Cozy chats about speech, language and learning
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is constantly evolving not just the technology surrounding it but also the vocabulary that we emphasis as we teach it. I have been in the field for forty-one years and have seen the transformation of how we think of AAC.…
There are many areas for challenges for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. No two people have the same communicative challenges. Some children with autism spectrum disorder have echolalia. Echolalia At one time the thought was Echolalia was a behavior to eliminate but we have a…
What are pragmatic language skills? Pragmatic language refers to the social language skills that we use in our daily interactions with others. This includes what we say, how we say it, our non-verbal communication (eye contact, facial expressions, body language, etc.) and how appropriate our interactions are in a given situation.
The concept of language is a difficult one. According to Bloom and Lahey, language can be defined as “a knowledge of a code for representing ideas about the world through a conventional system of arbitrary signals for communication”. Language is hard to describe but if…
Kindergarten speech and language screenings are part of the educational requirement. I typically do these the first week of school giving me a chance to meet each of the new students. The purpose of the screening is to pick up any student that might…
One of my favorite things to do in the summer is read on the beach. When that reading transforms my thinking or my practice of teaching I feel doubly gifted. Edrenaline Rush by John Meehan is one such book. This may end up being a series as…
I have been very fortunate in my life to have had some amazing work adventures! For the last twelve years, I have worked at the University of Rhode Island’s Speech and Hearing Clinic as a clinical supervisor. A university clinic is similar to an educational…
Clinical writing speech-language pathology is an important skill to review not just for the graduate student but also for the professional speech and language pathologist. You may have been an amazingly creative writer in school but now the skills that made you so talented then,…
One of the first things we do when we meet a new client as stated in another blog is to do an initial assessment to gather a baseline. It is very important that we clearly define this baseline so that it is clear exactly what…
Assessment drives instruction. Evaluation data helps to drive the instruction of a student. When we take baseline we get a direction for our teaching. Prior to seeing a new student/client, we read through their records to develop a picture and to make a group of…