sutton010

SLP Preview of the Week Stay tuned. Next week I'll be telling you all about a set of /s/ resources that I've been working on putting in printable ebook format. The rough draft is completely done except for a cover. I'll be asking for volunteer proofreaders and some other feedback next week. Ava this Week Ava is discovering movement. The other three members of her family are drawn towards somewhat sedentary pursuits. We like to read, play computer games, build with legos or other construction toys, sew, do art projects, etc. Lately, it is becoming apparent to me that Ava likes all of those things, but she is drawn towards active pursuits as well. She wants to kick a ball, bop a balloon, play ping pong (she can actually serve a ping pong ball - she's only 3), swing a bat, climb a climbing wall, run as fast as she can, and slide over and over. She loves the activity and the movement. I need to find a way to build more active activities into our schedule. It figh...

Let's take some snapshots. Ava just shy of two years old. No words. Three consonants and one vowel in her phonemic inventory. Not able to imitate. History of reduced babbling. Lots of red flags for Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Ava at three. Decent phonetic inventory. Speaking in multi-word sentences. Significantly reduced intelligibility. Exhibiting many age inappropriate phonological processes. Diagnosis would look a lot like a phonological processing disorder with a motor-planning (apraxic) component. Ava at 3 1/2. Intelligibility is improving. Many phonological processes are resolving - even the ones that are still age appropriate (cluster reduction, stopping of stridents, etc.). It would be difficult to describe Ava's speech problems as a phonological processing disorder at this point. She has numerous speech errors which are resistant to intervention due to the underlying motor planning component (stubborn, stubborn velars). Same kid. Same neurology. The ...

It's terribly hard to qualify a speech-only child based upon specific articulation errors because the age range for age of acquisition is so wide. However, for the sake of this discussion, let's set aside the issue of qualification and just discuss treatment. You have a (hypothetical) child enrolled in therapy. You've been treating them for some time, and the only errors they have left are "age appropriate." Do you continue to treat or discharge that client from therapy? Or, let's say you have a child with a frontal lisp on /s/ production that is very noticeable, but they're only 4-5 years old. Do you treat the lisp? I'm inclined to treat. I feel like letting certain errors go just tends to set them in stone, so to speak. By the time the errors are finally age inappropriate, the mispronounciations are fully habituated and harder to treat than they would have been if you had addressed them earlier. I was hoping to get some other opinions. Have ...

SLP Resource of the Week Heidi at Mommy Speech Therapy put together a really nice free downloadable articulation screener . Two pages contain 46 picture prompts. Results are tallied on simple, attractive scoring sheets separated into phoneme organized by age of acquisition. This is definitely a resource worth checking out. Ava this Week My little girl is loving preschool. Up until the very last day, Ava protested being left at daycare. She didn't look forward to it and clung to my legs when I dropped her off. She was fine, but she didn't love it. Now, she loves school. She looks forward to going, and doesn't even watch me go when I walk out of her door. The preschool teacher and teacher's assistant in her room are wonderful and do an amazing job of making the children feel welcome in their room. They have a routine in place for the children's arrival which works really well for Ava. She knows exactly what to do when she walks in and looks forward to the...

Final /th/ (voiceless) Card Set To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer. I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability. Description This articulation picture card set is designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for this set is young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with voiceless final /th/ at a one-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in this set. The set pairs the final /th/ with as many different vowel sounds as possible to maximize co-articulation variety. Key Features This set includes 15 therapy cards with the target word and picture on the front, and the difficulty level and a carrier phrase on the back. The words are all VC or CVC in syllable shape. The words are easily understood by or easily taught to young children. Comb...

The new school year is here and Ava is back in her speech therapy group twice a week for 45 minutes. We have a wonderful opportunity to participate in a speech-only program that uses a Hodson Cycles approach to phonological processing therapy which is a great fit for her. While Michael and I wait, I'll be doing speech therapy with him. That way, I know both children will get at least 90 minutes of therapy a week. I've been busy preparing some materials for Michael. I did a brief screening with Michael last week. At this point, his /f/ and /v/ production are almost 100% correct at the word level, but he still produces them interdentally at least half the time in conversation. So essentially, his /f/ and /v/ are produced as a /th/. This is ironic, because he substitutes an /f/ for the voiceless /th/ even at the word level. He also substitutes /d/ for the voiced /th/. Those are his only errors. So in summary, his only errors are on /f/, /v/, and /th/ and he often substitu...

Voiceless /th/ - /f/ Minimal Pairs Card Set To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer. I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability. Description This articulation picture card set focuses on the contrast between voiceless /th/ and /f/. It would be a great set to use with a child who is substituting voiceless /th/ for /f/ or vice versa. Usually I avoid vocalic /r/ in my card sets, but there are not a lot of these minimal pair contrasts around, so I did include some vocalic /r/ words. There are no consonant blends in this set in order to minimize phonemic complexity. Key Features This set includes 14 picture cards (7 th/f minimal pairs) with the target word and picture on the front. The words are simple in syllable shape and include no consonant blends. Combines the target sounds with a variety of vowels in order to increase phonemic variety and improve carryover...

Initial /th/ (voiceless) Card Set To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer. I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability. Description This articulation picture card set is designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for this set is young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with voiceless initial /th/ at a one-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in this set. The set pairs the initial /th/ with as many different vowel sounds as possible to maximize co-articulation variety. Key Features This set includes 12 therapy cards with the target word and picture on the front, and the difficulty level and a carrier phrase on the back. The words are all CV or CVC in syllable shape. The words are easily understood by or easily taught to young children...