June 13, 2024 • 18 mins
No doubt you've noticed how our role as SLPs overlaps with other professions. Collaboration is highly desirable of course, but sometimes roles overlap so much as to be almost indistinguishable. It can be a disconcerting feeling - as though the earth has moved beneath your feet! Today, Denise Stratton, a veteran pediatric speech-language pathologist, tackles the confusion and frustration that can arise in this multifaceted field. Join us as we explore the root causes of speech and language disorders, helping us understand why multiple diagnoses and professions often converge at the same point. We'll confront the professional uncertainty many young SLPs feel about their scope of practice and compensation, and reveal simple but powerful interventions that can help navigate these professional lanes more effectively.
In the second part of this episode, we delve into the intricate relationship between auditory processing and memory, shedding light on the importance of targeting root causes rather than just applying labels to language disorders. Denise shares a treasure trove of effective interventions and tools. By honing in on these root causes and understanding the progression of interventions, we can achieve significantly better outcomes for our clients. Don't forget to explore the wealth of materials available on The Speech Umbrella website and the value of sharing knowledge within our professional community.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Denise (00:06):
Welcome to the Speech Umbrella, the show that explores
simple but powerful therapytechniques for optimal outcomes.
I'm Denise Stratton, apediatric speech-language
pathologist of 30-plus years.
I'm closer to the end of mycareer than the beginning and
along the way, I've worked longand hard to become a better
therapist.
Join me as we explore the manytopics that fall under our
umbrellas as SLPs.
(00:27):
I want to make your journeysmoother.
I found the best therapy comesfrom employing simple techniques
with a generous helping ofmindfulness.
Hello, welcome to the SpeechUmbrella Podcast.
This is episode 102, and I'mcalling it Where's my Lane?
If you've experienced drivingon a dark and rainy night with
faded lane striping, you knowhow unnerving that can be.
(00:50):
That's when I mentally beratethe powers that be in charge of
striping and I cry out to theuniverse where's my lane?
Okay, that's a little dramatic,I know, but the situations I'm
going to describe now are honestto goodness, lived experiences
in our profession and could beequally unsettling.
I was on a speech therapyFacebook site recently and
happened upon a discussion amongyoung SLPs who were discouraged
(01:13):
because reading tutors weremaking more than them.
It's likely these readingtutors also had less education
and less student debt to boot.
To add to the confusion.
The SLPs weren't sure whetherthey had the knowledge to
compete with the reading tutors.
They were receiving all sortsof suggestions to take a variety
of courses to up their game,some of them which were quite
expensive.
So to what end was theiralready expensive education if
(01:36):
they had to pay more to make asmuch as a tutor?
And to further the confusion?
Should they be teaching reading?
Should that have been part oftheir training?
I know we're not in thisprofession for the money, but we
do want to be equitablyrewarded.
Here's another situation toconsider.
I recently took a course inmyofunctional therapy which was
very eye-opening.
In fact, I need to do a podcastabout that in the future, as we
(01:58):
discussed various case studies.
Not once, but several times, itwas mentioned that a client's
long-standing speech disorderwas corrected through
myofunctional therapy.
Not that the myofunctionaltherapist addressed the speech
order directly In most cases thetherapist wasn't even an SLP,
they were something like a PT oran OT but that the speech
disorder was corrected as a sidebenefit of the myofunctional
(02:20):
therapy.
That begs the question ifmyofunctional therapy can
correct a speech disorder, whywasn't that part of my training?
And where's my lane as an SLPif someone else can do my job
and correct speech disorders.
Finally, here's anothersituation to consider.
I'm part of a group ofaudiologists and SLPs who meet
to discuss auditory processing.
At our last meeting, theaudiologist who was presenting
(02:43):
an intervention model said heremployers had initially directed
her to do the therapy.
Later they changed their mindsand assigned the therapy to the
SLPs.
It seems as though the powersthat be whoever that is don't
even know where the lanes are.
So the question is can otherprofessions do what we do and,
if so, where does that leave us?
In today's podcast, I'm sharinghow to thrive in our profession
(03:04):
, even with these leanconfusions.
In order to do that, I'll bepresenting a simple view of
speech and language disorders,along with powerful
interventions.
Before I jump into that, I wantto take a moment and talk about
why we have this confusion.
