Speech and Language Disorders Blogs This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

10 Ways to Motivate and Empower Clients to Practice
We all know the importance of consistent home practice to generalize new strategies and promote neuroplasticity. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try to educate clients, your urgency about this just doesn’t seem to carry over. Many variables influence someone’s motivation to work on new skills between sessions. Cognitive impairments, severity of a disorder, family involvement, access to resources, and physical or mental health can all affect at-home practice. Speech-language pathologists can benefit from understanding how people are motivated. People can be motivated intrinsically, extrinsically or only when the f...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - January 4, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Emily Dubas Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Cognitive Rehabilitation Health Care Language Disorders Traumatic Brain Injury Source Type: blogs

No Significant Increase in U.S. Autism Rates for the First Time in Decades
Rates of U.S. autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis may be stabilizing, report Time and other news outlets, who base their reports on a research letter from JAMA. The letter reviews 2014 through 2016 data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which indicate that the prevalence rate for ASD remains statistically flat. It holds at 2.4 percent for U.S. children and adolescents. Information in the report was based on in-person household interviews, with mostly parents reporting on ASD diagnoses among 30,502 children and adolescents. The report lists the prevalence rate for boys as 3.54 percent and for girls as...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - January 3, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Shelley D. Hutchins Tags: News Speech-Language Pathology Autism Spectrum Disorder Language Disorders Research Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs

Top 5 Audiology Posts for 2017
Here are the most popular audiology posts from the past year—we’ll bring you the top five speech-language pathology posts next week! Does Auditory Processing Disorder Meet the Criteria for a Legitimate Clinical Entity? You wanted to know more about both side of the auditory processing disorder controversy. We ran a series of articles, and this installment from audiologist Andrew Vermiglio, director of the Speech Perception Lab at East Carolina University, garnered the most views. In the post, he states that the “concept of the clinical entity is important when addressing controversial conditions such as auditory ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - December 21, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Shelley D. Hutchins Tags: Advocacy Audiology Health Care Hearing Aids Hearing Assistive Technology hearing loss Language Disorders Source Type: blogs

Talk to Your Legislators … You Never Know Where It Can Lead
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins meets with members of the Lafayette, Louisiana, chapter of the National Stuttering Association. During a visit to the ASHA National Office last March, ASHA’s Federal Advocacy team asked me if I would talk to my members of the U.S. Congress about legislative issues affecting our professions. I said yes. I made appointments with an aide to Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), but got an appointment directly with Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana). Higgins was an incoming freshman, so I actually thought his staff made a mistake when they said he would meet with me in person. I showed up as scheduled and, to ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - December 12, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: John Tetnowski Tags: Advocacy Audiology Speech-Language Pathology Fluency Disorders Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs

How to Make Nonfiction Appealing for Middle-School Literacy Intervention
Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a two-part series on literacy. The first post covers pre-reading activities for building solid literacy foundations. Middle school requires high performance when it comes to students comprehending what they should learn and questions they can answer about new material. Students need to extrapolate meaning from text to make predictions and identify critical features of a problem—who’s involved, how it’s solved, is it dangerous or not—or an interaction. Many of the middle school students on our caseloads, however, still lack the foundational question-answerin...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - December 7, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Scott Prath Tags: Speech-Language Pathology bilingual service delivery Language Disorders Schools Source Type: blogs

Two Texas-Based SLPs Teach 12-Year-Old Recipient of Cochlear Implants to Talk
Jeffrey Mota Jeffrey Mota—who was adopted from China three years ago and has severe hearing loss—is 12 years old and learning to communicate verbally for the first time. Last year, the boy received cochlear implants and began processing sounds once they were activated early this year. He works with two speech-language pathologists as he learns how to talk. A local ABS affiliate in Austin, Texas, interviewed the SLPs and Jeffrey’s father. Expanded Cochlear Implant Candidacy Amidst renewed debate about teaching signed versus spoken language to children who are deaf, professionals call for emphasizing all forms o...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - December 6, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Shelley D. Hutchins Tags: Audiology Speech-Language Pathology bilingual service delivery hearing loss private practice Schools Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs

