I have been a speech and language pathologist, for now, forty-one years and over that time I have experienced changes in how we conduct therapy as research further defines best practices. One area that has been rapidly changing is in our work with students with…

  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…

Parent-teacher conferences can bring new referrals as parents wonder if their child has a speech or language disorder that may be impacting their school work. Giving them some information on normal development and ways they can help their child is sometimes all that is needed.…

  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…

Technology is essential in our teaching whether we are working with K-12 or university students. In order for teachers to feel comfortable about incorporating technology into their teaching, we need to during their preservice education make sure we expose them to it. We need to…

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…

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,…