Our profession has grown a lotsince the early days of speech
therapy and we've discovered alot about learning.
All the other professionsconcerned with learning are
(03:25):
doing the same thing.
We're making the samediscoveries.
The more we discover about theroot of learning problems, the
more professions will beaddressing that area.
There are fewer root causesthan professions, and there are
fewer professions than names ofdisorders.
Don't even get me started onall the names we have for speech
and language disorders.
We can have five to ten namesfor symptoms that stem from a
(03:46):
single root cause.
That's sometimes needed forinsurance purposes, but oh the
confusion it causes.
This lame confusion was bound tohappen as multiple professions
who work with children withlearning disabilities have been
uncovering the root of theirproblems.
We know speech and languagedisorders often go hand in hand
with a learning disability.
When the root causes are thesame, it stands to reason there
(04:07):
will be overlap of remediationtechniques.
Then we are not sure where ourlane actually is.
I think of this like aninverted pyramid, narrower at
the bottom than the top.
The root cause or causes are onthe pointy end, at the bottom.
Then come our interventions andnext the various professions
who administer the interventionsand finally we have the
multiple diagnoses to describewhat emerges from the root
(04:29):
causes.
These diagnoses tend tomultiply like gremlins fed after
midnight, and it gets very busy, very crowded down there at the
pointy end, right when we'reall treating the root causes.
Now, well, not everybody is,but I should say more of us are
discovering the root causes,which is fantastic, but we get a
little bit crowded down there,then we get scenarios like this.
(04:51):
Just take dyslexia, for anexample Mass confusion over what
dyslexia is, who can diagnoseit, who can treat it and how.
Oh my, there are a lot oftheories on how to treat
dyslexia.
If we would just look at theroot causes and treat those, it
would simplify things so much.
Just because the view of speechand language disorders I'm going
to present to you is simple,that doesn't mean the
(05:13):
interventions aren't powerful.
They are.
I suggest that the mostpowerful interventions stem from
the simple view.
Here's my simple view of speechand language disorders.
Bear in mind that this viewapplies to a large portion of a
pediatric caseload, but noteveryone.
Clients with autism don'tnecessarily follow this model,
but they can.
Fluency clients don'tnecessarily follow this model
(05:34):
either, but there can be overlap.
I've made this analogy onprevious podcasts, but it bears
repeating.
Every child I see is on atherapy journey, which I picture
as a road.
The road begins with motorskills and transitions into
auditory skills.
On this journey, there will beweather that affects their
journey.
The weather representscognition, memory, temperament
(06:01):
and social skills.
It's my job to figure out whereon the road my clients are and
apply the appropriateinterventions.
You might be thinking, wait aminute, you didn't say a single
word about articulation orexpressive language just now.
That's because I'm talkingabout root causes.
Speech is movement made audible, that it's first and foremost a
motor skill.
As for language, how do welearn to speak?
Because, all other things beingequal, such as motor and
(06:22):
hearing, we hear, process,remember and reproduce the
language around us, and that'sauditory processing.
How do we apply interventionsto root causes?
Then let's unpack this,beginning with motor skills.
We're not OTs or PTs, but we areconcerned with motor skills
that impact speech.
Also, it behooves us torecognize children who need OT
(06:42):
and PT besides what we can offer.
So many children, who are oftendysregulated, have a great need
for OT or PT, and one of thesaddest things I saw during
COVID was children who missedout on OT and PT services in
favor of speech therapy becausecommunication was deemed to be
more necessary when in fact, otand PT would have helped them to
be more successful in speechand language therapy.
(07:04):
But getting back to whatinterventions we can do, we can
treat the muscles needed forspeech.
Here's some suggestions for howto treat the root of motor
speech problems.
You could take a course inmyofunctional therapy how to
treat the root of motor speechproblems.
You could take a course inmyofunctional therapy.
I recently did that and I am sograteful.
I learned a boatload about howmuscles that's soft tissue
(07:27):
affect bone that's hard tissueand how critical a correct oral
resting posture is.
I learned additional ways tohelp clients achieve correct
oral resting postures, whichabsolutely affects speech.
By the way, my course wasthrough the Academy of Oral
Facial Myofunctional Therapy,which is really really in-depth.
If you decide to take thisroute and take a myofunctional
therapy course, I recommendfinding a course that really
does go in-depth and includespeople from other professions.
