Autism Outreach: Recent Episodes
Rose Griffin
In the Autism Outreach Podcast, Speech Therapist and BCBA, Rose Griffin from ABA SPEECH, provides her best, ready to use autism interventions and speech therapy techniques to inspire professionals and parents working with students with autism. With 20 years of experience in the field, Rose understands one of the biggest challenges parents, therapists and educators face on a daily basis is helping students strengthen their communication skills. Listeners will regain a sense of calm as Rose breaks down trusted therapy techniques to try at home or school to provide support to students. Rose will address a variety of topics on autism spectrum disorder: how autism symptoms present in babies and toddlers, recognizing the differences between autism and a speech delay, early intervention therapies, autism evaluation, autism diagnosis, how to help a child with autism start communicating if they are nonverbal, helping students who engage in problem behavior, functional communication skills, increasing student engagement and improving social skills. An excellent listen for parents and professionals alike, with a mix of interviews and solo shows designed to inspire, empower, and provide you with confidence to help your students. Hit subscribe and learn more at www.abaspeech.org
Comparing vocabulary instruction for children who use AAC is not a one size fits all decision, and that is exactly what makes this conversation so valuable.
Vocabulary intervention is one of the topics I get asked about most often, and there is still so much to learn about the best ways to support children who use AAC. I’m joined by Dr. Courtney Trevino to unpack her research comparing explicit vocabulary instruction with more naturalistic, incidental teaching. We explore what each approach looks like in practice, how vocabulary was selected for the study, and what the findings can teach us as clinicians.
One strategy that really stood out to me was navigation description, talking out loud through the path you take to find a word on an AAC system. It is such a practical way to support learning, while also helping parents, teachers, RBTs, and other team members become more confident using AAC. I walked away thinking differently about how I teach vocabulary, and I think you will too. If you are looking for practical, research-backed ideas that you can start using right away, this conversation is full of them.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why explicit vocabulary instruction led to stronger word learning outcomes
- How navigation description can support both AAC users and communication partners
- Choosing vocabulary for early AAC learners, including developmental versus core words
- Practical ways to blend structured teaching into everyday therapy
Mentioned In This Episode:
Comparing Two Vocabulary Interventions for Children Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Dr. Courtney Trevino
AAC Mastery for SLPs and BCBAs
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Building a business that reflects your values takes more than hard work. It takes intention, clear systems, and a vision that keeps you grounded when growth starts to feel overwhelming.
Stephen Smith and I explore what it really takes to build an ethical, sustainable ABA practice without losing sight of why you started in the first place. We talk about the importance of defining your vision early, especially if you're starting a business with a partner, and why having the right legal and financial support can save you from major headaches down the road.
We also dive into delegation, something every business owner struggles with at some point. Letting go of tasks can feel uncomfortable, but creating systems, documenting processes, and trusting your team are essential if you want to avoid burnout and create a business that can grow beyond you. I also share a few of the books and tools that have helped me think differently about leadership, delegation, and protecting my own creativity as a business owner. Whether you're just getting started or looking to strengthen an established practice, I think you'll walk away with practical ideas you can put into action right away.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why every clinic owner needs a clear vision before focusing on growth
- Business systems, delegation, and avoiding burnout
- The legal and financial foundations every practice should have
- Practical books, tools, and strategies for building a sustainable business
Mentioned In This Episode:Grab Say it With Me
The ABA Business Leader's Guide by Stephen Smith
3 Pie Squared
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
If you've ever wondered whether constant stress is simply part of being a helping professional, this conversation is for you. Burnout isn't a badge of honor, and crying in your car or pushing through physical symptoms shouldn't be considered normal.
I’m joined by Tiffany N. Arango to explore what clinician wellness really looks like and why so many dedicated professionals end up running on empty. Tiffany shares her own experience of reaching severe burnout while working in what she believed was her dream job, and how that experience changed the direction of her career. We talk about the workplace red flags that are easy to overlook, why so many of us normalize unhealthy environments, and how psychological flexibility can help us respond with intention instead of simply surviving each day.
We also explore the role leaders play in creating healthy workplace cultures and why genuine care for employees should never be viewed as a weakness. Whether you're a speech therapist, BCBA, RBT, or another helping professional, I hope this conversation reminds you that your well-being matters just as much as the people you serve. If you're feeling overwhelmed, please know you don't have to navigate it alone. Reach out, find your community, and seek support.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Red flags that can signal workplace burnout
- How psychological flexibility supports clinician well-being
- Practical ways leaders can create healthier workplace cultures
- Why caring for yourself is essential to caring for others
Mentioned In This Episode:
Grab Say it With Me
The Behavior Station
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
The best outcomes happen when we stop working in silos and start learning from each other.
I recently had the chance to be a guest on Dr. Selena J. Layden's podcast, and I knew I wanted to share our conversation with you because it highlights something I'm deeply passionate about, meaningful collaboration between speech-language pathologists and BCBAs. When we recognize each other's expertise and work together, we create better outcomes for the students we serve.
We talked about my journey from school-based speech therapy into the world of ABA, how those experiences shaped ABA Speech, and why I believe communication and behavior support are strongest when they are aligned. We also explored common misconceptions between our professions, practical ways to build trust with colleagues, and why curiosity and open communication can go a long way.
One of my favorite parts of our discussion was sharing what I wish every school-based BCBA understood about speech-language pathology. Our training is incredibly broad, and many of us continue developing our expertise long after graduate school. The same is true for BCBAs, which is why ongoing learning and collaboration matter so much.
Whether you're an SLP, BCBA, educator, or part of an interdisciplinary team, I hope this conversation encourages you to build stronger partnerships that help every student communicate and thrive.
speechtherapy #autism
What’s Inside:
- Why speech therapy and ABA are stronger together
- Simple ways to build meaningful collaboration in school settings
- What I wish every school-based BCBA knew about speech-language pathology
- How mutual respect and ongoing learning improve student outcomes
Mentioned In This Episode:
Grab Say it With Me
The Behavior Education Connection
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
What happens when two SLPs and BCBAs get together to tackle the biggest conversations in our fields? You get an honest discussion about collaboration, research, and keeping students at the center of every decision.
Today, we're flipping the script and I'm answering some of the questions I hear most often about speech therapy and ABA, from choosing AAC vocabulary to navigating current topics like gestalt language processing, prompting, and aided language modeling. I share why I believe we have to move beyond an "all or nothing" mindset and focus on what the research tells us while making thoughtful, ethical decisions for each individual learner.
Dr. Giles and I also dig into functional communication, response forms, and why collecting meaningful data should guide every intervention we use. My hope is that these conversations help bridge the gap between disciplines so we can spend less time debating and more time helping our students communicate with confidence.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why collaboration between SLPs and BCBAs leads to better outcomes for learners
- How I think about AAC vocabulary, response forms, and functional communication
- My perspective on gestalt language processing, prompting, and current research
- Why data driven decision making should shape every communication intervention
Mentioned In This Episode:Grab Say it With Me
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Every student deserves a way to communicate with the world, and that belief has guided my work from the very beginning.
Today, I’m sharing something incredibly special, the story behind my new book, Say It With Me: Naturalistic Tools to Spark Speech and Social Engagement. This is the resource I wish I had when I first started working with autistic learners who were not yet speaking, struggled to engage in therapy, or faced behavioral barriers that made learning more challenging.
I take you behind the scenes of my journey, from my early days at the Cleveland Clinic Autism Center to the lessons that shaped the compassionate, collaborative approach I use today. I also walk through the practical strategies featured in the book, including assessment, joint attention, play-based learning, AAC, social engagement, group therapy, behavior supports, and meaningful goal writing. My goal has always been to make research approachable and actionable so you can feel confident putting these ideas into practice right away.
Whether you're a speech-language pathologist, BCBA, educator, or parent, I hope this conversation leaves you feeling encouraged and equipped with new ways to support learners who are often the hardest to reach.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Building the foundation for communication through engagement, play, and joint attention
- Practical strategies for AAC, language development, and meaningful generalization
- Supporting learners with behavioral barriers through collaborative care
- Writing effective goals and creating stronger IEP and team meetings
Mentioned In This Episode:
Grab Say it With Me
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Some kids are picky eaters, but when does it become something more?
Feeding challenges can feel overwhelming for families, especially when mealtimes become stressful, food choices become extremely limited, or concerns about nutrition start to grow. That's why I was excited to welcome feeding specialist Margaryta Kuzmin to the podcast. Together, we unpacked the difference between typical picky eating and pediatric feeding disorders, and why early support can make such a meaningful difference.
Margaryta shares the developmental reasons many children go through selective eating phases, along with important red flags that may signal a deeper concern. We also explore why feeding difficulties are rarely about food alone. Medical, nutritional, motor, sensory, and social factors can all play a role. I especially loved our discussion about how providers can approach these conversations with families in a supportive, compassionate way.
Whether you're a speech-language pathologist, BCBA, educator, or parent, this conversation highlights the power of collaboration and why feeding concerns deserve attention early on.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The difference between picky eating and pediatric feeding disorders
- Common feeding red flags that professionals and parents should watch for
- Why medical, nutritional, sensory, and motor factors all matter
- The professionals who make up a strong feeding team and how they work together
Mentioned In This Episode:Feeding Matters
Kuzmin SLP
Margaryta Kuzmin on Instagram
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Child-led therapy doesn’t mean lowering expectations. It means meeting children where they are and building meaningful learning opportunities from what matters most to them.
I’m joined by Dr. Katherine Pickard, Dr. Rachel Yosick, and Dr. Tracy Argueta from the Marcus Autism Center to explore how child-led Applied Behavior Analysis is shaping the future of autism intervention. We unpack Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs), what they are, how they differ from more traditional ABA approaches, and why they continue to gain momentum in both research and practice.
One of my favorite parts of this conversation is the discussion around “de-implementation,” the idea that sometimes improving our practice requires letting go of strategies that no longer serve children and families as effectively. We also talk about common misconceptions around child-led therapy, how to balance NDBI and structured teaching, and practical ways clinicians can begin incorporating more naturalistic, developmentally appropriate strategies into their sessions.
If you've ever wondered whether child-led approaches are "ABA enough" or how to start making meaningful changes in your own practice, this conversation offers thoughtful, research-based guidance that is both encouraging and actionable.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What NDBIs are and why they are rooted in ABA
- The role of child-led learning in effective intervention
- Why some traditional practices may need to be reduced or reconsidered
- Practical ways clinicians can begin using more naturalistic strategies
Mentioned In This Episode:
Marcus Autism Center
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
AAC can feel overwhelming for clinicians, but it does not have to stay that way.
I’m joined by Valerie Zimmerman from Mindcolor Autism to talk about what happens when BCBAs and SLPs come together to better support autistic learners who use AAC. Valerie shares how her team has prioritized AAC training across their organization, even though many clinicians receive little to no formal instruction in this area. We dig into the real questions providers are asking, from ethical considerations around programming devices to understanding the role of collaboration in helping students communicate more effectively.
One of my favorite parts of this conversation is hearing how Mindcolor Autism created a clinical consultation model that gives staff ongoing support when they encounter challenging cases or communication questions. I love seeing organizations build systems that help clinicians feel less alone and more confident in their work.
We also talk about the importance of practical, immediately applicable training. Whether you are a BCBA, SLP, RBT, or parent, this conversation highlights how much growth can happen when teams learn together and stay curious about communication. AAC is not just about devices, it is about giving students meaningful ways to connect with the world around them.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why AAC training is essential for both BCBAs and SLPs
- Common misconceptions about supporting students who use AAC
- How Mindcolor Autism built a clinical consultation support model
- Practical ways teams can collaborate around communication goals
Mentioned In This Episode:
Mindcolor Autism
AAC Mastery for SLPs and BCBAs
All About AAC Bundle
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Have you ever looked at an AAC device and thought, “Where do I even start?” I’ve been there too, and I know how overwhelming it can feel.
For years, I supported students using AAC while secretly feeling unsure of myself behind the scenes. I could teach communication strategies all day long, but when it came to navigating new systems and vocabulary sets, I remember leaving work feeling defeated and questioning whether I was truly helping my students. That experience completely changed the way I approach AAC today.
I’m sharing the story behind our brand-new course, AAC Mastery for SLPs and BCBAs, and why I created it for professionals who want practical, real-world support with AAC instead of more theory that never translates into therapy sessions. This course brings together incredible AAC experts to talk about assessment, motor planning, collaboration, bilingual learners, switch access, parent support, and so much more.
My goal is simple. I want you to feel confident supporting every AAC user on your caseload. Whether you’re brand new to AAC or you’ve been in the field for years, I want you to walk away with strategies you can actually use right away.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why motor planning matters more than you think
- AAC assessment tips and funding guidance
- Collaboration strategies for SLPs and BCBAs
- Real case studies and practical AAC problem-solving
Mentioned In This Episode:AAC Mastery for SLPs and BCBAs
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
What if our learners could practice success before they ever step into the real moment?
I’m bringing you a conversation that completely reframed the way I think about video modeling, independence, and skill building. We’re talking all about self-video modeling and how technology is creating more personalized, neurodiversity-affirming ways to support communication, daily living skills, and behavior regulation.
Dr. Rachel Khasky-Levy and Rinat Hitelman share how their work with The Babel Group and Wide Therapy is helping clinicians bridge the gap between therapy and real-world implementation. What stood out to me most was the idea of helping learners visualize themselves already succeeding. Whether it’s requesting a favorite snack, transitioning between activities, completing vocational tasks, or building communication skills, this approach focuses on possibility and confidence instead of correction.
I also loved hearing how self-video modeling can support learners who may not yet be able to demonstrate a skill independently in real life. By creating personalized visual rehearsals, clinicians and families can give learners repeated exposure to success in a calm, supportive way that feels meaningful and functional.
This conversation reminded me why I’ve always loved using video modeling in therapy. It’s practical, engaging, and incredibly empowering for our students across ages and settings.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How self-video modeling differs from traditional video modeling
- Ways to target communication, vocational, and daily living skills
- Using visualization to reduce challenging behaviors
- Why personalized tech tools can increase independence and confidence
Mentioned In This Episode:
The Babel Group
Wide Therapy
Voiceitt
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
What really helps speech sound practice stick once kids leave the therapy room?
I’m joined by Shail Silver, founder of SpeechLP and parent to a child receiving speech therapy services, for a thoughtful conversation about carryover, motivation, and how technology can support meaningful speech sound practice at home. As a school-based SLP, this topic is especially important to me because we know progress doesn’t just happen during therapy sessions. The real growth comes from consistent practice in everyday environments.
Shail shares how his family’s experience inspired the creation of SpeechLP, an AI-powered app designed to make articulation practice more engaging and less stressful for both parents and clinicians. We talk about the challenge of getting enough repetitions for true generalization, why carryover can be so difficult for students, and how gamified practice can help keep learners motivated. I also loved hearing how practicing SLPs are actively helping shape the platform so it stays practical and clinically relevant.
There’s so much potential in tools that support families, reduce clinician workload, and help students build confidence with communication in a fun and functional way.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why carryover matters so much for speech sound progress
- How SpeechLP uses AI to support articulation practice
- Ways clinicians can use technology to support home practice
- The importance of making speech practice motivating for kids
Mentioned In This Episode:
SpeechLP
ParagraphAI
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Sometimes collaboration feels seamless, and other times it leaves you questioning everything.
That contrast came up in such a real way as I talked with Jenny Argueta, and it’s something so many of us have experienced but don’t always say out loud. She shared how working with one collaborative SLP felt energizing, while another interaction left her feeling small and shut out. That moment stuck with her and ultimately shaped her decision to become dually certified so she could be part of the solution.
We unpack the tension that can exist between SLPs and BCBAs and how those challenges often stem from past experiences, misunderstandings, or lack of exposure to each other’s work. I always come back to the importance of listening. When we take the time to understand someone’s perspective instead of reacting, we open the door to better collaboration.
We also talk about AAC and the gaps in training that so many providers face. Jenny shares honestly about how overwhelming AAC can feel, even as an SLP, and why ongoing learning is so important. At the end of the day, our goal is the same. We want to support meaningful communication and real progress for our students.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Real examples of collaboration going well and breaking down
- Where SLP and BCBA tensions come from
- Practical ways to build trust and shared understanding
- Why AAC training is essential for all providers
Mentioned In This Episode:
Mirific LLC
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
What if your documentation could protect your clinic instead of putting it at risk?
I’m joined by Aidan Kelly from Brellium to talk about one of the biggest stressors for growing clinics, documentation quality and compliance. As organizations scale, it becomes nearly impossible to manually track every note, and small gaps can turn into major audit risks. Aidan shares how outdated systems and manual reviews create blind spots, and how AI can bring real-time visibility into documentation practices.
We also talk about the real financial impact of audits and clawbacks, and why strong compliance infrastructure is essential if you want to grow sustainably. I love how Brellium works behind the scenes, supporting clinicians without adding extra work, while giving leaders actionable insights to improve quality across their teams.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why manual chart reviews fail as clinics grow
- Common documentation gaps that trigger audit risk
- How AI can support compliance and improve quality
Mentioned In This Episode:
Brellium
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Strong therapy starts with strong support, and that begins with the parent.
I’m joined by Khaliah Moody, and this conversation really stayed with me. We talk about what it truly looks like to support families in a meaningful way, especially when life outside of sessions includes real challenges like poverty, housing instability, and stress. Khaliah shares how her background in social work shaped the way she leads her clinic and supports both clients and staff. One of the biggest takeaways is that therapy cannot thrive if the parent is overwhelmed and unsupported. We have to meet families where they are, build real relationships, and focus on connection before intervention.
We also get into staff retention, building a positive team culture, and how community partnerships can extend impact far beyond traditional services. This is a powerful reminder that compassionate care is both clinical and human.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why parent support is the foundation of effective therapy
- How to build trust and connection with families
- Creative ways to support and retain your team
Mentioned In This Episode:
Steady Strides Behavior Solutions
Khaliah Moody on LinkedIn
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Everything made sense once I saw the full picture.
Receiving a later-in-life ADHD diagnosis can be both validating and eye-opening, and that’s exactly what we explore in this conversation. As I talk with Lindsay, I’m struck by how her story reflects something I see often, high-achieving, capable individuals who have been compensating and masking for years without realizing why things felt harder behind the scenes.
We talk through what it looked like for her to thrive in a fast-paced Wall Street environment while quietly navigating challenges with time management, comprehension, and testing. Her diagnosis came after her children were identified as neurodivergent, which is such a common pathway for families.
I also love how openly she shares the realities of parenting two neurodivergent children, from early sensory challenges to finding the right supports and building a strong community. We get into practical strategies that truly make a difference, including sleep, nutrition, exercise, and structure.
This conversation is a powerful reminder that ADHD can be a strength, and that understanding your brain can unlock better support, connection, and self-advocacy.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What a late ADHD diagnosis can reveal about your past
- Parenting neurodivergent children and finding the right supports
- Practical strategies that support regulation and success
- The role of masking, self-advocacy, and community
Mentioned In This Episode:
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Raising children with profound special needs means stepping into truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.
I had such a meaningful conversation with Sarah Kernion about what it really looks like to raise children with profound, nonspeaking autism, and how that reality often differs from the public narrative. Sarah shares her journey as a mom, from those early intuitive concerns to navigating diagnosis, therapy, and building a truly collaborative team.
We talk openly about the emotional weight families carry and why honoring that lived experience matters. Sarah brings such a powerful perspective on communication, reminding us that AAC enhances connection and that growth is not always linear. One of my favorite takeaways is how she reframes communication, not as a single outcome, but as a shared process between child, caregiver, and provider.
We also dive into what makes a great team. The biggest shift is moving away from hierarchy and toward true collaboration, where parents feel heard and valued. Sarah’s work through Inchstones is all about helping families feel seen, supported, and empowered in that journey.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The gap between the public autism narrative and real family life
- Why AAC is a powerful tool for connection and growth
- How to build collaborative, parent-centered therapy teams
Mentioned In This Episode:
Inchstones
Inchstones on Instagram
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Ever feel intimidated by AAC or unsure how AI fits into your clinical work?
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Nerissa Hall and Dr. Michelle Boisvert to talk about two topics that can feel overwhelming but are full of possibility. We explore how AAC is not about waiting for prerequisites, but about giving individuals access to meaningful, independent communication. I share my own experience of feeling intimidated at first, and we break down simple, practical ways to get started that actually feel doable and even fun.
We also dive into AI in speech pathology, and this conversation gave me so much clarity. We talk about how AI can help us “offload” tasks like creating materials, while still keeping our clinical judgment front and center. We discuss where AI fits, where it doesn’t, and how to use it ethically and thoughtfully in your everyday work. If you’ve been curious but hesitant, this episode will help you take that first step with confidence.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- AAC misconceptions and mindset shifts that support autonomy
- Easy, practical ways to begin AAC implementation
- How AI can support clinicians without replacing expertise
- Ethical considerations and simple ways to start using AI
Mentioned In This Episode:
Easy Report Pro
Tate Behavioral
AAC Communicare
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Communication isn’t owned by one profession, it’s something we all share and protect together.
I’m joined by Dr. Lilith Reuter-Yuill "Dr. RY" for a thoughtful conversation about what it really takes to ensure communication access for every learner. We talk about her journey from sign language interpreter to dually certified SLP and BCBA, and how that shaped her passion for collaboration and innovation.
We dig into some of the biggest friction points between disciplines, especially when it comes to AAC. One of the biggest takeaways is this, there is no one right tool or pathway. We have to start with the learner, the context, and the full communication repertoire. I also loved our conversation about moving away from quick fixes and toward meaningful, individualized support that actually generalizes.
We also share a preview of her upcoming course inside the ABA Speech Connection, where we’ll explore sign language, AAC, and how to thoughtfully select communication modalities that truly fit each learner.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why communication access must be individualized and context-driven
- Common misconceptions about AAC and over-reliance on high-tech solutions
- How collaboration between SLPs and BCBAs improves real-world outcomes
Mentioned In This Episode:
Bridgify
Bridgify's Community
Idaho ABA Conference 2026
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Collaboration in schools can feel messy, complicated, and sometimes even uncomfortable, but it is also where some of the most meaningful progress for our students can happen.
In this conversation, I sit down with Ashley Patton to talk about what real collaboration looks like between teachers, BCBAs, speech therapists, and other service providers in school settings. Ashley brings a unique perspective because she has worked as a classroom teacher, a school-based BCBA, and a consultant supporting school teams. That experience gives her a deep understanding of the pressures educators face and how behavior and communication strategies actually fit into busy classrooms.
We talk about the importance of listening first when working with teachers and building trust before offering strategies. Ashley shares practical ways teams can embed communication goals naturally into classroom routines without overwhelming teachers who already have so much on their plates.
We also discuss replacement behaviors, functional communication, and why practicing these skills before challenging moments occur can make such a big difference for students. Ashley offers thoughtful insights about simplifying data collection, supporting teachers with manageable systems, and focusing on strategies that are realistic for the classroom.
Finally, we talk about Ashley’s Class on Task Behavior Analyst in School Summit and why creating community for professionals working in schools is so important.
If you support students in schools, this episode is full of practical reminders about how collaboration, communication, and small systems can create big change.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why collaboration can feel challenging for teachers and how to build trust with school teams
- How replacement behaviors support both regulation and communication in the classroom
- Practical ways to embed communication goals into everyday classroom routines
- Strategies for simplifying data collection so teachers can realistically implement supports
Mentioned In This Episode:
Class on Task
Class on Task Summit
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
How can technology help us diagnose autism earlier and get kids the support they need sooner?
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Cheryl Tierney to talk about an exciting advancement in autism diagnostics and how technology is helping clinicians and families access answers faster. With long waitlists and limited specialists in many areas, getting an autism diagnosis can sometimes take months or even years. Dr. Tierney shares how new technology is helping change that.
We dive into the EarliPoint system, an FDA-cleared diagnostic aid that uses eye-tracking technology to analyze a child’s viewing behavior while watching short social videos. The system collects an incredible 120 data points per second, giving clinicians objective data to support diagnostic decision-making. Even more exciting, the assessment takes only about 12 minutes and can be used with children as young as 16 months.
Beyond diagnosis, we also talk about how this technology can support clinicians like speech therapists, BCBAs, and occupational therapists by providing data on social engagement, receptive language indicators, and problem-solving skills. That means we can track progress over time and better understand whether interventions are truly moving the needle.
I also loved our conversation about interdisciplinary collaboration and the importance of having someone “quarterback” a child’s care so families receive consistent guidance. This episode highlights how innovation, research, and teamwork can make earlier diagnosis and better support possible for so many families.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why skipping foundational ABA texts worries me for the future of the field
- The ethical responsibility professionals have to collaborate across disciplines
- Why refusing services based on another therapy provider can harm learners
Mentioned In This Episode:
EarliPoint Health
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Two trends I’m seeing in speech therapy and ABA have been on my mind lately, and honestly, they worry me about the future of our fields.
First, I saw a discussion where future BCBAs were debating whether they even needed to read the Cooper book. For me, that text was foundational when learning the science of behavior analysis. When professionals start skipping core readings just to pass a test, it raises questions about how strong our foundation really is as a field.
The second concern came from a speech therapy discussion where a private practice owner planned to refuse services to any child who also receives ABA. That really stopped me in my tracks. Our ethical codes call us to collaborate, and our learners deserve coordinated care, even when collaboration isn’t always easy.
These conversations matter because the strength of our fields depends on professionals who value the science and are willing to work together to support the students we serve.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why skipping foundational ABA texts worries me for the future of the field
- The ethical responsibility professionals have to collaborate across disciplines
- Why refusing services based on another therapy provider can harm learners
Mentioned In This Episode:
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
What if we could safely practice real-world situations before our students ever experience them?
In this episode, I’m joined by Marsha and Rita from Floreo to talk about how virtual reality is supporting autistic learners in building social, communication, safety, and life skills. Floreo is a VR platform that allows learners to step into immersive environments like airport security lines, grocery stores, and even digital conversations, all while being coached in real time by a therapist, teacher, or parent.
What I love most is how functional these lessons are. From responding to TSA questions to recognizing red flags in online interactions, these scenarios reflect the real challenges our students face. We also discuss the growing research behind VR-assisted therapy, including published studies showing improvements in social skills and skill maintenance.
We talk through how VR can fit naturally into speech therapy and ABA sessions, with pre-teaching, guided practice, and generalization built in. Plus, we cover funding options, including school-based access and the temporary VR-assisted therapy billing modifier 0770T.
Technology is powerful when it’s clinically driven, and this conversation highlights how innovation can truly empower our learners.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How VR supports social, communication, and life skills
- Research behind VR-assisted therapy
- Ways to integrate VR into speech and ABA sessions
Mentioned In This Episode:
FloreoVR
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
If AAC has ever felt intimidating, you are not alone, and this episode is going to give you a clear, practical path forward.
In this conversation, I sat down with Gabriella Wendling, an AAC specialist who has dedicated her entire career to assistive technology and augmentative communication. We talk honestly about how most of us received minimal AAC training in graduate school and how real confidence comes from experience, collaboration, and ongoing learning.
We walk through what AAC evaluations actually look like, including timelines, feature matching, and access considerations like switches and eye gaze. Gabriella explains why getting the device is only the first step and why delays are often related to funding, not clinician performance.
One of my favorite parts of this episode is our discussion about what happens after the device arrives. Gabriella shares her coaching-based model for training communication partners, including teachers and families. She emphasizes micro goals, small, meaningful targets that fit naturally into daily routines, so AAC becomes functional instead of overwhelming.
We also tackle a hot topic around prompting and unpack why modeling and systematic prompting are essential for emergent communicators when done thoughtfully and ethically.
If you want AAC implementation that is sustainable, collaborative, and truly supportive for students, this episode will leave you encouraged and equipped.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What AAC evaluations really involve
- Why communication partner coaching is critical
- How micro goals create meaningful progress
- A thoughtful discussion on prompting and independence
Mentioned In This Episode:
AAC & Me
AAC & Me on Instagram
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
When you move from treatment rooms to team meetings, everything changes, including how you show up as a BCBA.
In this episode, I talk with Shalini Solomon about her transition from clinic-based ABA to working as a school-based BCBA. If you’ve worked in both settings like I have, you know they are completely different worlds. In a clinic, you’re often running sessions. In a school, you’re collaborating, coaching, and translating ABA into language that makes sense to teachers and administrators.
Shalini shares what helped her navigate that shift, from simplifying behavior intervention plans so they actually work in busy classrooms to minimizing jargon and building buy-in with staff. We also talk about why understanding IDEA, IEPs, FAPE, and district systems is critical if you’re stepping into a school role, especially if you’re one of the first BCBAs in your district.
We also discuss her journey toward earning a doctorate in behavioral health and the importance of leadership, mentorship, and representation in our field. It’s an honest, practical conversation for anyone considering or currently navigating a school-based BCBA role.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Key differences between clinic-based and school-based BCBA roles
- How to create simple, usable behavior intervention plans
- Why policy knowledge and role clarity matter in schools
- Representation and advocacy in the ABA field
Mentioned In This Episode:
Elevate & Align Behavior
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Starting your own practice does not have to mean doing it all alone.
In today’s episode, I sat down with Bukhtar Khan, co-founder and CEO of Finni Health, to talk honestly about what it really looks like to start and grow an independent ABA practice. We talked about the fears BCBAs often have around finances, insurance, staffing, and burnout, and how Finni Health is built to support clinicians who want autonomy without sacrificing stability or ethics.
Bukhtar shares the heart behind Finni Health and why their work is so focused on reducing stress for clinicians, protecting quality care, and helping providers build sustainable practices that align with their “why.” If you have ever thought about starting your own clinic but felt overwhelmed by the logistics, this conversation will give you clarity, reassurance, and a realistic look at what support can look like.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The most common concerns BCBAs have about starting their own practice
- How Finni Health supports clinicians with operations, billing, staffing, and compliance
- The balance between entrepreneurship and financial security
- Why knowing your “why” matters more than knowing every step
Mentioned In This Episode:
Finni Health
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Stepping into your first leadership role can feel overwhelming, and navigating autism services as a parent can feel even harder, even when you’re already in the field.
In this episode, I sat down with Rayni McMahon for a powerful conversation about leadership, advocacy, and what happens when your professional world and personal life collide. We talked about what it really feels like to move from clinician to administrator, why so many professionals feel unprepared for leadership roles, and the one thing that can make that transition feel more manageable. Rayni shared practical, honest insights about mentorship, managing people, setting boundaries, and learning to lead with both confidence and compassion.
