providing feedback, and modeling appropriate communication and ethical professional conduct)

A new world of Telespeech Therapy

2009-01-23T03:41:00.000-08:00

I am proud to be part of a telespeech therapy practice.Being a team member in a pioneering work is fabulous. Its been 6 months since I have been giving children speech therapy through the internet to the opposite part of the world, sitting in the comforts of my home in my pajamas!!! How cooler can that get. Moving away from my comforts, its sheer joy to know that I and my team mates are helping out these kids(mostly in remote areas) where no speech therapists are available. We are making a difference!!!

In the next few weeks, I will be putting up posts introducing you to Telespeech Practice and what its all about.

Parents,your child can receive speech therapy (after looking into if he/she satisfies a few criterion).It has remarkable results. The kids love it and so will you.

And to you Speech therapists, it may be a questionable area,totally taking you out of your comfort zone, questioning your ethics, but it is a possibility. It is not just in its research stage, or scary territory. It has become an accepted part in the delivery of Speech and language services.

Selective Mutism

2009-01-15T22:15:00.000-08:00

My experience with Selective Mutism is quite limited and having a patient now, I haven't seen much of a breakthrough yet. Searching through the internet, I stumbled upon this paper presented at the ASHA 2008 by Jan Middendorf and Jessica Burungrud. It truly gave me a new perspective to treat and an encouragement, when I was running out of ideas. There are other fabulous handouts from this years ASHA convention that you can access.

Click on the link : http://convention.asha.org/handouts.cfm

Selective Mutism: Strategies for Intervention
ASHA 2008
Jan Middendorf, M.A,CCC
Jessica Buringrud, M.A.,CCC
Shaping Nonverbal to Vocal to Verbal Skills
Warm up activity

Non vocal act, such as stick out tongue, close teeth and smile, place upper teeth on lower lip. These acts were repeated with air flow, creating an approximation of the speech sounds /th, s, f/ respectively.
Non vocal blowing act and then stopping of the air stream at the level of the lips, then tongue tip at teeth, then at soft plate, creating an approximation of the speech sounds /p, t, k/ respectively.
Repeat above task with voicing (cue, make it noisy) to produce speech sounds /th, z, v, b, d, g/.
Introduce vowels by opening mouth after production of consonant. Shape vowel by describing mouth positions (fish mouth - /u/, cave mouth - /ah,/ smile mouth - /e/).
Slowly introduce true words with in content of consonant vowel repetitions (say, see, so, Sue, day, do, may, my bye, boo, key, etc.
Transfer repeated words to functional words. For example, say word “go” in order to get picture to appear on screen.
Continued to generalize us of true words, for example, name word in order to “win” it in card game.

The New Year

2009-01-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

TO KICK OFF....

I would like start off this new blog by wishing all of you a blessed new year.
In many ways this is a new phase in my life . I started my professional life here in The Netherlands 6 months ago. Things were really slow and uncertain in the beginning. But I must say, things are settling and new opportunities arose before the new year.

WHAT IS CHILDREN'S SPEECH THERAPY CORNER ALL ABOUT....

This blog will serve as an open forum on Preschool Speech therapy issues. This blog will try its best to highlight information on various disorders as related to speech and language development, on latest trends and technology, traditional and alternative treatment, my experiences with Telespeech Therapy Practice. In addition to this I will also try to list new books , website other resources .

Most importantly I want to equip and encourage , grow and learn from my fellow colleagues and parents. I want to provide a platform for parents to recieve help and guidance in making their life and the life of their children better. Their feedback and concerns will be welcomed with open arms.

Children's Speech Therapy Corner

Apps Mania

A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words: Using Photo Books to Increase Vocabulary, Grammar, and Narrative Skills

Word Acquisition in toddlers

Research Shows that Books without Text Can Increase Literacy, Vocabulary Skills in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Best Practices in the Evaluation of Autism Spectrum Disorders (Ages 0-3) WEBINAR

April is Autism Awareness Month

Early Signs of Autism

Early Signs of Autism

May is better Hearing and Speech Month

Reconnect

Play in Autism To improve social interaction and comprehension.

First Iphone application for Speech Therapists.

Play Routines In early language development.

Baby Wordsworth Babies: Not Exactly Wordy

News!

Guide to Communication milestones

“The Brave New World of the Cyber Speech and Hearing Clinic,” The ASHA Leader, Vol. 6, Dec. 11, 2001

Helping your child to love reading

Gene Discovered in Childhood Language Disorder Provides insight into reading disorders.

Telespeech Practice: Reaching the Underserved

Narrative Skills

Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All

Here is an article that a friend forwarded.

Nursery Rhymes And Language Development

Listening to the Whole Sentence

Summer is over!

Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily

Strategies for Summer Reading for Children with Dyslexia Dale S. Brown (2007)

Reaping the rewards of reading to your child

The hardships and blessings of raising a special needs child

Playing,Reading and Talking to your 2 year old(Part 1)

Marnee Brick at ASHA

Choosing Books for your Toddlers

Early TV Viewing No benefit in cognitive development.

Diploma in Special Education (Autistic Spectrum Disorder)

Shikha Bhardwaj, Training CoordinatorNational Centre for Autism

Twin Language .....Talking the Same Talk

Reading tips for Preschoolers

Reading to Toddlers

Reading strategies in upper grades

Picture Communication System:Points to Consider

Fun with '' R ''

Rural Speech Therapy Telepractice

More recess time ,better behavior& increased learning

On our toes with creativity

Who is using Telespeech Practice now?

What is Telepractice?

A new world of Telespeech Therapy

Selective Mutism

The New Year

Shikha Bhardwaj, Training Coordinator
National Centre for Autism