(07:48):
In your course you can learn awhole lot from the other people
around you that are outside ofour profession.
Now you could also take acourse in prompt therapy.
If you've been listening to mefor any amount of time, you know
I love prompt, but there aresome pros and cons to prompt it
helps to be aware of.
Their assessment includesquestions on the integrity of
the oral structure, the palate,their dentition etc.
(08:09):
But the course doesn't provideguidelines on what constitutes
an ideal oral structure.
Also, one of their mantras isspeech through speech, meaning
the prompt technique rejects anykind of tools to improve speech
aside from their tactile cuesand speech itself.
I don't hold that positionmyself, since I've seen great
results from using tools such asthe myofunctional kits I use
(08:31):
and the horns and straws fortalk tools.
That being said, there are somany pros to prompt.
If you get prompt trained, youwill understand how speech is
three-dimensional and in whatorder.
To teach sounds, you gain anunderstanding that you are
remediating speech through usingsounds to train the jaw, the
lip and tongue movements.
The sounds are the tools tobalance muscle movements.
(08:52):
Children who are too young to domyofunctional therapy can
really benefit from prompt.
Also, clients who don't havethe cognitive ability to
participate in myofunctionaltherapy can benefit from PROMPT.
Prompt helped me understand howvery, very important phonation
control or diaphragm control isto speech.
I think that often getsoverlooked in speech therapist
training.
And finally, prompt directsyour attention to a client's
(09:15):
cognitive and social abilitiesin addition to their motor
ability, which helps youintervene at appropriate levels
for that child.
And if you're not up for a milefunctional or prompt courses,
take a look at Char Beauchart'smaterial.
She has a fantastic knowledgeof all things oral, motor and
tons of material for SLPs.
I interviewed her on episode 79and we took a deep dive into
(09:35):
oral motor issues, and you canlearn a lot from Char.
Last but not least, my coursefor R Impossible R Made Possible
goes into how to assess andremediate the oral motor system.
I also have several podcasts onR that I'll link in the show
notes.
All of the above myofunctionaltherapy prompt.
Char's material and ImpossibleR teach how to remediate the
(09:56):
root cause of motor speechdisorders, and they range from a
substantial financialinvestment to very affordable to
free.
So there's something foreveryone.
Now let's return to the therapyroad analogy and the second half
of the road, which consists ofauditory skills.
There is a growing recognitionthat deficits in auditory skills
lead to learning disabilities,which of course include language
(10:17):
disorders.
Here's one way to think of it.
I ask myself how typicaldeveloping children learn
language.
I conclude it's through hearingprocessing and remembering what
they hear.
By the way, this is aresearch-based way to look at
language disorders.
Check out episode 88 to learnwhy.
For the sake of simplicity hereI'm not including the earlier
part of the journey, motorskills.
(10:38):
The assumption is you've doneas much as possible in that area
by now.
When looking at auditoryprocessing.
We must include memory, as thatis critical.
And here's a word about memory.
You can absolutely help clientsimprove their memories.
I have seen it time and again.
However, with cognitiveimpairments there will be
constraints and in time you willeventually discover the point
in therapy where yourinterventions are no longer
(11:00):
effective, where you getdiminishing returns.
But even those clients withcognitive impairment can improve
their memory sometimes.
It's ironic that in motor speechdisorders often the only
recognized diagnostic label isapraxia, which is too severe of
a description for most clients.
We don't even know how to talkabout motor speech disorders
because people just jump toapraxia.
(11:20):
Then we can hardly talkcoherently about language
disorders because we have somany diagnostic terms.
Even as I was preparing thispodcast, I wondered if I should
use the term auditory processingor auditory skills, or
phonological processing orphonemic awareness.
Yikes, I don't care a lot aboutdiagnostic terms, I just want
to treat the symptoms.
Here are some powerfulinterventions that treat the
(11:41):
root causes.
They treat the ability toprocess, recall and then produce
language, and in the process,reading disorders, also known as
dyslexia, almost always gettreated.
There's a clip for readingsuccess by Dr David Kilpatrick,
a method for teachingphonological processing, and I
have several podcasts on thisthat I'll link.
There's a book called PhonemicAwareness in Young Children by
(12:04):
Adams, foreman, lindbergh andBeeler and I hope I pronounced
all those names right and thatis a great book that I used to
actually develop some of my ownauditory processing tools.