We also spent time talking about advocacy from a deeply personal lens. Rayni opened up about her experience as a BCBA navigating the system as a parent of an autistic child and how being “in the know” did not make accessing services easier. Her perspective highlights just how complex and exhausting the system can be, even for professionals, and why empathy, persistence, and advocacy matter so much for families.
This conversation is thoughtful, relatable, and full of takeaways for anyone who is stepping into leadership, supporting teams, or advocating for children and families within our field.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to navigate the transition from clinician to leader without burning out
- Why mentorship and leadership support are critical in growing organizations
- The realities of advocating for autism services, even as a professional
- Lessons on balancing leadership, boundaries, and empathy
Mentioned In This Episode:
Virtue Healthcare Consulting
Rayni Brindley McMahon on LinkedIn
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Prompting AAC is abuse? Let’s talk about that and a few other AAC conversations that keep coming up again and again.
In today’s solo episode, I’m diving into five hot topics in AAC that have been surfacing repeatedly in my recent calls, trainings, and collaboration meetings. After more than 20 years as a speech therapist and being dually certified as a BCBA, I’ve seen how confusing, overwhelming, and sometimes divisive AAC conversations can become. I also remember very clearly when AAC felt intimidating to me too.
This episode is about cutting through the noise, grounding ourselves in research, and having better, more collaborative conversations about AAC. I share real scenarios clinicians are facing right now, from AAC evaluations that drag on far too long to device access barriers to strong opinions about prompting that simply don’t align with the science. My goal is to help you feel more confident, more informed, and better equipped to advocate for your students and clients.
Whether you’re newer to AAC or have years of experience, these topics matter. AAC is a student’s voice, and we have a responsibility to protect, support, and expand it in thoughtful, ethical ways.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why AAC evaluations should be thorough, but not take nine months, and what may be going wrong when they do
- How to approach parent-purchased devices, including those bought online, with collaboration instead of fear
- The ongoing core versus fringe vocabulary debate, and why research supports using both
- Why prompting is a teaching tool, not abuse, and how misinformation can harm collaboration and progress
Mentioned In This Episode:
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
Take the All About AAC bundle
ABA Speech: Home
In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure of welcoming Dr. Kathleen Dyer, Dr. Anna Linnehan, and Dr. Mary Jane Weiss for a powerful conversation around their article Fostering Belonging in Autistic Individuals. This was actually the first time I’ve had three guests on the podcast at once, and it felt like the perfect conversation to mark that milestone.
We spent time unpacking the difference between inclusion and true belonging and why simply being “in the room” does not always mean someone feels connected or accepted. As behavior analysts and speech-language pathologists, we’ve made incredible progress with access, inclusion, and participation, but this conversation challenged us to take a deeper look at the quality of those experiences.
We talked about what happens when autistic individuals are included but don’t feel they belong, the emotional toll of masking and camouflaging, and the very real systemic barriers that still exist for autistic adults. I also loved hearing how this work grew from their experiences in higher education and from listening closely to autistic individuals and families who shared that they often had to create their own communities.
What really stood out to me was how much this conversation aligns with compassionate, individualized care. Belonging looks different for everyone, and if we’re not asking about it, observing it, and building it into our assessments and interventions, we’re missing something essential. This episode felt like an invitation for our field to stretch, reflect, and evolve, and I’m so grateful to these three leaders for helping start that dialogue.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The difference between inclusion and true belonging, and why access alone is not enough
- How masking and camouflaging impact mental health and long-term well-being
- Barriers autistic adults face in education, employment, and community participation
- Practical ways clinicians can keep belonging at the center of assessment and intervention
Mentioned In This Episode:
Earn CEUs with a community of peers. Join the ABA Speech Connection
Get the book Perspectives on Neurodiversity and Belonging
ABA Speech: Home
In today’s episode, I sat down with Nafisa Obi to talk about what it really looks like to bring speech therapy, occupational therapy, and ABA together under one roof. Nafisa shared her journey from starting a small speech therapy practice to co-founding Essential Speech and ABA Therapy, which has grown into a nationwide franchise model focused on early intervention and true interdisciplinary collaboration.
We talked honestly about the realities of private practice ownership, the challenges of adding ABA to an existing SLP practice, and why understanding your “why” matters so much when you’re building services that impact families. Nafisa walked us through how her team recognized a gap in care, leaned into collaboration instead of competition, and built a model that prioritizes children, families, and ethical growth.
This conversation is especially powerful if you’re an SLP, OT, BCBA, or practice owner who feels the pull to do more for your clients but isn’t sure where to start. Nafisa’s story is a reminder that thoughtful, family-centered care and sustainable business practices can exist together, and that collaboration truly changes outcomes.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How Essential Speech and ABA Therapy evolved from a speech-only clinic into a fully collaborative SLP, OT, and ABA model
- What SLPs need to consider when adding ABA services, from staffing and billing to company culture
- Why true interdisciplinary collaboration improves outcomes for autistic children and their families
- How franchising became a way to responsibly expand access to ethical, high-quality autism care
Mentioned In This Episode:
Essential Speech and ABA Therapy
Nafisa Obi on LinkedIn
Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
I’m bringing back one of my mini episodes that continues to spark great conversations around verbal imitation. This reprise dives into how we think about echoics and verbal imitation in a way that is thoughtful, ethical, and grounded in collaboration. I share why this can be such a tricky area, especially when speech-language pathologists and BCBAs are working together, and why context always matters more than a checklist.
In this episode, I walk through how I approach verbal imitation on a team, why assessment and collaboration are essential, and how we can support learners without turning them off to verbal communication. This is a practical listen that encourages all of us to slow down, zoom out, and make sure our targets are truly functional for the child in front of us.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why verbal imitation and echoics require careful, collaborative decision-making
- The role of assessments and context when choosing verbal targets
- How SLP and BCBA collaboration supports ethical and effective programming
- A high-level look at maintaining and generalizing verbal imitation skills
Mentioned In This Episode:
Verbal Imitation Guide (Hack #19)
Join our ethics course
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
In this reprise episode, I’m revisiting an important conversation with Dr. Michael Selbst and Dr. Jeniffer Cruz about Pathological Demand Avoidance, often called PDA. I began getting more questions about PDA as clinicians and parents shared concerns about students who weren’t responding to traditional strategies and seemed to escalate around even small or well-intended demands.
In this episode, we break down what PDA is and how it’s currently understood. While PDA is not a formal diagnosis in the United States, it’s often described internationally as a profile rooted in anxiety and a strong drive for control. Dr. Selbst and Dr. Cruz explain how both explicit demands, like being told to complete a task, and implied demands, such as routines or social expectations, can trigger a fight, flight, or freeze response.
We also explore why compliance-based systems and reward-driven approaches often don’t work for learners with this profile. Even positive strategies can increase anxiety when they rely on external control. Instead, this conversation focuses on shifting toward collaboration over compliance, building trust, and reducing power struggles so regulation can come first.
What I appreciate most is how practical this discussion is. We talk about language, tone, and small changes adults can make to better support regulation, communication, and independence.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What Pathological Demand Avoidance is and how it differs from defiance or noncompliance
- Why anxiety-driven responses make compliance-based strategies ineffective
- How shifting from compliance to collaboration supports regulation and trust
- Practical ways to adjust language, expectations, and support for PDA learners
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr. Selbst and Dr. Cruz have the authority to practice interjurisdictional telepsychology (APIT) from the PSYPACT commission, allowing them to provide telepsychology to clients in many states. To see if your state is included, please click on this link: https://psypact.site-ym.com/page/psypactmap
PDA Society
Behavior Therapy Associates
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Functional Communication Training can change everything when behavior is really communication and we take the time to listen.
In this reprise episode, I’m revisiting one of our most popular conversations of the year, all about Functional Communication Training and how to get started in a way that is practical, ethical, and truly supportive for students. I hear so many questions about what to do when students are struggling to express their needs and emotions and how to move beyond problem behavior into meaningful communication. This conversation with Dr. Bethjoy Houck gives you a clear, research-based way forward.
We walk through what Functional Communication Training actually is, why it is different from simple mand training, and why identifying the true function of behavior through assessment is essential before jumping into intervention. We also break down how to thoughtfully select functional communication responses so they are easy to prompt, meaningful to the learner, and sustainable across environments. Whether you are a speech-language pathologist, BCBA, RBT, or parent, this episode is filled with real-world examples that bring the research to life and help you apply FCT with confidence and compassion.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What Functional Communication Training really is, and why it goes beyond basic mand training
- Why identifying the function of behavior is essential before implementing FCT
- How to select communication responses that are easy to prompt, ethical, and effective
- Practical examples of using AAC, visuals, and object exchange to support meaningful communication
Mentioned In This Episode:
A Practitioner’s Guide for Selecting Functional Communication Responses
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Strength training and structured fitness can transform quality of life for autistic and neurodivergent individuals. Eric Chessen began developing meaningful fitness programs after realizing there was almost no guidance on how to safely and effectively support this population. His work focuses on bridging the gap between exercise science and positive behavior support so individuals of all ability levels can build strength, confidence, and long-term independence.
We discuss why traditional motivations for fitness (like aesthetics or sports performance) often don’t apply to neurodivergent athletes and how professionals can create programs that prioritize functional movement, daily living skills, and proactive behavior support. Eric explains why “stronger is safer,” how resistance training supports fall prevention and mobility, and why distinguishing structured exercise from loosely defined movement is essential. He also highlights collaboration opportunities with SLPs, OTs, BCBAs, and parents, sharing how fitness can be integrated into therapy sessions in consistent, scalable ways.
For clinicians, educators, and families wanting to bring structured, neuroaffirming fitness into their work, Eric offers Autism Fitness certifications worldwide, along with site-based programming and individualized athlete coaching. For more information, check out his website below.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How Eric combined behavior science and exercise science to develop fitness programs for neurodivergent individuals
- Why strength training is foundational for independence, mobility, and long-term health
- The difference between “moving around” and a true, structured exercise program
- How proactive, energizing movement can support regulation and reduce challenging behaviors
- Ways SLPs, OTs, BCBAs, and parents can integrate fitness into therapy through scalable, consistent routines
- What Autism Fitness certification offers for professionals and families who want to bring meaningful fitness into their practice
Mentioned In This Episode:
Autism Fitness Website
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
“We can’t sleep for them, but we can support and set the stage for healthy sleep”. Guest Nicole Shallow, M.Ed., BCBA joins the show to talk about supporting sleep through a compassionate, neuroaffirming, science-based lens. Nicole works with families whose autistic children struggle with falling asleep, bedtime resistance, night waking, or inconsistent sleep schedules—helping parents understand where to begin when exhaustion and overwhelm have taken over.
We discuss what makes someone a good candidate for sleep coaching and how behavior analysts can look beyond behavior alone by considering factors like diet, medical needs, and overall wellness. Nicole walks us through how she supports families with clear start dates, meaningful data collection, and recommendations tailored to each child’s unique sleep profile.
Nicole also shares five core sleep support tips that families and clinicians can start using right away:
- Consistent Wake Time
Sleeping in can make nights harder. Work toward steady morning wake times to anchor the day. - Diet & Nutrition
Support families in creating a more balanced diet and identify barriers that may be impacting sleep quality. - Bedtime Resistance & Connection
Prioritize connection and co-regulation—offer fully present, attuned attention in the hour before bedtime. - Outdoor Time & Daylight Exposure
Daylight helps regulate circadian rhythm. Brainstorm safe ways to increase outdoor time. - Medical Considerations
Rule out medical issues that could be impacting sleep. A doctor’s perspective can bring clarity and direction.
For BCBAs interested in becoming more confident in sleep support, Nicole offers a Sleep Certification Program every February and September. More information can be found at her website.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Who is a good candidate for sleep coaching
- Key factors that interfere with consistent sleep
- How BCBAs can collaborate across diet, medical, and wellness concerns
- Nicole’s framework for supporting families: start dates, data tracking, and individualized plans
- Five practical sleep tips families can start using today
- Details about Nicole’s Sleep Certification Program for BCBAs
Mentioned In This Episode:
Nicole Shallow., M.Ed., BCBA - LinkedIn
Your Behaviour Gal
Sleep Expert & Behavior Analyst - Nicole Shallow, M.Ed on Instagram
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Emily Kearney, BCBA, who has been working in the field since 1999, joins the show to dive into a topic we haven’t explored in depth before: matching as a skill. Though it may seem simple, matching is foundational for learners of all ages. This critical skill supports language, play, leisure, problem solving, and actions across the lifespan.
We discuss how matching isn’t always identical—it can be based on features, categories, or associations—and how it develops from early learning readiness into more complex skills for older learners. Emily highlights teaching strategies like multiple exemplar training and ensuring stimulus control by using the variety of cues learners encounter in real-world settings. For example, a “cup” can vary in material, size, color, shape, or function, but learning to recognize it in all its forms builds observation skills, problem-solving, and perseverance.
For older learners, we explore adding a language component, asking questions like “how do you know it’s a match?” to encourage reasoning and verbalization. Matching isn’t just a simple game; it's a prerequisite for broader communication, life, and learning.
For questions or mentorship opportunities, reach out to Emily at emily@kearneybehaviorconsulting.com.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why matching is a critical skill across all ages
- Matching isn't about just finding identical matches
- Teaching strategies including multiple exemplar training and stimulus control
- Real-world examples to generalize matching skills across environments
- The language component of matching for older learners
Mentioned In This Episode:
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
In this solo minisode, I’m diving into five of the questions I hear most often—covering selective mutism, collaboration, AAC, core words, and the path to dual certification. These are the topics that come up again and again in our field, and today I’m offering practical guidance, real examples, and links to deeper learning.
- Does ABA Speech have resources for selective mutism?
Yes! I share some of my own experience supporting learners with selective mutism and point you to a full episode on the topic with Annie DiVello. And keep an eye out—a CEU on selective mutism is coming in 2026. - How do you build collaboration when an SLP pushes back or says “stay in your lane”?
I talk through ways to create ongoing communication, get permission to coordinate care, and document collaboration attempts. If the relationship still isn’t coming together, involving administration for support can be the next step. - How do you make suggestions when a provider uses the same core words with every student and progress feels limited?
This can feel like a sensitive conversation. I share how to approach it thoughtfully and recommend our journal article course on core words, along with the linked episode featuring Allison Bean and Bethany Frick Semmler. - When is it appropriate to transition away from AAC if a student becomes verbal?
I use an example from my own caseload to highlight the importance of individualized goals. The aim isn’t always to eliminate the device, but to identify what’s functional, meaningful, and supportive for that specific learner. - How do you become a dually certified SLP/BCBA?
I walk through my own path—starting as an SLP, discovering the power of behavior analysis, completing coursework and supervision, and ultimately passing the exam using the BDS modules.
Don’t forget to check out ABA Speech for all of your CEU needs—link below!
What’s Inside:
- Resources and upcoming CEUs for selective mutism
- How to navigate collaboration when communication feels strained
- Approaching difficult conversations around core words and progress
- Determining when (or if) to transition away from AAC
- The steps to becoming a dually certified SLP/BCBA
Mentioned In This Episode:
Episode #068: Annie DiVello – Supporting Students With Selective Mutism
Episode #121: Core Vocabulary and Typical Language Development with Allison Bean and Bethany Frick Semmler
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Guest Meghan Edwards, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and School-Based Behavior Specialist, joins the show to share her journey from providing in-home services to becoming a public school BCBA. With over a decade of experience, Meghan helps schools build proactive systems for behavior and staff support—bridging the gap between behavior analysis and the real-world classroom.
We talk about what it means to be a school-based BCBA, including the top three things to consider when transitioning to a school role. From navigating the noise and unpredictability of the school day to collaborating closely with teachers and administrators, Meghan emphasizes the importance of relationships and rapport in making an impact. She shares how her weekly newsletters, staff shoutouts, and open communication help her connect across teams.
Meghan also discusses how her Instagram community, @school_based_bcba, evolved into The Behavior Lounge, a mentorship hub for school-based BCBAs. Plus, she highlights her passion project, The Paraprofessional Training Manual, created to empower the staff members who support high-needs students but often receive the least training.
Be on the lookout for a CEU with Meghan coming to ABA Speech Connection in Fall 2026!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What it’s like to transition into a school-based BCBA role
- Top 3 tips for success in the school setting
- Building strong relationships with teachers and administrators
- Supporting paraprofessionals through intentional training and resources
Mentioned In This Episode:
School Based BCBA
Meghan Edwards BCBA Mentor and Behavior Support for Schools
Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Guest Marie Martinez, a dual-certified SLP/BCBA, joins the show to share her passion for empowering parents and supporting communication in everyday moments. She’s the author of Path for Words: Five-Minute Language Learning Activities for Children Ages 1–3 Years, a book that helps families turn daily routines into powerful language opportunities.
Marie talks about identifying the small moments that matter most—because communication doesn’t just happen at the table with flashcards, it happens all day long. She also offers great advice for anyone passionate about their work (and maybe thinking about writing a book!): if you see a need, fill it. Her work helps parents feel less overwhelmed and more empowered to help their children thrive in their communication journey.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How Path for Words helps parents build language naturally
- Finding purpose and inspiration in dual certification
- Empowering parents through practical communication tools
- Why the little moments make the biggest impact
- Advice for professionals ready to write or create something new
Mentioned In This Episode:
Path For Words (@pathforwords) on Instagram
Marie Martinez on LinkedIn
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Leah and Dr. Shelly, both occupational therapists who have either earned or are working toward dual certification as BCBAs, join me to talk about the power and challenges of blending these two worlds. Believe it or not, there aren’t even statistics on how many dual-certified professionals are out there—but the impact of this crossover is clear. Their work centers on collaboration with families and other professionals, finding common ground between OT and ABA.
We talk about the funding and system barriers that can make integration tough, and how learning to understand each other’s “jargon” helps break those walls down. As Dr. Shelly says, OTs and BCBAs are often working toward the same goals—they just use different words. Sometimes, you have to “massage the message” so everyone can connect and understand.
Dr. Shelly also shares insight into the business and insurance side of implementation, while Leah highlights the importance of spreading the word about the tools ABA offers. Their message is simple: put the egos aside, keep listening, and stay open to learning from each other.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The growing overlap between OT and ABA
- Why collaboration starts with learning each other’s “language”
- Navigating funding and system barriers that limit integration
- Putting egos aside to focus on shared goals and learning from one another
Mentioned In This Episode:
Is This My Child?: Sensory Integration Simplified
Circle Care Services
The Autism Roundtable Podcast - Circle Care Services
My BCBA Life Podcast - Circle Care Services
Join the ABA Speech Connection
ABA Speech: Home
Luba Patlakh, founder and director of Kidology, Inc., shares her journey of creating a thriving pediatric practice that offers speech, occupational, physical, and ABA therapy. Four years ago, she expanded her clinic to include ABA services, recognizing that behavior is the “glue” connecting all other disciplines and a crucial way to continue supporting clients as they age out of early intervention.
Luba walks us through the process of credentialing, applying, and setting up systems to accept insurance in her home state of Pennsylvania. She reflects on how she initially managed every aspect of the business herself before scaling to include an admin team and other essential roles. Through mentorship and a commitment to learning, she gained valuable insight into business metrics, leadership, and fiscal responsibility—key elements of running a sustainable practice.
Her advice for providers looking to expand into ABA? Never give up. Understand your state’s requirements, take your plan seriously, and learn before acting.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Luba’s journey opening a multidisciplinary clinic
- Steps for credentialing and accepting insurance
- How mentorship shaped Luba’s growth as a business owner
- Tips for providers looking to add ABA services to their practice
Mentioned In This Episode:
About Us - Kidology Inc.
Luba Love (@kidologyqueen) on Instagram
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Lily Darnell and Sarah Varillas of Inner Circle Autism Network are using a telehealth behavioral parent training model to support families in a powerful new way. Their approach helps parents gain the tools and confidence to use ABA strategies at home—especially when traditional, clinic-based services may not be accessible.
For many families, clinic environments or long waitlists can create barriers to care. Inner Circle’s telehealth model offers a lifeline for those in transition, waiting for services, or needing support that fits into their family’s daily life. As Lily and Sarah share, parents already have so much on their plates, and telehealth can meet them where they are.
For clinicians interested in getting started, the RUBI Parent Training package is available online, complete with resources and worksheets. Lily and Sarah also offer practical advice: review state licensing requirements and payer guidelines for virtual care, plan meet-and-greets for new families, and structure a caseload that allows for flexibility and consistency.
Ultimately, many parents can benefit from a coach, confidant, and partner. Through this innovative telehealth model, ABA can reach beyond the clinic walls to truly support families in their everyday lives.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How Inner Circle Autism Network supports families through a telehealth model
- The benefits of behavioral parent training for accessibility and flexibility
- When telehealth is the right fit for families waiting for or transitioning between services
- Getting started with the RUBI Parent Training package and key clinician considerations
Mentioned In This Episode:
Inner Circle Autism Network
Store - The RUBI Autism Network
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
I’m so excited to celebrate 250 episodes of the podcast, and I couldn’t think of a better way than by sharing a little sneak peek into my own life. For this milestone, my 10-year-old son, Paxton—an aspiring podcaster himself—joins me to ask some fun questions about the show, my path to becoming an SLP, and a few behind-the-scenes facts you may not know.
To mark this celebration, I’m also sharing links to some of our most popular and meaningful episodes. And if you haven’t yet, come join us at ABA Speech Connection, where we keep the conversations going, unpack important topics in the ABA world, and offer CEUs designed to truly support your work.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Celebrating 250 episodes!
- Meet my son Paxton.
- A sneak peek into my life, aspirations, and motivations.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Episode 1 Welcome to Autism Outreach
Episode 62 Autism Early Intervention and Joint Attention
Episode 44 How To Help Students with Apraxia of Speech with Dr. Edythe Strand Pt. 1
Episode 44 How To Help Students with Apraxia of Speech with Dr. Edythe Strand Pt. 2
Episode 45 Executive Functioning with Sara Ward
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
“I can’t be the only one who feels this way.” That was the thought that led Kate Swenson to use her passion for writing to share her family’s journey. Kate is the founder of Finding Cooper’s Voice and the author of Finding Cooper’s Voice and Autism Out Loud. Her work highlights that autism is a family diagnosis, and she has made it her mission to connect the community, start conversations, and give families a voice.
Kate and I talk about the isolation many families feel after an autism diagnosis and how simple acts of presence and connection can make a difference. Sometimes autism makes it harder for families to leave the house and their world feels smaller—just being there, talking, and offering support can open doors again.
We also discuss the importance of creating opportunities for families to spend time together. For Kate’s family, that joy is found in boating—something they made accessible for her son and enjoyable for everyone. She encourages families to get comfortable hosting, bringing fun and community into their own homes when going out feels too difficult.
Through her writing, her membership communities on Facebook and YouTube, and the platform she has built with Finding Cooper’s Voice, Kate is helping families feel seen, supported, and less alone.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Creating a space for autism families.
- Discovering leisure activities for the whole family.
- Finding community in the isolation of autism.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Finding Cooper's Voice
Finding Cooper’s Voice - Facebook
Kate (@findingcoopersvoice) on Instagram
Kate Swenson | Substack
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Erin Stern, BCBA, Founder and President of STEPS Behavioral Health, shares how her clinic takes an integrative approach by combining ABA, Speech, OT, and PT to support early learners. With a strong focus on flexibility and tailoring every goal to the individual, Erin highlights the importance of thoughtful intake and assessment, working closely with families, preparing children for school, and weaving in everyday experiences and milestones.
Erin discusses the clinic’s Early Steps Program, which supports newly diagnosed learners through Kindergarten and beyond. With no “hard lines,” the focus is always on finding the right placement, environment, and balance of clinic- and home-based services. Erin explains how determining intervention hours involves multiple factors—age, behaviors, skill needs, family dynamics, and insurance—while maintaining flexibility to meet each learner’s individual needs.
Our conversation also highlights the value of providers immersing themselves in a learner’s AAC system, staying committed to professional growth, and never forgetting the power of play. As Erin reminds us, “Don’t forget to play,” because natural learning and connection thrive in those moments.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- STEPS Behavioral Health and the Early Steps Program.
- Tailoring early intervention to individual learner needs.
- Important factors to consider when determining intervention hours.
- Why play is one of the most important factors of a learner's success.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Stepsbh.com
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Lindsay Watson, PT, CEO, and Co-Founder of Augment Therapy, is on a mission to blend augmented reality (AR) and virtual care to transform therapy. Augment Therapy offers interactive AR rehabilitation exercises and fun wellness games designed to encourage movement and improve outcomes at home and in person. With their ARWell PRO app, therapists can use the software during sessions and give patients free access at home, all while tracking progress through a customized, gamified platform.
While Augment Therapy is currently used primarily by OTs and PTs, Lindsay shares exciting plans to expand into speech therapy. We also discuss the benefits of telehealth when applied intentionally and how leveraging technology can enhance repetition, generalization, and engagement—turning a tool that’s often seen as a negative into a powerful ally for therapy success.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Augment Therapy?
- How can Augmented Reality impact therapy.
- Blending expertise and virtual care.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Augment Therapy
Join the aba speech connection
ABA Speech: Home
Thinking about becoming a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT)? There are now over 200,000 certified RBTs, and in this episode, I’m joined by Jackie Jung, an RBT currently pursuing a career in speech-language pathology. A Registered Behavior Technician is a paraprofessional who works directly with individuals receiving ABA services, implementing treatment plans under the supervision of a BCBA.
Jackie shares her journey into this role and walks us through the steps to becoming certified: completing a 40-hour training course, passing an exam, and demonstrating skills through a competency assessment—all of which may be covered or supported by your employer.
We also discuss the essential skills RBTs need, including play-based strategies and de-escalation techniques, and Jackie highlights the growing need for well-trained professionals in the field. Starting in 2026, RBTs will be required to complete CEUs every two years—a change we’re ready to support at ABA Speech Connection with high-quality continuing education.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is an RBT?
- How can you become a Registered Behavior Technician?
- Transitioning in the ABA field.
- New requirements for RBTs coming in 2026!
Mentioned In This Episode:
Speech Join the aba speech connection, learn more about our RBT membership tier.
ABA Speech: Home
What is Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT), and how can it support social communication skills? In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Jessica Osos, BCBA, to explore the definition and application of RIT—a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention (NDBI) designed to teach learners to imitate spontaneously through ongoing, play-based social interaction. Unlike structured drills, RIT is child-led and play-focused, helping to build social skills that go far beyond imitation.
For many SLPs and BCBAs, this is a new approach. Dr. Osos explains how the back-and-forth of imitation highlights the value in what the child is doing and how strategies like Sports Casting (narrating the interaction) can enrich play. Expanding play might mean introducing more toys, exploring new play schemas, or creating deeper sequences.
Key factors for successful RIT involve simple language, emphasizing important words, being repetitive, and expanding language by copying and adding. Focusing on goals beyond imitation? RIT doesn’t have to be a “this or that” choice. This child-led expansive approach works with a variety of social communication, like joint attention and more!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Naturalistic Intervention using Reciprocal Imitation Training.
- What is RIT?
- Expanding play for a variety of social, communication, and leisure skills.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Episode #146: Early Intervention and Project Impact with Anna Dvortcsak and Dr. Brook Ingersoll - ABA Speech
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Is this intervention going to make a client’s world bigger?
That’s the guiding question for today’s guest, Cindy Mrotek, BCBA and LBS, founder of a.c.e therapies—a center offering Speech, OT, and ABA services, along with options for adult learners. With three locations across Illinois, a.c.e therapies focuses on skills that truly matter across the lifespan.
In our conversation, Cindy shares why focusing on meaningful skills and goals is so important for increasing quality of life and “making the world bigger” for learners and their families. Without access to leisure skills and other essential life skills, a learner’s world can feel very small—and that impact extends to their loved ones too.
Cindy also highlights the unique benefits of a multidisciplinary clinic, where collaboration across disciplines creates a holistic approach to building a better life, rather than working on skills in isolation. As a clinician-owned center, she may not compete with private equity on pay or scale, but she offers something different: collaboration, flexibility, and an individualized, learner-centered model that supports both therapists and families.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Setting goals critical to the lifespan.
- The importance of Adult Services in clinics.
- A widespread value in a multidisciplinary clinic.
Mentioned In This Episode:
a.c.e. Therapies
a.c.e. therapies (@acetherapies_) on Instagram
Cindy Dougherty-Mrotek on LinkedIn
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Do you feel like most CEUs aren’t very beneficial? You’re not alone—60% of my audience across the field feels the same way.
That’s why I created The ABA Speech Connection CEU Membership—a program designed to foster collaboration, provide access to current research, and deliver engaging, practical CEUs that actually help you support your learners in communicating with the world.
ABA Speech Connection is both ASHA and ACE approved, with a strong focus on meaningful outcomes. Since launching, more than 500 professionals have joined. Each month, members can attend at least one live course (often more) and access our growing catalog of CEUs. Whether you’re an SLP, RBT, or BCBA, you’ll find everything you need to earn your continuing education in one place.
Membership is just $25 per month or $247 per year, with group pricing available as well.
What’s Inside:
- ASHA and ACE approved CEUs.
- A space for collaboration for SLPs, RBTs, and BCBAs.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Dr. Erin Michaud, SLP and BCBA-D with over 20 years of experience in communication development and ABA, joins the podcast to share the groundbreaking work of The Early Markers of Autism Project—a program changing the landscape of early autism identification and intervention.
This hands-on, in-person research and treatment study works with infants from both high-risk populations (siblings of children with autism, with a 20% recurrence rate) and low-risk populations. By tracking social interaction, shifting attention, joint attention, and social behaviors from infancy through age five, the project identifies and responds to early markers far earlier than the current AAP screening recommendation of 18 months.
The impact? Earlier diagnoses, earlier interventions, and fewer families waiting for services. Dr. Michaud shares how this project is creating validated assessment tools, expanding parent training, and building strong research to push for insurance coverage—bringing meaningful change for high-risk infants and their families.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What are the early markers of autism?
- What is the Autism Sibling Project?
- Supporting parents and our littlest learners.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Talking First Words — Coming Soon
Early Markers of Autism Project | The New England Center for Children
7 Investigates: Autism Intervention - Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
NECC Infant Sibling Research Project 2023
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Cindy Watson, celebrating 30 years as an SLP and making her third appearance on the podcast, returns with BCBA Ashley Snavely to share how their clinic blends multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary care.
