I've always loved reading classic fairy tales with my students. Not only are they great for their narrative structure, but they also play a big role in our culture.  Well, I really lucked out, because look what our librarian's daughter painted on the wall right outside my office!   As I walk to my room with my younger ...

Dear Kathie: ''Do you always take a language sample as part of an assessment with a verbal child or adult with ASD? If so, what do you look for and how do you elicit the conversation?'' - Adrian, speech-language pathologist My Response: Thank you for asking about the assessment aspect for a child/adult with ASD. I feel there are three ...

Books continue to be my heroes in my school position, sometimes showing up to save me from ennui when I least expect it. I was recently doing a pull-over sort of session in the literacy center (the kindergarten class is nearby and my room is, well, not), and spied the colorful cover of Alphabet Rescue, by Audrey Wood and her son, Bruce. ...

It scares me to think that a child with ASD could have a tantrum on my watch. My knees -- they are a-shakin' at the thought. It will happen, and when it does, what will I do?   Children with ASD have tantrums. They hit and pound. They flail. They scream. They may bang their heads against a wall or throw items. They may spit or ...

Part III-A, posted last week, my blog presented some fun strategies for targeting humor/ laughter and attention/focus for the very young autistic mind. The purpose of these two blogs is to mesh the right side of the brain with the left side of the brain and to help a person with ASD ''dance'' in a more synchronized fashion. Here are two ...

Part I  I talked about the characteristics of the right and left sides of the brain and how they do not dance together in people with autism/ASD. I gave you twenty signs that I see that indicate how Mr. Left Brain and Mrs. Right Brain dance alone. Part II I was on a kick about strategies that SLPs bring to the table to assist ...

  Everybody's brains are different and certainly, the autistic brain connects in an unorthodox manner. Autism is not curable, but there are many language strategies the SLP can do to assist in organizing the brains of people with autism. It is my theory that people with autism do not cross hemispheres of the brain, from left to ...

  Last week's blog discussed, ''Should You Ask a Non-Verbal Child a Question?'' Now that's a good question. My answer is: usually not. Instead, make statements! Children will respond to statements because: They are not threatened by communication They know they are not being requested to answer They can enjoy ...

Developing story grammar can have many great intentional side effects that would not occur if we are only focusing on the smaller (but important) things: vocabulary, morphemes, sentence structure. By aiming to develop story in our clinical work, we can establish an interesting context while still modeling and eliciting the microstructure of ...

Have you ever thought about how you, as an SLP, talk to people? That means all people-- but specifically, non-verbal children with autism. We have two forms of sentence structures: questions and statements. We bombard children with questions. We do not give children time to answer these questions. Many children will ...