There's the phonologicalawareness tracking tool.
This is a form I created whichI use for both assessment and
progress monitoring.
I developed this as I startedto delve into treating the root
(12:25):
causes, and I use it with mostof my language clients.
Actually, I have another toolcalled Prime to Rhyme.
I developed this tool toimprove auditory memory of
consonant vowel rhymes such asshoo boo too.
I found it to be a greatstepping stone to help children
gain a greater ability toanalyze and process longer words
(12:46):
.
And when they can analyze andprocess longer words, guess what
they can analyze and processlanguage and sentences.
Guess what they can analyze andprocess language and sentences.
I'm in the middle of puttingtogether all of the materials
I've developed for processing,recalling and producing language
, and while it's not finished, Ido have several products
published, and they are theNursery Rhyme Coloring Book Cue
the Move, which is a followingdirections activity Orange is a
(13:09):
Carrot, which is a poem activity, not to mention Prime to
Rhymeological awareness trackingtool I just talked about.
In my free resource librarythere is one to buckle my shoe,
there's a baa baa black sheepactivity and there are lists of
words that are called the Rosnerphonemic awareness words, and
they are lists that are the freeversion, if you will, of
(13:31):
Equipped for Reading Success.
Now there's a couple of otherinterventions that are powerful
for processing, remembering andproducing oral language, and
they are the Story Champsprogram for narrative language
and Sketch and Speak forexpository language.
I have podcast interviews withthe creators of these materials
for both of these techniques,and those are awesome.
All you need to do is go listento them.
(13:52):
I use either of theseinterventions the storytelling
or sketch and speak eitherconcurrently with the auditory
processing I'm doing or after aclient has completed the
auditory processing skills I'mworking on.
It's just very client specificand also coming up soon.
I have 50 stories that I havecreated that you can use for a
(14:14):
narrative intervention.
They are very simple andthey're meant to work with that
group of children who are justbeginning to be able to do
narratives, because I foundthere was a gap there, and so
those have all been drawnbeautifully by an artist and
they're all written.
I'm just preparing themarketing material, so watch for
those, because those will becoming out soon.
Finally, if you're dying to getyour hands on all of my
(14:38):
materials for phonologicalawareness or auditory processing
whatever we're calling thisreach out to me at denise, at
the speech umbrella dot com, andI'll send you my beta package.
The only cost to you is to giveme feedback.
You can see from all this, wedon't lack in materials to
intervene in language disorders.
In fact, we have too much.
(14:59):
That is fluff.
All of the things I just talkedabout are way better than the
fluff.
The trick is to know where tobegin and the order of
progression, which is where myphonological awareness tracking
tool comes in very handy.
To wrap things up, let's talkabout thriving in our profession
.
In our new world of professionscrossing lanes, all you really
need is two things First, becomewell educated in treating the
(15:22):
root causes of speech andlanguage disorders and second,
know the order in which to applythe interventions.
Then you can navigate in yourlane with confidence.
You can speak knowledgeablyabout the symptoms you're
treating, no matter whatdiagnostic label has been
applied.
With this knowledge, you seeyour clients progress faster and
farther.
Check out my materials forlanguage processing at
(15:43):
thespeechtrimbellacom.
You'll find some in my storeand others in my free resource
library, and you'll also findthese materials on TPT.
If you haven't signed up for thefree resource library yet, take
a look at thespeechjabellacomslash free.
My mantra is when you masterthe simple, the complex takes
care of itself.
But another way of saying thatis when you treat the root
causes, the symptoms take careof themselves.
(16:05):
I know I've just given you awhole boatload of things to
explore and I'm going to linkthem all on this podcast.
So just be aware it's going tobe as long as your arm.
Go to the speech umbrella dotcom.
Slash blog slash 102, to seeall of these links.
åThanks for joining me underthe speech umbrella today.
I hope you learned something tohelp you in your therapy.
(16:28):
If you did, please share thispodcast with a fellow speech
therapist and leave a five-starreview on Apple, itunes, spotify
or wherever you get yoursubscriptions.
While there, come on over tothespeechumbrellacom where you
will find transcripts, links andmy free resource library.
I also have some other valuablecourses and therapy aids in my
store.
That's all atthespeechumbrellacom.
(16:48):
Let's connect on social media.