“We were missing something,” Cindy reflects. Already offering PT, OT, and Speech, their team recognized therapists needed tools to address challenging behaviors. Adding ABA was the evidence-based solution. In this episode, Cindy and Ashley discuss the early stages of collaboration—how large group trainings, comprehensive education, and the creation of the BILT (Behavior Intervention Leadership Team) empowered therapists to problem-solve before BCBAs step in. They also dive into AAC in a collaborative setting, emphasizing curiosity, data-driven decisions, and open communication as key to success.
Together, they show how a “we want to learn from you” mindset builds trust, resolves disagreements, and ultimately leads to what matters most—meaningful progress for every learner.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Integrating ABA into a multidisciplinary clinic.
- How to collaborate with ACC
- Handling disagreements across providers.
- Fostering open communication and learning among therapists and providers.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Episode #115: Early Intervention Speech Therapy Services – A Talk With Cindy Watson
Episode #191: Autism in Girls- A Conversation with Cindy and MC
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Ron Demuesy joins me to unpack the vital and often nuanced role of school-based BCBAs. Unlike outsourced consultants, in-house BCBAs provide consistent presence, accessibility, and a deeper connection with students and staff.
Ron shares key insights for success:
- Mind your language: Be technically accurate without drowning in jargon.
- Ditch the forms: Gather meaningful information through conversation, not paperwork.
- Focus on skill-building: Address behaviors by teaching replacement skills, not just stopping actions.
- Find and be a mentor: Growth doesn’t end with certification—keep learning and connecting.
In addition to his school-based work, Ron serves as a lead consultant at FTF Consulting, teaching others to analyze and build skills for individuals with severe problem behaviors, while also contributing to research initiatives.
And don’t forget—our School-Based BCBA Startpack is there to help you hit the ground running, and we’d love for you to join us for a live Q&A with Ron on September 9th from 7 to 8 PM EST. You deserve to feel supported in the critical, transformative work you do every day.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Ron’s must-knows for school-based BCBAs.
- Resources for school-based BCBAs.
- What is FTF Consulting?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Purchase the School Based BCBA Starter Pack
ABA Speech Membership
ABA Speech: Home
On today’s episode, I’m joined by Allyson Wharam, BCBA, instructional designer, and founder of Sidekick Learning. Allyson is the creator of one of the most comprehensive and thoughtfully designed 40-hour RBT courses I’ve come across. Her background in instructional design brings a fresh and interactive approach to RBT and BCBA training.
We talk about how the RBT certification has grown rapidly and why quality training is more important than ever. Allyson explains what goes into becoming an RBT and how her course supports new professionals with engaging, person-centered content. We also dive into how BCBAs can feel unprepared when stepping into supervisory roles and how her supervision curriculum fills that gap.
Whether you're a clinic owner, new BCBA, or someone supporting trainees, this conversation is full of helpful insight on training, supervision, and compassionate care.
Allyson also shares details on our upcoming collaboration. On August 19, I’ll be presenting a free live CEU course on joint attention through Sidekick Learning, and I’d love for you to join us.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What makes Allyson’s 40-hour RBT course unique
- The steps to RBT certification and required competencies
- Why supervision is a challenge for new BCBAs and how to support them
- Integrating compassion and social validity into training content
Mentioned in this episode:
Sidekick Learning
Supervision Sidekick on Instagram
Allyson Wharam on LinkedIn
ABA Speech Connection
Free CEU on Joint Attention – August 19
RBT Training Use coupon code: ABASPEECH
Jennifer Houston joins me to share her journey from speech‑language pathologist (SLP) to dual‑credentialed SLP/Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA)—a rare “unicorn” duo found in fewer than 500 professionals worldwide. After more than two decades of diverse SLP roles, Jennifer found herself increasingly drawn to addressing challenging behaviors across her caseload. Motivated by this evolving passion and a push from her boss, she pursued BCBA certification, blending her communication expertise with applied behavior analysis to better support her clients.
In our conversation, Jennifer tackles common misconceptions about both fields and describes her thoughtful approach to professional introductions. She emphasizes the importance of gently educating colleagues about the shared foundations of speech‑language pathology and behavior analysis, fostering collaboration rather than competition.
Jennifer is also an active member of ABA Speech Connection, our community that provides science‑backed resources on the latest developments in ABA. She explains how this network helps her stay current and deliver evidence‑based interventions. Highlighting that education doesn’t end at graduation, Jennifer contrasts what she loves about our live courses—robust chat interactions—with the flexibility of ABA Speech’s comprehensive course library, underscoring her belief in lifelong learning.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Becoming dually certified: SLP to SLP/BCBA.
- Common misconceptions cross the fields of Speech Pathology and ABA.
- Finding common ground across professions.
- Utilizing ABA Speech Connection to bolster learning across the career.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
We’ve made it to the final installment of my mini summer series!
In today’s episode, I’m asking an important question: Do you feel valued at work?
Feeling valued and building mutual trust are key ingredients for meaningful collaboration, which is essential in the work we do as providers.
I’m sharing practical, collaborative phrases you can use to build trust and strengthen your professional relationships. (You’ll also find a link to a free phrase bank—a helpful part of a larger freebie I offer!)
The truth is, we don’t get much formal training on how to collaborate—especially with colleagues from different backgrounds or disciplines. That’s something I’m passionate about changing through ABA Speech, so be sure to check us out!
You’ll learn phrases like
“How do you usually approach this? I want to make sure we’re aligned on our strategies.”
How we show up in the world and with each other matters. We don’t want to work in silos. We want synergy. Because when we collaborate well, we can transform not just the lives of the learners in front of us—but ripple outward beyond the therapy room.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Practical phrases to foster collaboration.
- How to create a positive working relationship with different disciplines.
- Highlighting training in collaboration across the field.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ALP for AAC
SLP/BCBA collaborative phrases—Speech Therapy Hack #30
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Welcome to Part 3 of my mini-series answering your burning questions! Today, we're diving into the topic of verbal imitation.
When it comes to verbal imitation and echoic goals, context is everything. These goals must be functional and meaningful to the individual child in order to support communication development.
As an SLP collaborating with a BCBA, and vice versa, rely on assessment tools and an SLP's robust training in speech to identify and shape functional goals. It's crucial that we plan and program with intention—otherwise, we risk discouraging a child from verbalizing
The key? Collaborate early and often. Assess together. Plan together. Use resources like the Autism IEP Goal Bank (don’t miss the freebie!). Then, have the SLP on the team focus on those targeted words and move into collaboratively supporting generalization into the natural environment for a robust bank of words.
Looking ahead to 2026, we’re excited to explore communication disorders more deeply over at ABA Speech Connection. Stay tuned—because sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Summer mini-series
- Strategy to work collaboratively as BCBA and SLPs
- Verbal imitation goals
- Communication development
Mentioned In This Episode:
Verbal Imitation Guide (Hack #19)
Join our ethics course
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
In this installment of minisodes, we tackle a common AAC challenge: what happens when professionals don’t agree? The BCBA recommends PECS, the SLP suggests a dynamic device… Now what? Welcome to the standard trial of non-collaborative chaos.
There are plenty of barriers to AAC collaboration, but also practical steps that can lead to smoother teamwork. The first is building familiarity. AAC can feel overwhelming, but taking time to learn the basics makes collaboration more effective.
One key reminder: the device belongs to the student. Everyone on the team should be working toward the same goal—supporting the individual’s communication needs across their lifespan.
Joint assessment can help, and tools like the free ALP AAC assessment offer a shared starting point. Another useful strategy is to assign a single person to program the device. This reduces confusion and ensures consistency.
Most importantly, collaboration keeps families from being caught in the middle. When professionals work together, outcomes improve—for everyone involved.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- 10-minute summer series.
- Free Assessment.
- Collaborating every step from assessment through intervention.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ALP AAC Assessment
AAC course bundle
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Responding with “Where’s the research for that?” may be quick, but it can strain professional relationships. Today, we’re diving into a simple framework you can start using in your school or clinic—starting tomorrow!
So, how do we navigate disagreements when our training and backgrounds differ? The truth is—our way isn’t the only way.
Consider this quote from the article Maintaining Professional Relationships in an Interdisciplinary Setting: Strategies for Navigating Nonbehavioral Treatment Recommendations for Individuals with Autism:
“An interdisciplinary collaboration for individuals with ASD involves combining the strengths of multiple disciplines in order to maximize client outcomes.”
As we walk through the decision-making flowchart featured in the article, remember: keep an open mind, take time to understand the treatment in question, and always prioritize the client’s outcome and safety.
Stay tuned for more of my 10-minute episodes, where I answer the most commonly asked questions.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- A simple framework for avoiding conflict in collaboration.
- The importance of a multidisciplinary approach.
- 10-minute summer series.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Maintaining Professional Relationships in an Interdisciplinary Setting: Strategies for Navigating Nonbehavioral Treatment Recommendations for Individuals with Autism - PMC
Join Our Ethics Course!
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
There may be two sides of the IEP table, but at the end of the day, we’re all on the same team — the learner’s.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Ryan Hogan, also known as @TheWorldsOkayestSchoolPsych, the creator behind the popular, lighthearted school psych meme account on Instagram.
We talked about the intersection of ABA, special education, and school-based work in the social media space. Ryan shared some great insights, especially the reminder that you control your own online space. Protect your peace: block people, delete comments. Thoughtful questions and concerns deserve a response; negativity for its own sake does not.
As both a school psychologist and an autism parent, Ryan brings a unique and deeply personal perspective to the IEP table. He knows firsthand what it feels like to be both the professional and the parent — and how overwhelming it can be. Sometimes, parents need not just data and research, but connection, empathy, and that parent-to-parent understanding.
It was a meaningful and insightful conversation — one that reminds us that compassion and collaboration go a long way (and so does a joke!).
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Navigating Negativity on Social Media
- What it's like to be a parent AND a professional
- A perspective from both sides of the IEP table
Mentioned In This Episode:
(@worldsokayestschoolpsych) on Instagram
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Leila Farschian, Special Educator and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), is someone who gets things done. She has lived these problems in the field and is actively working to solve them. Her story offers practical insight and inspiration to you in your daily work.
As founder of the Global Schoolhouse Project, Leila partners with the International Healthcare Network on Closing the Digital Divide, a project bringing digital devices into schools in Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s not just about providing tech. She works directly with teachers and students to train them in effective use while identifying the barriers and gaps that limit access.
Through her BCBA work, Leila also developed a range of lessons, curriculum, and tools. To share these more broadly, she created ABA Toolbox, a per-learner platform that automates and scales her resources across clinics. It supports her own practice and others in the district, all with a multidisciplinary, child-centered approach.
Leila’s work is a reminder that real progress often starts with individuals who take action. Whether she’s expanding tech access in underserved schools or streamlining care with practical tools, the best businesses are started by those who understand the problems.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The difficulties and differences between jobs in the ABA field.
- Closing the Digital Divide with the Global Schoolhouse Project.
- What is the ABA Toolbox?
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Toolbox
Global Schoolhouse Project
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
I am talking all things biz with Mellanie Page, founder and CEO of The ABA Collective. Mellanie, a trailblazer in the field, creates high-quality programs that go beyond the traditional boundaries of ABA. Mellanie joins us to talk about entrepreneurship, finding your niche, and the value of starting before everything feels perfect.
If you’ve got that entrepreneurial spark, a voice nudging you toward something more —you’re in the right place. Mellanie shares how stepping into the gaps she saw in the field led her to build impactful offerings like CEUs, conferences, and the OBM Practitioners Program. This program offers a thoughtful blend of modules, mentorship, and community—a natural path for future business owners.
More and more clinicians are moving toward business ownership, and Mellanie’s story is a great reminder that there’s room for creativity and passion in this space. Her top advice? If the return is there, the investment is worth it. Think long-term. And most importantly, action creates clarity — you don’t have to have it all figured out to begin.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- High-quality programs beyond the traditional application of ABA.
- Starting your own digital business.
- Blending clinical work and entrepreneurship.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Mellanie Page (@theabacollective) on Instagram
Mellanie Page | BCBA CEUs
Mellanie Page on LinkedIn
Speech Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
For BCBA Maggie Haraburda, founder of Unfurling Littles, play is anything that sparks joy. Her approach to ABA therapy blends child-led play with ACT-integrated strategies, centering on the child’s motivation and individuality.
In our conversation, Maggie highlights the “Dos and Don’ts” of play therapy: join the child’s world before introducing new elements, build from what already brings them joy, and act as a play partner—not a director.
Her neurodiversity-affirming lens means recognizing all forms of communication, supporting autonomy, self-regulation, and self-advocacy, and honoring each child’s unique strengths.
Maggie doesn’t shy away from anti-ABA concerns. She acknowledges past harms and invites curiosity over defensiveness, aiming always to grow and improve her practice.
She also offers an ACE-approved CEU, Supporting Play the Neurodiversity Affirming Way. Expanding your playbook is important. Explore more CEUs at ABA Speech Connection to deepen your understanding of language milestones and child-led support.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is play and child-led therapy?
- How to become a play partner?
- Elements of a neurodiversity-affirming practice.
- A curious approach to anti-ABA rhetoric.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Unfurling Littles LLC
maggie.h@unfurlinglittles.com
Episode #146: Early Intervention and Project Impact with Anna Dvortcsak and Dr. Brook Ingersoll - ABA Speech
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
As someone who goes to yoga a few times a week, I was intrigued at the possibility of integrating it into my therapy practice. Lindsay Watkins is a BCBA and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) with a passion for blending wellness and applied behavior analysis. Lindsay teaches continuing education (CEUs) to BCBAs on this topic on BehaviorLive (her next training is scheduled for June 2, 2025).
Here, Lindsay shares her journey from burning out as a special ed teacher to discovering yoga therapy and figuring out how to apply it to her own clients. We take a look at research studies that show the benefits of using yoga to modify behavior and discuss examples of the techniques in action.
Lindsay also shares how she advocates for this outside-the-box approach to therapy, the benefits of yoga across the lifespan, and tips to level up your own yoga practice.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Integrating yoga into therapy
- Research on the impact of yoga on behavioral health
- Benefits of yoga across the lifespan
- Tips to improve your personal yoga practice
Mentioned In This Episode:Lindsay Watkins on Instagram
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Have you ever considered adding ABA services to your speech therapy practice? Today I had a chat with Quintina Briscoe, founder of Pediatric Speech Lab, who shares her inspiring journey to opening her own clinic. Quintina discusses how she recognized a gap in services for children with autism and the importance of integrating ABA into speech therapy to better support her clients.
She reflects on the behavioral challenges many SLPs face and how inclusive, multidisciplinary therapy can make a lasting difference. Quintina also highlights the range of services her clinic offers—from in-clinic and teletherapy sessions to placing facilitators in Baltimore City schools.
We also dive into her empowering company culture, rooted in inclusivity, autonomy, transparency, and respect—and how she weaves these values into every layer of her business and team meetings.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Integrating ABA services into speech therapy
- How SLPs react to adding ABA
- The value of inclusive care
- Scaling a thriving clinic with integrated ABA
Mentioned In This Episode:
Quintina Briscoe M.S. CCC-SLP (@quintinabriscoeslp) on Instagram
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Lauren Ross is a proud member of a rare group—one of fewer than 500 professionals dually certified as both a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). In 2022, she founded Precision Therapy, a Medicaid-funded therapeutic consultation service designed to deliver impactful, client-centered care.
Her innovative model blends naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) with hands-on caregiver training to support meaningful, individualized goals. What sets Lauren apart is her commitment to serving individuals beyond the “services cliff,” working with clients across the lifespan—including adults well into their 80s!
Through a thoughtful combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), collaboration, and ongoing data-driven planning, Lauren and her team create customized support plans that fit both the client’s goals and the caregiver’s capacity.
At the heart of her work is the belief that true progress lies in generalization—the ability to apply learned skills in real-life settings. By using naturalistic interventions embedded in daily routines, Lauren helps adults not just build skills but live them.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why is naturalistic intervention important?
- The adult services “Cliff”.
- Caregiver training through therapeutic consultation.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Precision Therapy PLLC
Precision Therapy PLLC (@precisiontherapyva) on Instagram
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Tracey Hawkins became part of the autism community in 2018 when both of her sons were diagnosed with autism—just seven months apart.
When it comes to autism, structure and routine are so important. But as a mother, Tracey couldn't find the right technology to support her family's needs. She knew she couldn’t change the diagnosis, but she could improve the support system around it.
So, she created the Thrive App—a tool designed to organize the chaos and connect parents with providers. In her own home, Tracey uses the app in multiple ways: to give her older son a clear after-school schedule and to enable real-time communication with her younger son’s care team through the chat feature.
This isn't just another calendar planning app. Thrive was built through a neurodivergent lens, offering clear directions, visuals, and resources for emotional regulation throughout the day. It’s designed to create a smoother path toward independence.
The Thrive App offers a 7-day free trial, with subscription options of $7.99/month or $49.99/year. It’s a valuable tool for families of all kinds—supporting kids of all ages and needs as they learn structure, routine, and self-sufficiency.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- An application to create structure with visual prompts.
- A seamless chat feature to connect parents and providers.
- How the Thrive App can help families organize chaos.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Thriving on the Spectrum
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Stephanie Howard, a BCBA and mother, faced a turning point when her son was diagnosed with ADHD at age five. She realized the same executive functioning tools she used professionally could support both her parenting and her son's development.
Executive functioning—skills like planning, impulse control, and focus—is often disrupted in ADHD, autism, and trauma. It’s more than behavior; it’s about how the brain organizes and responds to the world.
Stephanie shares, for listeners, the Executive Functioning Skill Questionnaire and other free resources that have helped her understand and support her son’s needs. These tools are designed to guide both parents and professionals in identifying strengths and areas for growth.
She also shares some of the specific goals she’s set at home, showing how executive functioning skills can be built through everyday routines. Programs like the Flexible and Focused Program and ROPES help break down executive dysfunction into manageable steps.
To generalize these skills, Stephanie offers practical tips: use timers and task lists, give clear warnings before transitions, and turn tasks into games to hold attention. She highlights the power of caregiver education, understanding the difference between antecedents and consequences, and working with a team.
For Stephanie, it’s not just about managing behavior—it’s about supporting the brain.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Executive Functioning?
- Assessment for EF skills (FREE resources).
- Goal examples to use in therapy and at home.
- Managing and supporting Executive Dysfunction.
Mentioned In This Episode:
25 Executive Skills Questionnaire — Peg Dawson & Richard Guare Step I: Read each item below and then rate that item based
Executive Skills Questionnaire – Revised (ESQ-R) – NovoPsych
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Bombarding parents or colleagues with information can shut down meaningful dialogue. Instead, Dr. Monica Gilbert shares how we can use Motivational Interviewing (MI) to foster collaboration and encourage change through using the core principles—OARS + I:
- Open-Ended Questions—Invite Discussion: "How do you see this working for you?"
- Affirmations—Reinforce strengths: "I see how much you care about this."
- Reflective Listening—Show understanding by paraphrasing their thoughts.
- Summarization—Clarify key points to ensure alignment.
- Information Exchange—Share insights in a way that invites engagement: "Would it help if I shared some strategies?"
Using motivational interviewing keeps conversations about change productive, builds trust, and supports meaningful discussions across all professional dialogue with parents and colleagues.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Motivational Interviewing?
- How open ended questions can build rapport and gather information
- Using Affirmations in professional dialogue
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr. Monica Gilbert
Motivational Interviewing Academy
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
At the ASHA conference in Seattle, I had the opportunity to meet Gabriella Cameron and Jennifer Kent, who presented on their Theme-Based Collaborative Groups within the Endeavour Program at Ivymount, a nonpublic, publicly funded special education environment serving students aged 5–21.
Gabriella and Jen’s theme-based groups are embedded within Endeavour, offering structured but flexible learning experiences tailored to each student. Any student who can tolerate working in a group is a candidate, as the focus is on skill exposure rather than mastery, creating opportunities for participation at varying levels.
Each group consists of 5–6 students, each supported by a 1:1 aide, alongside a specialist (SLP, OT, PT) and a group leader. The framework includes:
- Selecting a theme (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr.).
- Adapting a story/song for accessibility.
- Identifying vocabulary using a language board.
- Asking WH-questions, allowing responses through speech or AAC.
- Engaging in a supplemental activity, such as an OT craft or a PT movement task.
Looking ahead, Gabriella and Jen are exploring ways to measure skill acquisition, enhance motivation, incorporate high-tech AAC, and share their resources more broadly—paving the way for more inclusive and meaningful learning experiences.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Small groups foster an inclusive learning approach.
- The repeatable framework of theme-based collaborative groups.
- The value of skill exposure.
- An environment that increases multidisciplinary support.
- Future goals for theme-based collaborative groups.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
JD Barker, New York Times bestselling author, was diagnosed with autism at 22—a late discovery that brought long-overdue clarity to challenges he’d faced since childhood. Early in his career, a stint in anger management led a counselor to suggest autism, prompting JD to begin therapy. There, he worked on basics like making eye contact and organizing his thoughts—skills that helped him better navigate both personal life and the demands of his writing career.
He began as a ghostwriter and book doctor, eventually becoming a bestselling author in his own right. JD credits autism for giving him a unique mental edge—he can juggle eight books at once, all meticulously organized in his head. While public speaking remains a challenge—he once went two years without speaking to anyone—he now co-hosts Writers Inc., a podcast where he interviews fellow authors about their creative journeys.
As a therapist who works to make learners successful across the lifespan, it’s interesting and encouraging to hear from autistic adults. You can find more about JD at his website or follow him @JDBarker on all social media.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The impact of a late autism diagnosis.
- How autism-related skills positively impact JDs career.
- Working through social skills as an autistic adult.
Mentioned In This Episode:J.D. Barker
Membership - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Dr. Matt Zakreski, PsyD, joins me to explore neurodiversity—a term often used, but not always fully understood. Neurodivergent individuals, including those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, bipolar disorder, and more, experience measurable differences in how their brains function. It’s not about won’t, but can’t—and that distinction matters.
In classrooms, teachers frequently encounter neurodiverse learners, yet most lack proper training to support their unique needs. Dr. Matt addresses this gap through his conference talks, educator training, and his book, The Neurodiversity Playbook.
Expecting neurodivergent students to thrive without tailored support is like asking a child to ride a bike without training wheels or a helmet. Their brains aren’t wired to naturally absorb social and emotional skills in the same way neurotypical peers do. But research shows that with intentional, structured support, these learners become more social, adaptable, and engaged.
This creates a powerful cycle: when students do better, they feel better—and when they feel better, they do even better.
Dr. Matt offers practical resources for neurodivergent individuals and those who support them, aiming to foster environments where every learner can succeed.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Nuerodivergent and does it apply to?
- Outlining the manifestations of ADHD
- Supporting learners in social emotional learning.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr Matt Zakreski
Dr. Matt Zakreski on Facebook
Matthew Zakreski on LinkedIn
Dr. Matt Zakreski (@drmattzakreski) on Instagram
ABA Speech: Home
As professionals, we inevitably face contentious subjects across the field. Today I am sharing a recent example of disagreement met with collaboration. In this case, an SLP determined that a Gestalt Language Processor (GLP) was not yet in the Natural Language Acquisition stage to answer questions. Meanwhile, the BCBA set a goal for the learner to respond to Personal Safety Questions. The team ultimately collaborated to prioritize safety-related questions as a goal important for this specific learner. This case highlights an essential responsibility: ethical collaboration to support the best possible outcomes for our learners.
I also encourage you to check out the Systematic Review on Gestalt Language Processing published in December 2024. The review summary concluded that there is currently insufficient empirical evidence to support GLP as an effective intervention. As providers, it’s our duty to evaluate emerging practices while ensuring our approaches remain evidence-based.
At ABA Speech, our mission is to equip professionals with the tools they need to help autistic learners communicate with the world. We do this one CEU at a time. If you haven’t taken our ethics course, “Navigating Conflict Ethically,” which focuses on AAC, Verbal Imitation, and Gestalt Language Processing, consider exploring it through the ABA Speech Connection Membership.
By fostering collaboration, prioritizing ethics, and staying informed, we can create meaningful communication opportunities for every learner.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is GLP?
- What is NLA?
- Specific case study for conflict surrounding Gestalt
- Systematic Review on Gestalt Language Processing.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Take the ethics course by joining the ABA Speech Connection
Read the systematic review
ABA Speech: Home
Are the learners in your class or therapy room engaging in behaviors that create barriers to learning? What can you do?
Bailey Payne, author of Behavior Breakthrough: 12 Skills to Transform Behavior at Home and in the Classroom, offers data-driven, evidence-based strategies to help parents and educators reshape their responses, modify environments, and create lasting change. Her book makes Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) concepts accessible, empowering caregivers and teachers to foster a more peaceful learning space.
Where to start?
Bailey emphasizes teaching essential skills using a clear framework: Why is it important? What is it? How does it look in practice? Today, we explore descriptive praise—a powerful tool for guiding children toward positive behaviors. Unlike general praise, descriptive praise explicitly recounts a child’s actions, showing them how to access attention appropriately without resorting to behaviors that produce a barrier to learning.
With teachers already overwhelmed, strategies like descriptive praise offer a simple yet proactive way to remove learning barriers. By intentionally reinforcing desired behaviors, educators can create a more structured, supportive environment—one where every child has the opportunity to succeed.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to break through barriers to learning.
- Teaching skills to transform behavior.
- What is descriptive praise, and how can it help?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Behavior Breakthrough: 12 Skills to Transform Behavior at Home and in the Classroom
Bailey Payne
Behavior Breakthrough with Bailey Payne (@behavior_breakthrough) on Instagram
BehaviorBreakthrough (@behaviorbreakthro) on TikTok
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
I’m talking with Jessica DeMarco about outside-of-the-box thinking to promote and teach social skills while enriching students’ lives. Project Social Code is a unique program that uses block coding to help children develop teamwork, problem-solving, and communication skills while exploring STEM. Funded by a $2.5 million, five-year grant, it ensures that kids of all abilities, including those with disabilities who are often excluded from traditional STEM programs, have the opportunity to engage, learn, and grow.
Block coding provides a visual, user-friendly way for students to collaborate, think critically, and express creativity. Through structured lesson plans designed for every skill level, students practice parallel play, teamwork, and problem-solving while building confidence in a fun and supportive environment. Teachers receive free resources, professional development, and in-class demos to integrate coding into their classrooms effortlessly.
At the heart of the program is DASH, a special robot (there’s a virtual version too) that students bring to life through their own coding. DASH moves, makes sounds, and responds to their commands, making coding an interactive, hands-on experience that reinforces both technical and social skills.
Project Social Code is more than just a STEM program—it’s an opportunity for every child to develop essential life skills, build new interests, and be part of an inclusive learning experience. And best of all, it’s free. Learn more and access resources at Project Social Code’s website.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Project Social Code?
- How can you use block coding to work on social skills?
- Free information, resources, and tools.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Project Social Code
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
Dr. Michael C. Selbst and Dr. Jennifer Cruz from Behavior Therapy Associates joined me to explore Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), a subtype of autism spectrum characteristics marked by an anxiety-based drive for control. PDA triggers a fight, flight, or freeze response to both explicit and implied demands, making traditional interventions ineffective. Individuals with PDA often have highly sensitive nervous systems and struggle with the removal of control, leading to heightened anxiety.
While there are no evidence-based strategies yet, emerging approaches emphasize collaboration over compliance. Rather than coercion, effective support comes from building trusting relationships, presenting expectations in a meaningful way, and embedding socio-emotional learning opportunities. The focus is not just on moving away from discomfort but helping individuals experience it with compassion and cooperation. As caregivers and clinicians, we must lend our calm, practice emotional intelligence, and reflect on how we show up in these interactions.
Although research in the U.S. is still developing, Dr. Selbst and Dr. Cruz recommend the UK-based PDA Society as a valuable resource for further information.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is PDA?
- What causes Anxiety Based Drive for Control?
- What strategies can be used to work with learners with PDA?
- Do all learners with PDA have autism?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr. Selbst and Dr. Cruz have the authority to practice interjurisdictional telepsychology (APIT) from the PSYPACT commission, allowing her to provide telepsychology to clients in many states. To see if your state is included, please click on this link: https://psypact.site-ym.com/page/psypactmap
PDA Society
Behavior Therapy Associates
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
Are you supporting students struggling with reading? Marty Schultz introduces an incredible learning resource, Buddy Books, which provides access to over a million books to help students build confidence and improve literacy.
Designed for students in lower socio-economic districts and those with learning differences like ADHD, autism, or selective mutism, Buddy Books offers a structured yet engaging way to develop reading skills. A student reads a line, then the AI reads a line, creating an interactive and supportive experience. With books tailored to student interests, this approach keeps learners engaged while AI software analyzes challenges and tracks progress.
Schools and providers have seen amazing results, particularly in second grade and beyond, as students gain confidence and fluency. There is also a home version too! Marty Schultz shares inspiring stories of Buddy Books at work, showing how struggling readers make measurable progress. The ultimate goal? That learners no longer need Buddy Books—because they’ve become independent, enthusiastic readers.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A resource for improving confidence and fluency in reading.
- What is Buddy Books?
Mentioned In This Episode:
ObjectiveEd
info@objectiveed.com
ABA Speech: Home
Join the ABA Speech Connection membership
At the Marcus Autism Center, Dr. Kathleen Edmier, BCBA, and Karen Guerra, SLP, work together to bridge the gap between their fields, demonstrating the power of collaboration in supporting individuals with autism. Their work showcases how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) can align their approaches to maximize positive outcomes.
For professionals looking to collaborate, the key lies in relationship building and mutual respect. Shifting from a multidisciplinary to an interdisciplinary model allows for deeper integration of tools and strategies, creating a unified approach to intervention. This partnership also enhances the generalization of procedures and plans, ensuring that individuals and their families receive cohesive and effective support.
One of the most impactful areas of collaboration is in addressing complex topics such as verbal imitation and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Despite differences in terminology, both disciplines focus on developing essential social skills. Open dialogue between professionals helps them recognize shared goals and complementary strategies, fostering a more effective and comprehensive support system.
For SLPs and BCBAs, embracing collaboration means building a synergistic approach that enhances family support. Prioritizing understanding, flexibility, and mutual respect creates a stronger network of care. By adopting the mindset of "having grace for one another," professionals can work together to drive meaningful progress and improve outcomes for those they serve.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Bridging SLP-BCBA Collaboration
- Interdisciplinary vs. Multidisciplinary Work
- Aligning Goals and Strategies
- Collaborating on hot button topics in the field.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
Dr. Givona Sandiford is a friend, colleague, and speech-language pathologist with nearly 20 years of experience and a passion for innovation. As the founder of Melospeech, Dr. Givona is transforming the field by introducing technology-driven tools that help SLPs streamline their workflows, increase efficiency, and even boost their income. Her forward-thinking approach has made her a trailblazer, inspiring professionals to embrace new ways of working while maintaining balance in their lives.
