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 ...

Halloween is just a few short weeks away and those who read my blog often know how much I love the holidays and festive therapy sessions! Last October I wrote a post filled with simple ways to add a little Halloween fun to your therapy sessions. The post was called Halloween Therapy: Tricks n' Treats and featured ideas such as: carving a ...

Earlier this week I shared a story regarding a little girl I work with in Early Intervention. If you've had a chance to read over the post, you'll see that at our previous appointment I asked the mom if it would be ok for us to venture a block away to the neighborhood playground. I explained that we would make it a family trip and all of us would ...

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 ...

Last October when I first began writing this blog, I wrote a post entitled: Fall Fun: Using Seasonal Themes to Enhance Therapy, which featured a variety of fall activities that therapists could do with young children during an EI session. I always find seasonal activities to be fun and because the activity is focused around the time of year, the ...

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 ...

Last week I wrote a post entitled Parents and the Five Stages of Acceptance. Today's post is a continuation and will provide more information about what Elizabeth Kübler-Ross taught us and how we can utilize it in early intervention. Based on my research of her teachings and what I found at Wikipedia, she shared that ''originally these stages ...

Recently I received the following email from a fellow therapist: ''I have a little boy who just turned 2 and is not talking, babbling, or vocalizing in any way shape or form.  I have educated the mother repeatedly regarding having his hearing checked and the possibility of other diagnoses and need for evaluation at our Children's ...