I'm dstrattenslp on Instagramand the Speech Umbrella on
Facebook and YouTube.
You can also find me on TPT.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Bye.
Dan (17:01):
Thanks for listening to the Speech Umbrella.
We invite you to sign up forthe free resource library at
thespeechumbrellacom.
You'll get access to some ofDenise's best tracking tools,
mindfulness activities and othergreat resources to take your
therapy to the next level.
All this is for free atthespeechumbrellacom.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,subscribe and please leave us a
(17:24):
review on Apple Podcasts andother podcast directories.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Speech Umbrella, the show that explores
simple but powerful therapytechniques for optimal outcomes.
I'm Denise Stratton, apediatric speech-language
pathologist of 30-plus years.
I'm closer to the end of mycareer than the beginning and
along the way, I've worked longand hard to become a better
therapist.
Join me as we explore the manytopics that fall under our
umbrellas as SLPs.
(00:27):
I want to make your journeysmoother.
I found the best therapy comesfrom employing simple techniques
with a generous helping ofmindfulness.
Hello, welcome to the SpeechUmbrella Podcast.
This is episode 102, and I'mcalling it Where's my Lane?
If you've experienced drivingon a dark and rainy night with
faded lane striping, you knowhow unnerving that can be.
(00:50):
That's when I mentally beratethe powers that be in charge of
striping and I cry out to theuniverse where's my lane?
Okay, that's a little dramatic,I know, but the situations I'm
going to describe now are honestto goodness, lived experiences
in our profession and could beequally unsettling.
I was on a speech therapyFacebook site recently and
happened upon a discussion amongyoung SLPs who were discouraged
(01:13):
because reading tutors weremaking more than them.
It's likely these readingtutors also had less education
and less student debt to boot.
To add to the confusion.
The SLPs weren't sure whetherthey had the knowledge to
compete with the reading tutors.
They were receiving all sortsof suggestions to take a variety
of courses to up their game,some of them which were quite
expensive.
So to what end was theiralready expensive education if
(01:36):
they had to pay more to make asmuch as a tutor?
And to further the confusion?
Should they be teaching reading?
Should that have been part oftheir training?
I know we're not in thisprofession for the money, but we
do want to be equitablyrewarded.
Here's another situation toconsider.
I recently took a course inmyofunctional therapy which was
very eye-opening.
In fact, I need to do a podcastabout that in the future, as we
(01:58):
discussed various case studies.
Not once, but several times, itwas mentioned that a client's
long-standing speech disorderwas corrected through
myofunctional therapy.
Not that the myofunctionaltherapist addressed the speech
order directly In most cases thetherapist wasn't even an SLP,
they were something like a PT oran OT but that the speech
disorder was corrected as a sidebenefit of the myofunctional
(02:20):
therapy.
That begs the question ifmyofunctional therapy can
correct a speech disorder, whywasn't that part of my training?
And where's my lane as an SLPif someone else can do my job
and correct speech disorders.
Finally, here's anothersituation to consider.
I'm part of a group ofaudiologists and SLPs who meet
to discuss auditory processing.
At our last meeting, theaudiologist who was presenting
(02:43):
an intervention model said heremployers had initially directed
her to do the therapy.
Later they changed their mindsand assigned the therapy to the
SLPs.
It seems as though the powersthat be whoever that is don't
even know where the lanes are.
So the question is can otherprofessions do what we do and,
if so, where does that leave us?
In today's podcast, I'm sharinghow to thrive in our profession
(03:04):
, even with these leanconfusions.
In order to do that, I'll bepresenting a simple view of
speech and language disorders,along with powerful
interventions.
Before I jump into that, I wantto take a moment and talk about
why we have this confusion.
Our profession has grown a lotsince the early days of speech
therapy and we've discovered alot about learning.
All the other professionsconcerned with learning are
(03:25):
doing the same thing.
We're making the samediscoveries.
The more we discover about theroot of learning problems, the
more professions will beaddressing that area.
There are fewer root causesthan professions, and there are
fewer professions than names ofdisorders.
Don't even get me started onall the names we have for speech
and language disorders.
We can have five to ten namesfor symptoms that stem from a
(03:46):
single root cause.
That's sometimes needed forinsurance purposes, but oh the
confusion it causes.