On the day of this recording, Melospeech released their latest innovation, The Communication Milestone Screening Protocol: Birth to Five (CMSP:B-5). A tech program designed for SLPs and early intervention professionals, this tool simplifies the process of screening communication milestones for children, producing a detailed report in under 10 minutes. It’s a game-changer for those looking to maximize their impact, offering timely support to more children while saving valuable time. Dr. Givona explains how tools like this don’t replace the work of SLPs but act as powerful assistants, allowing professionals to focus on what matters most—providing care.
Throughout the conversation, Dr. Givona reminds us that working harder and longer is not a badge of honor. Instead, the true goal behind her work is to achieve meaningful results while enjoying a balanced life filled with time for family and loved ones. Whether you are highly invested in the latest tech innovations or you haven't even tried public access AI like ChatGPT, you have to hear this chat with Dr. Givona and learn how technology can enhance your practice and bring your work-life balance to the next level!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How can technology streamline and improve work as an SLP?
- Using technology to boost efficiency AND income.
- Using tech tools to assist you and save you time.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Melospeech
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
DeTerrence Allen, a dedicated behavior scientist, comes from a family of Board-Certified Behavior Analysts, including his wife. His passion for ABA is rooted in a heartwarming “love story” for the field. A dynamic speaker, DeTerrence recently delivered an inspiring talk on soft skills at the Black Men of Behavior Analysis Conference.
So, what are soft skills? DeTerrence highlights critical communication skills rooted in kindness and respect, understanding the function behind your words, and ensuring you’ve built rapport with those you engage with. Soft skills are essential for effective collaboration and creating meaningful change.
Passing the BCBA exam is just the beginning. DeTerrence emphasizes the importance of continuing to learn and refine your approach. For new BCBAs, he advises seeking out supportive supervisors and mentors, building a professional network, and having regular discussions with colleagues. ABA also needs to be thoughtfully defined across different contexts, as its application varies.
To connect with DeTerrence Allen and learn more about soft skills and professional growth in ABA, visit his LinkedIn profile. He’s passionate about supporting clinicians in their development and helping them thrive in the field.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What are soft skills?
- The importance of building rapport for communication.
- How new BCBAs can increase soft skills.
Mentioned In This Episode:
DeTerrence Allen on LinkedIn
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
Welcome to the ABA Speech Podcast. We will continue discussing autism and broadening our scope with important topics in the field. I’m joined by Dr. Matthew Brodhead, whose career has been shaped by a passion for understanding human behavior and how we can influence it. His article, Maintaining Professional Relationships in an Interdisciplinary Setting: Strategies for Navigating Nonbehavioral Treatment Recommendations for Individuals with Autism, written 10 years ago, has greatly influenced my work and focus on collaboration.
Today we discuss restraint and seclusion in addressing dangerous and challenging behavior. Restraint involves physically restraining an individual’s body, while seclusion involves isolating an individual in a room alone. Both strategies are intended to prevent individuals from harming themselves or others, and it is important to equip teachers and providers with helpful and safe strategies for handling these situations.
However, in the educational system, there is often drift and infidelity in the use of these practices, as well as a lack of oversight and proper training. Increasing accountability in school districts and improving tracking and training for restraint and seclusion is essential. If you witness dangerous, unsafe, or unethical use of these practices, it is critical to take action, including contacting the police.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- New name, same show: Welcome to ABA Speech.
- Dr. Matthew Brodhead's influential articles in the field.
- Restraint and Seclusion in dangerous, challenging behavior.
- Solutions for schools and special education teachers for challenging behavior.
Mentioned In This Episode:
mattbrodhead.com
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
Functional Communication Training (FCT) is a proven strategy to replace problem behaviors with effective communication skills. In her article, Practitioners Guide for Selecting Functional Communication Responses, published in Behavior Analysis in Practice, Dr. Bethjoy Houck offers practical advice to help clinicians implement FCT successfully.
FCT focuses on giving learners a way to express their needs that works for them, whether through speech, sign language, cue cards, object exchanges, or even video clips. Dr. Houck shares creative examples that encourage thinking beyond traditional methods to meet each learner’s unique needs.
She stresses the importance of starting with assessments like Ringdahl's MTA or Valentino et al. to identify the best Functional Communication Responses (FCRs) for the individual. Practitioners should select FCRs that reinforce desired behaviors or are incompatible with the problem behavior. FCRs should be taken seriously and not unnecessarily restricted, as maintaining open and accessible communication is key to the success of FCT.
Dr. Houck emphasizes that FCT is about meeting learners where they are and giving them tools to express themselves in ways that make sense for their abilities. Whether verbal or nonverbal, communication is an essential skill, and FCT helps individuals share their needs while fostering meaningful growth.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Functional Communication Training?
- 5 FCT recommendations for clinicians.
- What is an FCR?
- Getting started with FCT assessments.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
Getting an autism evaluation for a child can be a daunting process, fraught with long waitlists, high out-of-pocket costs, and navigating complicated systems. Every moment matters when it comes to early intervention, and Dr. Michael Perisa of Zest Pediatrics is working to simplify the journey for families.
Zest Pediatrics, the first pediatric direct primary care network in the country, offers a membership-based model that removes many of the headaches families face with traditional primary care. By operating outside of insurance restrictions, Zest Pediatrics delivers care in a way that prioritizes what children truly need, without delays or limitations.
Dr. Perisa and his team across Zest Pediatrics are uniquely equipped to provide timely autism evaluations. With specialized training and the flexibility to focus on individual patients, they can intervene quickly to ensure children are seen and supported. An autism evaluation at Zest Pediatrics includes a comprehensive history intake, a behavioral assessment, and a standardized questionnaire, all analyzed to determine a diagnosis or not.
Because Zest Pediatrics doesn’t bill insurance, they offer evaluations at a flat rate of $1,250 and are actively collaborating with communities and therapy centers to help reduce financial burdens for families. If you have concerns about your child and need a faster path to evaluation, visit zestpeds.com/autism to learn more.
Speaking with Dr. Michael Perisa highlighted the importance of making care more accessible for children and families navigating autism concerns. Early intervention is critical, and Zest Pediatrics is paving the way for better, more efficient solutions.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The challenges of getting an Autism Evaluation
- What is a Pediatric Direct Primary Care Network?
- How does Zest Pediatrics serve the Autism Community?
- The cost and components of an Autism Evaluation.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Zest Pediatric Network
Autism - Zest Pediatric Network
ABA Speech: Home
Join the aba speech connection membership
Enjoy this replay of this favorite two-part episode!
In part one of my interview with Dr. Edythe Strand. A renowned speech pathologist and former professor at Mayo College, Dr. Strand has led groundbreaking research on developmental, acquired, and progressive apraxia of speech.
Dr. Strand explains that apraxia is not a medical diagnosis but a label for a speech-sound disorder impacting the movements required to produce speech. Unlike other speech disorders, apraxia affects programming and planning movements, leading to awkward transitions, distorted sounds, and inconsistency. Therapy focuses on movement, not just sound production. Using Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), clinicians emphasize the physical gestures that create sounds rather than isolated phonemes.
Dynamic assessments are crucial for evaluating Apraxia. Dr. Strand’s own Dynamic Evaluation of Motor-Speech Skill (DEMS) provides insight into a child’s preferred cueing and severity of their disorder. This method contrasts with traditional static assessments, which rely on single responses to stimuli.
In part two of this interview, Dr. Strand delves deeper into DTTC, a treatment she developed for children with severe apraxia. Unlike typical therapies, DTTC involves a hierarchy of cues to teach motor speech skills. Dr. Strand highlights the importance of functional, fundamental words in therapy for children with severe Apraxia, particularly those with autism.
Dr. Strand’s passion for helping children communicate shines through her work, blending research and practice to improve lives. Don’t miss the valuable resources she shares in this episode and the links to her groundbreaking research!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The characteristics of Apraxia.
- What is Dynamic Assessment?
- How to approach therapy with students who have Apraxia?
- What is DTTC treatment?
- Taking data with DTTC and Dynamic Assessment.
- Choosing important words for treatment.
- Is there a connection between Apraxia and Autism?
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Child Apraxia Treatment
Apraxia-kids: Home
Videos for Parents and Clinicians:Overview of possible causes and types of problems in speech development
Definitions and Descriptions of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Examples of different levels of severity in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Differentiating Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) from other types of speech sound disorders
Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
How parents can help their child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS): Other resources
Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Information for Parents
Childhood Apraxia of Speech -- by Dr. Edythe Strand, Ph.d. View video FOR FREE and receive ASHA CEUs!
Enjoy this replay of one of my favorite episodes! Executive functioning skills are essential for all ages, and in this episode, we dive into this critical topic with Sara Ward, an SLP specializing in executive functioning. Sara brings a unique perspective, sharing practical strategies for assessment and intervention that can transform how we support students.
Sara simplifies executive functioning for young children as “sequencing” and explains how it evolves into planning across growing windows of time and space for teens and adults. A neurotypical brain visualizes where it needs to be in the future to plan and act. However, parents and professionals often become a “prosthetic frontal lobe” by overprompting. Sara emphasizes the importance of teaching students to visualize and take ownership of their tasks.
One standout strategy Sara shares is using gestures to support task planning. When children physically act out steps with their hands, the connected language often follows, helping them internalize the process of execution.
For assessment, Sara suggests tools like the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale, which distinguishes attention issues from executive skill deficits, and the Clinical Executive Function Inventory (CEFI) for behavior insights. She also advocates for viewing speech and language assessments through an executive functioning lens.
This episode is packed with actionable strategies and tools that I’m excited to bring to my therapy sessions and IEP meetings. I hope you find these insights as inspiring and practical as I did!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is executive functioning?
- Why are executive function skills important?
- Assessment and intervention for executive function skills.
- Executive functioning in young children, teens, and adults.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Cognitive Connections: Executive Function
Attending ASHA 2024, the largest conference for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), was an incredible experience for networking and professional growth. As the national association for speech therapy, ASHA’s annual event is a hub for innovation, collaboration, and learning.
I kicked off the conference by attending an insightful talk by the Speech Production Lab on speech motor chaining, setting a high bar for the days ahead. Later, the reception for CEU providers offered a fun and engaging opportunity to connect with peers and discuss the field's nuances.
Day two was packed with impactful sessions, covering topics like MTSS, group therapy for complex learners, and a critical appraisal of gestalt language processing—a particularly hot topic. I also relished conversations with other SLPs, dually certified SLP/BCBAs, former podcast guests, and ABA Speech members.
While some discussions highlighted tensions around controversial issues, this only strengthened my commitment to fostering kind and cohesive collaboration. The work we do as therapists and providers is vital, and this event reinforced how meaningful and inspiring our shared mission is.
What’s Inside:
- What is ASHA?
- Highlights of ASHA 2024.
- Nuances, hot topics, and the need for collaboration in the field of SLP.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Professionals
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Parents
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Rob Harvey specializes in cooperative, fun social skills groups, using creative strategies to teach social language in ways that truly resonate. Today, we explore the transformative power of thinking outside the box when it comes to social skills development.
Rob’s innovative approach integrates therapy with theater and tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Starting with theater, learners practice social skills by engaging with scripts during rehearsals and performing in front of an audience. This structured setting provides a safe space for learners to build confidence, interact, and refine their social abilities.
Seeking opportunities to promote improvisational skills, Rob turned to one of his passions: tabletop role-playing games. These activities go beyond scripts, encouraging learners to dive into spontaneous social interactions. They don’t just foster interest and motivation—they offer real-life experiences, helping learners develop initiation skills, express emotion, and create lasting connections that extend beyond the group.
"Lead with joy" is a message Rob passionately shares, and it’s his top tip for launching bold, innovative therapy ideas. Find someone who shares your excitement, and imagine the possibilities that emerge when you embrace silliness! Breaking that barrier opens the door to incredible engagement and connection.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Creating community with social language skill groups.
- Creative, cooperative, and out of the box therapy strategies.
- Table top role play and theater as social skills practice.
- What it means to “Lead with Joy”.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Rob Harvey (@therapeuticdungeonmaster) - Instagram
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Professionals
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Parents
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Dr. Amanda Cash highlights the unique challenges and opportunities of transitioning from school to adult services. In adult settings, the fast-paced, skill-driven structure of school is replaced by a slower, more flexible approach focused on long-term growth. Without the looming deadline of graduation, the emphasis shifts to safety, happiness, and meaningful, lifespan-focused skill-building. Human rights and personal preferences become central, with care providers ensuring that all practices align with ethical standards and individual interests.
Self-advocacy is a cornerstone of this transition. Dr. Cash emphasizes the importance of teaching these skills early, such as how to request needs, make choices, and exit situations when necessary. These abilities empower individuals to navigate adult environments with confidence and independence, fostering greater self-determination and engagement in their lives.
To prepare effectively, schools should focus on rigorous skill development and provide opportunities for community and workplace experiences. Backward goal-setting, working from long-term objectives backward to current needs, ensures students are equipped for the demands of adulthood. Through thoughtful preparation and early advocacy, individuals can move into adult settings ready to thrive.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The differences in school and adult settings for autistic learners.
- The importance of self-advocacy and learning this skill early.
- How to prepare for the transition to adult settings.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Professionals
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Parents
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Rob Gorski, widely known as The Autism Dad, started his blog over a decade ago as a private space to document his family’s journey with autism. Today, it’s evolved into a business, podcast, and vital resource for autism families. Through his work, Rob shares insights on communicating about autism, helping families understand their children, and breaking down stigma.
Discussing autism with kids—whether autistic or not—requires sensitivity and simplicity. Autistic brains are wired differently, and kids don’t need complicated explanations. Small, clear insights can help them understand their differences without feeling isolated. Rob emphasizes that openness empowers autistic kids and avoids the distrust that can stem from hiding autism as a “taboo” topic. Every child is unique, and there’s no single right approach to this conversation.
To foster understanding, Rob suggests choosing a neutral, calm environment where children feel safe, sharing small pieces of information over time rather than a single, in-depth talk. Parents know their kids best, and trusting their instincts is essential. Mistakes are part of the journey—what truly matters is a willingness to adapt, grow, and create a supportive space for their children.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The story behind The Autism Dad.
- When should you tell your child about an autism diagnosis?
- Tips for talking about autism with your kids.
- Parents on social media; do’s and don’ts.
Mentioned In This Episode:Visit The Autism Dad
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Professionals
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection - Parents
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Today, we're diving into empowering parents and the magic of early intervention through teletherapy with Glory Lichon, founder of Glow Bright Therapy. Glory’s journey started in school-based therapy, but like many SLPs, she faced burnout. That experience led her to create a teletherapy practice focused on early intervention, where parent involvement takes center stage.
Without the barrier of school-based settings, early intervention teletherapy actively involves parents, guiding them through strategies they can use in daily routines and their child’s natural environment. From evaluations to progress checks, families and therapists work together on a HIPAA-compliant Zoom platform, making it simple and secure. Each session kicks off by understanding the family’s recent experiences and observing the child in their environment, looking for natural opportunities to support communication and learning.
Glory’s approach is all about letting the child lead—she believes communication isn’t just about talking and prompting. She follows the “Observe, Wait, Listen” strategy, which allows kids to explore at their own pace, focusing on authentic engagement rather than prompting. She also shares practical, easy tips parents can try at home, like using bath time to practice verbal routines (“wash, wash, wash your hair...”) or learning body parts during soaping up.
Check out Glow Bright Therapy on Instagram or visit their website to learn more!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Proving teletherapy to support and empower parents.
- What does child-led, natural environment teletherapy look like?
- Habit stacking communication opportunities throughout meaningful routines.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Glow Bright Therapy
glowbrighttherapy (@glowbright_therapy) on Instagram
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
I connected with my guest Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author, Dr. Paul Gavoni, on LinkedIn. His work focuses on creating positive and safe cultures by driving meaningful behavior change. He explains that learner behavior often reflects the actions of adults in their environment, a key idea in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), an application of the science of ABA.
Dr. Gavoni describes OBM as "zooming out" to look at how adult behavior impacts learners. He shares a story of working with a community school, where implementing OBM strategies for the adults created momentum and encouragement while keeping the effort low and the outcomes valuable.
In our conversation, he also talked about the inspiration behind his 10 books, including Quick Wins and Positional Authority Ain’t Leadership, where he breaks down practical behavior management and leadership strategies that drive real change.
We wrapped up with his thoughts on becoming a keynote speaker and getting involved in conferences. His advice? Anyone can do it—it’s JUST behavior.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Organizational Behavior Management?
- Dr. Paul Gavoni, Best Selling Author.
- A story on the impact of OBM in a community school.
- “It’s all about behavior.”
Mentioned In This Episode:
Translating the covenant: The behavior analyst as ambassador and translator - PMC
Paul "Paulie" Gavoni on Linqapp
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Today I am joined by Eileen Lamb, founder of the Autism Cafe. I recently shared a video of Eileen’s son, Charlie, that really struck a chord with my audience. It showed how his use of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) had progressed over time, offering a message of hope for others in similar situations.
Eileen talks openly about how tough it can be to share your family’s journey online. Her story started when Charlie began showing signs of autism at 18 months. What began as updates on her personal Facebook for friends and family soon grew into the platform she has today, with a large following across social media.
Among her involvement in the field, Eileen is also an author. Her first book, All Across the Spectrum, is an autobiography that explores her experience being diagnosed with autism after her son. It highlights the differences in severity and what it’s like to parent a child on the spectrum while being on the spectrum herself. Her second book, Be the One, is a collection of prose poetry about overcoming life’s challenges. Eileen’s third book, And Yet Here You Are, is coming out soon.
For parents raising children with autism, Eileen has some advice: Be mindful of social media. While it can be a great place for finding support, community, and information, it can also lead you into a lot of unnecessary controversy.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Raising an autistic child with high support needs.
- A warning for parents on social media.
- Elieen’s personal journey with autism and sharing with the online community.
- All Across the Spectrum, Be the One, and Eileen’s forthcoming book And Yet Here You Are.
Mentioned In This Episode:
The Autism Cafe
Eileen Lamb (The Autism Cafe) on Facebook
Eileen Lamb (@theautismcafe) on Instagram
Eileen Lamb on TikTok
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
From taping in my walk-in closet to experiencing incredible growth and change over the last 199 episodes, it's been an amazing journey. Today, as I record this special episode, I’m also celebrating my 16th wedding anniversary—with none other than today's guest, my husband, Patrick Griffin.
Seven years ago, I started ABA Speech with two physical products: Action Builder Cards and Double Up. Since then, I’ve branched out, and in recent years, I've focused heavily on this podcast. In this episode, listen in as my husband interviews me in a rapid-fire format, covering happenings, inspiration, and growth from episode 1 of Autism Outreach to where we are now.
There’s so much thought and intention that goes into each episode—from selecting guests to crafting meaningful takeaways to expanding the reach and impact I want to create. My goal is always to make a difference in the lives of individuals with autism, their parents, and practitioners.
Thank you for listening and celebrating this huge milestone with me!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Celebrating 200 episodes!
- A rapid-fire interview by my husband, Patrick Griffin.
- Growth, inspiration, and the future of the podcast.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Joining me today is the SLP behind the Instagram account @language_processing, Kathleen Oppenheimer. She caught my attention because she consistently shares excellent information on her page about language processing and the research behind it.
Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) is a hot topic these days. Kathleen defines GLP as a hypothesis about how language is acquired, in contrast to Analytic Language Processing (ALP). It’s important to note that these terms are not commonly used outside this specific context, nor are they frequently found in research articles. For many in the autism community, GLP currently serves as an identity label for their echolalia, but it's crucial to distinguish this from its use as a clinical label to guide therapy.
We also discuss the abundance of ongoing research and debates in the field. If you’re not aware of what's available, you might not know what to trust. Kathleen emphasizes that pseudoscience can appear scientific but is not applied in a scientifically rigorous manner (e.g., ignoring parts of research, relying solely on anecdotal evidence, not being evidence-based, etc.). When navigating the internet, you may come across ASHA journals, clinical research, peer-reviewed articles, white papers, anecdotal articles, and viewpoint articles—it’s essential to understand the publication requirements for each before applying them to your practice.
As a final thought, Kathleen reminds social media consumers: You don’t know what you don’t know, especially when it comes to research and research methods. Be sure to check out her page for more insights on language processing!
What’s Inside:
- What is Gestalt Language Processing and Analytic Language Processing?
- What is pseudoscience?
- What kind of research is out there and what should you trust?
Mentioned In This Episode:Kathleen Oppenheimer - Google Scholar
What's Language Processing (@language_processing) on Instagram
@TheLanguageScientists
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Today, I learned about a new tool in therapy and AAC, speaking with guests Dr. David McNaughton and Dana Patenaude, who collaborated on the research article "Using Visual Scene Displays With Young Children: An Evidence-Based Practice Synthesis," published in the Journal of Special Education Technology.
Visual Scene Displays (VSDs) are interactive visual representations, such as photos or images, that depict scenes, objects, or events. They allow users to engage with elements within the image, providing a more immersive and interactive communication experience. VSDs can be used with Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools, offering a more contextual and personalized way for users to communicate. This is not an either/or tool but a powerful resource that can be combined with other AAC methods.
This study found that VSDs are an evidence-based practice. Their use can be personalized with meaningful photos, tailored to individual interests. Children can even participate in creating and selecting "hot spots," giving them real-time language engagement with the parts of the scene that interest them most. There are also ways to create video VSDs or VSDs that incorporate literacy.
VSDs can be used for shared storybook reading, setting/environment photos, culturally responsive elements, and more! David and Dana do a great job of breaking down this comprehensive research and explaining how effective VSDs can be across various settings. Be sure to check out the links provided to access this open article and find resources on getting started with VSD apps.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What are VSDs?
- How can VSDs be used alongside AAC?
- How to engage in shared storybook reading with VSDs?
- How to create culturally responsive and individualized Visual Scene Displays?
Mentioned In This Episode:Patenaude, D., McNaughton, D., & Liang, Z. (2024). Using Visual Scene Displays With Young Children: An Evidence-Based Practice Synthesis. Journal of Special Education Technology, 01626434241263061.
Video Visual Scene Displays (provides information on other studies that used video visual scene displays, including links to videos of research participants and links to apps that support VSDs and video VSDs)Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Approximately 25–30% of autistic children are minimally verbal, often requiring alternative communication methods like Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Jean Jarrett, SLP-BCBA, joins us to continue highlighting AAC during the month of October. Selecting the right AAC system can be overwhelming due to the many factors involved: communication partners, environments, and caregiver involvement. The process requires input from various disciplines, careful planning, and individualized support.
A common misconception is that children need to reach certain milestones before starting AAC, but there are no prerequisites. There is no need to wait or delay getting started with AAC to meet certain skills, but a learner’s skillset does play a critical part in the device chosen. When choosing an AAC system, factors to guide decision-making include device programming, environments in which it will be used, and potential insurance reimbursement.
Providers must be equipped to handle pseudoscientific approaches, such as Rapid Prompting or Spelling to Communicate, and focus on evidence-based practices like AAC, which can make a profound difference when used effectively. The journey with AAC doesn't end when the device is received; that's just the beginning.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to handle an overwhelming AAC assessment?
- Are there prerequisites for AAC?
- Questions and factors to consider when choosing an AAC device.
- Being equipped to handle pseudoscience.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Jean Jarrett on LinkedIn
jjarret@unc.edu
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
October is AAC Awareness Month! Today’s guest, Chris Bugaj, is the co-host of the Talking with Tech podcast, which explores the world of AAC, inclusive design, and the creators, providers, and users behind these systems. As an SLP, Chris realized early in his career that he had a knack for technology, which led to his role on his district's Assistive Technology Team for Inclusive Learning.
During our chat, we discussed the history of early AAC devices, their flaws, and how these limitations impacted our ability to set effective goals. We’re so fortunate that technology and access to it have improved dramatically for our learners over the past two decades. We also touched on the concept of a growth mindset—a philosophy focused on breaking free from fixed ideas about abilities and embracing the "power of yet," ensuring we don't limit any learners in any way.
Chris has his formula for professional development in AAC down to a science. It begins with a facilitation meeting to assess training needs, followed by teaching sessions where communication partners join in-person or online courses focused on modeling through a unique training and coaching format. Finally, there are follow-up practice sessions and feedback to reinforce learning.
When AAC training and coaching are effective, they impact not just one learner but every learner that provider or teacher will work with in the future. We offer many AAC courses at ABA Speech Connection, so don’t forget to check them out and join us!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- October is AAC Awareness Month.
- The history of AAC.
- A clear plan for professional development and training for AAC.
- Find more info through AAC course on ABA Speech Connection.
Mentioned In This Episode:Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin-Autism Speech Therapy Tips (@abaspeechbyrose) • Instagram
Are you ready to transform your approach to autism therapy with naturalistic interventions?
Introducing my new self-paced CEU course, Naturalistic Interventions for Autistic Learners – Next Steps. This 5-hour course is divided into 7 bite-sized modules covering essential topics like play, social skills, joint attention, parent support, and more!
Natural Environment Teaching (NET) is quickly becoming the standard in our field, but how do you get started? Play-based therapy is rich with nuance, and this course offers clear, practical guidance to help you create meaningful, functional, and evidence-based child-led therapy.
My life's work has been dedicated to reaching learners who are traditionally harder to engage and helping them find the best ways to learn and communicate. I’m passionate about bridging the gap between research and therapy, ensuring that effective strategies reach the therapy room.
Don’t miss out—sign up now for Naturalistic Interventions for Autistic Learners—Next Steps, available for a limited time. And while you're at it, explore my membership program, ABA Speech Connection!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A BRAND NEW course at ABA Speech.
- What is Naturalistic Intervention?
- Building a bridge between research and therapy.
- Resources and information for evidence-based, child-led therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:Naturalistic Interventions For Autistic Learners – Get the Course for A Limited Time
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Dr. Rick Kubina, a distinguished Professor of Special Education at The Pennsylvania State University, has had a dynamic career, collaborating with prominent figures in the fields of special education and applied behavior analysis (ABA). In our discussion, we delve into a topic that is close to my heart as both a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA): the critical role of data in effective decision-making. Dr. Kubina emphasizes that the foundation of quality decision-making lies in the integrity of the data collected. Without accurate baseline data, it's impossible to chart a meaningful course toward improvement. He advocates for standardized measurement tools, arguing that consistent data collection is key to achieving standardized outcomes, which are crucial for comparing and understanding progress across diverse populations.
In addition to his academic work, Dr. Kubina serves as the research director for CentralReach LLC, a company that provides innovative practice management and clinical solutions for therapy service organizations, particularly those focused on ABA, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. CentralReach's platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools for data collection, billing, scheduling, and staff management, all designed to streamline operations and enhance outcomes for clients, especially those with developmental disabilities like autism. As the field evolves, Dr. Kubina is keenly aware of the potential and challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI). CentralReach is committed to harnessing the power of AI to improve data-driven decision-making while addressing concerns about its integration, ensuring that AI serves as a powerful, supportive tool for practitioners in the future of therapy and education.
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why quality decision-making is critical to data.
- Streamlining the data process and creating standardized outcomes.
- How AI can serve as a powerful, supportive tool for the field of ABA.
Mentioned In This Episode:Rick Kubina - CentralReach, LLC | LinkedIn
CentralReach
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Register for our Naturalistic Interventions Course
Rose Griffin-Autism Speech Therapy Tips (@abaspeechbyrose) • Instagram
Linda Thoresen joins me today for a special Member Spotlight. She is an SLP and a member of ABA Speech Connection, and I first met her in her onboarding meeting. During this conversation, Linda shares about her journey from medical therapy to teletherapy.
As a seasoned therapist, Linda has been in the field for 20+ years. We discuss the changes in course work from her training to the present day, as well as the change in working with adults to now school-age and autistic learners. She has a great perspective to share on her membership with ABA Speech about her ASHA course library access and the comprehensive education available.
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Membership Spotlight, SLP Journey
- Medical therapy vs teletherapy
- Changes in the field
- ABA Speech Connection Membership
Mentioned In This Episode:
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Register for our Naturalistic Interventions Course
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
There’s been a noticeable shift in the field of behavior analysis, with more BCBAs being hired as full-time employees in public schools. This is a big change from the past, when BCBAs were typically brought in as outside consultants. Schools are now seeing the benefits of having these experts on staff to support students with specialized needs directly in their school environment, rather than sending them out of the district. Today, I spoke with Melissa Connor-Santos, someone I connected with on LinkedIn who is deeply passionate about improving behavior-analytic services for children in public schools. Melissa and I both believe in the power of public schools to provide the least restrictive environment for our learners, and she shared some valuable insights on how BCBAs can make the most impact in these settings.
Working as a BCBA in a public school comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities. Public schools are large systems where you might not have much control over certain decisions, so it’s crucial to focus on collaboration and relationship-building across the entire school team, from administrators to teachers and support staff. To thrive in this environment, BCBAs need to refine their skills to fit this setting. Melissa emphasized the importance of finding a mentor, even if they’re not a BCBA, but someone with experience in public schools who can provide guidance. She also warns that while public forums and online (Facebook) groups can be helpful, they need to be used wisely and carefully. And above all, sticking to the ethics code is non-negotiable—it’s the foundation of our work and crucial for maintaining trust and effectiveness in the school community.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why are more BCBAs being employed in public schools?
- How to navigate ethics as a BCBA in a public school setting.
- The most important skill for BCBAs is collaboration.
- Tips for BCBAs in public schools.
Mentioned In This Episode:Oceanview Behavior Solutions
Oceanviewbehaviorsolutions@gmail.com
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Parents
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Professionals
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Today we welcome returning guest, Cindy Watson. Be sure to check out episode 115, where we discuss Early Intervention Speech Therapy. Along with Cindy, we are joined by MC, Cindy’s youngest daughter. MC shares about her story, autism diagnosis, and her perspective as a middle schooler.
Cindy shares about MC’s life pre-diagnosis and the concerns she noticed along the way. Labeled often as “the easy kid”, MC shied away from social settings and talking with peers. And her mom fought judgment as a provider; everyone saw her as a mom and thought “everyone has autism”. But parents should trust their instincts!
We hear straight from MC about her preferences in therapy, like focusing on topics that highlight her interests. As well as her struggles and dislikes from group therapy to handling unkind words from kids her age. An important piece of therapy for older learners is to emphasize naturalistic and discrete therapy styles. Therapy is nothing to be ashamed of, but the reality is that middle and high schoolers do face a stigma when it comes to their peers.
This is a great chat opening up about autism in girls, therapy for older learners, and how we can best serve our middle schoolers in therapy!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Autism in girls, what does it mean to be “the easy kid”?
- Middle school therapy: What works? What doesn’t?
- Helping older learners with the stigma of therapy and services.
- Using likes and interests to create motivating, engaging therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:Episode #115: Early Intervention Speech Therapy Services - A Talk With Cindy Watson
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Parents
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Professionals
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
I love hearing from Autistic Adults, and Paige Layle has garnered quite a following on TikTok and Instagram, sharing her story and creating resonating content for her viewers traveling similar journeys.
Paige’s recently published memoir, But Everyone Feels This Way: How an Autism Diagnosis Saved My Life, has been an opportunity to reach her followers on a deeper level, connect beyond the internet, and create a resource for those that relate to her story. Just two weeks before her 15th birthday, Paige received her diagnosis. It was what she calls “Life Shattering”. She describes that she had been internally begging and pleading for an explanation of why life is so hard for her; the diagnosis was just that.
She took to social media after becoming comfortable with these platforms across her life, in her second year of university. Paige made her first autism-focused video discussing her anger about “trending sounds” insulting autistic individuals, which pushed her to start educating and sharing the autistic voice. She now creates content full-time, with the bulk of her income coming from public speaking events and consulting with schools and other organizations.
Paige reminds parents not to be scared. If you have concerns about delays or other symptoms in your child, just know that whatever information you collect will help you, she says. And for those of us out there consuming content, she informs us that not all autistic people want to be advocates, so be respectful, as well as diversify your resources so that you may hear a variety of voices. You can find Paige on Instagram and TikTok at @PaigeLayle.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Who is Paige Layle?
- Using social media to share the autistic voice.
- What it's like to receive an autism diagnosis as a teen.
Mentioned In This Episode:Paige Layle
Paige on TikTok
Paige on Instagram
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Parents
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Professionals
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Lisa is a BCBA and the mom of 3 boys, including Kruz. He is Lisa’s youngest child and has Autism Spectrum Disorder. You may be familiar with their journey as they share it with you through @CruisingWithKruz on Instagram.
During our conversation, Lisa dives into the struggles that take place when it comes to advocating for a diagnosis and the other ones that pile on once you do get it! Waitlists can be excruciatingly long, not only for evaluations but for services too. That’s why it’s key to stay in communication with your team. It’s not easy once you enter services either. Lisa talks about the financial weight of high insurance premiums as well as high maximum out of pocket costs.
Lisa shares Kruz’s progress in the last year and a half. He has participated in 25 hours a week of ABA, weekly speeches, and been involved with his family, friends, and community. A look at Kruz’s skills in January 2023 would show nonverbal communication and dangerous self-injurious behavior. Now his progress, reflected in June 2024, reveals conversational communication, a blossoming sense of humor, and critically reduced self-injurious behavior. With this great news, they are able to target other needs and reduce the intensity of services.
Parent education and training is something Lisa is very passionate about, as she heeds other parents advice to advocate, advocate, advocate. If you’re noticing a delay or have heightened concerns, do not wait! You will NEVER regret providing support and intervention. But you will regret losing time. Lisa is heading up our brand new parent portal that you can access with an ABA Speech Connection Membershi
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Kruz and family, their autism journey.
- Understanding what it takes to advocate and begin services and support.
- An update on progress January 2023 to June 2024.
- Parent Support: Join our parent portal!
Mentioned In This Episode:CruisingWithKruz (@cruisingwithkruz) on Instagram
Cruising With Kruz
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Parents
Join us in the ABA SPEECH Connection for Professionals
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Parents are an important piece of the team. Today I am talking with Dr. Janie Funk about parent training in ABA. Caregiver engagement is imperative to an individual's success. Dr. Janie explains how her team at Behaven Kids supports parents through a strong team of clinicians with great interpersonal skills, a referral network for access to services in collaboration with other providers, and ensuring systems are in place to support caregiver concerns and questions.
Parental support is a mandated requirement for most insurance payers. Dr. Janie talks through how she meets these requirements by maximizing caregiver engagement from the beginning of the process with families, even when quantifiable minimums of these efforts may not be presented.
We also touch on children with dual diagnoses across Autism and Mental Health. At Behaven Kids, Dr. Janie has the opportunity to work within her scope of practice across this demographic and collaborate in a way that isn't often seen in the field. “From outpatient therapy services to specialized day programs to medication management, Behaven Kids strives to provide the services a family needs to maximize each child and adolescent’s potential for individual success.”
Let’s keep talking about these important topics! Leave a review where you listen to podcasts to let me know what you think or want to hear next.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to plan parent training
- How to support parents and families
- Barriers in supporting parents and caregivers
- Working with ABA and Mental Health
Mentioned In This Episode:Behaven Kids
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
I always love the opportunity to talk with a parent and hear their story. I feel it really provides an opportunity for learning and growth as a provider. Susanna Peace Lovell, a professional life coach and advocate, joins me to discuss her journey as a parent of a child with autism and her book on the topic, Your True Self is Enough: Lessons Learned on My Journey Parenting a Child with Autism.
In her book Your True Self is Enough, Susanna shares her story of being of support and service to parents and families with similar stories. This journey begins at the birth of her first child, Arizona. The difficulties began right away with food allergies and skin issues, and the diagnosis and challenges just kept coming. Susana says that her daughter cried for what felt like nonstop for the entirety of her first 18 months of life. At age 2.5, Arizona was diagnosed with ASD. This was nearly 16 years ago, and for Susanna, this was a challenging and unfamiliar experience.
You can find out more about Susanna's journey in her book, which she describes as part memoir, part guidebook, where she finds a balance between honoring her child’s experience while also honoring her own journey and voice. Her daughter, Arizona, wrote the foreword and inspired the title.
If you have this feeling that something is different, Susanna says to stay in tune with that feeling, which she calls the “Caregiver Gut." Write everything down; no detail is too little. She reminds us that being an advocate for your child requires tenacity and a help seeking mentality. The doors can be opened just a little bit more when you’re vulnerable to those who can help.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A Parent’s Autism Story
- Navigating honoring your child’s experience and your experience as the caregiver
- What to do when you're facing challenges with your child and suspect developmental delays?
Mentioned In This Episode:Susanna Peace Lovell
Your True Self Is Enough: Lessons Learned on My Journey Parenting a Child with Autism by Susanna Peace Lovell
Get our Ethics Course about SLP/BCBA Collaboration in the ABA SPEECH Connection
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
“Well, I guess you better figure it out”. Those are words you do NOT want to hear from your CFY supervisor. Supervision in your Clinical Fellowship Year is so important for setting the tone for the rest of your career. Lynn Dudek shares her experience on both sides of the spectrum, from not meeting any of her expectations to exceeding them all.
What makes a positive mentor and supervisor? It all comes down to communication and these qualities Lynn lists for us are: being a good communicator, setting professional goals, building relationships and connections, assessing performance, and providing specific feedback. Ultimately, it's great practice for a supervisor to begin this relationship with this question; “What do you expect from this experience?”. Lynn explains how she interviews her mentees and has gotten her supervision down to a science with standard forms to provide the best possible outcome.
Lynn shared her own personal experience of a not so great mentor. What should someone in their CFY do if their supervision just doesn't feel right? The truth is, it might be hard, but you need to discuss it directly with your supervisor with direct, open communication. Lay out your expectations, find compromise, and lean on ASHA and state requirements.
If YOU are looking to become a supervisor, Lynn recommends knowing yourself and what you're capable of so that you’re able to give the best mentorship possible. It affects someone's entire career and all the clients they work with subsequently. Check out ASHA for CEUs and assessments for becoming a supervisor, or reach out to your state with questions!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Mentorship and supervision in your CFY (Clinical Fellowship Year)
- What makes a wonderful mentor and supervisor?
- What breaks a supervision experience?
- What to do when your supervision isn't what you expected?
- How to get started as a CFY supervisor.
Mentioned In This Episode:Episode #109: The Power of SLP and BCBA Collaboration with Lynn M. Dudek - ABA Speech
Get our Ethics Course about SLP/BCBA Collaboration in the ABA SPEECH Connection
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Enjoy this replay from episode 62.
Joint attention is closely linked to receptive and expressive language skills, highlighting the power of communication. To build connection before communication, use shared activities like playing with toys, singing songs, and reading books. Even if students aren't fully engaged initially, tracking their baseline data and progressing with goals can lead to impressive transformations and excitement.
Toys: Playing with toys in therapy is all about creating interaction in a semi-structured environment. Remember to use simple language, allow for natural curiosity and play, and not bombard with questions. Toys I personally love to use include: cars and car tracks, mini objects, and farm sets.
Literacy: Build excitement around the book, use books with repetition, and if your kids like it try an animated voice, which can be really fun. A few books I love to keep in my therapy bag that are a great success for joint attention are: Pete the Cat and his White Shoes, Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
Music: Students love songs because they are familiar and create engagement. I also love to use visuals, which can be just laminated pictures or little toys that match the activity of the song. It can also be engaging to sing songs that have motions for the words. My favorite songs to use are Old Macdonald, Wheels on the Bus, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.
It can be difficult to keep data and set goals around these abstract ideas, be sure to check out my goal bank on ABA speech. I hope you love these ideas, and I can’t wait for you to try them out in your next therapy session!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to increase learner engagement?
- What is joint attention?
- How to embed joint attention across a student's day.
- Where to start with joint attention.
- Integrating shared activities into therapy.
- Why should you focus on the connection before communication?
Mentioned In This Episode:
IEP Goals for Students with Autism - ABA Speech
Get our Ethics Course about SLP/BCBA Collaboration in the ABA SPEECH Connection
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
Conflict is part of what we do as a provider in this field. When it comes to helping the most difficult learners, it's no surprise we might find ourselves contentious at IEP meetings, I’ve definitely had my fair share in my 20+ year career. But you CAN get through them with the best interest of the learner at hand.
Here are my top 5 tips for navigating contentious IEP meetings:
- Know the guest list. Who's gonna be there? Lawyers, advocates, etc., you need to know so you can properly prepare.
- It is not okay to be verbally abused at work. Whether it's admin or parents, come in with boundaries and confidence. Set the tone at the beginning of the meeting!
- Prep with your team prior to the meeting and take time to debrief after.
- There will always be conflict. Check out the ethics course with ABA SPEECH Connection for more about the article I discuss here.
- Try to understand the motive of the conflict. When you can understand how the team member is feeling, you can work toward a solution together!
We all want to help maximize outcomes for our learners; we are all there for the benefit of the learner! You can get through these difficult, contentious, and often conflict filled meetings if you keep these 5 tips in mind.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to navigate contentious IEP meetings.
- 5 tips for getting through IEP meetings.
Mentioned In This Episode:Take our ASHA and ACE approved course about Navigating Contentious IEP Meetings Ethically With Confidence
Rose Griffin (@abaspeechbyrose) on Instagram
AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. These are communication devices, systems, strategies and tools that replace or support spoken language. We have talked about this many times on the podcast but I am sharing some top tips for AAC that I have learned along the way during my 20+ years!
- It’s okay to not have all the answers!! Let this be your mantra. Students will be using different devices and software. You can’t know everything, but you can learn.
- What access do you have to an AAC consultant? There are people whose job it is to help!
- Collaboration is vital—collaborate and communicate with the learner’s team from assessment to receiving and learning a device to daily use!
- Contact AAC companies! They have resources that you need and want.
- It’s a marathon, not a sprint. You will always be learning, and that's exactly where you should be. Connect with experts and always be available to learn!
If you’re loving this summer series of short, easy-to-consume topics, let me know! Leave a review or send me a message on Instagram.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is AAC?
- What have I learned about working with AAC in my 20 year career?
- 5 tips for working with AAC.
Mentioned In This Episode:Get our Ethics Course about SLP/BCBA Collaboration in the ABA SPEECH Connection
Message me on Instagram
Even though I started as a school-based SLP, when I found my way to an ABA setting, I also found my true passion to help all autistic learners find communication. Navigating a non-public program can have challenges and is certainly different than working in a school, so I want to share a few of my own gems of wisdom with you!
What I wish I knew: 5 tips for working in an ABA setting:
- It's a different, challenging, and sometimes intense setting. You are working with children who are traditionally harder to reach.
- Safety first! Training is so important for crisis intervention and unsafe behaviors.
- Collaboration is essential. Who is on your team?
- Plan for generalization! Work on goals, share the targets, and practice outside the therapy room.
- AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication). Don’t let it scare you; it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
If you’re loving this summer series of short, easy-to-consume topics, let me know! Leave a review or send me a message on Instagram.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Summer Series: Bite sized episodes packed with knowledge.
- What I wish I knew in my first year working in ABA.
- Navigating a non-public, ABA setting.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Get our Ethics Course about SLP/BCBA Collaboration in the ABA SPEECH Connection
Rose Griffin-Autism Speech Therapy Tips (@abaspeechbyrose) • Instagram
Are you transitioning into a school-based SLP role? Let me share the gems of wisdom I have learned looking back on my first year in a public school setting. I am back with another short episode for my summer series, sharing 5 top tips and strategies as a school-based SLP!
- The administrative assistant and the custodian are your best friends, go out of your way to be kind and friendly because they can help you SO much!
- You will NOT have all the answers. It’s okay to ask when you don't know something; “I’m not sure about that, let me ask” can be your magic words.
- Find a mentor. Yes, in your first year, you'll have a CYF supervisor if you're an SLP, but if you’re a BCBA and need more support, find a mentor you can lean on and learn from. (We’re here for you in the ABA Speech Connection).
- Try to analyze and take notes about what you do and don’t love in your job, so you know what to look for in the next role.
- Listen more, talk less. You’re learning the lay of the land; do your part, but take time to listen and take in the culture of your workplace.
No matter if you’re an SLP, BCBA, teacher, Para-Pro, or RBT and you're working in a school, let me know what you thought of this episode! Help me get the word out that we are talking about important things over here!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Summer Series: bite-sized episodes packed with knowledge.
- 5 tips and strategies for school-based professionals.
- What I wish I knew working in a public school setting.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Membership - ABA Speech
Welcome to the Summer Series! I’m going to be doing a series of solo shows on topics and questions I get through the summer, packaged up into bite-sized, easy-to-consume episodes for those of you enjoying your summer vacation.
Today I am talking all about my journey of becoming a dually certified SLP, BCBA, a unicorn certification of less than 500 people in the entire world! Over my 20+ year career, I’ve gained some wisdom and learned some lessons that I want to share with you.
I started my career as an SLP in a school setting. There I had my first opportunity to work with autistic learners and I loved getting the opportunity to see these amazing breakthroughs. But when I changed jobs to a clinical setting and had my first experience with ABA…I was lit up. We were working with learners who had traditionally been difficult to reach and helping them communicate for the very first time. As a provider, I felt true joy for these learners but also feelings of sadness that they had gone so long without access to their environment through communication when they really didn't have to.
As I conclude this mini-episode, I share the time-consuming course work, resources, and testing that went into becoming a certified BCBA 12 years ago. I share this with you because I believe in the power of ABA to create a world where all students have a way to communicate and access their environment.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Wisdom and lessons from a 20+ year career in SLP and Behavior Analysis.
- How did Rose become dually certified?
- Time consuming coursework and resources involved in becoming a BCBA
Mentioned In This Episode:
Membership - ABA Speech
The Huberman Lab podcast is a popular podcast hosted by Dr. Huberman aimed at disseminating science to the masses. The podcast focuses on a variety of topics, but BCBA Carrie Susa Woodward joins me to break down the recent episode of the Huberman Lab with Dr. Karen Parker all about autism.
Dr. Parker and Dr. Huberman discuss the rising incidences of autism. Are there more autistic people than there were 20 years ago? The answer, yes AND no. There are a variety of factors that have led to more diagnoses in recent years, including more aware parents, a better understanding of development, a better understanding of social skills, and increased research and science on early intervention.
We also touch on their discussion about early diagnosis and early intervention. Which revolves around brain plasticity. In the first three years, the brain is easy to change and adapt and is able to establish good neural connections. Early intervention can open up the world of learning for autistic children. While the topic of what inventions are best isn't detailed, the most important takeaway is that no age is too early!
So how can we, as providers, help get these kids into intervention as fast as we can? Well, Carrie is doing her part with her course, Jump Start the Journey. This course is aimed at parents of young kids with delayed development on the waiting list for services. She includes information on research-based therapies, input from her 20 years of experience in the field, and modeled play exercises.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Rationale for early detection
- Is there an age to young for intervention?
- Autism diagnosis and incidences
Mentioned In This Episode:Membership - ABA Speech
Jumpstart the Journey - Full Course
Dr. Karen Parker: The Causes & Treatments for Autism - Huberman Lab
Dr. Annie McLaughlin is a special breed of BCBA; she practices as an IEP advocate and trains other professionals to become advocates as well. IEPs can be a contentious environment, tip-toeing around and finding diplomatic approaches to tough conversations. Dr. McLaughlin explains that her philosophy around advocacy is to show us as humans with compassion first.
In her advocacy work, Dr. McLaughlin supports families through the lens of ACT (be sure to check out some of our episodes discussing this topic). She also uses her behavior analytic lens to take an important perspective for clients with diverse needs. “I want to be the advocate everyone wants to show up,” is what Dr. McLaughlin shares when discussing how to focus on collaboration through open communication and active listening.
At a table filled with parents, therapists, and school faculty, Dr. McLaughlin advocates for “both sides” by highlighting parent concerns AND validating the expertise of the providers. The advocate helps make space for diverse perspectives while reinforcing ideas. When both the families and the providers are on the same page, it can make a big difference in the work they are doing with the learner.
You can find Dr. Annie McLaughlin on Instagram as @IEPAdvocateAnnie, where she shares about her courses and helps other professionals become IEP advocates.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How can an advocate help both “sides” of the team?
- Advocacy with a behavior analytic lens
- Supporting families with ACT.
- Helping professionals become advocates.
Mentioned In This Episode:Annie McLaughlin, PhD, BCBA-D (@iepadvocateannie) - Instagram
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
There is always so much people want to know about AAC. Today I talked with BCBAs, LingLy Tan and Jane Button. LingLy is the CEO of AAC software company Linggo, created to build and encourage language beyond simple requests.
As I’ve mentioned many times, keeping up with the current research is one of the largest barriers for providers in the field. AAC is one element that is always changing, and it is so necessary to be aware of the latest information. During our conversation, LingLy and Jane shared some of their favorite research, including from some authors I’ve talked to on the podcast.
While software for AAC does matter, LingLy highlights that it is a much smaller piece compared to the training to actually teach and use AAC. In fact, Linggo is working on a new training program, where they streamline the translation and application of current research into implementation with AAC with both live hands on options and self paced recordings.
Be sure to take a look at the articles and previous episodes all about the current research on AAC.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to stay up to date with current technology and research in AAC?
- An AAC software focused on expanding language beyond simple requests.
- Recommended articles for the latest research in AAC.
- Linggo’s new training to embed research and implementation when teaching AAC.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Matrix training to teach tacts using speech generating devices: Replication and extension
Transitioning from a low- to high-tech Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system: effects on augmented and vocal requesting
Core vocabulary lists for young children and considerations for early language development: a narrative review
Examining core vocabulary with language development for early symbolic communicators
Episode #121: Core Vocabulary and Typical Language Development with Allison Bean and Bethany Frick Semmler - ABA Speech
Episode #111: Matrix Training with Dr. Sarah Frampton - ABA Speech
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
I love Summer!!
Summer should be fun and functional, which is why I want to kick off this season with ABA Speech Summer Social Skills Resources.
- The Grocery Store Game - “I Bought ___” Fill in the blank game with visual prompts.
- Modified Uno - Anyone can play Uno, Check out the video model included in my freebie.
- Modified Connect Four - This is a fun way to practice and enjoy natural turn taking and game completion.
- Modified Scrabble - This one is for the older learners with letter recognition! For the rules, don't miss the video model in this link.
- Modified Memory and Matching - Games don’t have to last an hour; you can shorten them with the modified version I demonstrate in the video model.
- Paper Plate Ice Skating - Merry Christmas in July! This is an action packed game to get you moving, with a video model provided!
- Scavenger Hunt - A fun way for natural communication and to get outdoors!
- Would You Rather Videos - Try these two fun “video” games with a vacation theme and a dessert theme.
This resource guide is jam packed with ideas, models, and tutorials to get you working on joint attention and social skills in the fun, summer sun!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- All about the Summer Social Skills Resource Guide.
- Ideas and models for fun, functional summer fun.
- Modified games ANYONE can play!
Mentioned In This Episode:
Membership - ABA Speech
Summer Social Skills Resources
This Episode features a pre-recorded ASHA Mini Training on Gestalt Language Processing. Gestalt is a hot topic in the speech therapy and ABA worlds, and today I focus on what research is available, what we do not yet know, AND how we can collaborate with teams when we have opposing views, whatever those may be.
Gestalt is a multi word chunk that a speaker hears, uses, and stores as a whole before having knowledge or awareness of its internal structure, sometimes referred to as Delayed Echolalia or Scripting. In this training, you will find resources and guides to the information available on gestalt. The truth is, it’s complicated! But I also provide a guide to being a critical consumer of information.
So what do Gestalt and traditional therapy have in common? In their simplest form, good therapy practices.
- Building a genuine connection with the child and following their lead interests
- Noticing and honoring communication attempts and their underlying functions
- Building on the current language system with individualized, meaningful targets
- Tapping into caregivers' expertise and working collaboratively
- Inclusion of self-regulation and sensory strategies as needed for the individual
Where it differs is how we approach assessment and some of the questions left without research or proven studies. At this point in time, there are no criteria for assessments in gestalt, no controlled studies for what therapy practices work best, a limited understanding of what Gestalt connects to in the brain, and no research on Gestalt with AAC. So how do we move forward? Critically consider the implications of shifts in your practice, question our (and others') assumptions, avoid repeating unproven claims as facts, and keep our individual clients in mind.
Throughout this training, I shared a variety of resources that you can find online via ASHA including articles from Marge LeBlanc, a team conflict article from Gregory Abell, and the upcoming article A systematic review of gestalt language processing interventions in children or adults with communication disability. If you’d like to hear another episode of Gestalt, you can check out #155 with Sari Risen.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Gestalt Language Processing?
- What is robust research, and how do you become a critical consumer?
- How to collaborate with teams with opposing views.
Mentioned In This Episode:Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Episode #155: What Is Gestalt Language Processing? with Sari Risen
In my continued effort to bridge the gap between research and therapy, I had a great discussion with Dr. Elizabeth Biggs, assistant professor of special education. We discuss the power of Literacy in human connection. Even for children with complex communication needs, the need for literacy starts at birth (cue the baby shower gifts of everyone's favorite books), and it never stops!
In a study tracking around 40 families through the pandemic school year (20-21), Dr. Biggs and other researchers checked in on their journey of supporting their children's literacy and language learning. While many families expressed aspirations for their child's communication progress, a significant portion didn't prioritize literacy, perceiving their children as not ready or simply not giving it much thought.
Their research found that confidence in literacy acquisition varied greatly, often depending on the support from providers and teachers. They also looked at concerns regarding literacy, especially concerning the acquisition and utilization of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems, with only a single family reporting a positive experience.
Literacy is reading, writing, speaking, listening, and expressing—each learned in intertwined manner and contributing to meaningful human connections. Dr. Biggs encourages a family-centered approach in your therapy whenever you can, emphasizing the need to equip and support families in nurturing literacy skills in their children. Ultimately, as Dr. Biggs states in our conversation, “Literacy is for ALL kids, not just some kids”.
Do you like episodes like this? Do you want to hear more about recent research and how you can implement it in your therapy room? Leave a review and let me know!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- When is literacy and when does it start?
- Understanding literacy in families, analyzing the research.
- Who can learn literacy and language skills?
- How can providers support learners and their families with literacy?
Mentioned In This Episode:Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
As I continue to bridge the gap in research to the therapy room, I also see deficits in pre-service training that can make therapy a better experience for both providers and families.
Jessica Rohrer, BCBA-D, joins me to discuss her work with soft skills, using tools to measure and build compassion skills in the therapy room. Her research uses the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, a tool primarily used to check compassion in the medical field, as a pre and post measurement on the impact of compassionate skills training.
Dr. Rohrer developed the Compassionate Collaboration Tool as a checklist for provider self-reflection and a helpful next step to incorporating compassion skills in their therapy. The tool focuses on three skill sets in providers.
Basic interview skills: introductions, note taking, nodding, and back channeling.
Interest skills: asking and reflecting positivity on client interests and asking and reflecting caregiver priorities.
Joining with the family: empathy statements, normalizing skills, and partnering skills.
It can be easy to forget the emotional time our clients and their families may be experiencing when entering therapy, which is why it is crucial to focus on empathy and compassion in our basic skills for a positive experience. New clinicians may particularly experience more difficulty. If you’re looking for next steps to include compassion in your therapy, Dr. Rohrer reminds you to self-monitor and reflect, consider group behavior skills training, and remember that every client and every family will have varying needs for compassion.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Bridging the gap in research in the therapy room.
- Why are compassion skills important in ABA?
- Tools for measuring and reflecting on soft skills.
- Next steps for incorporating compassion skills into your everyday therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:Soft Skills: The Case for Compassionate Approaches or How Behavior Analysis Keeps Finding Its Heart
(PDF) Teaching Compassion Skills to Students of Behavior Analysis: A Preliminary Investigation
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
The title of Joe Veneziano and Dr. Shannon Shea’s research article, They Have a Voice, Are We Listening?, caught my eye and I had to read it. These two BCBAs met at a Journal Club and connected over the need to shed light on the history and nuance of ABA and Behavior Analysis.
With the field growing and opinions of professionals being so diverse, educating incoming BCBAs on the history of behavior analysis is crucial. Their paper examines “indistinguishability” and its implications by defining “indistinguishable” in behavior analytic terms. They write about well known studies, such as the Lovaas seminal paper (1987). There are many critiques of ABA in the field and in the in the media today. Is it evil or bad? Is it perfect? Neither is true, but the field and practice of behavior analysis rely on the lens of the research you undertake.
Together, we discuss the importance of evaluating research critically and understanding the difference between pseudoscience and robust research. We also highlight the need for an emphasis on the underrepresented voices of autism, including queer individuals, POCs, and women.
Research and an open mind are crucial to the success of ABA and the impact it will have on individuals receiving it. As quoted in their article, “Go forward with empathy and cultural humility.”
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Understanding the history of Applied Behavior Analysis.
- Evaluating research critically is necessary to get the best understanding.
- Pseudoscience vs. robust research.
- Emphasizing underrepresented autistic voices.
Mentioned In This Episode:They have a Voice; are we Listening? - PMC
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
After 2 decades of working in a clinical long term care setting as an SLP, Susan Browning was looking for something different amidst the pandemic. This change led her to her role in pediatric SLP in an ABA setting.
We discuss one of my favorite topics, collaboration. Susan, bursting with positive energy for the field, talks about how she worked to find her niche to collaborate and complement the work of the other providers and BCBAs in the clinic.
With the large scope that SLP spans in the field, it is such a nuanced science. Susan explains some of her interesting presentations coming up to show this large scope, and she draws comparisons from her long term care patients to her pediatric patients with the importance of blending cognition and language.
Enjoy this really positive conversation and check out the link to a special ABA Speech Connection CEU, SLP in an ABA Setting.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Featuring a member of the ABA Speech Connection.
- Translating long-term care experience into an ABA role.
- Finding your niche when SLPs and BCBAs collaborate.
Mentioned In This Episode:CEU Library - ABA Speech
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Maura Weis is the mother of two, a son and a daughter. The Weis family’s autism journey began when their youngest, Hannah, experienced early life difficulties, and then concerns with delays started occurring at 18 months.
Maura shares about their early experiences and her pediatrician visits. Even more concerns grew after a move due to her husband’s coaching career. As they worked through tests and possibilities, Hannah began school with an ABA program and received several diagnoses.
Maura wrote Miles From The Sideline: A Mother's Journey With Her Special Needs Daughter when her daughter was 8 years old as a resource for family members of families with special needs children. She also created the Hannah and Friends Family Foundation with her retired NFL and college football coach husband, Charlie Weis. Hannah, turning 29, now lives on the Hannah and Friends property in Indiana. There are 13 residents who have Daily Programs, Summer Camps, and After school activities. It’s a wide, open space to create a life.
Among her experiences and family's journey, Maura shares an important sentiment for families to embrace all experiences, even the difficult ones, because they are important learning opportunities for their children. You can find out more about Maura Weis and her foundation by reading her book, visiting the Hannah and Friends website, or on Facebook.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Hannah and Friends Family Foundation?
- Maura Weis’s book for family members of special needs families.
- A family’s journey through autism and other special needs diagnoses.
Mentioned In This Episode:Miles From The Sideline: A Mother's Journey With Her Special Needs Daughter
Hannah and Friends
Hannah and Friends
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
If you walk away with anything from today’s episode, let it be: It will get better. My guest, Kelley Coleman, is a mother of 2 and wrote the book she desperately needed when it came to navigating the extensive list of diagnoses for her youngest son. We discuss her book, Everything No One Tells You About Parenting a Disabled Child: Your Guide To the Essential Systems, Services, and Supports and the daunting overwhelm that comes with a disability diagnosis.
Being a parent or caregiver is difficult enough, but throw in a medical diagnosis, nuerodivergence, and, in Kelley’s case, many comorbidities and more questions than answers and you’ve got a recipe for distress. Kelley talks about how a big win for her family was the support and openness of their pediatrician, but not every provider is this way, and for many families, it can feel like no one is in your corner. If that's you, you will find so many resources and support in this book.
As we bring our talk to a close, Kelley ties up her multitude of knowledge and advice into this tip; Get started with something that will bring an easy victory! It is reassuring to see the fruit of your labor. Do the one thing, get the win and keep that system going.
Everything No One Tells You About Parenting a Disabled Child: Your Guide To the Essential Systems, Services, and Supports launched on March 12th. You can find it anywhere you buy books and ask your libraries to carry it too so that this amazing advice can reach as many families as possible.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The daunting overwhelm that comes with a disability diagnosis.
- A book to support parents and caregivers.
- Advice on how to get through tough moments as a caregiver of an individual with disabilities.
Mentioned In This Episode:Kelley Coleman
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
In the age of smartphones and tablets, video modeling is more accessible than it ever has been before. Dr. Teresa Cardon dives into the research on how effective video modeling is and how to move based on perceived barriers.
