The UNEXPECTED podcast is a pregnancy and parenthood podcast hosted by Deborah Brooks. 

In this episode, Deb chats with fellow Speech-Language Pathologist, Allison Fors about the recent birth of her daughter who was born with cleft palate and micrognathia.

A cleft palate is an opening or split in the roof of the mouth that occurs when the tissue doesn't fuse together during development in the womb. A cleft palate often includes a split (cleft) in the upper lip (cleft lip) but can occur without affecting the lip.

Micrognathia, or mandibular hypoplasia, is a condition in which a child has a very small lower jaw. A child with micrognathia has a lower jaw that's much shorter or smaller than the rest of their face. Children may be born with this problem, or it can develop later in life.

Here's a little more on Allison:

I’m Allison, a speech & language resource author. A little bit about me…

I have primarily worked with diagnoses of autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays. My journey began when I realized most materials I was using weren’t engaging enough and weren’t targeted to effectively teach these populations. I realized I need to adjust my teaching to each child’s learning style and that the best learning happened when it didn’t feel like work!

That’s when I began making my own resources – especially for my pre-verbal, low attention kids. I found that interactive and engaging resources were an effective way to make progress with my students. I also found that if I made the resource flexible and adaptable with multiple goals to target (to meet a variety of needs and levels), I could use one resource with most of my students. After a few years, I began sharing and selling them!

My speech therapy resources are interactive and engaging, even for the hardest of kids to reach, and easily adaptable to target many goals and use with many students. Whether you are an SLP, special education teacher, ESL teacher, behavioral therapist, or parent, I hope you find my resources helpful! I am especially passionate about early language, understanding and incorporating sensory strategies into my sessions, and creating no prep and no print resources.

I also began making clipart to use in my resources and subsequently started selling them for other teachers to use in their educational materials! The images I make are functional and versatile to meet a variety of needs. They are appropriate for all ages (older students as well as younger) and are intentionally made to be able to teach language concepts and life skills. Each set comes with both color and black & white images in high-resolution PNG formats.

I love seeing how you are using my speech therapy resources and clipart in your classes and projects from around the world.

Please share them with me – on Instagram, Facebook, or via email!

I live in Sacramento, CA with my husband, our son and daughter, and 2 cats! I’m originally from the San Francisco Bay Area (Palo Alto) but I’ve also lived in Los Angeles, Utah, Hawaii, and Texas. I love all things outdoors, going on adventures, and traveling.

You can find me featured in the ASHA Leader (Jan 2018 edition, Jun 2019 edition, Mar 2020 edition) and on the Real Talk SLP Podcast and the Speechie Side Up Podcast.

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