Every few days or so, I read through recent comments posted throughout the blog and attempt to address the questions that have been raised by our readers. One of the most pressing issues that is frequently raised by parents reading the blog is apraxia. When I review the questions and concerns asked by parents, I can hear the intense concern and ...

On September 29th 2009 we published a post entitled: Autism and Early Intervention Speech Goals. The post discussed a local case of a speech therapist working with 3-5 years olds who prefers and recommends only using sign language with children diagnosed with autism. When the IEP goals were written for this child transitioning from birth-3 to the ...

There is a family I have been working with for about six months now. The little girl, although not officially diagnosed, displays many red flags for autism. In addition, she has an older sibling who also displays many similar signs although at a slightly less intense level. The little girl I see is also receiving therapy from an occupational ...

Tuesday's post discussed the various ways speech therapists can treat young children in early intervention who have been diagnosed with autism. The question posed to the public was the following: when you are teaching these children to communicate, do you use sign language, pictures, words or a combination of either two or all three of them? In ...

Today’s post poses a question for all the speech-language pathologists out there who work with children in early intervention who have already been diagnosed as having autism. My question is this: when you are teaching these children to communicate, do you use sign language, pictures, words or a combination of either two or all three of them?The ...

Over the past year this blog has addressed a variety of syndromes, disorders and conditions that affect the many children we treat in early intervention. Due to my lack of time (but not lack of interest!), I do not always have a chance to research all the suggestions that people post and share on the blog. I always find this frustrating because I ...

Last December I was assigned a new child to my caseload. She was already being seen by several of my co-workers who each informed me of their grave concerns regarding her development. At the time, she had not yet been diagnosed with anything other than a developmental delay; however two of my seasoned staff members confided that they were ...

About eight months ago I began working with a little girl, who at the time had just turned 2 years old, and had also recently been diagnosed with Rhett Syndrome (RS). This was not a syndrome that I was very familiar with so I depended a great deal on the expertise of my colleagues, as well as my own independent research, to create a therapy plan ...

Thank you all so much for sharing your comments and research in our oral motor debate! As Lisa, CCC-SLP from VT stated, I ''certainly stirred the pot'' with last week's post. I did want to get us talking, but I didn't mean to create such a firestorm! This debate reminded me that I am part of a very devoted and passionate profession of women and ...

I must admit, I love a good controversy every once in awhile! Recently I have been both fascinated and flabbergasted by some of the comments posted on the blog related to oral-motor therapy and its effectiveness. I myself am a huge supporter of oral-motor therapy and use it almost everyday with the majority of the children I treat in EI. I was ...