American Speech-Language Hearing Association Conference 2017

This past week our office was closed on Thursday and Friday.

The therapists took a trip to Los Angeles, California to attend the yearly ASHA conference.

The ASHA Convention is the strongest educational program for speech-language pathologists, audiologists, speech and hearing scientists, and related professionals.

Make sure to ask your therapist how the conference was!

"This was my first time at ASHA and I had an awesome experience! I am excited to apply everything I learned from the conference into therapy.  It was amazing to be surrounded by thousands of people who share the same passion as me."  

- Adina (SLPA)

International Augmentative & Alternative Communication Awareness Month

October is the International AAC Awareness month!

PrAACticialAAC.org has many resources to help raise awareness of AAC and resources for those who have devices. 

This site also has a printable file flip chart called "Everyone Deserves a Voice" AAC Strategies for Success. 

Here is a blurb from the pamphlet: 

Students who use AAC need their communication systems within arms reach at all times. If you can see the student, you should also be able to see their AAC. Its never okay to turn it off or take it away. For students to learn to use AAC, they need to see adults & peers using it, too. Immerse them in an environment that is rich in AAC use throughout the day. Point to the AAC symbols as you speak. Use the AAC devise or app OR make a non-electoronic mock-up. 

We have a laminated version of this flip chart in our lobby at all times. 

However, during this month we will have multiple on the desk for you to take home and share with friends and family! 

Screen Time

As technology continues to grow, there is a common concern of language development in young children who spend ample amount of time on tablets. 

A study from the University of Toronto found that every 30 minutes of daily screen usage increases a child's risk of developing speech and language delays by 49% for ages 6 months to 2 years. They specifically found that there were difficulties with expressive language. However, the author cautions that their study does show a direct correlation between device use and language difficulties but there needs to be more research completed in order to signify the correlation. 

So how much screen time should you allow your child to have?
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time at all for children younger than 18 months. Children learn language by exposure, and birth to 2 or 3 year range is a time of massive advances in language development. 

Of course, Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) is an exception as it is vital in the development of language for non-verbal users. 

Benefits of Summer Camp - AAC

For children and adults with communication or developmental disorders, summer camp is opportunity to interact with others in a fun, nurturing, and safe environment. 

Camp Jabber Jaw is a Summer Camp hosted at Mississippi State University. It is specifically for children using Augmentative and Alternative Communication. (AAC.) 

In an article regarding the camp, a speech pathologist mentioned that parents often tell her that their children hesitate to use their device at school because it makes them "different" from their classmates.  

This summer camp gave these children the opportunity to connect with peers who also use devices to communicate, helping them overcome those hesitations. 

Check out the article! 

Reference the Article Here

AAC on Primetime!

Outside the bubble of speech-language pathology and special education, not many people witness Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in action.  Thanks to a new sitcom called Speechless, that's about to change.

The show stars a teenager with cerebral palsy who uses AAC as his primary method of communication.

This article, from the Disability Scoop website, is a great overview:  

Aside From Laughs, ‘Speechless’ Committed To Raising Awareness

And here's a quick sneak peek at the AAC used on the show and how it works.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): Two Approaches

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a growing part of the field of speech-language therapy, and it is my absolute favorite part of the job.  AAC is used by individuals who cannot use natural speech as their main means of communication, so they use other methods to add to or replace their speech.  Recently, many AAC users use a communication app on a personal iPad or other tablet.  They select words or phrases by touching the touchscreen, and the device says the words or phrases aloud for them.  One of the most common AAC apps, Proloquo2Go, looks like this:

Learning to use a system like this is a lot like learning a second language.  It takes time and effort on the part of the learner, and learning happens faster if the learner is surrounded by other people who are competent communicators with their AAC system. 

While immersing myself in AAC for the past few years, I’ve come to recognize that there are two main approaches to learning how to use AAC that parallel two methods for learning a second language.  I call these two approaches the Phrase Book Approach and the “Take a Class” Approach.

The Phrase Book Approach

Imagine you’re planning a vacation to Japan.  You’ll start in Tokyo and hit the most popular tourist locations while you’re there.   You’d like to learn some Japanese to help you get by while you’re there, but you don’t have much time to learn before your trip.  So you pick up a phrase book.

You quickly learn a lot of really useful phrases that will serve you well during your trip.  But you only learn the phrases that the author of the book predicted you might need.  Surely you’ll run into situations where you’ll want to say something that the book’s author didn’t think to include. 

An AAC system that follows the Phrase Book approach might look something like this:

Most of the buttons contain phrases or sentences – not single words. 

The Phrase Book Approach has many advantages for AAC learners.  It can be learned and implement very quickly.  It doesn't take much time for the AAC learner to figure out how to make highly-motivating requests or statements with the touch of a single button.  Phrases that create access to or participation in highly-preferred activities can be programmed in, which makes the AAC learner more motivated to use their AAC system.  Phrases can also be programmed in that are meant to replace negative behaviors that sometimes occur when the student cannot communicate effectively with speech or gestures alone.  The Phrase Book Approach is hands-down the best approach for reducing the frustration that many AAC learners experience when they cannot express themselves to others.

