Dr. Alain Katic of Houston Clinical Trials joins us to answer parents' and professionals' questions about mental health and medication. He discusses how to tell if a medication is working, how long it takes to see changes, and provides information on side effects parents may see with certain medications. Many questions asked are related specifically to children who have speech, language and sensory processing difficulties. In addition, Dr. Katic provides background information on many common medications, including those used to treat ADHD, and gives a variety of parent resources for those seeking more information. This episode is recorded from a live virtual adult education session hosted by The Parish School in Houston, TX.

About Alain Katic, MD
Dr. Katic is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. He has an extensive background in psychopharmacology, autism, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, migraines in children and adolescents, adolescent and adult ADHD, and bipolar 1 depression. He has served as Medical Director for numerous hospitals and treatment facilities, including Houston Clinical Trials, where he currently serves as President and Medical Director. Dr. Katic and his research have been successfully published in reputable scientific journals and presented at scientific meetings.

For over 17 years, Dr. Katic has served as a principal and sub-investigator on over 200 Phase I-IV clinical trials in adult, adolescent and child psychiatry. As a principal investigator, he has conducted clinical trials for a comprehensive spectrum of indications, including ADHD, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, sleep disorders and substance abuse.

Related Links
Houston Clinical Trials website: Houston Clinical Trials

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The holidays are here, and our hosts are discussing several tried and true tips to help parents prepare for the challenges the season may bring. These tips are provided with children who have language and social challenges in mind, but they’re excellent for trying with all children as well.

This episode was originally recorded and released in December 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Holiday celebrations look very different in 2020, but many of these ideas are applicable for any year! In fact, this year, more than ever, it’s important to talk with your children ahead of time about changes and expectations for family activities, model self-care, and focus on staying regulated. 

From all of us at Unbabbled, 
Happy Holidays!

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Social-emotional learning is a vital part of education and development. Self-awareness, self-control and interpersonal skills are necessary for school, work and life success, but these skills may require direct teaching for children who have disabilities.

In this episode, we chat with Elizabeth Sautter, who provides practical strategies parents can use to build their child’s executive functioning skills, and help them to manage emotions and navigate social situations. Elizabeth also provides resources that parents can use to support their children’s goals at home. Throughout the episode, she doesn’t just focus on children, Elizabeth frequently stresses the importance of self-care for adults and gives realistic ideas beyond just bubble baths!

About Our Guest
Elizabeth Sautter, MA, CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist, author and presenter specializing in social and emotional learning for families. She is the founder of Make Social Learning Stick which provides consultation, training and resources to help children, teens and their families build skills and strategies to manage emotions, navigate social situations, and achieve their goals. She is author of Make Social and Emotional Learning Stick!, which provides parents with practical activities to help children manage emotions, navigate social situations and reduce anxiety. She is also co-owner of Communication Works, which provides speech therapy to schools and individual clients. Elizabeth has completed a mentorship with Michelle Garcia Winner for Social Thinking® and has co-authored two popular children's books, Whole Listening Larry at Home and Whole Body Listening Larry at School. Elizabeth is a collaborative trainer for Zones of Regulation and co-author of its game and storybooks. On a personal note, she has two teenage sons, a sister and cousin with additional needs related to social communication, self-regulation and executive functioning challenges. This makes her work not just a career, but a life endeavor.

Related Links:

• Make Learning Stick Website
• Making Learning Stick Parent Trainings
• Making Learning Stick Book
• Follow Elizabeth on Instagram

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Caring for a child with special needs, such as a communication disorder, learning difference or complex medical diagnosis, can be overwhelming. Families planning for the future of a child with special needs could benefit from additional support and financial resources. In this episode, we speak with financial planners Bryan Smith and Tinja Anderson of MassMutual Greater Houston to learn the basics of planning for your family’s unique financial needs. They provide clarity on complex issues like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security benefits, different types of trusts families with special needs may use, and what to keep in mind when planning for the future. They also share the types of services they provide to families to give holistic support now and through the next 20, 40 or 60 years.