Video modeling research shows that learners respond faster than with live modeling and you can use it to teach a variety of skills including self help, play, and imitation. Dr. Cardon explains that most barriers providers find for video modeling, time or training, are based on a perception that video modeling is difficult or needs perfection. Studies show that the model in the video can be anyone as long as the desired skill is being modeled correctly, the age or connection to the client has no bearing on the success of the video model.
To get started, decide on your target skills or actions to be modeled. Pre-film the action (although Dr. Cardon mentions quick perception filming of your own hands works too), play for the client, provide the necessary items for the action, and the hardest part…keep quiet. Dr. Cardon mentions you can do as many as 5-10 video models per session with videos that are 20 to 40 seconds long.
Dr. Cardon’s advice for listeners is to just do the video model! Don’t let perceived barriers stop you from using this super effective evidence based practice.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Research and tips on the evidence based practice of video modeling.
- What skills can video modeling teach?
- How to use video modeling in your therapy session today.
Mentioned In This Episode:teresa.cardon@unt.edu
Dr. Teresa Cardon on LinkedIn
Teresa CARDON | Speech & Hearing Science; Board Certified Behavior Analyst | Chicago School of Professional Psychology | Ph.D. Program in Applied Behavior Analysis | Research profile
Video Modeling Imitation Training Manual.pdf
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Whether you’re a keynote speaker or you’re attending a small group team meeting, front of the room speaking opportunities are abundant in the autism healthcare field. And they are mutually beneficial. Dr. Breanne Hartley is BCBA-D who is passionate about public speaking. These opportunities create an environment of learning, collaboration, and sharing ideas and thoughts.
Public Speaking Strategies for SLPs, BCBAs, and anyone with a front of the room opportunity:
- Conceptualize any opportunity as a “front of the room” opportunity.
- Be prepared. Consider what ideas you want to convey, plan key points with supporting material and real world examples
- Ask yourself questions: How do you want the audience to think and feel?
- Know your audience. Who are you talking to SLPs? BCBAs? Parents?
- Study other public speakers in your field. What do you want to emulate and what do you want to avoid?
- Have a back up plan. (Dr. Hartley’s pro tip - PRINT YOUR SLIDES!)
- Sound and Memorable Concluding Remarks. Consider a quote or a call to action for your audience.
Along with these great tips, we also discuss Dr. Hartley’s work as the Chief Clinical Officer at UNIFI Autism Care. UNIFI is on a mission to level up autism care and create a unified experience between providers and clinicians for the benefit of the patient.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Finding opportunities for public speaking, big and small, as a provider
- The mutual benefits of public speaking opportunities for providers and speakers.
- Strategies for public speaking for anyone!
- What is UNIFI Autism Care?
Mentioned In This Episode:ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
C.A.R.E. Autism
Breanne Hartley, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA - Chief Clinical Officer - UNIFI Autism Care | LinkedIn
Join the bootcamp here
Do you hear the word parent advocate and immediately anticipate a contentious IEP meeting with an US vs THEM mentality? It doesn’t have to be that way. April Rehrig is an advocate with over 20 years of experience as a school psychologist, teacher, and parent in the public school system.
In our conversations, April explains how her philosophy is about reaching across the table to work together and resolve concerns. She is a virtual advocate working with clients across the country and offering an embedded coaching model with on-demand online courses, letter templates, and parent training. This model goes beyond advocacy and helps parents learn and understand how they can themselves advocate for their child.
Not everyone can afford an advocate, April affirms, which is one reason she provides coaching and training to empower parents for future IEP meetings. Most advocates are fee-based, but you can also find low-cost and sliding-scale options too. She shares some great insight when it comes to looking for an advocate, like understanding the difference between advocates, attorneys, and coaches. It’s important to know what you need and want with this support. April provides examples of questions to be sure to ask when finding the right fit.
There is a lot of value for parents and families as well as provider teams when it comes to providing advocacy support, especially when the goal for all is positivity and collaboration. If you like this episode and want to see more of this type of content, be sure to rate and review on Apple Podcasts.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The value an advocate can bring to an IEP meeting.
- How to resolve core concerns of the parents.
- What’s the difference between an advocate, attorney, or coach?
- How to find an advocate near you.
Mentioned In This Episode:ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Rise Educational Advocacy
Join the bootcamp here
When it comes to teaching comprehension to autistic learners, it can be difficult to know where to get started. This is an important skill leading to independent communication, and it’s crucial to have a robust system for teaching the skills.
I’m going over some of the foundational skills leading to comprehension. Labeling is a progressional skill that should start with the preferred terms of the learner, then onto more functional beyond the therapy room for their day to day life. Intraverbals and (to keep things simple) filling in the blanks are another skill that is a cornerstone of conversation and a foundation of comprehension learning. Don’t forget to check out Dr. Sundberg’s supplement that I discuss in this episode.
WH questions are a specific target to get started with in comprehension. You can get very specific with criteria and data when creating learning targets and IEP goals for this skill. You can teach this skill with visuals (I share a resource for this today too!) and very importantly, you can use WH questions to teach and generalize personal safety questions: What is your name? What is your guardian's name? What is your phone number? Etc.
There are great links and resources for you to check out today, so don’t miss those! And if you found this episode helpful, don’t forget to leave a review or reach out to me at ABAspeech.org with any questions.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to support a learner with struggling comprehension skills.
- A robust system for teaching comprehension with autistic students.
- Creating functional IEP goals for comprehension with WH questions.
Mentioned In This Episode:Dr. Sundberg Intraverbal Supplement: Intraverbal Subtest V.6.0
ABA SPEECH Intraverbal Printable: Speech Therapy Activity: Focus on Comprehension & Expressive Language
Boom Cards for Comprehension
Join the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership - Membership ABA Speech
Join the bootcamp here: Dynamic Content Joint Attention Bootcamp
Alexa play Get Along by Kenny Chesney
Rachel Stotts wrote the article, Accepting Different Opinions About Autism in the Nov/Dec issue of ASHA Leader. It is bright positive energy in a space that really needs it. She is an SLP and a mother of 4. Rachel’s passion for autism is so important professionally and personally, as she has her adult autistic son at home.
Rachel shares her thoughts on the controversy surrounding the autism puzzle piece. For her, autism is a puzzle—figuring out all the right support, services, and needs. When it comes to different opinions and information, she reminds us to listen, stay informed, and evaluate based on our values and knowledge. One person, one therapy, one anything—it just doesn't work in the autism population.
There is always someone offended, a trending opinion, or a hot button topic. So how do we navigate all of the information and opinions online and on social media?
-Remember who you are in this industry for: It’s not about likes and validation; it's about making a difference in the child’s life.
-Be cautious about the content you’re consuming.
-Find community away from negative online spaces.
Unfortunately, not everyone is going to see eye to eye on interventions, but as long as we support people and the people supporting the people, we can find positivity and make a difference!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- ASHA Leader Article: Accepting Different Opinions About Autism by Rachel Stotts.
- Thoughts on the Autism Puzzle Piece.
- How to navigate online information.
- Finding support from negative spaces.
Mentioned In This Episode:ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Join the bootcamp here: https://aba-speech-llc.ck.page/38b4953816
Today we’re featuring more accessible research! We’re talking about a topic I am really passionate about; Modified Leisure with play, social skills, and joint attention all mixed in.
Dr. Erin Barton explains the research involved in her study, Teaching Board Game Play to Young Children With Disabilities. Her work focused on expanding play research from pretend play to play with peers, with an emphasis on the least amount of adult intervention. Dr. Barton makes an important note that every child deserves a 100% chance that they will have at least 1 chance for a positive interaction with their peers. Board game play is a naturally occurring chance for small group play with functionality that applies beyond the therapy room.
The children involved in the study had limited speech, developmental delays and required no peer aversions, specific motor skills related to game play, and the ability to follow one-step directions. They generalized board game play with visual cues and step by step guides among an array of games that were picked daily by rotating student choice. In the study, they found that after between 5 and 10 sessions, children were able to generalize and maintain the skill.
Dr. Barton also shares some tips that everyday clinicians can use today in the therapy room.
- Cooperation focus: change games so they meet the needs of the child, they don't have to be the original win/lose function.
- Adaptations: create visual cues and prompts that can become a part of the game and do not need to be faded.
- Student interests: use games and interests the students enjoy to reinforce the process.
Did you like this episode? Let me know if you’d like more like this, and I'll keep bridging the gap between research and practice!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Increasing chances for positive peer to peer interactions.
- Generalizing board game play with cues and adaptations.
- Supporting peer to peer interactions with play and limited adult intervention.
- How to teach board game play for the everyday clinician.
Mentioned In This Episode:ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
“We have to see learners as a part of their community.” Brittany Schmidt, BCBA-SLP, explains a major point of the AAC Trial process, having the device be effective across all of the learners' environments and communication partners.
It’s hard to stay up to date and fully understand AAC when you’re not working with it on a regular basis. In this episode, Brittany shares some specific points and ideas when it comes to finding the right AAC device for a learner and avoiding device abandonment.
Over the years, there has been an incredible evolution of access. There is more affordability and availability of devices and applications with unique features that can be programmed for diverse learners. Ease and functionality, response and consequence changing, power words, and realistic goal setting are among some of the great points Brittany and I discuss.
You can find out more about Brittany through Thrive Clinical Solutions or reach out to her via email. Be on the lookout for her talk and CEUs on AAC through ABA Speech Connection.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Understanding the varying modes of intent to communicate, including problem behaviors.
- Helping learners communicate across environments and partners.
- The evolution of access to AAC.
- Unique app features that can help a variety of learners needs.
Mentioned In This Episode:Thrive Clinical Solutions
schmidt@thriveclinicalsolutions.com
ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
As a fellow busy SLP-BCBA, I know it's hard to keep up to date with research. That's why I’ve been combing through articles and inviting these researchers in our field on the podcast! I am on a mission to bridge the gap between research and practice.
Stephanie Gonzalez is a BCBA doctoral candidate at the University of Florida and the author of the article, Teaching Children to Respond to Questions About the Past: A Preliminary Analysis. While her research into this topic is ongoing, Stephanie and I had a great conversation about recall skills and how some may not see them as an available skill for their learners. The work she has done shows how this skill can be worked on alongside other important targets.
What did you do at school today? What did you do this weekend? What movie did you see? What toy did you play with? These are all valuable questions that recall the past and unlock conversations, especially for parents who want to know what their child is up to.
Using probe fading, Stephanie gradually builds a delay in recall, using differential reinforcements every time a learner correctly recalls. In fact, with the learners she's worked with, she has surprisingly built the 30 minute recall very quickly. Stephanie explains the base skills her learners have and how others may build this into their treatment package.
Be sure to read Stephanie’s article and stay tuned for more important research made accessible!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Bridging the gap between research and practice.
- Research making recall skills available to learners.
- How to use probe fading to increase recall conversations with clients.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Autism Outreach: #107 The Importance of Comprehension Skills with Dr. Merrill Winston
Teaching Children to Respond to Questions About the Past: A Preliminary Analysis
ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
While schools in the past have focused on a consultative model when it comes to BCBAs, it has become a growing trend in the field for schools to hire a district wide BCBA of their own. When you move from a consultant to an actual school employee this opens up a lot of room for dialogue. BCBA, Dr. Bruce Tinor joins me to chime in with this conversation.
Dr. Tinor agrees that hiring BCBAs is the right step but just one is not enough. There are certain roles in a school where 1 overseer is enough, but being an effective BCBA requires a lot of hands-on work and direct contact. If you do find yourself in the daunting task of being your district's only BCBA, Dr. Tinor has some great tips to systematically attack and support your school. Even if you are the only BCBA employee of the school, find a community to collaborate and share knowledge and support.
Along with all of his wisdom and insight for active school based BCBAs, he shares some advice that applies to even new BCBAs wherever they may land. Pair with your clients. This might mean students, parents, or even other staff but when you have paired up and built rapport, success and trust will follow.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The role of a school based BCBA.
- Tips for working in a school district as a BCBA.
- The value of collaborating with other BCBAs.
- Advice for new BCBAs.
Mentioned In This Episode:ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Joining me from Upstate Caring Partners is Dr. Erik Jacobson. The agency works with a large population of individuals with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Upstate CP is focused on changing lives with compassionate care.
During our conversation, Dr. Jacobson discusses how Upstate CP has reflected on their previous caretaking model, evaluating hand over hand crafts and goals that don’t last the lifespan. They have transitioned into an instructional model that builds strong relationships and creates a safe environment in a dignified way.
Dr. Jacobson shares how their staffing and teams have changed, starting with hiring their very first BCBA in 2019. With a focus on making their program less like school and more like life, they are making lasting changes that are going to positively impact the individuals in their care for life. You can find more about Upstate Caring Partners on their website.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Upstate Caring Partners?
- Transitioning from a caretaking model to an instructional model.
- How to build strong relationships and create a safe environment in a dignified way.
Mentioned In This Episode: Upstate Caring PartnersABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (or training), also known largely as ACT, is a relatively new premise in the field of ABA. Kate Nasuti who has been a BCBA for over a decade and in the field of ABA for 20+ years, joins me to discuss this important topic.
Kate shares her experience learning about ACT and how it's benefited her personally, even comparing “ACT Boot Camp” to a yoga retreat. It’s that impactful. She uses this technique now with parents and providers, giving access to this incredible therapy via coaching with individuals who would not otherwise benefit from ABA.
We go through some of the core processes of ACT: Mindfulness, Diffusion, Committed Action, Self as context, Values, and Acceptance. Kate describes some of these in detail, like Value Clarification. She uses this really beautiful quote from Michelangelo on his sculpture of David, “I just chipped all the way through the parts that aren’t David ''...to reveal that for clarification of our own values, we must just remove all the values that aren't ours.
Kate shares a ton of great resources, like the ACT course available on PRAXIS and Dr. Steven C. Hayes’ book, The Liberated Mind. ACT is such a beneficial addition to the science of ABA that I really encourage everyone to learn more!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is ACT?
- What are the 6 core processes of ACT?
- Who can benefit from ACT?
- Where to find more information and resources on ACT.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Get access to Kate’s ASHA and ACE course: Is It Really Burnout? Anxiety? How Words Can Get Us Stuck by joining the ABA SPEECH Connection Membership
Replay: Episode 107
As SLPs and BCBAs, we are tasked with teaching comprehension to our learners, but do they really understand these skills? Dr. Merrill Winston joined me to discuss not only reading comprehension but comprehension in everyday life and the building block skills to be successful.
What is comprehension?
Whether you're reading a book or listening to a statement, there are 3 markers for comprehension.
- Repeat it.
- Follow the Directions or Instructions within it.
- Talk about it.
Dr. Winston and I get into the nitty gritty of that last marker and talk about it when it comes to comprehension of daily life. He says that a major prerequisite for reading comprehension is comprehending their day. You can check this by having your learner sequence, or "serieate," their day. (First I did this, then I did this, then we did that…)
With this skill, students are pulling information from the past and making a time reference. You can practice by working in smaller increments, like the last hour even. This doesn't have to be verbal; it can be in pictures or icons as well! But the important thing is to ask those questions!! Students may not be able to serialize their day simply because they aren't being asked these questions.
We also talk about goal setting and realistic expectations. If you're considering setting a comprehension goal for your learner, Dr. Winston says to be sure to ask: What is the end goal? Where is this skill going to take them? Every skill you spend time on should have a goal that extends across the lifespan and opens more doors and opportunities. He even goes as far as to say that working on a goal for too long without progress is careless!
This was such a great chat with a leader in the field of ABA, and I hope you found it helpful!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What does comprehension really mean?
- How should providers be working on comprehension?
- What is “seriating your day” and why is it important?
- Determining functional goals for your learners.
- How goals and skills build to reach larger goals.
- Goals that will impact your learners life.
Mentioned In This Episode:Winston Behavioral Solutions
ABASpeechByRose - Rose Griffin - Instagram
Membership - ABA Speech
Replay: Episode 105
I love talking about joint attention, but a lot of my ideas and strategies in my courses may feel like they are geared toward older preschool age students. My tips today are for the youngest learners, toddlers age 2 to 3. Joint attention is an important foundational skill and it is never too early to get started with these strategies!
3 Ways to Get Started with Joint Attention with Your Toddler Today
Books
Books are the lifeline for learning and sharing activities and time with our little ones. For these young learners, when reading use a positive, energetic voice. Try using board books and interactive books with flaps. With your own child, make a goal to embed at least 15 minutes to read and interact with a book everyday!
Some of my favorites: Huggy Kissy and the Llama Llama series
Songs
Use YOUR Voice. Learn songs with motions to sing with your toddler. If toddlers aren't speaking they can join in by using the gestures and doing the motions as you sing. You can also use visuals like toys that match the song or printed visuals from my TPT store for early intervention songs.
Some of my favorites: Wheels on the Bus, 5 Little Monkeys, Happy and You Know It, Old McDonald
Play
Playing with toddlers is so fun and you never know what they will love and enjoy. Focus on not asking questions but just modeling simple language and narrating the activity.
Some of my favorites: Bubbles, Sensory Bins, Cars with Tracks
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- 3 ways you can work on joint attention at home today!
- Joint attention strategies for toddlers.
- Tips and tricks for embedding joint attention work in your day to day.
- How to read books, sing songs, and play with your child to assist with joint attention.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Books For Speech Therapy For Toddlers
Songs for Early Intervention by ABA SPEECH | TPT
Membership - ABA Speech
GLP – Gestalt Language Processing, is taking social media by storm. BCBAs and SLPs alike are talking about it… But should it be something we follow and jump into without question? Dually Certified SLP-BCBA Sari Risen joins me to discuss her findings on GLP along with some warnings.
So what is GLP? It is basically a distinction against NLA – Natural Language Acquisition, in which NLA individuals learn by developing single words and increasing over time, whereas GLP individuals have longer and longer utterances and develop single words over time. Sari uses the example of a toddler who says “ohh da do” [meaning open the door] will eventually learn the words open, the, and door but would start with the longer utterance before knowing the words individually.
Sari took Marge Blanc's 15 hour course on the topic and explained the history of GLP when Dr. Ann Peters made this distinction between NLA and GLP in the 70s. While information on Gestalt is available, it is mostly anecdotal, with very few official studies or evidence.
Educate yourself so that you can understand and explain GLP when and if parents ask. Sari and I warn practitioners to think critically about the strategies and theories they use and not to follow something just because of social media.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Gestalt Language Processing (GLP)?
- Natural Language Acquisition vs Gestalt Language Processing.
- Should BCBAs be using GLP?
- What information and evidence is available about GLP.
Mentioned In This Episode:srisen@actionpotentialservices.ca
www.actionpotentialservices.ca
Membership - ABA Speech
It can be hard to stay up to date on research when you’re busy working with clients. That’s why I love being able to take these important topics and break them down into bite-sized chunks! Today, Landon Cowan, a Doctoral Candidate at Marquette University, shares with me his work on the research article, A Decision-Making Tool for Evaluating and Selecting Prompting Strategies.
I think sometimes it can be difficult to see the importance of basic ideas, so we break some of these ideas down to their core. Landon defines a prompt as anything that elicits a desirable response. These are as simple as vocal modeling, visual cues, and gestures, and they are even more frequently used in everyday life with digital alerts and sticky notes.
As we discuss the types of prompting and the need for relevant prompting strategies, Landon discusses common inconsistencies and cautions for some prompting. Always holding the final goal in view. The research article includes some really helpful flowcharts to help guide and make data-based decisions on prompting strategies that are relevant to your learner. Landon explains the charts and the other supplemental resources available that can not only assist therapists but can also aid in staff training for a consistent understanding of prompting.
Be sure to check out the full article and find Landon on Research Gate and LinkedIn for questions and to follow his other work. Did you like this episode? Please let me know if you want more easy-to-consume research content and what other topics you’d like to hear about!
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is a prompt?
- What types of prompts are available to use?
- How to make data based decisions for prompting strategies.
- Resources and tools for prompting strategies.
Mentioned In This Episode:Landon Cowan Marquette University · Department of Psychology (Behavior Analysis)
Landon Cowan on LinkedIn
A Decision-Making Tool for Evaluating and Selecting Prompting Strategies - PMC
Membership - ABA Speech
“Fell in love with teaching; fell in love with watching him learn." That's a quote from my guest, Dr. Bridget Taylor. She has a long list of accomplishments, among them being a BCBA and Licensed Psychologist. She shares about her journey into the field and something she has noticed changed since conference early in her career in the 90s.
At the time, the ABA profession was still growing, and conferences she spoke at were attended more by parents, with this momentum driven by families who wanted information to help their children. Now, parents are still an equal part of the process as ever, but those seats are filled by professionals who need to then transfer information, support, and training over to these families.
We discuss some of the work she has done in this area, including parent training and particularly compassionate care and relationship building. She points out a familiar phrase: ‘People don't care how much you know unless you show how much you care’. This really speaks to the way relationships with families create buy-in, collaboration, and ultimately more positive outcomes for the client.
Dr. Taylor describes compassion as empathy in action. She explains that it requires endurance through uncomfortable feelings and an emphasis on listening during those times so that you can understand and support families. As we close, she shares her recommendations on how clinicians can better help parents by attending training, reading articles, seeking mentorship, and truly practicing listening as a skill.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The shift in knowledge seeking conferences since the 90s.
- What can clinicians do to help parents?
- What is compassionate care when it comes to parent conversations?
- Skills and resources for parent training.
Mentioned In This Episode:Building and Sustaining Compassionate Relationships with Caregivers | ABA Technologies
Membership - ABA Speech
Family and parent support and education are so important, especially when it comes to our youngest learners. Today, I am talking with Dr. Tracy Raulston. She is such a bright spot in the field, with so much information to spread and a great project in the works.
Dr. Raulston helps me discern the difference between Natural Environment Training and NDBI. When we are working with young learners in early intervention, play-based therapy is so crucial. Dr. Raulston explains how NDBI utilizes developmentally based instruction and strategies with child development front and center. Providers using NDBI are using protocols focusing on social connection, sensory exploration, and speech milestones.
The Mindful Routines Project is Dr. Raulston's initiative to provide clear and seamless tools to support parents and families. Being a parent is hard, and parents of autistic children are at an increased risk of stress. This project embeds mindful tools like noticing and validating thoughts and feelings without judgment and encourages parents to be more compassionate with themselves. As Dr. Raulston builds this project, she anticipates an 8-week curriculum for BCBA’s providing family guidance.
Families and parents are our learners' biggest influences and advocates. It is so great to hear about more awareness and tools for BCBAs to work to support these important members of our community.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How providers can support families and parents.
- Are parents of autistic children at risk of increased stress?
- What is the Mindful Routines Project?
- What is the difference between Natural Environment Training and NDBI?
Mentioned In This Episode:
tjr27@txstate.edu
Dr. Tracy Raulston on LinkedIn
Membership - ABA Speech
When Jeannette Passanisi landed on my TikTok For You Page (‘the FYP’ if you’re familiar with the popular social media platform), I knew I had to have her on the show. Jeannette is a mom of 3, with her youngest son, Robbie, being autistic.
Jeannette shares his developmental delays, swept aside early on as being the baby of the family; however, she soon realized he was not developing like her older girls and sought advice. Eventually leading to a diagnosis of PDD NOS at age 4. At the time, autism diagnoses were harder to get, especially at a young age. During our conversation, she shares how his diagnosis changed in 2017 to level 3 autism and, more recently, to more profound autism.
Having a profoundly autistic son requires a lot of direct care. As Jeannette mentions his lack of sleep, tendencies to rage pace, and other behaviors, Robbie needs to always be accompanied and needs assistance with a lot of daily tasks. Jeannette is also Robbie's #1 advocate, always making sure that he receives the best quality and most positive therapy techniques. She provides great examples of how she advocates for her son.
“Everyone has the ability to improve at their own pace” is just one gem from Jeannette’s and my talk. You can learn more about her family and autism journey on TikTok @Running4Robbie.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- A mother sharing her autism journey on TikTok.
- Seeing signs of autism at age 4.
- How availability and quality of diagnosis has changed over time.
- Navigating and advocating therapy services for older autistic children and adults.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Running4Robbie - TikTok
Membership - ABA Speech
Here we are at episode 150! I am so happy to be here sharing and disseminating this important information with you every week. To celebrate this milestone, my favorite guest, friend, mentor, and colleague, Dr. Mary Barbera, joins me.
If you’re not familiar with her amazing work, she shares her remarkable journey into the autism world. Working as a nurse and starting her family, her world and purpose changed when her oldest son Lucas was diagnosed with autism just before his 3rd birthday. She went from a mom in denial to a BCBA, author, online educator, and podcast host on a mission to create awareness and help parents and families with autistic children get the best outcomes for their children.
We cover a really important topic in early intervention... Is it a speech delay or autism? She breaks down the procedures necessary to get started when you’re working with a child who is not yet speaking. When it comes to her Turn Autism Around Framework, the first step is Asses. She advises assessing the child’s Expressive & Receptive Language (verbal and nonverbal), as well as feeding and sleeping habits.
Mary Barbera really encourages parents to be the “Captain of the Ship”. Parents are a child's best advocate, and she has an abundance of tools and resources for parents via her Turn Autism Around book, Online Courses and Community, and her new digital assessment. Her goal is to help every child reach their fullest potential while being as safe, happy, and independent as possible.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to get started with Early Intervention?
- Tools and Resources for parents of autistic children.
- A new digital assessment for your child.
- What is the Turn Autism Around Framework?
- Tips for parents to take action and become the captain of the ship.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr. Mary Barbera
Membership - ABA Speech
Things are bound to happen. Whether you are a new or seasoned provider, you will surely encounter an ethical dilemma. Licensed Clinical Psychologist and BCBA-D, Dr. Linda LeBlanc, is on to talk about the importance of ethics, provider values, and her new book, Ethics: Proactive and Practical Decision Making for Behavior Analysts.
For many, your position in the field of ABA is the first professional role where you are officially responsible for the outcome of a vulnerable person. Your personal underlying values are important to decision making when it comes to the code of ethics. Ethical situations in this field can bring questions to boundaries and relationships appropriate for the role.
The first response to an ethical situation is often a gut response. But Dr. LeBlanc poses the idea of how providers can be proactive in their ethical framework before specific ethical dilemmas even arise. She explains the big picture of her up and coming book in three parts that will cover history, values, and personal behavior, a dissection of each section of the ethics code, and practical everyday management of ethics.
Following the code of ethics is not about perfection; it is about being planned, intentional, and thoughtful in a way that protects you and your client. You can find out more about Dr. Linda LeBlanc at her website and read a preview of her book at Sloan Publishing.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How new providers may encounter ethical dilemmas.
- The underlying values and personal decision making behind the ethical code.
- A framework for proactive ethical management.
- Dr. Lina LeBlanc’s book, Ethics: Proactive and Practical Decision Making for Behavior Analysts
Mentioned In This Episode:LeBlanc Behavioral Consulting
Sloan Publishing - Ethics: Proactive and Practical Decision Making for Behavior Analysts
Membership - ABA Speech
As an SLP - BCBA working in the field for the last two decades, I have certainly made mistakes and learned along the way. Today I am sharing my top 5 mistakes and what I would do differently. Because when we know better, we do better.
- Yes/No Questions – working on this too early is not productive; it is important but requires a much higher level language!
- Not setting specific goals on Joint Attention - Good providers have these opportunities naturally, but it's necessary to set specific goals and specific focus using the three-part framework - Books, Music, and Play!
- JARGON - using too much professional jargon is not the right move unless you’re talking to ONLY other members of your profession. Ethically, you need to use words that are understandable by all!
- The term “Red Flags” - in reference to autism “Red Flags” have a negative connotation. Use language that supports your learners; try language like “Signs” or “Characteristics”.
- Eye Contact as a goal - while eye contact can be a helpful skill, it's not directly important to communication and will often be a natural by-product of focusing on joint attention.
In a world where 1 in 36 individuals has autism, we have to be striving to support autistic learners in every way we can.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Top 5 Mistakes when working with autistic students.
- Changing your language to support autistic learners.
- Why you shouldn't use jargon in IEP meetings.
- Are Yes/No questions important?
- How to set goals for joint attention.
- Can eye contact be a by-product of other communication goals?
Mentioned In This Episode:
IEP Goals for Students with Autism - ABA Speech
Membership - ABA Speech
Enjoy this free training from my new series, Communication Without Limits. In this presentation, I am providing an introduction to AAC.
AAC is a powerful tool that can help learners communicate and find their voice for the very first time. I share a personal story from my career where AAC did just that. What an amazing feeling!
I cover important information to support SLPs-BCBAs such as the Communication Bill of Rights, as well as who to turn to for support when it comes to finding devices, programs, and collaborating in your district or center. Utilizing an AAC requires a team; this is the learners voice and everyone has to be on the same page, including SLPs, BCBAs, OTs, Teachers, Parents, etc.
How do you know you need an AAC? I go over the steps of a comprehensive assessment involving Case History, Ecological Inventory, Self-Report, and Sensory-Motor Status. Once you’ve determined the need for AAC, you need to determine the system that will optimize communication for your learner. This is an important feature matching process where, as the provider, you determine access, language systems, and the materials or devices appropriate for the learner.
I hope you continue to tune in to future free training on important topics in ABA. To stay in the loop, receive more in depth training and tutorials, and connect with other professionals, consider joining the ABA Speech Connection Membership.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is AAC?
- An introduction and guide for SLP-BCBAs in AAC.
- What is involved in a comprehensive assessment for AAC?
- Who can help with an AAC?
- How to choose the right AAC.
Mentioned In This Episode:
AAC - Slides and Handouts
Membership - ABA Speech
My guests today, Anna Dvortsak and Dr. Brook Ingersoll, are the creators of Project ImPACT, an important initiative in the field to provide access for parent coaching and train parents for a collaborative approach to therapy.
Project ImPACT is a systemic approach to parent mediated intervention for parents of young children with social communication delays, with or without a diagnosis. This parent coaching teaches parents to work with their children to create relevant skills and goals for their community and needs in four main targets; Social Engagement, Communication, Imitation, and Play.
There are many programs and systems that may not be attainable for some providers. Anna and Dr. Ingersoll have worked to make this an accessible program with an easy to follow and systemic coaching guide. For those who want more training with Project ImPACT is available but not required.
Collaboration is such an important part of a young child's intervention, not just with providers but with their family and their community. That’s why Anna and Dr. Ingersoll created this program with a holistic view of a child's needs beyond the therapy room, with strategies parents can implement daily.