However, this approach does have some downsides.  Since the message are all whole phrases or sentences, the AAC learner is limited to being able to say only what the person programming their system puts there.  There is no easy way to create their own messages.

The “Take a Class” Approach

Now imagine that you’ve just received a job offer for a position in Japan, lasting at least a year.  You know that you’ll need to speak Japanese with most people at work and in the community, since you won’t be in a place like Tokyo where a lot of people speak some English.  The job doesn’t start for at least another year, too, so you have plenty of time to prepare for the move.  So you sign up to take a Japanese class.

You begin learning basic vocabulary and grammar rules.  You also spend plenty of time listening to your instructor speaking fluent Japanese.  It’s slow going, especially at first.  It takes awhile before you feel like you’d be able to make yourself understood to the average Japanese-speaker. 

By the time the class is complete, however, you’ve built up a respectable vocabulary and a good understanding of essential grammar rules.  You may not sound like a native Japanese speaker, but you can express yourself in most situations.  You can combine the words you know into a huge variety of messages that, while they’re maybe not grammatically perfect, clearly get your message across.  You’re likely to continue to improve your Japanese skills the more you practice and interact with native speakers.

 AAC systems that follow the “Take a Class” Approach often look something like this:

 

The majority of the buttons contain a single word each.

The “Take a Class” Approach’s major drawback is the time and effort it takes to learn.  It takes a good long time – sometimes multiple years – for the learner to learn enough vocabulary and basic grammar rules to be a truly spontaneous communicator.  It works most efficiently when the AAC learner is surrounded by other people who also use their AAC system to communicate with them, “demonstrating” how the learner can eventually use the system themselves.  This is a similar concept to immersion programs for language-learning.  So there is not only an investment of time but also of effort.  The AAC learner’s friends, family, teachers, co-workers, etc., need to learn to use the system themselves in order to be effective AAC “role models.” 

The advantages of this approach, however, are numerous.  While the process of learning a new language word-by-word and rule-by-rule can be slow and often frustrating, it leads to a worthwhile result – Spontaneous Novel Utterance Generation (SNUG).  This is an acronym used in the AAC field to mean the ability to say anything you want to say by combining the words you know – without having to be taught the word combinations.  The “Take a Class” approach is typically the only way for an AAC learner to achieve SNUG. 

The Best Approach?

Like many things in life, there is no One Right Answer when it comes to AAC.  Generally, the best approach tends to be a combination of both the Phrase Book Approach and the “Take a Class” Approach.  That way, the AAC learner gets the advantage of being able to say a few highly-motivating phrases immediately but also begins the longer process of developing truly independent language use.  But each AAC learner is different, so the approach or combination of approaches should always be tailored to the specific needs of the AAC user.

--Sarah

SLP Terms and Acronyms: Understanding Speech-Language Evaluation and Progress Reports

SLP Terms and Acronyms: 

Understanding Speech-Language Evaluation and Progress Reports

Evaluation and progress reports can be tough to understand if the terms used to describe speech, language, feeding, and social delays, disorders, and concerns are unfamiliar to the reader.  Here is a list of my most commonly used terms in these reports as a pediatric SLP to help you understand the nature of the pathology and its treatment. 

AAC: stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication.  Candidates for AAC include non-verbal children and individuals, those with degenerative diseases, and for aiding or replacing spoken language.  AAC can be low-tech like communication boards and PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) or high-tech using a specialized device or program on an iPad.

Alveolar ridge: is the bumpy area of the hard palate behind the front teeth.  The alveolar ridge is often referenced in articulation therapy when teaching tongue tip placement for /d, l, n, s, t, z/.

Apraxia or CAS: Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder which occurs when the brain cannot coordinate the movements necessary to produce consistent articulation of speech sounds

Expressive language: using words (or AAC) to communicate needs, wants, ideas, and feelings.  This also refers to how well one is able to follow the rules of language (like including past tense endings on verbs, plurals, put words in order to make a complete sentence.)

Oral hypersensitivity: can occur when a child has difficulty tolerating, chewing, or swallowing certain textures, flavors, or temperatures.

Phoneme: means sound.  When you see slash marks around a letter (like /s/) it means I am talking about the phoneme /s/ sound (actually sounds like /ess/).   For example /th/ is really one phoneme, although it is two letters.

Phonological process:  is a pattern of errors that children produce to simplify language as they are learning.  Some patterns are typical (like reduplication which happens when a young child says “baba” for “bottle”) and then fade as a child’s speech develops.   When processes do not resolve on their own, intervention may be necessary to help the child catch up with peers. 

Receptive language: means understanding others and following directions

Speech: means verbal communication.   Articulation, voice, and fluency/stuttering therapy fall under this category.

SLP:  Speech-Language Pathologist, one who provides treatment intervention for a variety of speech, language, feeding/swallowing, voice, fluency, and social therapy.

Keep in mind that these are the terms that come up most often for me, this is not an exhaustive list.  There are countless others.  If you’re unsure or unfamiliar with any of these terms as they pertain to your child, I encourage you to ask what it means.  You’re welcome to leave your question in the comment area of this post if you’re unable or uncomfortable asking your SLP.