BCBL - PhD positions - Programme INPhINIT "LaCaixa"
With the aim of continuing to support the best scientific talent and fostering innovative, high quality research in Spain, ”la Caixa” Foundation is launching a new call for applications for the INPhINIT Fellowships Programme. The application deadline is February 1st, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. (Central European Time - CET). In this second call it will grant 57 3-year fellowships to talented researchers of any nationality to carry out a doctorate at top Spanish research centres accredited with the Severo Ochoa or María de Maeztu distinction and at Carlos III Health Research Institutes, in the ...
Source: Talking Brains - December 5, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs

Are People Who Ask Questions More Likeable?
This morning’s Morning Edition, a radio broadcast hosted by NPR, was all about asking questions. A new study by researchers at Harvard University says people who ask more questions, particularly follow-up questions, are perceived as more likeable. Asking questions makes them seem curious, attentive and responsive. We like people more who ask us questions rather than just answering them and talking about themselves. Speech-language pathologists know the importance of asking questions in conversational interactions. They also know people with social communication disorders—such as those with autism—might experience m...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - November 29, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Diane Paul Tags: News Speech-Language Pathology Autism Spectrum Disorder Language Disorders Source Type: blogs

10 (Non-Tech) Holiday Gift Ideas to Build Kids ’ Language, Learning
As the holidays approach, children fill their wish lists with items like tablets, video gaming consoles, smart watches, and even Internet-connected traditional toys such as dolls and teddy bears (advertised as being able to “converse” with kids). But—as I wrote in a blog post last year—audiologists and speech-language pathologists can take advantage of this time to help clients, family and friends find a technology balance and spread awareness about high-quality, off-line activities to help build children’s language skills and promote learning. As always, children who use low- and high-tech augmentative and alter...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - November 28, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Diane Paul Tags: Audiology Speech-Language Pathology Augmentative Alternative Communication Early Intervention Language Disorders Technology Source Type: blogs

Helping Families of Clients With Autism Handle the Holidays
Many parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) report the holiday season as a time filled with stress and anxiety instead of festive fun. Changes in routine, family gatherings and new experiences increase frustration and set the scene for meltdowns—from children and parents alike! Speech-language pathologists use many techniques to set up clients with ASD for success. Try suggesting some of these tried-and-true methods to caregivers to help set up a smooth season. SLPs prepare clients for social success. We prepare our clients for new situations by helping them create social stories about their expected b...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - November 21, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Venita Litvack Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Augmentative Alternative Communication Autism Spectrum Disorder Early Intervention Feeding Disorders Language Disorders Source Type: blogs

What Barriers Face Students With Hearing Loss?
The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University wants to know what you see as the significant barriers facing students who are deaf and hard of hearing, ages birth through high school. This is your opportunity to share your experiences. The Clerc Center is mandated by the 2008 Education of the Deaf Act “to establish and publish priorities for research, development, and demonstration through a process that allows for public input.” Now is the time for ASHA members to share their input! The center will use your responses to identify priorities for the Clerc Center Strategic Plan 2025. If ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - November 8, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Mary Ann Kinsella-Meier Tags: Advocacy Audiology Hearing Assistive Technology hearing loss Language Disorders Schools Speech Disorders speech-language pathology Source Type: blogs

What Happens Next for Your Young Adult Clients With Autism?
For a young adult with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the social and behavioral intricacies of getting a job can be daunting. And once they find a job and successfully navigate the interview process, staying employed can present new challenges. Negative work experiences range from lack of tolerance, problems with social interactions—co-workers often don’t recognize social norms as challenges for their peers with ASD—and limited time to learn new tasks. These issues can lead to short employment stints for people with autism. Adults with ASD need help with the multiple skills required for job hunting and workplace suc...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - October 31, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Monica Hudnall Tags: Advocacy Speech-Language Pathology Autism Spectrum Disorder Language Disorders social skils Source Type: blogs

Before the Book: Pre-Reading Activities to Build Literacy Foundations
Little children at the library doing crafts Most of my group intervention sessions used to go a lot like this: I gathered my students for treatment, exchanged greetings or explained the day, and popped open the book. I usually spent the next 30 minutes on an activity and concluding the book. It was a good session. But once I started incorporating pre-reading activities, students began advancing at a startling rate. I work with diverse populations and I quickly learned not to make any assumptions about whether the child knows the stories, has books at home, has literate parents, speaks our language at home … the list ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - October 19, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Scott Prath Tags: Speech-Language Pathology bilingual service delivery Early Intervention Language Disorders literacy Schools Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs