Because the children I assess, often require supplementary reading instruction services, many parents frequently ask me how they can best determine if a reading specialist has the right experience to help their child learn how to read. So today’s blog post describes what type of knowledge reading specialists ought to possess and what type of questions parents (and other professionals) can ask them in order to determine their approaches to treating literacy-related difficulties of struggling learners. Continue reading Dear Reading Specialist, May I Ask You a Few Questions?
Free Literacy Resources for Parents and Professionals
SLPs are constantly on the lookout for good quality affordable materials in the area of literacy. However, what many clinicians may not realize is that there are massive amounts of FREE evidence-based literacy-related resources available online for their use. These materials can be easily adapted or implemented as is, by parents, teachers, speech-language pathologists, as well as other literacy-focused professionals (e.g., tutors, etc.).
Below, I have compiled a rather modest list of my preferred resources (including a few articles) for children aged Pre-K-12 grade pertaining to the following literacy-related areas: Continue reading Free Literacy Resources for Parents and Professionals
What Does “Their Social Skills Are Just Fine” Really Means When it Comes to Children with Language Impairment
As a frequent participant in a variety of speech pathology forums I’ve read through countless “mini scenarios” of SLPs asking for advice regarding various aspects of therapy service provision for children with average IQ and language impairment (characterized by weaknesses in the area of listening comprehension, language processing, vocabulary acquisition, sentence formulation, as well as conversational development.)
When I ask the following question: “What about their social skills difficulties?” I invariably receive the following answer: “Their social skills are just fine!” When I ask: “How was their social competence assessed?” I am invariably told: “The teachers don’t have any complaints, their eye contact is good, and they can keep up with conversations.”
As a result of seeing these and similar statements over and over again from a number of professionals, I decided to write a blog post on this topic due to a certain degree of frustration on my part.
Using Picture Books to Teach Children That It’s OK to Make Mistakes and Take Risks
Those of you who follow my blog know that in my primary job as an SLP working for a psychiatric hospital, I assess and treat language and literacy impaired students with significant emotional and behavioral disturbances. I often do so via the aid of picture books (click HERE for my previous posts on this topic) dealing with a variety of social communication topics. Continue reading Using Picture Books to Teach Children That It’s OK to Make Mistakes and Take Risks
Speech, Language, and Literacy Fun with Helen Lester’s Picture Books
Picture books are absolutely wonderful for both assessment and treatment purposes! They are terrific as narrative elicitation aids for children of various ages, ranging from pre-K through fourth grade. They are amazing treatment aids for addressing a variety of speech, language, and literacy goals that extend far beyond narrative production. Continue reading Speech, Language, and Literacy Fun with Helen Lester’s Picture Books
Tips on Reducing ‘Summer Learning Loss’ in Children with Language/Literacy Disorders
The end of the school year is almost near. Soon many of our clients with language and literacy difficulties will be going on summer vacation and enjoying their time outside of school. However, summer is not all fun and games. For children with learning needs, this is also a time of “learning loss”, or the loss of academic skills and knowledge over the course of the summer break. Students diagnosed with language and learning disabilities are at a particularly significant risk of greater learning loss than typically developing students. Continue reading Tips on Reducing ‘Summer Learning Loss’ in Children with Language/Literacy Disorders
Assessing Social Pragmatic Abilities in Children with Language Difficulties
You’ve received a referral to assess the language abilities of a school aged child with suspected language difficulties. The child has not been assessed before so you know you’ll need a comprehensive language test to look at the child’s ability to recall sentences, follow directions, name words, as well as perform a number of other tasks showcasing the child’s abilities in the areas of content and form (Bloom & Lahey, 1978).
But how about the area of language use? Will you be assessing the child’s pragmatic and social cognitive abilities as well during your language assessment? After all most comprehensive standardized assessments, “typically focus on semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology, as these are the performance areas in which specific skill development can be most objectively measured” (Hill & Coufal, 2005, p 35). Continue reading Assessing Social Pragmatic Abilities in Children with Language Difficulties
Improving Accountability of ASHA Approved Continuing Education Providers
Several days ago I had a conversation with the Associate Director of Continuing Education at ASHA regarding my significant concerns about the content and quality of some of ASHA approved continuing education courses. For many months before that, numerous discussions took place in a variety of major SLP related Facebook groups, pertaining to the non-EBP content of some of ASHA approved provider coursework, many of which was blatantly pseudoscientific in nature.
The fact is while there is a rigorous process involved in becoming an ASHA approved continuing education provider, once that approval is granted, ASHA is not privy to course content. In other words, no staff member at ASHA is available to screen course documents (pdfs, pptx, handouts, etc.) to ensure that it is scientifically supported and is free of pseudoscientific and questionable information. Continue reading Improving Accountability of ASHA Approved Continuing Education Providers
Some Facts About ASHA CEUs, Registry, and Approved Provider Courses
Typically, approximately twice a year, right around late December or at the start of summer vacation in the schools, a flurry of SLPs begin to inquire on a variety of social media forums regarding “free or cheap ASHA CEU’s”.
So today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about how these CEUs can be acquired in accordance with ASHA compliance. For newly graduating SLPs as well as Clinical Fellows, CEU’s or Continuing Education Units are the continuing education hours needed by speech pathologists to stay abreast of current developments in the field and maintain their Certificate of Clinical Competence or CCCs. ASHA requires that all holders of CCCs “accumulate 30 Certification Maintenance Hours (CMHs) of professional development during each 3-year certification maintenance interval in order to maintain their ASHA Certificates of Clinical Competence (CCC).” Continue reading Some Facts About ASHA CEUs, Registry, and Approved Provider Courses
Speech, Language, & Literacy Disorders in School Aged Children with Psychiatric Impairments
Recently I did a presentation for Rutgers University on the subject of “Speech, Language, & Literacy Disorders in School-Aged Children with Psychiatric Impairments“. The learning objectives for this presentation were as follows:
- Explain the comorbidity between language impairments and psychiatric disturbances of school-aged children
- Describe language and literacy deficits of school-aged children with psychiatric impairments
- List warning signs of language and literacy deficits in school-aged children that warrant a referral to speech-language pathologists for a potential assessment