Tag: TALKTOOLS THERAPY

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 […]

Maddox Before & After TalkTools® Oral Placement Therapy (OPT) After our daughter Maddox was born, one of the first things her teacher said to us was, “Be sure that she can talk.”  Not just any kind of talk, but it was critical that Maddox learn to speak clearly.  As Miss Marie put it, “Intelligibility is […]

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 […]

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.

I left everyone last month by saying that Elizabeth was going to school!  What an accomplishment for her and her strength. Yes our little Elizabeth is in school.  Everyday of every week she is in school.  She has a great intervention teacher and a very nice inclusion teacher.  The inclusion teacher is the one who […]

I recently attended the “Three-Part Treatment Plan for Oral Placement Therapy” and it was great. Monica was the presenter and I really learned a lot. It helped to show me what exercises and goals we will continue to progress towards. I know that Belle has a long way to go, but being in a routine of daily exercises for the […]

Hi Therapists, What do I do for a 19 year old student with a severe underbite (a gap of ½ inch between top and bottom teeth) when trying to use the jaw stability protocol? Thank you. When you are working on the Bite Blocks for jaw stability and the Bite Tube hierarchy, you will want to make sure […]

I need advice please! I am seeing a 5 year old child with severe childhood apraxia of speech together with dysarthria (specifically weakness of tongue and lips). So far his lip strength and movement has improved a lot, but I am really struggling with his tongue. He can protrude his tongue beautifully, retraction we are working […]

It is funny or maybe not funny, but ironic that with a special needs child all the things you have in place and are working one minute can become things that need changed and adjusted the very next. I know the same can be said for life with typical developing children as I have two also, but the […]

Earlier this month Annabelle was spitting out almost all of her food. It was extremely frustrating, to say the least. We knew that she needed all the calories that she could get because she is still a pretty tiny little thing.  In addition, we knew that she had created a horrible eating pattern of pushing food out […]