Stay informed as a
speech–language
pathologist

We’ve talked a lot about the reasons to embrace a strengths-based perspective during therapy with our autistic clients: increased comfort in social situations, more authentic relationships, better self-awareness, and higher life satisfaction, just to name a few. A new study from Cooper et al. adds reduced social anxiety and improved psychological well-being to the list. They found autistic teens and young adults who reported more autism satisfaction and felt more solidarity with the autistic community experienced better psychological well-being. Young adults with more autism satisfaction (positive feelings about their autism identity) experienced less social anxiety, too.

Millie is 10 months old and has a genetic syndrome that affects her motor development. She and her parents, Trish and Mike, present to your clinic for support with eating and drinking after a history of tube feeding, possible aspiration on thin fluids, and difficulty transitioning to solids. The family has recently attended an intensive therapy block where they were instructed in oral motor exercises and stretches to complete before each mealtime. Millie used to cry when Trish did the exercises, but now she just seems ‘tuned out.’ Trish is completing these exercises as instructed, but she confides that it’s hard to fit them in amongst Millie’s other therapies and medical procedures. Nonetheless, she and Mike are determined to leave no stone unturned. If it might help Millie, they’ll do it. They want to know what you recommend to progress Millie’s eating and drinking.

As we approach the 3-year anniversary of the pandemic(!), just about all the children on our EI caseloads were born during the pandemic or in its immediate wake. That means that we’re often fielding questions about how they are faring. We’ve covered this topic previously, but research continues to emerge. First, we’ll go over what new research has come out, and then we’ll give you some pointers for how to approach these conversations with families and colleagues. Frequently asked questions #1: How are “pandemic babies” faring developmentally?…

We know it’s best practice to use a specific study protocol and a standardized approach for analyzing and reporting VFSS results (see here and here). It provides guidelines to ensure we’re doing the same thing each time we conduct a swallow study (also called a modified barium swallow study) and holds us to a higher standard in our analysis and report writing. This benefits everyone: the patient,  the physician reading our reports, and us getting our patients to the next level of care. 

Speech sound disorders. It’s one of those things our relatives who don’t really understand what we do assume is the only thing we do. It’s one of the areas of practice our field was founded on, and one where we’re fortunate to have an array of treatment approaches (like, dozens) backed up by decades of research. All these evidence-based options can be a challenge to navigate, though, and choosing the right approach could mean the difference between a child meeting their goals and “graduating” from speech and that same child staying on the caseload for years. That’s exactly why we’ve put together this Ask TISLP: to give you a starting point for making informed treatment decisions. To narrow things down, we’ll be focusing only on idiopathic (traditionally called “functional”) SSDs—those rooted in articulation and/or phonology and without a known cause. That means that we’re not talking CAS, dysarthria, or speech disorders related to cleft/craniofacial conditions or to hearing differences. But never fear! You can search all of those topics using the filters here to find reviews on supporting speech for those kiddos.  Here’s what to expect…

If you’re in the cognitive screening business, you’ve heard of the MOCA. And if you’ve heard of the MOCA, you know it used to be free to administer, but now requires a $125.00 certification fee. This has caused quite a bit of confusion for SLPs, as it seems our training should exempt us from this requirement (which was put in place to ensure quality administration).  Some SLPs still use the MOCA without certification while others work in facilities that require them to become certified, sometimes even having to pay out of pocket...