The Speech Umbrella

Has it ever come to you in a startling, clear as a bell moment, that one of you clients has totally missed, skipped, and never even approached a skill they need in order to master the skill you’re trying to teach? 

 Do you have a client who: 

•    struggles with curiosity

•    lacks complex language development  

•    has a very narrow range of interests

 If so, it’s worth exploring whether they went through the development stage of asking “why?”

 This episode explores how to approach teaching “why?” with a school age client, and the many benefits that come with asking “why?” Here are just a few:

 •    Increase complex language

•    Increase precision in language

•    Increase variety of subjects a client can converse about

•    Increase Depth of Knowledge

•    Improve problem solving

•    Develop a growth mindset

 Check out the Free Resource Library on thespeechumbrella.com/free for a freebie that goes with teaching “why?” 

Sometimes our university training doesn’t leave us feeling confident treating pediatric voice disorders. Which makes it intimidating, to say the least, when you’re faced with a child with a voice disorder. You might even feel like you’ve landed in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language.

Been there, done that! The good news is

• You know more than you think you do.
• There are lots of accessible resources for you.
• This podcast sheds some light on where to begin and what to consider.

Here’s a sample from episode 73
“When you have a client like this, you can go down a rabbit hole investigating what the symptoms of various syndromes are and what the ramifications of this or that surgery are. I did that a little until I realized I wasn't going to find an answer. The answer was to just try. It's like throwing a noodle against the wall to see what sticks.”

Tune in to hear a success story about a client with complex communication needs. 

This episode is an interview with Dr. Teresa Ukrainetz, who specializes in school-age language intervention. 

 Her current research centers on how to help students with language impairments gain control of the words and ideas of informational text, and her brilliantly simply method for this intervention is called Sketch and Speak. 

 Here is a snippet from the interview: 

 “I really wanted to look at expository. I felt like we were largely at sea trying to figure out how to support learning of informational text and expository discourse, and it's extra hard compared to narrative in that it's based on new learning. . . Kids are not only learning how to tell a story or how to understand a story with expository, they're learning chemistry and biology and history, and so they've got a lot of new content they're handling.”

 Research has shown just how valuable Sketch and Speak is for improving spoken language, something SLPs realize as soon as they start using it. 

 Click on the links below for the basic procedure and to see a clinical example. Visit The Speech Umbrella’s free resource library for a two column note form, which is used in Sketch and Speak. 

When it comes to articulation carryover at home, wouldn’t it be great if all parents understood how to support their child? 

 This podcast does what we often don’t have time to do—it explains all about carryover, and gives parents realistic ways to support carryover at home. 

 Today’s episode covers:

•    What’s a tipping point and why is it important for speech therapy?

•    What is the SLP’s role?

•    What is the parents role?

•    What is the child’s role?

•    How to make home practice a positive experience

•    Ideas for FUN and EFFECTIVE home practice

 The number one take away when it comes to parents supporting generalization is: As the parent, your role is not to correct their speech, your role is to heighten awareness and accountability. Their role is to correct their speech. 

Therapy prep can be time consuming or painless— we all want more painless prep than painful! As you prep for therapy do you find yourself thinking:

 •    What can I do today that both fun and productive? And I’m sure my clients would appreciate something new!

•    I don’t have a big budget for materials, how can I best spend my money?

•    I need something more than fun, it needs to make a difference for my clients and have lots of opportunities for practice.

•    How can I teach self monitoring better? I’m sure if some of my clients could self monitor they would finally graduate!

 In my 30+ years as an SLP I’ve faced down all these questions and more, and I want to share some of my best kept secretes. That’s why I create Simple Tools videos. This podcast takes you on a tour of the Simple Tools library, and highlights just a few of the videos in the areas of language, articulation, attention, phonological awareness, autism, and fun stuff. 

This episode is a follow up to episode 68 on assessment cluttering. It’s about treatment, using the M.O.R.E. approach. More than a to do list, M.O.R.E. is a framework to help clients first make the cognitive changes that will lead to behavioral changes. 

 M.O.R.E. stands for motivation, ownership, recognition and earned fluency. If you’ve been wondering how to help a client who has plateaued in cluttering therapy, today’s episode is for you! Wondering what earned fluency is? Vivian Siskin shared this brilliant insight in a fluency course—“You don't learn anything from unearned fluency, you do from earned fluency.” Episode 69 will guide clinicians to helping clients get to earned fluency. 

 And because assessment and treatment of cluttering can get—well— cluttered,  there is a cheat sheet for the M.O.R.E. approach in the free resource library. 

This is part one of a two part series. Episode 68 covers nine areas to assess when treating cluttering, while part two covers the M.O.R.E. treatment technique. In part one the following assessments areas are discussed:

•  syllable collapse
•  articulation 
•  mid sentence revisions 
•  lack of complex language
•  run on sentences
•  missing details and context in personal narratives
•  syntax 
• prosody
• rate of speech 

Today’s podcast is focused on L. While there’s no doubt R can be a puzzler, L isn’t far behind. Final L can be one of the most perplexing sounds for clients to master. 

 In this podcast SLP Angie Lewis explains how to elicit precise final Ls. And we find out that it’s not so different from final vocalic R! Tune in as Angie walks us through all the steps needed to master L in all positions. 

Too many R clients get stuck somewhere between the sentence and conversation level, and can’t make the leap to mastery. Helping these clients achieve mastery of R (or any phoneme) involves a philosophy about how to engage a learner in learning. The closer you get to less structured therapy tasks, such as conversation, the fewer worksheets there are, because therapy becomes more about you —the pilot, and the passenger-your client, figuring out the remaining roadblocks to complete mastery of R. 

 This episode covers

•    Six roadblocks to R generalization 

•    Specific strategies for each roadblock

Materials to support mastery (because we do need some materials) 

Getting on the same page as parents when it comes to articulation therapy is challenging, and this is especially true when it comes to complicated sounds like R. As much as we want to educate parents, who has time to thoroughly explain co-articulation and motor requirements, let alone diving into secondary issues like phonemic awareness? 

 Concepts that are elementary to us can be hard for others to grasp in the short time we have to offer explanations. 

 That’s why you’ll find Making R Elementary, Dr. Watson valuable. I break R therapy down into these four easy, relatable concepts:

 •    Why R is complex

•    Effects of co-articulation

•    Secondary issues such as phonemic awareness, coping mechanisms 

•    Celebrating the small wins 

 Take advantage of these explanations to help you get on the same page with parents.