About Our Guests
Bryan Smith is a financial planner for MassMutual Greater Houston who works with families to develop customized Life Care Plans using unique and personalized strategies that maximize financial efficiency. His passion to serve is born out of his personal journey and growth as the oldest brother to a sibling with special needs. He relates to siblings and parents about the highs and lows of caring for a person who has disabilities. Bryan assists families with a myriad of issues including understanding and accessing public benefits, preserving benefit eligibility through special needs trusts and guardianship concerns.

Tinja Anderson is a financial strategist whose mission is to leave anything she touches better than she found it. She is passionate about assisting her clients by reducing their fear of not having enough, and by working with a team of special care planners who assist her clients in navigating the complex world of special needs. As a sibling of someone who grew up with a severe speech disorder, she knows how important it is to find a community of support.

You can follow the Greater Houston MassMutual SpecialCare Team on Facebook for upcoming free webinars.

Helpful Links:

• Greater Houston MassMutual SpecialCare website
• SpecialCare Team Facebook Page
• SpecialCare Team Resources

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With an estimated 15-20% of the population showing signs of dyslexia, it is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties in children and persists throughout life. Yet, there is still a lot of confusions among the public, including parents and teachers, when it comes to understanding this learning disability. In this episode, we sit down with reading specialists Alison Edwards and Meagan Rosales to discuss dyslexia, including the red flags to look for, when and how to get a diagnosis, ideas parents can implement at home and best practices for intervention. We also debunk some of the most common dyslexia myths.

About Our Guests
Alison Edwards is a Licensed Dyslexia Therapist (LDT) and a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT) in Houston. With more than 23 years of experience in the school setting, she offers dyslexia intervention for struggling students and consulting services to parents and teachers. Alison helps navigate the daunting questions raised when children struggle in the classroom. She provides dyslexia therapy both in-person and online to help students reach their full potential. 

Meagan Rosales, MEd, is a Reading Intervention Specialist at The Parish School. She earned her Master’s in Education from the University of St. Thomas in 2014. She also holds teaching certifications for Special Education EC-12, Generalist EC-6 and Reading Specialist EC-12. Meagan has a special interest in teaching children with learning differences how to read. She loves being at The Parish School because she has space to incorporate a variety of strategies to meet the needs of individual students.

Related Links:

• Alison Edwards' website
• Houston Branch of the International Dyslexia Association

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If there is one thing we’ve learned since March 2020, it’s that the rules of our society are frequently changing! The way we grocery shop, go out to eat, attend school, have birthday parties, and even interact with family members have all been altered. With changes to the social rules and expectations occurring in almost every aspect of your child’s life, it’s important to address these adjustments and teach your child how to figure out the new rules and also adapt to them. 

During this bonus Unbabbled episode, Meredith and Stephanie discuss ways to support your child through the ever-changing social norms during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on front-loading situations, looking for clues in new situations, and problem solving when new changes occur.

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Have you ever sent a text asking someone how they’re doing and received the reply “great.” You may have interpreted it as your friend is having a wonderful day. However, they might have actually been having a horrible day and meant “great” sarcastically. Understanding a person’s meaning behind their words (otherwise known as pragmatic language ability) often requires knowing a lot of contextual clues, including tone of voice, body language and facial expressions. “Great” with an eye roll is vastly different from “great” with a smile. These subtle clues can be difficult to detect in many pragmatic language assessments, yet they are a large factor in determining if a person has a social communication disorder and pragmatic language difficulties. 

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Adriana Lavi about her new video-based pragmatic language assessment, the Clinical Assessment of Pragmatics (CAPs). She discusses her clinical background, what led her to develop the assessment tool, and why this assessment can be more accurate in detecting pragmatic language disorders. This interview can help parents and educators understand why their child may have scored well on other language assessments, yet they struggle with reading these ever-important social cues in real situations.

About Dr. Lavi
Adriana Lavi, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a practicing licensed school-based speech-language pathologist with more than 15 years of experience working with children and young adults who present with a variety of communication disorders. She currently supervises speech-language pathologists in three school districts in Southern California. Dr. Lavi developed the Clinical Assessment of Pragmatics (CAPs) and founded the Lavi Institute for Research and Professional Development, where she completes research and develops a variety of treatment programs. She has also served as an assistant professor at the Department of Communicative Disorders at Loma Linda University. Her primary research interests focus on pragmatics, and the assessment and treatment of culturally and linguistically diverse students with communication disorders. Dr. Lavi is also a mother of four young, highly energetic little boys, ages 6, 5, 4 and 18 months. 