This lame confusion was bound tohappen as multiple professions
who work with children withlearning disabilities have been
uncovering the root of theirproblems.
We know speech and languagedisorders often go hand in hand
with a learning disability.
When the root causes are thesame, it stands to reason there
(04:07):
will be overlap of remediationtechniques.
Then we are not sure where ourlane actually is.
I think of this like aninverted pyramid, narrower at
the bottom than the top.
The root cause or causes are onthe pointy end, at the bottom.
Then come our interventions andnext the various professions
who administer the interventionsand finally we have the
multiple diagnoses to describewhat emerges from the root
(04:29):
causes.
These diagnoses tend tomultiply like gremlins fed after
midnight, and it gets very busy, very crowded down there at the
pointy end, right when we'reall treating the root causes.
Now, well, not everybody is,but I should say more of us are
discovering the root causes,which is fantastic, but we get a
little bit crowded down there,then we get scenarios like this.
(04:51):
Just take dyslexia, for anexample Mass confusion over what
dyslexia is, who can diagnoseit, who can treat it and how.
Oh my, there are a lot oftheories on how to treat
dyslexia.
If we would just look at theroot causes and treat those, it
would simplify things so much.
Just because the view of speechand language disorders I'm going
to present to you is simple,that doesn't mean the
(05:13):
interventions aren't powerful.
They are.
I suggest that the mostpowerful interventions stem from
the simple view.
Here's my simple view of speechand language disorders.
Bear in mind that this viewapplies to a large portion of a
pediatric caseload, but noteveryone.
Clients with autism don'tnecessarily follow this model,
but they can.
Fluency clients don'tnecessarily follow this model
(05:34):
either, but there can be overlap.
I've made this analogy onprevious podcasts, but it bears
repeating.
Every child I see is on atherapy journey, which I picture
as a road.
The road begins with motorskills and transitions into
auditory skills.
On this journey, there will beweather that affects their
journey.
The weather representscognition, memory, temperament
(06:01):
and social skills.
It's my job to figure out whereon the road my clients are and
apply the appropriateinterventions.
You might be thinking, wait aminute, you didn't say a single
word about articulation orexpressive language just now.
That's because I'm talkingabout root causes.
Speech is movement made audible, that it's first and foremost a
motor skill.
As for language, how do welearn to speak?
Because, all other things beingequal, such as motor and
(06:22):
hearing, we hear, process,remember and reproduce the
language around us, and that'sauditory processing.
How do we apply interventionsto root causes?
Then let's unpack this,beginning with motor skills.
We're not OTs or PTs, but we areconcerned with motor skills
that impact speech.
Also, it behooves us torecognize children who need OT
(06:42):
and PT besides what we can offer.
So many children, who are oftendysregulated, have a great need
for OT or PT, and one of thesaddest things I saw during
COVID was children who missedout on OT and PT services in
favor of speech therapy becausecommunication was deemed to be
more necessary when in fact, otand PT would have helped them to
be more successful in speechand language therapy.
(07:04):
But getting back to whatinterventions we can do, we can
treat the muscles needed forspeech.
Here's some suggestions for howto treat the root of motor
speech problems.
You could take a course inmyofunctional therapy how to
treat the root of motor speechproblems.
You could take a course inmyofunctional therapy.
I recently did that and I am sograteful.
I learned a boatload about howmuscles that's soft tissue
(07:27):
affect bone that's hard tissueand how critical a correct oral
resting posture is.
I learned additional ways tohelp clients achieve correct
oral resting postures, whichabsolutely affects speech.
By the way, my course wasthrough the Academy of Oral
Facial Myofunctional Therapy,which is really really in-depth.
If you decide to take thisroute and take a myofunctional
therapy course, I recommendfinding a course that really
does go in-depth and includespeople from other professions.
(07:48):
In your course you can learn awhole lot from the other people
around you that are outside ofour profession.
Now you could also take acourse in prompt therapy.
If you've been listening to mefor any amount of time, you know
I love prompt, but there aresome pros and cons to prompt it
helps to be aware of.
Their assessment includesquestions on the integrity of
the oral structure, the palate,their dentition etc.
(08:09):
But the course doesn't provideguidelines on what constitutes
an ideal oral structure.
Also, one of their mantras isspeech through speech, meaning
the prompt technique rejects anykind of tools to improve speech
aside from their tactile cuesand speech itself.
