The Speech Umbrella

Tongue ties, also referred to as tethered oral tissues (TOTs) can seem like a complex issue, but what it really comes down to is understanding when functional eating, speaking and sleeping are impaired. 

 This episode is a review of Merkel-Walsh and Overland’s book Functional Assessment and Remediation of TOTs. With the information in this book, SLPs gain a clear understanding of their role in diagnosing and treating clients with TOTs. 

 Therapists with a background in a muscle-based approach to speech therapy are best equipped to serve clients with TOTs. Here’s is a list of training resources the authors suggest:

 Ages and Stages

Beckman and Associates

Chrysalis Feeding

International Association of Orofacial Myology

Northern Speech Services

Talk Tools

The Academy of Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy

The PROMPT Institute

Getting a valid measurement on complex language skills is challenging. Rubrics are a great tool for measuring multiple skills with multiple levels of complexity. They can also be valuable motivators for clients to monitor their own progress.

Rubrics to the Rescue! discusses the when, how, who, and what of using rubrics in language therapy. 

As SLPs, problem solving is something we do every day with our clients. But add behavior challenges into the mix and progress can come to a screeching halt. Many of us don’t receive training in this area, even at the graduate school level. 

Sometimes the solution to challenging behavior shows itself when we step back and look at our clients in a new way,  or “with new eyes.”

This episode discuss how to be led by our observations rather than pushed by our problems, and what a difference it can make for our clients. 

A constant message in modern superhero media is that BIG
reactions are the ONLY solution. That’s not a great message for any
child, let alone those who already struggle with outsize reactions.

In The Dark Side of Superheroes, I explore
• Skills that are fundamental to controlling reaction size
• Problems with modern media
• Fantastic books that model matching the reaction to the size of
the problem.

When you teach your clients conjunctions, a little knowledge can become a dangerous thing. Sometimes clients start throwing conjunctions around like they’re going out of style, and their stories become one big mess. This episode describes ways to help clients get conjunctions under control. Be sure to check out the Simple Tools video, Conjunction Function, showing a fun idea to make conjunctions visual. 

Have you noticed your clients with language impairments really struggle to recall names? This can be a real communication barrier, both socially and in literacy development.     

 Stories are the fabric of our existence and they make up a large part of our conversation. When our clients are telling stories, not only do they default to vague and non-specific language frequently, they can't even recall a person's name to include in their story! 

This episode, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, is full of suggestions for teaching name recall.             

 As a bonus, in the Free Resource Library you can download THREE stories with the same main character. You get simple stories and name recall practice all in one package! 

Are you ready to talk about grammar? Infinitive verbs are early developing, and too often overlooked, but they are critical in early language and cognitive development.

 To Infinity and Beyond! explores infinitive verbs in depth, and how they empower communication. 

 Included in this podcast are:

•    Defining infinitive verbs—of course!

•    A quick overview of Developmental Sentence Scoring

•    Clinical examples of the power of infinitive verbs

•    Ideas for teaching

Materials from The Speech Umbrella to help teach infinitives, including an illustrated story from The Free Resource Library 

What About ABA? covers a few key questions to ask parents that can help them figure out whether ABA therapy is right for them. Look for the following in episode #57:

•   Questions to ask a potential ABA therapist

•   The philosophy behind ABA therapy

•   The philosophy behind relationship based approaches, such as Hanen and Floortime

The complexity of language development 

While we understand that communication is more than talking, it’s not always easy to explain why this is so to parents. Concepts that are so familiar to us—joint interaction, pragmatics, gesture development—are a whole new language for parents of kids with social communication disorders. 

 Hanen More Than Words gives SLPs the tools to coach parents on the non-verbal aspects of communication. Parents then become the experts in fostering social communication for their preschool age child. 

 In this episode you learn:

•    How Hanen works

•    What it means to OWL

The four stages of pragmatic communication 

We know many of our clients struggle with executive function. What’s one powerful way families can teach executive function to their children? Chores! In episode 55, Nate and Melanie Young describe their chore system. Their system teaches skills for executive function and self regulation in a realistic setting, and it just works.