Tag: ORAL MOTOR THERAPY

Ella Under the Spotlight: Down Syndrome & Dance Home › Blog › Ella Under the Spotlight Success Story Ella Under the Spotlight Ella Kinder — daughter of TalkTools presenter Dr. Julia Pewitt Kinder — has Down syndrome and is a thriving dancer and singer whose story inspires inclusion at every performance. TT TalkTools TalkTools Blog […]

Belle is now 2 years and 1 month old and is continuing to do well. You can see in the video below the improvement Belle has made with her Oral Placement Therapy (OPT) exercises. I only made her go to 10 on the horn, but she can do 25 fairly easily when I can her motivated. […]

We have speech and feeding therapy workshops across the U.S. this November. Our 1 and 2 day hands-on courses cover a variety of diagnoses including Down syndrome, Apraxia of Speech, Dysphagia, Autism (ASD), and Dyspraxia among others. Therapy techniques that improve speech and feeding by focusing on abdominal grading, tongue mobility, lip rounding, and jaw strength, stability and grading are demonstrated. Detailed workshop information and registration is available here. We are […]

We have a very busy schedule this October with speech and feeding therapy workshops across the U.S. Our 1 and 2 day hands-on courses cover a variety of diagnoses including Down syndrome, Apraxia of Speech, Dysphagia, Autism (ASD), and Dyspraxia among others. Therapy techniques that improve speech and feeding by focusing on abdominal grading, tongue mobility, lip rounding, and jaw strength, stability and grading are demonstrated. Detailed workshop information and […]

Belle is doing well and consistently adds to the lively chatter in our home 🙂 She has approximately 35 words that she says regularly, although someone from outside our family may only understand about half of those without an interpretation. Belle has been working with Whitney, our Speech Language Pathologist with TalkTools, for about 18 […]

Maddox’s Down Syndrome OPT Home Practice Success Home › Blog › Success Story: Maddox Success Story Success Story: Maddox Maddox’s parents share how committing to 4-6 daily TalkTools OPT sessions from 20 to 40 months transformed their daughter with Down syndrome from 150 signs to full sentences at preschool. TT TalkTools TalkTools Blog August 24, […]

Authors: Robyn Merkel-Walsh M.A., CCC-SLP & Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson M.S., CCC-SLP Foreword: This article, in the original form, was published in Advance Magazine for Speech Pathologists. The article has been expanded upon and revised with current Evidenced Based Practice. Abstract: Autism is a developmental disability that affects, often severely, a person’s ability to communicate and socially interact with others. Autism Spectrum […]

We have some fun pictures in this update including one of Belle with her extremely loving brother and sister. You can also see Belle enjoying her veggie straws at therapy (notice her food placement on her side molars) and having fun with some Play-Doh.    Our family’s schedule has been quite busy lately, so I try my best to get […]

Recently, TalkTools® Presenter Robyn Merkel-Walsh, MA, CCC-SLP joined Jeff Stepen, MS, CCC-SLP on his podcast, Conversations in Speech Pathology. In the podcast, Robyn discusses common misconceptions about Oral Placement Therapy (OPT). Click below to listen to the podcast. We encourage everyone to add their thoughts for discussion in the comments section on the Conversations in Speech Pathology page.

Belle is continuing to progress month after month. She has become more vocal, and she has officially mastered walking. Belle is confident in her ability to walk anywhere she wants to go. She consistently says 23+ words and is trying to say several more but may leave the beginning or ending sounds off. For example, in […]