Many children we work with do not see a link between their behavior and immediate positive consequences they can receive, let alone the connection between their behaviors and their long-term impressions on others. As SLPs, these students can be challenging in many ways, not only because it can be difficult for us to get them to participate in ...

When do you elicit a language sample? Certainly when you first see a child you would want to take a language sample. However, if the child is not comfortable on the initial assessment, there is nothing written in stone that says that it has to be completed the first time around. That in itself should tell you something. I feel that ...

In last week's blog post, ''The iPad Becomes a wePad for Autism,'' I encouraged you to develop a relationship between the iPad, the child and another person, rather than letting the child with autism treat it as a ''thing.'' Let's call that with the iPad. That's when we can turn it into a wePad and make those applications come alive ...

Last week, Sam asked a great question: if I could give one single word that best describes what autism is or how it feels to have autism, what would it be? That single word is anxiety. This week, I want to give you some techniques to use with people with autism to ease that high anxiety level they suffer. And I do mean suffer. Anxiety ...

This past week, as promised, the Assistive Technology representative from our county paid me a welcomed visit, bringing with her the much anticipated iPad! Very exciting! When we met, she walked me through several of the applications that were previously downloaded onto the device. I quickly fell in love with a select few. I also learned ...

  In my last entry, I wrote about a free, recycled object that makes a wonderful therapy tool. Today I'm going to share and (hopefully) get, some advice about something else I got for free! Check this out...   Yup, it's a free and completely blank bulletin board. There is a spot in our staff room where people put items they no ...

Anxiety Dear Kathie: I know that autism (ASD) is a complex syndrome. I had a parent ask me just the other day if I could give them one single word that best describes what autism is or how it feels to have autism. I guess because you know about autism and you've lived with it for so many years raising your son, I felt that perhaps you ...

I do not make New Year's resolutions, but I do set goals for myself, and one of them is to perpetually look for new ways to treat patients that are fun and creative in nature. On a recent commute to work, I was excited to hear a story on NPR's Morning Edition: ''Singing Therapy Helps Stroke Victims Speak Again.'' I immediately thought ...

With the winter holiday break coming to an end, I'm mentally preparing myself for my newest venture as a school-based SLP -- the role of a cooperating teacher! As I had mentioned in a previous blog, from 1/3/12 through 3/9/12, I'll have a graduate student extern.  As I had also mentioned, this is a first time experience for me! ...

Now we all have our New Year resolutions. Some people want to lose weight, others hope to get better organized and many desire to spend more time with their families and friends. Everyone has areas of their lives that could use some restoring and most have the instinctual need to simply become more balanced. For the past two years, I ...