I don't hold that positionmyself, since I've seen great
results from using tools such asthe myofunctional kits I use
(08:31):
and the horns and straws fortalk tools.
That being said, there are somany pros to prompt.
If you get prompt trained, youwill understand how speech is
three-dimensional and in whatorder.
To teach sounds, you gain anunderstanding that you are
remediating speech through usingsounds to train the jaw, the
lip and tongue movements.
The sounds are the tools tobalance muscle movements.
(08:52):
Children who are too young to domyofunctional therapy can
really benefit from prompt.
Also, clients who don't havethe cognitive ability to
participate in myofunctionaltherapy can benefit from PROMPT.
Prompt helped me understand howvery, very important phonation
control or diaphragm control isto speech.
I think that often getsoverlooked in speech therapist
training.
And finally, prompt directsyour attention to a client's
(09:15):
cognitive and social abilitiesin addition to their motor
ability, which helps youintervene at appropriate levels
for that child.
And if you're not up for a milefunctional or prompt courses,
take a look at Char Beauchart'smaterial.
She has a fantastic knowledgeof all things oral, motor and
tons of material for SLPs.
I interviewed her on episode 79and we took a deep dive into
(09:35):
oral motor issues, and you canlearn a lot from Char.
Last but not least, my coursefor R Impossible R Made Possible
goes into how to assess andremediate the oral motor system.
I also have several podcasts onR that I'll link in the show
notes.
All of the above myofunctionaltherapy prompt.
Char's material and ImpossibleR teach how to remediate the
(09:56):
root cause of motor speechdisorders, and they range from a
substantial financialinvestment to very affordable to
free.
So there's something foreveryone.
Now let's return to the therapyroad analogy and the second half
of the road, which consists ofauditory skills.
There is a growing recognitionthat deficits in auditory skills
lead to learning disabilities,which of course include language
(10:17):
disorders.
Here's one way to think of it.
I ask myself how typicaldeveloping children learn
language.
I conclude it's through hearingprocessing and remembering what
they hear.
By the way, this is aresearch-based way to look at
language disorders.
Check out episode 88 to learnwhy.
For the sake of simplicity hereI'm not including the earlier
part of the journey, motorskills.
(10:38):
The assumption is you've doneas much as possible in that area
by now.
When looking at auditoryprocessing.
We must include memory, as thatis critical.
And here's a word about memory.
You can absolutely help clientsimprove their memories.
I have seen it time and again.
However, with cognitiveimpairments there will be
constraints and in time you willeventually discover the point
in therapy where yourinterventions are no longer
(11:00):
effective, where you getdiminishing returns.
But even those clients withcognitive impairment can improve
their memory sometimes.
It's ironic that in motor speechdisorders often the only
recognized diagnostic label isapraxia, which is too severe of
a description for most clients.
We don't even know how to talkabout motor speech disorders
because people just jump toapraxia.
(11:20):
Then we can hardly talkcoherently about language
disorders because we have somany diagnostic terms.
Even as I was preparing thispodcast, I wondered if I should
use the term auditory processingor auditory skills, or
phonological processing orphonemic awareness.
Yikes, I don't care a lot aboutdiagnostic terms, I just want
to treat the symptoms.
Here are some powerfulinterventions that treat the
(11:41):
root causes.
They treat the ability toprocess, recall and then produce
language, and in the process,reading disorders, also known as
dyslexia, almost always gettreated.
There's a clip for readingsuccess by Dr David Kilpatrick,
a method for teachingphonological processing, and I
have several podcasts on thisthat I'll link.
There's a book called PhonemicAwareness in Young Children by
(12:04):
Adams, foreman, lindbergh andBeeler and I hope I pronounced
all those names right and thatis a great book that I used to
actually develop some of my ownauditory processing tools.
There's the phonologicalawareness tracking tool.
This is a form I created whichI use for both assessment and
progress monitoring.
I developed this as I startedto delve into treating the root
(12:25):
causes, and I use it with mostof my language clients.
Actually, I have another toolcalled Prime to Rhyme.
I developed this tool toimprove auditory memory of
consonant vowel rhymes such asshoo boo too.
I found it to be a greatstepping stone to help children
gain a greater ability toanalyze and process longer words
(12:46):
.
And when they can analyze andprocess longer words, guess what
they can analyze and processlanguage and sentences.
