Today's post is a factual look at VPD or Velopharyngeal Dysfunction. I am currently working with a student who presents with a hypernasal quality to their speech and am researching on my own the best ways to treat them in therapy. Based on my research, here is some of the most helpful information I have found: According to the Children's ...

Continuing with Autism Awareness Month: ''Light It Up Blue is observed April 1 and 2 each year in North America. It is dedicated to raising awareness of autism. Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization, announced the launch of the inaugural Light It Up Blue campaign in 2010. This initiative is ...

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 ...

Blog Comment: ''Please correct your meter from 'to loud' to 'too loud.''' - D. To D: So sorry about the error. That tells me you are a close reader, and I appreciate the correction. I have made the change to the Loud Meter, as you can see below. Please feel free to print it off and use it with your clients. Thanks so much for following my ...

Thank you to everyone who has been writing in over these past few weeks regarding the iPad apps and the many ways that the iPad can be used in speech therapy sessions. I love hearing your feedback and the various ways you are using these apps in your sessions! This week I would like to share my next iPad passion, namely the full version of ...

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 ...

Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz  Why, if I had a brain I could... [singing] I could while away the hours, Conferrin' with the flowers, Consultin' with the rain. And my head I'd be scratchin' While my thoughts were busy hatchin' If I only had a brain.   In last week's blog I talked about the characteristics of the ...

This is ''The Star Wars Connection to ASD: Episode II,'' a continuation of last week's blog using quotes from Star Wars fame and connecting them to ASD. I see these quotes through the eyes of an SLP who has worked with hundreds of children and adults with ASD. Also, through the heart of a parent who has journeyed down the road of ASD. I ...

HOW TO START MAKING LANGUAGE DANCE WITH ADEQUATE EYE CONTACT The lack of eye contact is a hallmark of people with ASD. Watch this short video of Jade stacking blocks at 20 months. You can observe in this five-minute video that Jade lacks eye contact as well as any interaction with adults. She appears intelligent but lacks the pragmatics of ...

PRAGMATICS MAKE LANGUAGE DANCE In last week's Autism Spectrum Blog with the Cloud of Cotton Candy, I addressed Social Manners, Perseveration, and Anxiety as three main areas of language dysfunction that I see in adults with ASD. If these three areas are problematic in adulthood, we should be addressing them not only at that time, but also as a ...