Today I am reviewing an awesome social-pragmatic language app by Hamaguchi Apps called: Between the Lines Advanced, which focuses on targeting the following skills:
Those of us who have administered PLS-5 ever since its release in 2011, know that the test is fraught with significant psychometric problems. Previous reviews of its poor sensitivity, specificity, validity, and reliability, have been extensively discussed HERE and HERE as well as in numerous SLP groups on Facebook.
One of the most significant issues with this test is that its normative sample included a “clinical sample of 169 children aged 2-7;11 diagnosed with a receptive or expressive language disorder”.
The problem with such inclusion is that According to Pena, Spalding, & Plante, (2006) when the purpose of a test is to identify children with language impairment, the inclusion of children with language impairment in the normative sample can reduce the accuracy of identification.
Indeed, upon its implementation, many clinicians began to note that this test significantly under-identified children with language impairments and overinflated their scores. As such, based on its presentation, due to strict district guidelines and qualification criteria, many children who would have qualified for services with the administration of the PLS-4, no longer qualified for services when administered the PLS-5.
For years, SLPs wrote to Pearson airing out their grievances regarding this test with responses ranging from irate to downright humorous as one can see from the below response form (helpfully provided by an anonymous responder).
And now it appears that Pearson is willing to listen. A few days ago, many of us who have purchased this test received the following email: 
It contains the link to a survey powered by Survey Monkey, asking clinicians their feedback regarding PLS-5 administration and how it can be improved. So if you are one of those clinicians, please go ahead and provide your honest feedback regarding this test, after all, our littlest clients deserve so much better than to be under-identified by this assessment and denied services as a result of its administration.
References:
This month I am joining the Speech Room News’ Love It and List it Linky Party to talk about my favorite Behavior Management techniques tools and strategies. In fact I’ve actually combined my favorite strategies into my product entitled “Behavior Management Strategies for Speech Language Pathologists“ which you can find HERE. In it I explain what type of common challenging behaviors can manifest in children with genetic, psychiatric, and neurological disorders, describe the role of SLP in the management of challenging behaviors, list behavior management hierarchy from least to most intrusive methods for students with differing levels of cognitive functioning (high-average IQ to varying levels of intellectual disability) as well as describe positive proactive strategies used to prevent inappropriate behaviors from occurring.
Then there is my article which explains how to “Create Successful Team Collaboration: Behavior Management in the Schools” which you can find HERE which explains how SLPs can collaborate with other school based professionals to successfully work with children exhibiting challenging behaviors secondary to psychiatric diagnoses and emotional and behavioral disturbances.
You can also read my post on how parents can Manage their post-institutionalized child’s behavior during study times which you can access HERE.
Finally, you can also read about materials which can hep you figure out whether the child’s behavior manifestations are due to sensory processing issues vs. true social emotional difficulties, HERE.
How do you work on behavior management in your sessions?
Today it is my pleasure to bring you a giveaway by Speech with Sharon, which is an Idiom of the Week.
This awesome 78 page packet contains
37 color and black and white idiom posters for the following idioms:
•Cry my eyes out
•Feeling blue
•Cry over spilled milk Continue reading Birthday Extravaganza Day Thirty: Idiom of the Week
It’s DAY 17 of my Birthday Month Giveaways and I am raffling off a giveaway by Kids Games for Speech Therapy which is a Halloween: Language Activity Pack for preschool children. This adorable Halloween themed packet targets the following skills:
The pack contains baseboards, picture prompt cards, cutouts, and written cue cards. Detailed SLP and parent instruction sheets are included. The pictures are adorable and very engaging.
You can find this product in Kids Games for Speech Therapy TPT store by clicking HERE or you can enter my one day giveaway for a chance to win.
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Today I am very excited to participate along with 27 other talented SLPs in the For the Love of Speech Blog Hop. I love being an SLP, and to spread that love around from February 1-4 I am giving away a Valentine’s Day Product: “The Origins of Valentine’s Day: At thematic language activity packet for middle and high school students” .
This thematic packet was created to target listening and reading comprehension of middle and high school students diagnosed with language impairments and learning disabilities. The packet contains Response to Intervention (RTI) Tier 2 vocabulary words in story context. Expressive language activities for the packet include production of synonyms and antonyms, fill-in the blank, as well as sentence formulation using story vocabulary. Comprehension questions pertaining to story are provided in an open ended question format. It is great for teaching reading comprehension and sophisticated vocabulary in a thematic context related to familiar to the student events.
You can grab this product for free for a limited time only in my online store (HERE) and then head on over to Teach Speech 365 to grab her freebie as well. Collect all freebies by the time the blog hop ends on February 4th!
For more useful FREE and PAID products check out my online store by clicking HERE or on the picture below 
October 21, 2011: East Brunswick NJ
The Department of Children and Families and the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect had a statewide child maltreatment prevention conference today and I had great fun doing today’s presentation:
“Differential Diagnosis of Inattention, Hyperactivity and Impulsivity in At-Risk Children” with our clinical team, Alla Gordina, MD, FAAP and Lydia Shifrin, LCSW.
We had a terrific crowd, who asked great questions and gave excellent feedback.
Presentation Highlights:
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the most common and the most controversial neurobehavioral disorders in children diagnosed today
Core symptoms of ADHD include Inattention, Impulsivity and Hyperactivity
Some ADHD statistics:
However, numerous medical, psychiatric, neurological, psychological, speech-language and other disorders are frequently misdiagnosed as ADHD
Disorders frequently misdiagnosed as AD/HD :
My presentation focused on explaining that having select language based difficulties can cause the child to act as inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive without actually having ADHD
My examples included:
It’s DAY 13 of my Birthday Month Giveaways and I am raffling off a giveaway by Gold Country SLP , which is a Corduroy Book Companion.
This delightful 49 page packet is based on the book Corduroy by Don Freeman and designed to accompany it by targeting receptive and expressive language skills based on the content of the book.
Product Contents:
You can find this product in Gold Country SLP TPT store by clicking HERE or you can enter my giveaway for a chance to win.
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On DAY 9 of my Birthday Month Giveaways I am raffling off a giveaway by The Speech Bucket, which is a “If you take a mouse to school” book companion AND an Add-on Activity. That’s right not one but two great activity packet’s with everyone’s favorite mischievous mouse.
If you take a mouse to school 17 page packet includes activities that target sequencing, story retell and comprehension (with and without picture support), basic language concepts, following directions, and much more (e.g., board game, bingo, writing, etc.)
Add-on Activity has adorable pictures that go with what the mouse sees when you take him to school, beach, and farm. In short these 2 activity packets have lots of nice materials to last you at least several sessions.
You can find these products in The Speech Bucket TPT store by clicking HERE and HERE or you can enter my one day giveaway for a chance to win.
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