Guess what they can analyze andprocess language and sentences.
I'm in the middle of puttingtogether all of the materials
I've developed for processing,recalling and producing language
, and while it's not finished, Ido have several products
published, and they are theNursery Rhyme Coloring Book Cue
the Move, which is a followingdirections activity Orange is a
(13:09):
Carrot, which is a poem activity, not to mention Prime to
Rhymeological awareness trackingtool I just talked about.
In my free resource librarythere is one to buckle my shoe,
there's a baa baa black sheepactivity and there are lists of
words that are called the Rosnerphonemic awareness words, and
they are lists that are the freeversion, if you will, of
(13:31):
Equipped for Reading Success.
Now there's a couple of otherinterventions that are powerful
for processing, remembering andproducing oral language, and
they are the Story Champsprogram for narrative language
and Sketch and Speak forexpository language.
I have podcast interviews withthe creators of these materials
for both of these techniques,and those are awesome.
All you need to do is go listento them.
(13:52):
I use either of theseinterventions the storytelling
or sketch and speak eitherconcurrently with the auditory
processing I'm doing or after aclient has completed the
auditory processing skills I'mworking on.
It's just very client specificand also coming up soon.
I have 50 stories that I havecreated that you can use for a
(14:14):
narrative intervention.
They are very simple andthey're meant to work with that
group of children who are justbeginning to be able to do
narratives, because I foundthere was a gap there, and so
those have all been drawnbeautifully by an artist and
they're all written.
I'm just preparing themarketing material, so watch for
those, because those will becoming out soon.
Finally, if you're dying to getyour hands on all of my
(14:38):
materials for phonologicalawareness or auditory processing
whatever we're calling thisreach out to me at denise, at
the speech umbrella dot com, andI'll send you my beta package.
The only cost to you is to giveme feedback.
You can see from all this, wedon't lack in materials to
intervene in language disorders.
In fact, we have too much.
(14:59):
That is fluff.
All of the things I just talkedabout are way better than the
fluff.
The trick is to know where tobegin and the order of
progression, which is where myphonological awareness tracking
tool comes in very handy.
To wrap things up, let's talkabout thriving in our profession
.
In our new world of professionscrossing lanes, all you really
need is two things First, becomewell educated in treating the
(15:22):
root causes of speech andlanguage disorders and second,
know the order in which to applythe interventions.
Then you can navigate in yourlane with confidence.
You can speak knowledgeablyabout the symptoms you're
treating, no matter whatdiagnostic label has been
applied.
With this knowledge, you seeyour clients progress faster and
farther.
Check out my materials forlanguage processing at
(15:43):
thespeechtrimbellacom.
You'll find some in my storeand others in my free resource
library, and you'll also findthese materials on TPT.
If you haven't signed up for thefree resource library yet, take
a look at thespeechjabellacomslash free.
My mantra is when you masterthe simple, the complex takes
care of itself.
But another way of saying thatis when you treat the root
causes, the symptoms take careof themselves.
(16:05):
I know I've just given you awhole boatload of things to
explore and I'm going to linkthem all on this podcast.
So just be aware it's going tobe as long as your arm.
Go to the speech umbrella dotcom.
Slash blog slash 102, to seeall of these links.
åThanks for joining me underthe speech umbrella today.
I hope you learned something tohelp you in your therapy.
(16:28):
If you did, please share thispodcast with a fellow speech
therapist and leave a five-starreview on Apple, itunes, spotify
or wherever you get yoursubscriptions.
While there, come on over tothespeechumbrellacom where you
will find transcripts, links andmy free resource library.
I also have some other valuablecourses and therapy aids in my
store.
That's all atthespeechumbrellacom.
(16:48):
Let's connect on social media.
I'm dstrattenslp on Instagramand the Speech Umbrella on
Facebook and YouTube.
You can also find me on TPT.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Bye.
Dan (17:01):
Thanks for listening to the Speech Umbrella.
We invite you to sign up forthe free resource library at
thespeechumbrellacom.
You'll get access to some ofDenise's best tracking tools,
mindfulness activities and othergreat resources to take your
therapy to the next level.
All this is for free atthespeechumbrellacom.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,subscribe and please leave us a
(17:24):
review on Apple Podcasts andother podcast directories.
Thank you.
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