You can find out more about Project ImPACT by visiting their website.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Project ImPACT?
- How Anna Dvortscak and Dr. Ingersoll created a parent curriculum.
- Four targets for social communication.
- A systematic approach to parent coaching.
Mentioned In This Episode:Project ImPACT
Membership - ABA Speech
As a member of the field, you have probably heard of and used the VB-MAPP. Today I am talking to Dr. Barbara Esch, who is an experienced contributor to the field as an SLP and BCBA-D, as well as the author of the EESA, a part of the VB-MAPP.
Dr. Esch recently released the “New EESA”, the Early Echoic Skills Assessment and Program Planner. She explains the changes and the reasoning behind them.
The EESA is not about articulation, as it is primarily focused on Early Speech Learners. This assessment and planner is about how well an individual can repeat what they hear with the criteria: the number of syllables 1 to 6, different numbers of consonants, and different numbers of vowels.
In the new EESA you will find 5 groups of increasingly complex syllables within the Guide and Protocol books. These also include FAQ, Translations, and a Work Packet. In the work packet, the administrator will analyze skill levels and utilize the program planning guidance.
It’s always important to me to keep things FUNctional. Dr. Esch and I discuss the importance of choosing the write targets and the write syllables for words of things our learners like and would need access to.
As creator of the EESA, Dr. Barbara Esch has had a hand in thousands of learners' development of verbal speech. You can utilize this tool whether you're an SLP, BCBA, Parent, Caretaker or anyone finding themselves responsible for teaching vocal speech!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Dr. Barbara Esch’s contribution to the field of ABA.
- The EESA versus the Early Echoic Skills Assessment and Program Planner.
- What is syllable complexity and why does it matter?/
- A tool for anyone teaching verbal speech.
Mentioned In This Episode:Dr. Barbara Esch
Different Roads to Learning
Membership - ABA Speech
Have you ever been in a position where you’ve only seen your supervisor or administrator when there is conflict? Dr. Ellie Kazemi, behavior analyst and keynote speaker, joins me to discuss the work environment and how to build a positive work atmosphere, whether that’s in an ABA clinic or in a school based setting.
What is crucial to a positive atmosphere? Shared values and open communication. These important ideals come up over and over again throughout Dr. Kazemi's and my discussion. In order for teams to feel appreciated, psychologically safe, and have the desire for growth, they need administration and colleagues that promote transparency, shared values, and a framework to train resiliency for the ever changing systems.
If you’re a supervisor or administrator listening, consider how often and how naturally you’re making yourself available for conversations with your team. Dr. Kazemi emphasizes the point that there needs to be consistent, visible support from leadership.
Without these ideals, providers can face burnout, and even worse, the client can suffer. At the end of the day, we all want to make a difference and provide the best outcomes for our clients. The first step is creating a positive atmosphere for providers.
You can find Dr. Ellie Kazemi on her website, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Top tips for creating a positive work environment.
- The importance of shared values and open communication in any organization.
- How to cultivate psychological safety.
- The impact of the work environment on growth and investment in the mission.
- The importance of supervisor and administrative visibility.
Mentioned In This Episode:Ellie Kazemi
Ellie Kazemi - LinkedIn
Ellie Kazemi (@ellie.kazemi) on Instagram
Membership - ABA Speech
How do you know if your therapy is working? Data collection is an important aspect of therapy to analyze goals and student improvement. During my 20 years of public school experience, I once had my data subpoenaed! It might be rare, but it CAN happen, so you want to be prepared.
Depending on your student goals and program, the way you collect data may differ. For some students, it may be appropriate to cold probe and collect discontinuous data with other continuous trials may be necessary. I explain how I use Google Forms to create digital data tracking for whichever need you have, which you can even attach to your Google Calendar to appear when you’re working with each student.
When it comes to paper data, many teachers and therapists create a data binder. For me, I like to include a calendar template, IEP goals and objectives, and then the various data sheets and task lists.
Consistently tracking data is crucial for your students and for yourself when it comes to creating progress reports, discussing progress in meetings, and even in the event the court may subpoena your data, like they did for me. Be sure to check out all of the resources I discussed today so that you can make your data collection habits organized and efficient.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why is data collection important?
- What are the various modes of data collection?
- How to organize data.
- How to individualize data collection.
- What to do if your data is subpoenaed?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Speech Therapy Data Binder
Data Collection using Google Forms
Membership - ABA Speech
As we enter the beginning of the school year, I want to go over my 20 years of experience in the field to discuss service delivery models in a school based setting. Our goal is always to support students in the best way possible, and the best way to do this is through an individualized approach to service delivery.
Depending on your learners needs, there are a variety of models you can consider. The need for these can depend on goals, age, needs, and the school environment.
- 1 on 1 in office
- 1 on 1 in the classroom
- 2 on 1 in the office or common space
- Large group/ whole classroom
- Small structured group
- Monthly/Quarterly check ins
- Team Consults
- Parent Observation
- BCBA Consults
The best way to make the biggest difference is to embed communication across the learners day and lifespan. From preschool to high school and beyond, service needs will vary greatly. The only thing that is constant is that EVERY student will need individualization.
Begin the new school year by building rapport, writing amazing goals, and getting to know everyone on your learners team!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Common service delivery models for autistic learners.
- How to decide the best service delivery model for your student.
- What combination of service delivery can you use?
- How to provide services across the lifespan?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Membership - ABA Speech
Working in this field, whether as an SLP, BCBA, or both, can be isolating, and meeting CEU requirements can be overwhelming and feel pointless. The Autism Connection CEU Membership is a professional development community to help SLPs and BCBAs make meaningful progress with autistic learners. Those already a part of the community have called it a positive space to learn and grow.
What can you expect from the membership?
-Every new member will receive 1 on 1 onboarding with me, Rose Griffin.
-A path tailored for seasoned professionals and those brand new to the field.
-Monthly live ASHA and ACE approved CEUs.
-Monthly Live Q&A.
-A cataloged CEU library.
Expect to see topics such as Group Therapy, AAC Assessments, Navigating IEPs with Ethics and Confidence, The Power of Joint Attention, Goal Setting Across the Lifespan, and I will also be leading an Intro to ABA series.
This membership community is launching NOW! Join before September 19th, during the founders launch, and receive these benefits:
-Free Advanced Language Learner Course – $297 value
-Join Annual for $197 first year + Double Up and Leisure Vocabulary Game - 35% savings
-Join Monthly for $20 for the first 6 months and $30 per month for the following months.
I cannot wait to have you a part of our community so that together we can make the most difference in our autistic clients' lives.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is the Autism Connection Membership?
- What kind of CEU topics will the membership include?
- Great deals for Founding Members.
- Real reviews from members of the Autism Connection Membership Community.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Membership - ABA Speech
Today I am talking to a “unicorn”. Ashley Whitaker is one of the 505 (at the time of this recording) dually certified SLP/BCBAs! Ashley has been in the field for 10 years and shares her path to certification.
Ashley started her undergrad with the idea to become a teacher after a lifelong passion for helping kids learn. When her roommate suggested a course in speech, the rest was history. Shortly after her career began, she was exposed to ABA and began her journey to BCBA certification.
As prep for the exam, Ashley recorded herself reading The Cooper Book summaries and relistened to them during her commute, as well as taking mock exams and using the ABA Wizard App. If you're listening and interested in becoming a BCBA, remember that the requirements are always changing, so be sure to download the BCBA handbook for the latest information.
I actually met Ashley through ABA Speech, and she is a part of the new ABA Speech Connection CEU Membership. Her experience has shown it is a like minded group of professionals and a collaborative community. With the membership, Ashley has found a place to ask questions and learn in a non judgmental space.
As always, I want you to leave this episode with actionable tips to use in your therapy room. Listen to the end to see how Ashley uses Essentials for Living as a framework in her practice.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The career path of an SLP/BCBA.
- Study and prep for the BCBA exam.
- What is the ABA SPEECH Connection CEU Membership?
- Tips for using frameworks in your everyday practice.
Mentioned In This Episode:Learn more about the ABA SPEECH Connection CEU Membership and Joint Attention on September 12th at 8-9pm eastern and September 13th at 8-9pm eastern.
My guest today, Lorri Unumb needs no introduction. Lorri is a mother of three, an autism mom, a lawyer, an autism advocate, and an absolute dynamo in the field. Be sure to check out her long list of achievements in the guest bio for this episode!
We are talking about something so important and impactful for families everywhere who have an autism diagnosis: insurance. In 2003 when Lorri’s youngest, Ryan, was diagnosed ABA was not a covered treatment even though it was evidence based and crucial to his opportunity to reach his highest potential. Full time ABA therapy for Ryan’s needs would run $70,000+ annually. And they weren't the only family dealing with this.
While Lorri’s family could make it work, paying full price for therapy was not ideal and for some families this would simply not be possible. So in 2005 she got to work writing a bill that would require insurance coverage for all evidence based autism treatments to include ABA. And after a 2 year journey what became known as “Ryan’s Law” was passed in 2007. Autism Speaks reached out to employ Lorri and she then spent the next decade replicating this law across the country, finally passing in the 50th state in 2019.
Lorri also shares about her role in the Council for Autism Service Providers, a collaborative organization of providers working and learning together from across the country. And as an autism mom herself she has some great advice for parents facing new diagnosis: “It gets better”.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How insurance for autism treatment has changed in the last 20 years.
- What is Ryan’s Law?
- The impact of high cost and uncovered autism treatment for families.
- What is the Council of Autism Service Providers?
- Advice for autism parents.
Mentioned In This Episode:Council of Autism Service Providers
The Autism Law Summit
Learn more about the ABA SPEECH Connection CEU Membership and Joint Attention on September 12th at 8-9pm eastern (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/835049703570) and September 13th at 8-9pm eastern. (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86200908099)
Have you ever had a client exhibit behaviors that you just don’t know how to approach? Dr. Jonathan Fernand has had experiences in the field across many settings that aid in his understanding on intervening with restrictive and repetitive behaviors.
Restrictive and repetitive behaviors can mean a variety of behaviors, from high order (compulsive and ritualistic) to low order (self injurious and vocal/motor stereotypy). But when do these behaviors warrant intervention?
Dr. Fernand reminds us that while every decision is contextual and depends solely on the individual, there are factors that contribute to deciding on the intervention process. Consider safety, health and wellness, community, and other lifespan barriers as indicators for intervention. Prioritize the need for intervention and differing methods with changes in skills and interests. It’s also important to note that not all restrictive and repetitive behaviors need to be at zero levels if they can be enjoyed appropriately.
This conversation is great for SLPs, who are often in situations where they feel like they are calling in the BCBA when things have gone too far wrong and can maybe do more to intervene preventatively. Dr. Fernand, like me, is an advocate for lifelong learning. He urges professionals to access a network of resources and lean on colleagues and mentors to learn and grow.
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What are Restrictive and Repetitive Behaviors?
- What does it mean for behavior to become a barrier to behavior?
- What behaviors warrant intervention?
- What are high and low order behaviors?
- Prioritizing and revisiting the best intervention process.
- Making contextual decisions for every client and behavior.
Mentioned In This Episode:Dr. Jonathan Fernand on LinkedIn
Jonathan K. Fernand Florida Institute of Technology · School of Behavior Analysis
Learn more about the ABA SPEECH Connection CEU Membership and Joint Attention on September 12th at 8-9pm eastern and September 13th at 8-9pm eastern.
Get ready for an inspiring episode. I chatted with Dr. Shahla Alai-Rosales and Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, who co-authored the book Responsible and Responsive Parenting in Autism: Between Now and Dreams.
This comes from Dr. Alai-Rosales’ extensive professional career and over 4 years of experience in the field, as well as Peggy’s personal experience as an Autism mom. The book binds together responsive parenting into three parts: Learning, Loving, and Connecting.
We discuss a philosophy prominent in the book, ABA, as a science of love and change. Dr. Alai-Rosales explains the deep care and concern required to work with an individual when trying to change behavior. Being a provider, you must harmonize the process of change with your deep regard for human rights and the individual you’re responsible for.
For professionals, these two share some insight into how to cultivate genuine kindness and positivity that will impact your clients and their families. Remembering your why and purpose in the field and staying present in the moment can help ground you.
This is a great reminder that although this is work, our time is a precious gift to our clients and their families, and every conversation makes a difference.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Responsible and Responsive Parenting in Autism: Between Now and Dreams
- ABA as a science of love and change
- Harmonizing Change with regard for humanity
- How professionals can be more genuinely positive
- The importance in your why behind your work
Mentioned In This Episode:Responsible and Responsive Parenting in Autism: Between Now and Dreams
Having an autistic adult on the podcast is always an opportunity to learn how we, as practitioners, can do our best for our clients. Joining me today is Larissa Minner, a passionate and experienced disability rights advocate, speaker, and consultant.
Burnout is commonly talked about, and I've even done an episode where we talked about professional burnout in the field. Larissa talks about Autistic Burnout and Neurodivergent Burnout and what that looks like for many individuals. Signs and symptoms of Autistic (or Nuerodivergent) Burnout can include feeling drain in all aspects of life, an increase in executive functional challenges, a lowered coping skill level, regression and loss of skills, brain fog, physical fatigue, mimicking and causing depression/anxiety, and even being a factor involved in suicidal ideation. This causes a lot of problems for autistic individuals, like finding a job or making their way through university.
So what can we do? As professionals, we can provide Neuro Affirming Environments. A Neuro Affirming Environment applies to social, emotional, and physical aspects, and Larissa explains some ways to do that without putting the burden on the autistic person. Firstly, use the person's preferred language, whether they prefer Autistic Person or Person with Autism. Also developing language that is not based on a person’s deficit; for example, Larissa uses the term Strategic Explorer to verbalize her preference for routine. Additionally, consider sensory friendly rooms with adjustable lighting and noise accommodations, validations in different listening and communicating skills, and always giving ample warning when it comes to events and changes.
Larissa is active in making changes across the field for both autistic children and autistic adults when it comes to healthcare, education, and career opportunities. This is a great conversation that shares some less talked about advocacy for autistic people and encourages professionals to check themselves when it comes to providing compassionate care.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Autistic Burnout?
- What are signs and symptoms of Autistic Burnout?
- What is a Neuro Affirming Environment?
- How can providers be Neuro Affirming?
- Advocacy goals for education, healthcare, and career finding.
- The importance of preferred language surrounding autism and disabilities.
Mentioned In This Episode:You can participate in her ongoing research study at Shape in Healthcare Survey (Healthcare Equality)
You can find out more about Larissa and her work at: https://linktr.ee/larissaminner
My guest today Dr. Cody Morris is an asset to the field, his goals include improving the practice of BCBAs, by Improving assessment and treatment methodologies regarding problem behavior and addressing organization challenges in delivering services.
Today we discuss Assent, its importance, and how to gain Assent even when a client is not yet speaking. Dr. Morris makes a very important comparison in definitions between Consent and Assent.
Consent: the affirmation that an individual who is legally authorized gives permission for themselves or another person to participate.
Assent: the affirmation that an individual who is not legally authorized to provide their own consent, affirms their willingness to participate.
Both of these are incredibly important, Consent has many legalities that affirm participation. Assent on the other hand, can be difficult to confirm when a child has limited or no communication skills. There are multiple ways to gain assent. 1, through Verbal statements or 2, through Behavior Allocation.
Assent can be obtained when a student's behavior allocated the confirmation to engage through choice. Choice does not mean the student decides all goals and treatment, but as Dr. Morris and I discuss small choices that affirm engagement and build to grander decision making skills.
In our conversation today, Dr. Cody Morris and I discuss some important fundamentals of behavior analysis that heavily involve Assent as a best practice. You can find out more about Dr. Morris’s work and research in the provided links.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Consent versus Assent in affirming participation.
- How to gain assent with children who are not yet speaking?
- Tools and tips for gaining assent.
- Assent through choice in treatment.
- Assent through behavior allocation.
- How to provide gradual choice despite communication skills.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr. Cody Morris on LinkedIn
Cody MORRIS | Assistant Professor | Ph.D. | Salve Regina University, Rhode Island | Department of Psychology | Research profile
Welcome to the fourth and final part of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners.
The last learner I want to talk about is a 3 year old boy that I saw in-home with my private practice, ABA Speech. When I first began services, the child had received an autism diagnosis, was not yet speaking, and was attending ABA services. After two years of working with this child, he had begun to speak in sentences and enjoy group activities.
I saw this child weekly for 35 minutes of instruction and 10 minutes of parent coaching. In my very first session with this learner, I focused on Joint attention using my 3 pronged approach: Music, Books, and Play. We sang Wheels on the Bus with motions, we read Pete the Cat, and we played with bubbles! These are some of my go-to resources. The child at first was not engaged or interested at all, but I continued to observe and take data, and engagement increased over time.
We even saw this child’s first spontaneous word during a play section of therapy. Playing with mini objects in a bag, the child reached in and pulled out a miniature shoe and said the word “shoe”! After that, engagement continued to increase. We played with miniature objects in many different ways, shaking them up in bags and hiding them in the learning space.
This series has been designed to help you resonate and feel inspired to help your clients or children develop a way to communicate with the world. What do you think of solo shows? Send me a DM on Instagram, an email, or please take time to leave a review.
Stay tuned for the launch of my community membership coming in Fall 2023; send me an email if you want to get in early.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Speech services for toddlers with autism.
- The 3 prong approach to joint attention.
- Learning through music, books, and play.
- From not yet speaking to spontaneous language.
- How to structure in-home therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Start Communicating Today- Toddler and Preschool Course
Welcome to Part 3 of 4 of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners.
Today I am sharing about an elementary learner from a non-public program. He came to me with no communication and unsafe behaviors that were a barrier to his learning, community, and school environment. This student actually brought with him a beautifully set up AAC on his iPad but had zero tools for utilization.
As we worked with this student in this non-public program, we collaborated with his parents, his home district (a rural area 1 hour away), and he was in a private classroom with 2 male assistants to keep everyone safe. I worked with this child for 1 hour a week in his classroom. We began work on building receptive language, requesting, understanding basic vocabulary: nouns and actions, joint attention, social engagement, and utilizing his iPad.
Several things helped me be successful with this learner. I was able to meet the learner where he was and engage in a way that was respectful of his preferences. I helped him with modified leisure skills like modified memory, where we used video modeling. During my work with this student, my idea for Action Build Cards also came to life.
Things took a big turn when this student realized his AAC was his voice. He began to use his iPad with pride. We even took community based outings to lunch places where the learner was able to use his AAC with a cashier to order his lunch. If you’ve taken my course, Help Me Find My Voice, you may have even seen this learner in some of my videos.
Stay tuned for Part 4 of this case study series next week, where I will share about a 2 year old learner!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A case study from a non public program.
- Working with learners with unsafe behaviors.
- Finding a learner's voice with barriers to learning, community, and school environment.
- Teaching a learner to utilize AAC.
- From zero communication to AAC utilization at home, school, and the community.
- Teaching modified leisure with modified memory.
- Action Builder Cards for action phrase vocabulary.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Social skills for students with autism- Modified Memory
School-Age Course
Action Builder Cards
Welcome to Part 2 of 4 of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners.
Today I am sharing about an 8-year-old nonverbal learner I worked with in a non-public program. This learner came to me with no way to communicate with the world and various behaviors that were barriers to safety and learning. He really struggled with the learning environment, and I had to be creative.
Building rapport and getting to know your learner is so important. My usual iPad videos and sensory toys were not interesting to this learner, so I had to think outside the box. Listening to country music, special light up sensory toys, small objects to carry, and even mirrors ended up being some of the learners biggest interests and reinforcers.
I saw this learner in two 30-minute sessions across their school day, individually in my office. We started communication with AAC using an app on a device, which we really had to adapt this learner to. We also used visual prompts in an AAC binder with laminated pictures of familiar and favorite things.
These solo sessions were built around these three goals and activities:
- Focus on interests (requesting and orienting on the iPad)
- Following one step directions/ functional routines in the larger school environment
- Joint attention with turn taking activities, modified leisure skills like Modified Connect Four, where I used video modeling.
As time progressed over several years, we worked on labeling, verbal imitation, and vocational skills. Eventually we segued into ½ individual and ½ group sessions where this learner became a shining star in more modified leisure games like Musical Chairs, Simon Says, and the Grocery Store game.
Stay tuned for part 3 of this Autism Case Studies series!
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Thinking outside the box for interests and reinforcers.
- Helping learners find their voice with AAC.
- Practicing joint attention with modified leisure skills.
- The structure of speech therapy in a non-public program.
- A progression of therapy goals over time.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Connect Four Modified - YouTube
Social skills game for mixed groups - ABA Speech
Save $100 on our autism courses!
Toddler & Preschool Course - ABA Speech
School-Age Course - ABA Speech
The Advanced Language Learner - ABA Speech
Welcome to Part 1 of 4 of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners.
In this case study, I discuss a middle school learner in public education. He had recently come to the country and was completely nonverbal. I first began with AAC to give him a voice and start communication. He did have to shape up his point with OT to make this accessible, but from there we began to build rapport. I also started using sign language and the resource LifePrint for his teaching area.
For assessment, I did the VB-Mapp and collaborated on this with his teacher, paraprofessional, and BCBA. The collaborative piece was so important, and we were all working really hard to help this learner find his voice. The VB-Mapp is a great gauge of expressive, receptive, and social language skills.
I structured our therapy around functional goals for this learner involved in leisure skills, requesting, and sharing activities. I worked with this learner in solo sessions in his classroom setting twice a week, and once with group activities.
I used a variety of resources that were tailored to the likes and interests of the learner to gain verbal imitation, and from there I inventoried his sounds and began to build more words and phrases.
The focus of these case studies is to help and inform therapists on how to work with our hard learners. We can make this fun and functional, give these learners their voice, and change their lives. Stay tuned for part 2.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A Case Study Series of autistic learners.
- From nonverbal to words and phrases to power of speech therapy and collaboration.
- Session samples for a nonverbal learner.
- The assessment process for an autistic learner.
- A case study from public education.
Mentioned In This Episode:
LifePrint
Save $100 on our autism courses!
Toddler & Preschool Course - ABA Speech
School-Age Course - ABA Speech
The Advanced Language Learner - ABA Speech
Technology can feel intimidating, but there are so many tools available on your common devices that you might not even consider using them in therapy. JoanGreen is an SLP, assistive technology specialist, and online tech advisor. In this episode, she shares 10 tech tips that anyone can use to utilize technology and enrich your therapy sessions.
As SLPs, it's important for us to know and understand the assistive apps and accessibility features available, especially functions that are useful across the lifespan. As Joan explains these tips, she shares examples, scenarios, and easy ways to integrate these technology features into therapy with various ages.
Ten Tech Tips:
- Maps: show your learner about their neighborhood, city or other places they might be interested in.
- Photos: This can be a leisure activity by looking through photos or even a way to communicate by snapping pictures and sending them.
- Calendar: scheduling and visual calendars like the iOS or Google Calendar are great tools that can be used across the lifespan.
- Speech to text: visual power of words; let your learner see the words they are speaking.
- Text to Speech: This feature can make any digitally written word become read aloud.
- Captions: this is an important accessibility feature, available for free on most devices and audio platforms.
- Video Calls: this can help with visual cues in a phone call format and empower individuals to make calls.
- Smart Assistance: Alexa, Siri, and Google can all be used with voice commands and can be empowering to impact action and have voice recognition.
- Engaging activities with fun learning apps: these are great ways to use side by side with accessibility devices for joint attention, Joan recommends Khan Academy Kids on iOS and Android.
- AAC devices and apps: these devices and applications can give your learner a voice, or assist when speech may be stressful in certain circumstances.
Joan offers a ton of information on technology and some awesome ways she helps professionals in the field. Be sure to download the free PDF for today’s listeners to learn all about these 10 tech tips and check out her platforms online.
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- 10 tech tips for your therapy sessions today.
- Understanding important accessibility features.
- How can simple, everyday tech be used in therapy?
- How to incorporate devices into therapy?
- How to utilize AAC devices and apps for different situations.
Mentioned In This Episode:
10 Tech Tips to Enhance Communication
Innovative Speech Therapy
IST Tech Savvy Solutions Public Group | Facebook
Amazon.com: Assistive Technology in Special Education: Resources to Support Literacy, Communication, and Learning Differences
Save $100 on our autism courses!
Toddler/Preschool Course
School- Age Course
The Advanced Language Learner
Dr. Hank Schlinger has an extensive list of impressive and valuable contributions to the field. Today he joins me to discuss his brand new book, How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children.
Parenting is so hard and along with it comes responsibility that will span your child’s entire life. Whether your child has an autism diagnosis or not, parenting is parenting. Dr. Schlinger discusses the idea of intentional parenting, in which, as parents, we consistently reinforce and model good behavior and set clear boundaries. Dr. Schlinger also goes over 5 common problems parents face that contribute to behavior and self-esteem.
- Parents are unaware of how their child's behavior affects them and vice versa.
- Parents believe just telling their kids what to do should work.
- Parents teach their child to ‘be the boss’
- Parents ignore good behavior and reinforce bad behavior
- Parents think that a good kid or a bad kid is just the luck of the draw.
During this awesome conversation, Dr. Schlinger discusses each of these problems and offers solutions for parents to be more intentional as well as build good behavior and self-esteem. You can find his book on Amazon or find out more by visiting the book's website.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is intentional parenting?
- 5 common problems that parents face.
- Parenting practices to build good behavior and self-esteem.
- How to reinforce good behavior instead of bad behavior.
Mentioned In This Episode:Self-Esteem in Children
HOW TO BUILD GOOD BEHAVIOR AND SELF-ESTEEM IN CHILDREN: Schlinger Jr., Dr. Henry D.
Rita Soronen is a National Child Welfare Advocate working with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA). She advocates for the abused, neglected, and vulnerable children in the foster care and juvenile justice system.
There are 117,000 children in North America freed for adoption and 77% of those children have some sort of medically identified need, including autism. These children belong to a special division of DTFA, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids. This division is an initiative to advocate for and support children most at risk of aging out of the foster care system—teenagers, sibling groups, and those with special needs.
During this conversation, Rita not only explains the wonderful work done for these children but also shares a story of hope. CJ is a child with autism who was adopted at age 9 by a loving and caring adoptive mom, D. Now 20 years old, CJ, who was nonverbal at the time of adoption, is thriving as a college student and productive adult.
1 in 36 children has autism, and there are many children in the child welfare system with an autism diagnosis or other special needs that need support and care. You can learn more by visiting the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption website or calling their information hotline.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
- An initiative for children most at risk in the child welfare systems.
- CJ’s Story: A story of hope for children with autism awaiting adoption.
- Advocating for special needs children in the foster care system.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dave Thomas Foundation
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption on Facebook
Call: 1-800-ASK-DTFA
What a pleasure it was to have Sandy and Ben Hartranft on the show! Sandy is the proud mom of three sons, one of whom is Ben. Ben is 24 years old and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2.
20+ years ago, Sandy knew something was off, limited speech and no response to his name led her to pursue check-ins with her son’s doctors and an official appointment with a developmental pediatrician. Soon, it all came together, and the signs began to make sense with his new-found diagnosis. Ben found support through early intervention and through the rest of his school years with OTs, SLPs, The Talk Institute, and even his bus driver, who helped him make a plan to get on the regular education bus.
When you hear what Ben is up to now, you will be amazed! He has been on the Ellen show, worked extensively with the Philadelphia Eagles and their autism advocacy events, and gone on solo trips, including cross country to California to win big on The Price is Right! He even owns his own company, Benergy. In which he provides presentations and public speeches for organizations to spread awareness and advocacy for autism.
This duo is full of inspiration, kindness, and positivity. You can check out Sandy’s book, Swinging From the Chandelier: Finding Joy in the Journey through Autism, for more of the story of this incredible family.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Sandy and Ben’s journey through autism.
- A story of inspiration, kindness, and positivity.
- Getting an autism diagnosis in the 90s.
- Benergy; Ben’s public speaking company for autism awareness.
- Opportunities and possibilities for adults with autism.
Mentioned In This Episode:Ben Hartranft
Join our Start Communicating Today Live Course On June 20th and June 21st from 7-9:30 pm est. Register here.
This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about Assent on the show. But today we’re focusing on what it is. Why is it important? And how do you know if you’re using an Assent Based Model? Liz Lefebre is a precision teacher and BCBA passionate about high quality behavior and educational services.
So what is Assent? The goal of an Assent Based Model is a person-centered approach to assessment, intervention, and all other decision-making. In this model, the learner's assent withdrawal from participation is honored, whether it be a vocal 'no' or a non-vocal expression of verbal behavior.
Liz describes it as having various components: Designing a program based on learner values, measuring engagement and Assent withdrawal, teaching and reinforcing assent withdrawal, as well as creating boundaries for safety and respect. Check out Liz’s hot off the press checklist to analyze your current therapy and see if you are incorporating an Assent Based Model. What do you need to shift and change? She includes examples and non examples to clarify these subtle components and how they should be embedded.
If you’re ready for the first steps toward embedding an Assent Based Model in your therapy sessions, Liz has some tips.
- See her guide and checklist and take a good look at the current state of therapy.
- Take it one piece at a time. Make small changes as you can, it might be too heavy of a lift to change it all at once.
- Finally, listen and learn about the “Anti-ABA Movement”. Understand the harm caused by past ABA experiences so you can be a part of the change!
When we know better, we do better. Assent is a crucial part of doing better, as my goal for therapy is to keep things fun AND functional!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
—What is Assent?
—A new guide to analyze how you’re using Assent in therapy.
—The first steps for embedding an Assent Based Model.
—The importance of learner values and interests in therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Assent Based Treatment Checklist
Octave-Training
Assent Conference
Start Communicating Today Webinar
Dr. Kelle DeBoth Foust is one of my best friends; we’ve been friends for over 15 years. She is an Occupational Therapist and an Associate Professor of OT at Cleveland State University. She has a passion for working with children with autism and other developmental disabilities and today she shares her wealth of knowledge with us.
What is Occupational Therapy? No, it has nothing to do with helping people find jobs! Dr. DeBoth Foust describes it as therapy to regain the skills necessary for meaningful activities or occupational roles. This is a skill or activity that you LOVE to do and the foundational skills necessary to help you do it. For kids and young learners, this is commonly play or school participation.
Occupational Therapists work frequently with sensory processing disorders and help use sensory integration for regulation. Dr. DeBoth Foust talks about "sensory diets,” which are strict schedules for sensory activities, and how these can sometimes not be very helpful. Working with sensory issues needs to be totally individualized, and teachers need to “be a detective” to see what triggers or helps students. Students should have some choice and be able to self identify how they feel and what they need to regulate.