Related links:  

• The Lavi Institute for Research and Professional Development - Lavi Institute 
• Lavi Institute Video Resources - Lavi Institute on YouTube 
• Lavi Institute Instagram 
• Where to find the CAPs - Clinical Assessment of Pragmatics 

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Raising a child in a bilingual household? Hear from bilingual speech-language pathologist, Jacquilyn Carcamo, as she discusses language development and the many common misconceptions held by families, educators and even therapists in supporting children learning to speak more than one language. She provides guidance in determining whether a bilingual child is struggling with a language disorder or if their difficulties are due to learning a second language. In addition to her clinical expertise, Jacqui touches on her personal experience growing up in a bilingual family.

About Jacqui

Jacquilyn Carcamo, MA, CCC-SLP, is a certified and licensed speech-language pathologist at The Parish School and The Carruth Center in Houston. She has experience in pediatric and adult settings, working with patients with a variety of communication, swallowing and feeding disorders, as well as working with culturally and linguistically diverse populations. She is Hanen-certified in “It Takes Two to Talk” and “More than Words.”  She enjoys furthering her education in communication disorders and staying current with research-based practice. Jacqui has a passion for naturalistic intervention and family collaboration. In addition to her work at The Parish School, Jacqui provides freelance consulting, training and resources to speech-language pathologists who work with culturally and linguistically diverse populations through Habla Cadabra SLP.

Related Links

• Find Jacqui on Instagram: Habla Cadabra SLP
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Information Page: ASHA Bilingual Service Delivery
• ASHA’s Speech-Language Pathologist Search Page: ASHA ProFind

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Being told that your child has childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) can be shocking and confusing. Since this speech/sound disorder is so rare—occurring in 1-2 children per 1,000—many doctors, educators, professionals and even speech-language pathologists have minimal understanding of it. In this episode, we speak with speech-language pathologist and childhood apraxia of speech expert, Jennie Bjorem about the characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of apraxia. She also provides tips on where parents can find a speech pathologist with CAS experience and other reliable resources.

About Jennie
Jennie Bjorem, MA, CCC-SLP, has been a practicing SLP for over 20 years. Jennie’s areas of expertise include early intervention, parent education and childhood apraxia of speech. She is recognized by Apraxia Kids for Advanced Training in Childhood Apraxia of Speech, and travels the country presenting on the rare disorder. She owns a private pediatric clinic in Kansas and founded Bjorem Speech Publications, where she developed a variety of products to support speech/sound development at home and in therapy. Jennie is passionate about working with parents to help encourage their children in all areas of development.


Related Links

• Apraxia Kids Website
• A Parents’ Guide to Apraxia
• Follow Jennie on Instagram
• Bjorem Speech Publications
• Jennie’s pediatric clinic, Children’s Therapy Services
• Jennie’s YouTube Channel

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When a child’s speech is difficult to understand, there can be many underlying causes. Their difficulty could be due to an articulation disorder, childhood apraxia of speech, a phonological processing disorder or something else entirely.

This episode, we discuss speech sound disorders with speech-language pathologist, Jessica Carter. Jessica defines what phonological processing disorders and articulation disorders are and explains how they differ from childhood apraxia of speech. We then discuss common warning signs that parents and educators can look for, as well as therapy recommendations for each diagnosis. She also lets us know what parents can expect when they go in for an assessment.

About Jessica

Jessica Carter, MS, CCC-SLP, is a bilingual speech-language pathologist and clinical faculty member at the University of Texas at Dallas’s School of Behavior and Brain Sciences, where she teaches a variety of pediatric courses including Preschool Assessment and Intervention Methods, Pediatric Motor Speech Disorders, and Bilingual Speech Assessment and Treatment. Jessica also coordinates a joint initiative between UT Dallas and the Dallas Independent School District. Prior to joining the faculty at UT Dallas, she worked in public schools, private practice and home health.

Helpful Links

• Jessica Carter Faculty Page
• What is a Speech Disorder
• Information on Speech Sound Disorders from ASHA

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