TalkTools

TalkTools® — Header

Year: 2016

3 YEARS 10&11 MONTHS: GETTING BACK-TO-SCHOOL AFTER DISNEY WORLD MAGIC

3 Years 10 Months Summer continues in our household! This month, Belle has enjoyed swimming lessons (and lots of pool time), a slip’n slide party, BBQs, fairs, a trip to the lake, and a full week at Walt Disney World! While our hearts may be full, our routine is not. 🙂 However… Belle continues to do […]

Breastfeeding Improvement Following Tongue Tie Release: A Prospective Cohort Study

Bobak A. Ghaheri, MD; Melissa Cole, IBCLC; Sarah C. Fausel, BA; Maria Chuop, BS; Jess C. Mace, MPH, CCRP This article was published in The Laryngoscope, 00:000–000, 2016. Objectives/Hypothesis Numerous symptoms may arise that prevent mother-infant dyads from maintaining desired breastfeeding intervals. Investigations into treatments that positively influence breastfeeding outcomes allow for improved patient counseling for treatment […]

Success Story: Colter & Vanessa

In April of 2015, I received an e-mail about a little boy with Down syndrome named Colter. His mother was desperately seeking help…he couldn’t chew his food and she was at her wits end trying to figure out how to teach him. Even though this is “speech therapy,” his actual speech was not an issue […]

How to Plan After-School Activities for Your Special Needs Child (and their friends!)

You know the feeling of the first few weeks of a new school year.  There is the shopping for backpacks and school supplies.  Clothing and shoes and if you are like my son, a great number of very specific shirts.  Even if your child is in a preschool setting, there are still so many things […]

3 YEARS 8&9 MONTHS: SHE IS READING!

3 Years 8 Months Belle got her palatal expander out this month! Her “princess jewelry,” as we referred to it, was in for a total of six months. Even though her speech didn’t improve as substantially as I had hoped, it was still a success overall. Belle proudly states, “me got my princess jewelry out […]

Back-to-School & IEP Tips

I looked my 10 year old in the eye just yesterday and said: “Michael, you know we have a mere 16 days left of summer”? It was hard to say and so much harder to believe.  Where did the summer go?  How is it possible that three months went like THAT?! But the truth is […]

VAN RIPER IS ALIVE AND WELL AT ASHA CONNECT! (REPOST)

This is a repost from Ages and Stages Blog, owned by Diane Bahr, MS, CCC-SLP, CIMI. As reported by Robyn Merkel-Walsh MA, CCC-SLP in New Jersey, USA August 2016 The ASHA Connect conference was held in Minneapolis, MN July 8th-10th, 2016. This conference was a new concept bringing together school, private practice, and healthcare speech-language pathologists (SLPs). SLPs […]

3 YEARS 6&7 MONTHS: WHAT “WORK” LOOKS LIKE

3 Years 6 Months   This month I decided to include videos of Belle doing her oral motor exercises. They are not super exciting videos, but that’s what “work” looks like sometimes. I know we have to put in the time to see the results. And as I have said so many times previously, it’s […]

Success Story: Lily & Vanessa

LILY, 3 YEARS 4 MONTHS OLD, UNILATERAL CLEFT LIP AND PALATE When I saw that my former supervisor from my job during college and graduate school was adopting another special needs child from China, I was glued to their journey (the family had adopted a boy with cleft lip/palate from China previously). I watched from my computer screen […]

A Modern Look at Van Riper’s Phonetic Placement Approach

by Robyn Merkel-Walsh, MA, CCC-SLP This poster was presented at the 2016 annual ASHA Connect Convention, Poster Session #PS02. Download the poster here ABSTRACT Presentation explores 1) traditional versus phonological therapy, 2) the sensory-motor system as it relates to speech, 3) the importance of tactile and proprioception in articulation therapy, 4) shaping placement of the articulators […]