We also discuss a hot topic I love; collaboration. As we are all highly trained in our fields and we want what's best for the learner, collaboration can be tough if we don't fully understand each other's roles. When it comes to BCBAs and OTs collaborating, they can often butt heads because it might feel like OTs are reinforcing problem behaviors with sensory integration. Dr. DeBoth Foust explains it well when she says, "Not every behavior problem is a sensory issue and not every sensory issue is a behavior problem”.
Dr. DeBoth Foust and her work focus on increasing engagement and participation in play! You can find out more about her work through CSU or the program PLAAY on the Move.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Occupational Therapy?
- What school is required to become an OT?
- Common goals and skills OTs practice.
- What are sensory processing disorders?
- What is a sensory diet?
- What are the barriers to collaboration with BCBAs and OTs?
Mentioned In This Episode:PLAAY on the Move
Kelle Kathleen DeBoth Foust, PhD, OTR/L
It’s May, and it can be a time when a lot of stress and overwhelm can be occurring. How do you know when you’re headed toward burnout? What do you do?
Jasmine Yepez, The ABA Lady, is passionate about burnout and mental health advocacy for professionals and shares with me today her journey to healing after experiencing burnout. Burnout can be caused by a variety of things, like unhealthy boundaries with work. Are you consistently bringing work home with you? Checking your email during your time off? It can also be caused by a work environment that perpetuates negativity or overwork. Do they not help you set boundaries? Do they require work out of the office or during time off? Do they set unreasonable expectations? Whether it’s one or a combination, if you’re starting to feel burnout symptoms, you need to make some changes.
Jasmine was in a position where she needed to take a break from the field. You may also feel that it is necessary, or you might feel that with additional steps, you can work through the burnout.
Work through and heal burnout:
- Seek support: talk with a trusted supervisor, friend, or family member.
- Seek therapy: ACT, or Cognitive Behavior Therapy can be especially helpful.
- Learn about burnout: find books, podcasts, and social media accounts that can guide your journey.
- Pursue personal identity: Dive into a passion project (like Jasmine with wedding planning!) or spend time doing hobbies you love outside of work.
If you’re new to the field or coming back from a break due to mental health, what can you do to ensure your employer has a positive culture that won’t lead to burnout? Jasmine shares some great questions and considerations for interviewing that can help you find the right employer.
- What are the leaders like? Do they foster collaboration and communication throughout the WHOLE team?
- What is the work life balance? Ask for actual policies and expectations!
- What is the PTO policy? Is time off REALLY time off? Are you expected to make up for billable hours?
- What is the turnover rate? A position with high turnover may not be a place with a positive environment.
As you head into a busy and often stressful season, put yourself first! Have the care, compassion, and patience you would have for your clients for yourself as well! It is okay to take care of yourself, and it is always okay to question your job, there may even be ways you can use your certification that you haven't even considered yet!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Burnout care and prevention.
- Burnout symptoms, what to look for?
- Mental health advocacy for ABA professionals.
- How to heal from burnout.
- Questions to ask to ensure a positive work culture from future employers.
Mentioned In This Episode:@TheABALady on Instagram
You may have heard of the term "ACT," or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, before, but this is a new topic for the show! I was so excited to learn about this impactful therapy approach from BCBA Kody Harms.
What is ACT? Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is all about accepting that variables and challenging things will occur in life, but developing mental flexibility through positive values can be overcome. As a therapist working with parents, teachers, and other professionals engaged in the special education community, Kody found this to be the strongest force, especially with post- COVID concerns. He focuses especially on those that will have an impact on children with special needs.
The approach to this therapy involves action based sessions. Creating daily actions to reflect who you want to be and systematic goals based on your environment. During intake, you have a values assessment to understand who you are and what you want to be. And weekly check-ins involving a health score from 1-10. The idea is that a healthier mind and mental space lead to more positive outcomes and change toward your goals. You can expect role play, narrative exercises, and other tactics that drive towards an overall shift toward a positive mindset.
Whether you’re a mom looking to be a better, more positive parent towards your special needs child or a professional working towards handling contentious situations with special needs children and their parents, ACT can be a really healthy and balanced way to reach those goals.
Before we close, Kody shares his 5 second rule when it comes to when you don’t really want to do something. I know I am going to use this right away!
You can find out more about Kody and ACT therapy with Curated Family Therapeutics online at their website and Instagram.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is ACT?
- The power of positive values and mindset.
- What is the ‘5 Second Rule’?
- What is Mental Flexibility?
- Traditional ABA vs ACT.
Mentioned In This Episode:Curated Family Therapeutics
CFT Instagram
Get Your Free Autism Toolbox
Whether you are a seasoned professional, parent, or brand new to the field, IEP meetings are a reality when it comes to school based settings. With over 20 years of experience, I have 5 top tips to keep you positive, prepared, and confident no matter the tone of the meeting.
- Have your special education director or administrator present - Sometimes lawyers and advocates are going to attend the meeting, in that event, make sure you have support on your side beyond your building principal.
- Complete a robust assessment AND/OR be comfortable with most recent assessment - Check out my prior episode on assessments like the PFA, Rossetti, VB-Mapp, Communication Matrix, and more.
- Include baseline data - This demonstrates a need for a goal. Be specific with accuracy and dates to track goals and progress.
- Send a draft home for a review - I recommend a week prior, but every district is different. The parent needs a chance to review and give feedback with their home team, and then you have a chance to receive and consider that feedback prior to the meeting or be prepared to discuss more during the IEP.
- Be prepared, remain calm, be professional, and seek help - You deserve to be treated with respect and do not have to accept verbal abuse, even during difficult and contentious IEP meetings.
If you ever need extra support, whether you’re a parent or professional, I am here, and you can book a coaching call with me. Not every IEP meeting will be warm and fuzzy, but we can live in a world where we do not dread them!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Do you dread IEP meetings?
- 5 survival tips for a positive IEP meeting.
- When to seek support in an IEP meeting.
- What to know about assessments prior to an IEP meeting.
- Why is a draft SO important before an IEP meeting.
- Why do contentious IEP meetings occur?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Autism Outreach Podcast - Episode 54: Autism Assessments
Book a coaching call with Rose
Get Your Free Autism Toolbox
One of my big goals with ABA Speech and The Autism Outreach Podcast is to disseminate information to help professionals stay in touch with the latest research and information in our field. When the article, Examining Core Vocabulary with Language Development for Early Symbolic Communicators, written by Dr. Allison Bean and Dr. Bethany Frick showed up in a professional Facebook group, I knew I had to know more.
Let’s first start by breaking down the definition of the vocabulary discussed in this article and today’s episode. Core Vocabulary is made up of 200–400 words that occur frequently across individuals, settings, and contexts - pronouns, verbs, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, and determiners (it, more, that, is).
Fringe Vocabulary is all the other words specific to an individual or activity - mostly nouns.
In their research, Dr. Bean and Dr. Semmler examined 7 core vocabulary lists, looking at the composition of the list, what portion were nouns/verbs/etc and when they are acquired under typical development. They found the lists to very well match the definitions in our field, and the majority of words were acquired by typical language learners from ages 25 - 66 months.
As we discuss the findings from their research, we consider how practitioners are choosing, using, and teaching words to AAC learners. AAC is still critical language development, just with a different modality. It is crucial to continue to use your clinical expertise and training in language development as you are choosing words and teaching your AAC users.
At some point in time, every single SLP will encounter a learner who uses AAC. How are you developing their language? How are you choosing meaningful words specific to the learner?
Dr. Bean and Dr. Semmler get to the heart of these important questions and have a great discussion about this important research!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is core vocabulary?
- What is fringe vocabulary?
- How to choose specific and meaningful words for your AAC user?
- AAC users and language development.
- Core vocabulary and acquisition with typical language development.
Mentioned In This Episode:Thank you to our sponsor LINGGO. For more information, visit www.linggo.com or contact info@linggo.com
Allison F. Bean | Department of Speech and Hearing Science (osu.edu)
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
When you are post-certification and become a practitioner, it can be difficult to stay in touch with the latest research. Dr. Amber Valentino, Chief Clinical Officer at Trumpet Behavioral Health, discusses some of the ways to break beyond the barriers of research as a clinician and make ABA research more accessible.
Dr. Valentino wrote a paper with her colleague, Jessica Juanico, on the barriers to research for practitioners who had a real desire to continue research during their field careers. This was the inspiration for her book, Applied Behavior Analysis Research Made Easy: A Handbook for Practitioners Conducting Research Post-Certification. Dr. Valentino expresses the importance and place for field research that looks different, may be less structured, and embraces the mess that is everyday clinic work.
I’ve set a goal for myself to read three journal articles a week because learning and disseminating information are important to me. Dr. Valentino shares some ways she recommends creating digestible goals to consume research, like “lit in a min” and time blocking.
We also talk a bit about public speaking. Whether you are live on socials, a podcast, an IEP, or a parent meeting, speaking can be nerve wracking. She says to prepare, practice, and know your audience. That is the best way to soothe your nerves and nail your talk!
You can find out more about Dr. Amber Valentino and her work by visiting the website for Trumpet Behavioral Health or checking out her personal website, Behavioral-Mom.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What should you be doing to help your clients?
- Sticking to evidence based practice and research in therapy
- Strategies for staying in touch with literature and current research.
- Public speaking as a provider.
Mentioned In This Episode:Behavior Mom
Trumpet Behavioral Health
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
Thank you to our sponsor LINGGO. For more information, visit www.linggo.com or contact info@linggo.com
Have you ever met a provider, with a “Sit down! Do your work! Kids need to listen!” mentality? Jennifer Posey is a BCBA and adjunct professor at Endicott College. In this episode, she shares about her new tool, the Joy Index, which is currently in the research and peer review process.
The Joy Index is a tool that measures assent, autonomy, embedded choice, and relationship building. It involves 32 indicators with yes or no answers that can be used by parents and professionals. As providers, our goal is to have a positive impact, but there are those who have raised concerns about the practice of ABA. This tool is to keep those concerns in check and ensure we are creating a joyful experience in therapy.
Honor the learner, follow their lead, provide choice in play materials and instruction, these are all parts of the dance between instructor and child to create a meaningful interaction.
The Joy Index is currently under peer review, so stay tuned for future information on this incredible tool. Contact Jennifer Posey via email and look out for her at upcoming conferences this year.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is the Joy index?
- Honoring the learner in every therapy session.
- A field with the goal to create positive change.
- Active strategies to create joy in therapy.
- What does joy in therapy look like?
- What is assent and what does it mean?
Mentioned In This Episode:jposey@endicott.edu
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
Don’t Wait! That’s the advice from Zulekha Williams when it comes to taking action for concerns with your child’s development. I met Zulekha over on TikTok; she is a great mom who is fighting for the needs of her children and sharing her journey along the way.
As a member of the helping profession, Zulekha wasted no time when it came to getting support for her son when she started noticing early signs of autism. Before his diagnosis, she was seeing signs like delayed motor skills, no eye tracking, limited awareness, no sense of danger, and no speech. She immediately started speech and other therapies before completing the M-CHAT on her own and bringing it to her doctor.
Alongside speech therapy for her speech delayed 2-year-old, Zulekha has quite the journey securing the right therapy and services for her sons. Between ABA therapy, speech therapy, telehealth, school, and even issues with allowing AAC in the school, she had to seek out the help of another TikTok creator, The IEP Strategist. If you’re having similar experiences when it comes to speech services or AAC, check out the Communication Bill of Rights on ASHA.
During our conversation, you can hear the passion Zulekha has for her children. Her story and tips for services and creating communication with your children are such an inspiration for any family!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A TikTok Mom sharing her family’s Autism and Therapy journey.
- Noticing early signs of autism and developmental delays.
- Advocating for therapy and other services.
- Using AAC and other communication tools in the home.
- Therapy services in a small town, navigating in-home therapy and telehealth.
- Can you get your Speech and ABA therapists to collaborate?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Communication Bill of Rights
Zulekha Williams on TikTok
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
“In all communication, aim first to understand”. This is the first bullet from Leanne Page’s Parent Training Checklist. Leanne is a BCBA, parent coach, author, continuing ed provider, and mom of 2. In this episode, she is sharing some impactful points on this step to step guide for Compassionate Parent Training.
Did you know that a study showed just 40 seconds of compassion from a doctor drastically improved patient outcomes? Oftentimes communications with parents can occur only when problems arise or to update goals and IEPS but Parent Training is actually a monthly service usually covered by insurance. Not only can this provide better client outcomes but it can impact and support the whole family.
Leanne uses thoughtful and clever tips in this checklist to dance the fine line of communication, covering goals and meeting them where they are at. Find yourself having trouble getting through a conversation with a parent. Use a pause wisely and remember, WAIT - Why Am I Talking? This gives you both a chance to reset.
With Parenting with ABA, Leannae offers membership and CEUs through monthly training and book studies covering empathy, compassion, and other trauma information resources based on ABA research. You can find out more about her and Compassionate Parent Training through her website!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Compassionate Parent Training?
- How can monthly parent training impact families?
- A Parent Training Checklist to help providers.
- Information on Parenting with ABA: Training, Studies, and CEUs.
- Relating a variety of empathy, compassion, and trauma-informed resources to ABA research.
Mentioned In This Episode:Parenting with ABA
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
We all know collaboration can be tricky when it comes to working across many fields of expertise, especially with a shared tool like AAC. Today I am delighted to have Barb Weber as my guest. Barb is an SLP, BCBA, author, and AAC specialist.
When it comes to AAC, especially considering the differences in AAC training for SLPs and BCBAs, navigating collaborating can be hard. Barb emphasizes the importance of matching the AAC device to the skills and relevant activities of the user. She also notes that the person whose voice it is and their close circle should be involved in the decision-making process. Functional and socially relevant vocabulary should be prioritized, taking into account different perspectives from the SLP, BCBA, teacher, and family.
There is a fine line between collaborating and “too many cooks in the kitchen”. Barbs asks the question; whose device is it? It is crucial to manage the device with agreed-upon procedures and involve one programmer who considers the communication and thoughts of all providers. But the most essential piece is to remember who we are serving, always supporting and honoring the user's needs.
Difficult conversations are part of the process, Barb actually calls this an important skill for therapy providers. She recommends that providers learn how to say hard things to ensure they are providing the best possible care. Negativity can circulate in areas of collaboration, but you can combat that by always talking to everybody and building opportunities with different perspectives.
Our conversation might help your collaboration go smoothly and even avoid disagreements, but if they do happen consider these tips:
- Have a direct (maybe difficult) conversation
- Gathering information to understand the perspective
- Summarizing the discussion and informing the team
- Documenting and building a history of decision-making
This was great information from Barb who is a member of ASHA’s SIG 12. I hope these tips can help you in your practice and collaborating with other providers on your journey to help your learners!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to navigate AAC collaboration?
- Remembering the user of the AAC device: Whose device is it?
- Using common vocabulary to create common ground.
- Managing AAC devices with agreed-upon procedures.
- How to handle difficult conversations with other providers
- Addressing disagreement among providers effectively.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Special Interest Group 12, Augmentative and Alternative Communication
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
In this conversation with Pediatric SLP Cindy Watson, you can just see the passion she has for helping young learners communicate and find their voice.
When Cindy first receives a new Early Intervention case she calls on the parent to talk through the reasons and concerns that led them there and another simple but IMPACTFUL thing…what does the child like? These things establish rapport and give Cindy the tools to enter the first Early Intervention session as she calls “the fun aunt.”
Cindy’s top favorite toys and tools for initiating play and communication are among my own with Bubbles, Books, Blocks, and other open-ended toys. Arkansas where Cindy’s center, Children’s Therapy TEAM is a bagless state which encourages therapists to enter homes with no outside resources and take advantage of the child’s natural environment so that parents can keep up the work outside of therapy.
When assessing new toddlers for Early Intervention Cindy starts out with play, observation, and conversations with caregivers. For formal assessments, she uses the Preschool Language Scale and the Rossetti Infant Toddler Language Scale.
Cindy shares my view on the importance and power of communication and shares a few key focuses she thinks therapists and families at home should consider when working on speech:
Cause and effect communication
Reinforcing language
Gestures
Joint attention
Building on milestones
Not only does Cindy do incredible work with young children in Early Intervention, but her center also has a really amazing mentorship program for their therapists to give them the tools and confidence to do their best work. You can find out more about Cindy and The Children’s Therapy Team on their website and Facebook.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How should you begin a new Early Intervention case?
- Top toys, tools, and resources for Early Intervention Therapy.
- What assessments should you use in Early Intervention with young learners?
- What skills and ideas should therapists and families focus on to build communication?
- A unique and powerful mentorship program for new therapists.
Mentioned In This Episode:Children’s Therapy TEAM
Children's Therapy Team on Facebook
cindy.watson@childrensteam.com
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
I am speaking with Rachel Archambault, the PTSD SLP. Rachel was present on Valentine's day 2018, when a mass shooting occurred in her workplace, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. This experience led her to curate and cultivate resources for her trauma-affected students, and provide therapy with Trauma Informed Care.
Trauma Informed Care hallmarks on: Realizing trauma is present, Recognizing the effects, Responding to the trauma and its effects, and avoiding Retraumatization. Rachel uses the 6 pillars of Trauma Informed Care to guide her approach:
Safety
Choice
Collaborating and Mutuality
Trust and Transparency
Empowerment
Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues
During our discussion, Rachel provides situations and insights that can guide your care to ensure no student is at risk of trigger or re-traumatization. Whether they were a part of a traumatizing national event or a smaller personal trauma, all trauma is equal and every person deserves to be protected. With her advice today, it is clear that this initiative takes a mindset shift that has benefits to everyone you come in contact with.
For more information check out the resources Rachel provided in today’s episode along with finding her on her Instagram @PTSD.SLP.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Trauma Informed Care?
- What are the 6 Pillars of Trauma Informed Care?
- Why all trauma should be protected.
- Can you use Trauma Informed Care in speech therapy?
- How to avoid retraumatization, tips and ideas.
- How to shift your mindset to protect others.
Mentioned In This Episode:What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
Trauma Informed
PTSD Resources for SLPs | Facebook
Rachel A. | The SLP W/ PTSD - Instagram
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
When it comes to supporting students using AAC devices… Are you Intimidated? Overwhelmed? Unsure? Unprepared? In this episode, I am digging into my tool belt of 21+ years of experience and sharing my top 5 strategies to use to support autistic learners using AAC devices!
Know this Document -> The Communication Bill of Rights! Be aware of this empowering document and print out and even share it with the people in your learner's orbit. Listen in for some specific and important rights for our learners and their voice.
Understand the Device: Sounds simple? Maybe, but there will often be new to you technology and programs. Take the initiative and the time to learn it and understand! You need to be an expert so you can help not only your learner but the others involved in their care. Seek out AAC experts in your district, find online tutorials, and get educated by company representatives!
Model Using the Device: Everyone in our learners' environment needs to understand that the device is absolutely essential. Model for other teachers and therapists so all providers can be aware and help your learner. Show how the device can be used across the day.
Train Others: People shouldn’t be afraid of AAC devices. It’s a big part of your responsibility to make sure everyone is educated about a device, its rights, and how to use it. Tie it into compliance with the IEP. Try fitting it into PD, training days, or late start days!
Keep Generalization in Mind: How is this important in a larger school environment? At home? In the community? This skill is important enough to take time to work on because it moves beyond the therapy room and will last across environments and lifespans.
Help me reach my goal of making sure ALL autistic learners have a voice! Like, share, and leave a review on this podcast!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Tools and tips for supporting students using AAC
- What is The Communication Bill of Rights?
- Troubleshooting misuse of AAC
- Understanding and modeling AAC.
- How to train others on AAC.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Episode 108: The Power of No with Lisa Wallace
Social skills game for mixed groups - ABA Speech
Boom Cards: Social Skills- Let's Talk: Visual Conversation
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
Dr. Corey Whelan, SLP-BCBA joins me in this episode to discuss a really important assessment for autistic individuals that can add to compassionate care across the lifespan.
Practical Function Assessment (PFA) is a process aimed at understanding individuals and the barriers they face in therapy. The goal of PFA is to provide a treatment plan via a skills-based therapy process that will prevent unsafe behavior and help clients reach their optimal learning environment. The first step in PFA is an open-ended interview to learn about the individual and their barriers. The information gathered in the interview is then synthesized into an Interview-Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA) to move forward with the assessment.
PFA allows for the safe evaluation of dangerous behavior without the need to witness it. Instead, the focus is on reinforcing non-dangerous, early responses in the chain of behavior, with the ultimate goal of providing a skills-based therapy process to treat problematic behavior. Three critical skills are emphasized in treatment with the PFA: functional communication training, tolerating disappointment when a response is not reinforced, and cooperating with adult-directed instruction during a delay.
Behavior Analysts looking for training in PFA can do so through online courses or by seeking mentorship from the center of the company they work with. PFA is ideal for individuals who are making minimal gains in therapy but behavior barriers remain a concern, or for new clients engaging in problem behavior prior to starting therapy.
It's important to note that the purpose of PFA is not to understand why a behavior is occurring, but to treat it and prevent it, leading to more effective therapy. By breaking through barriers, individuals can access their optimal learning environment, allowing them to make the most of their therapy sessions.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What are the PFA and the steps involved?
- How IISCA influences therapy response.
- Three critical skills for treatment after PFA.
- Breaking barriers and providing access to the optimal therapy environment.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Vinfen
Practical Functional Assessment
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
Dr. Sarah Frampton, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska - Omaha joins me today as we discuss her work with Matrix Training. Dr. Frampton also refers to it as Matrix “Planning”, this is a generative approach to therapy that can help learners acquire new skills and improve their communication.
Matrix Training involves arranging words in a matrix so that some multi-word phrases are taught directly, while others emerge through indirect teaching. This approach involves creating a table of related targets and components and then moving forward with training and probing. The key benefit of this approach is the ability to identify and prevent faulty stimulus control in tact training.
Age is not a barrier to using Matrix Training because it is based on a solid foundation. This approach is best suited for learners who are acquiring single-component tacts and listening skills, with a provider who has found a teaching style and process that works best for them. Learners who will find Matrix Training most effective are typically at Level 2 of the VB-Mapp or around 18 to 30 months developmentally.
The basics of Matrix Training are simply selecting targets, teaching targets, and then assessing targets. There are no restrictions on how to use and teach with Matrix Training, and it can be embedded into a naturalistic teaching context or any other context that works best for the student.
Dr. Frampton emphasizes that Matrix Training is a systematic and science-based tool that can be incredibly effective for therapy planning. When done well, therapy sessions can even look and feel like play.
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The benefit of Matrix Training and Planning.
- How to prevent faulty stimulus control in tact training.
- A systematic approach to selecting, teaching, and assessing targets.
- Science-based tool for therapy planning.
Mentioned In This Episode:Sarah Frampton | Department of Psychology | University of Nebraska Omaha
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
Dr. Dana Battaglia, SLP, and Dr. Mary McDonald, BCBA, have been working together and collaborating throughout their career. Collaboration in the two fields is slowly making progress but there is still a lot of polarity for a lot of professionals.
They rely on their strong commitment to science and evidence-based practice to guide their collaboration.
Dr. McDonald references the Ethics Code of Behavior Analysis codes, 2.10, 3.01, and 3.06.
2.10 Collaborating with Colleagues
Behavior analysts collaborate with colleagues from their own and other professions in the best interests of clients and stakeholders. Behavior analysts address conflicts by compromising when possible and always prioritizing the best interests of the client. Behavior analysts document all actions taken in these circumstances and their eventual outcomes.
3.01 Responsibility to Clients
Behavior analysts act in the best interest of clients, taking appropriate steps to support clients' rights, maximize benefits, and do no harm. They are also knowledgeable about and comply with applicable laws and regulations related to mandated reporting requirements.
3.06 Consulting with Other Providers
Behavior analysts arrange for appropriate consultation with and referrals to other providers in the best interests of their clients, with appropriate informed consent, and in compliance with applicable requirements (e.g., laws, regulations, contracts, organization, and funder policies).
The bottom line is to ask yourself, what is in the best interest of the client. When you don't know what you don't know and you have access to a professional with the knowledge and skills needed for your case, it is important to have humility, stick to the science, and consult them.
Dr. Battaglia and Dr. McDonald's collaboration across their professions maximize their outcomes and increase the benefit of the client. They share some strategies and tips to help other SLPs and BCBAs open to collaboration and see the same great results.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The ethics of collaborating
- Case studies featuring verbal imitation and PECS
- Collaborating with SLPS and BCBAS
- Strategies for collaboration to use in your practice
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr. Mary McDonald
dbattagliaslp@gmail.com
Dana Battaglia, Ph.D. (@Dana_Battaglia1) / Twitter
Eden II Programs
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
If you succeed, I succeed. That really culminates in the importance of SLP and BCBA collaboration, but as we've discussed on the show in the past…it can still be really challenging.
Lynn Dudek, owner of ASD SLP, and a fellow SLP-BCBA "unicorn". She shares her experiences in the field with stories coming from the late 80s and early 90s that dive into the history and changes we've seen in the SLP, BCBA, and autism fields. A pivotal moment in her career was a "dream dinner party" as I joke, where she picked the brains of Dr. Vince Carbone and Dr. Patrick McGreevy. Throughout her career as an SLP and eventually, as a BCBA, she was faced with the opportunity to work and collaborate with other BCBAs and SLPs.
Lynn shares somewhat of a case study of a collaboration interaction that really went well on the topic of verbal imitation. This concept with Echoics can be a touchy subject between the fields, but because the BCBA Lynn was working with was open to understanding Lynn's expertise on speech development, they were able to agree and move forward for the better of the learner.
Common Challenges for Collaboration:
-Understanding the role and expertise of the professional…who really "knows best?"
-The language barrier… academic language and terms between the two professions can differ greatly
Positive Strategies for Collaboration:
-Be open: create an open line of communication, you are both well-educated, trained professionals with specific expertise.
-Demystify the language: when possible use plain language that everyone can understand, or explicitly explain academic terms
-Pair first: we always talk about "pairing first" with our learners… take the time to pair with the other professional. Make a connection and show interest, it can smooth the edges of future disagreements.
When we work together we can do such amazing things, not just for the child but for the professionals on the team.
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A brief history of SLPs and BCBAs
- A “case study” on verbal imitation.
- Common challenges for collaboration between SLPs and BCBAs.
- Positive collaboration strategies
Mentioned In This Episode:lynn.dudek@asdslp.com
ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
No. No, thank you. I don’t want to. I don’t like this. These are important statements that communicate that you do not want something to happen. In this episode, Lisa Wallace an SLP who has worked with young children with autism and their families for over 25 years talks about this important yet overlooked skill of communicating “no.”
No may look like a variety of things depending on the activity and the child’s communication level. Clear signals might be verbally saying no, giving back or throwing an item, running away, crying, and in some cases severe problem behaviors. Other more subtle symptoms might be withdrawal, the closing of eyes, turning away, and disengagement.
Effective communication of “no” should be a goal for every child, regardless of how they are currently communicating it. To assess where to start, Lisa recommends using observational informal assessment, taking notes, and talking to the caretaker. What triggers a “no” response? What does “no” mean to them? What does “no” look like to them?
Lisa talks about working towards this goal in a mildly challenging way because there often are no provided opportunities to communicate “no”. Especially, if you have a child who is happily engaged in every activity. Or alternatively, you have a child who, provoking a “no” activity might cause triggering, dangerous behavior.
Tips for “Practicing Protesting”
-Provoke in a Mildly Challenging Situation (Avoid high stakes situations)
-Set antecedents, what are going to be the causes of the “no”?
-Provide visuals, AAC, or other familiar communication tools.
-Ready to model. Show the learner what communicating “no” looks like.
-Use the correct reinforcement: Removal of antecedent.
You want the child to know and understand that when they communicate “no” or “I don’t want to” or “Not like this”, their communication is going to be validated. Do not continue doing the “no” activity in any capacity.
This is such a great topic, and one I don’t think we discuss nearly enough. Saying “no” is an important piece of communication in helping our learners find their voice.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Why is communicating “no” so important?
- Creating goals based on communicating “no”.
- How to practice protesting in a supportive, non-triggering manner.
- What does “no” mean to each child?
- Observing clear or subtle “no” signals.
- Why saying “no” effectively should be a goal for every child.
Mentioned In This Episode:ABA Speech: Learn About Current ASHA and ACE CEUs
As SLPs and BCBAs we are tasked with teaching comprehension to our learners, but do they really understand these skills? Dr. Merrill Winston joined me to discuss not only reading comprehension but comprehension in everyday life and the building block skills to be successful.
What is comprehension?
Whether you're reading a book or listening to a statement, there are 3 markers for comprehension.
- Repeat it.
- Follow the Directions or Instructions within it.
- Talk about it.
Dr. Winston and I get into the nitty gritty of that last marker and talk about it when it comes to a comprehension of daily life. He says that a major prerequisite for reading comprehension is comprehending their day. You can check this by having your learner sequence, or "serieate" their day. (First I did this, then I did this, then we did that…)
With this skill, students are pulling information from the past and making a time reference. You can practice by working in smaller increments, like the last hour even.
This doesn't have to be verbal, it can be in pictures or icons as well! But, the important thing is to ask those questions!! Students may not be able to serieate their day, simply because they aren't being asked these questions.
We also talk about goal setting and realistic expectations. If you're considering setting a comprehension goal for your learner, Dr. Winston says to be sure to ask: What is the end goal? Where is this skill going to take them? Every skill you spend time on should have a goal that extends across the lifespan and opens more doors and opportunities. He even goes as far as to say that working on a goal for too long without progress is careless!
This was such a great chat with a leader in the field of ABA, and I hope you found it helpful!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What does comprehension really mean?
- How should providers be working on comprehension?
- What is “seriating your day” and why is it important?
- Determining functional goals for your learners.
- How goals and skills build to reach larger goals.
- Goals that will impact your learner’s life.
Mentioned In This Episode:Winston Behavioral Solutions
ABASpeechByRose - Rose Griffin - Instagram
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
Every October I send out a survey to find out what you all are struggling with. This year the top 2 answers were Engagement and Behavior Barriers. I talk about engagement often on the show, and in this episode, I am focusing on behavior barriers.
If you’re trying to find ways to support your students who might have behavioral barriers or problem behaviors here are seven things to consider for preventing and handling these barriers:
- Service delivery - Where are your students receiving services? Classroom, Therapy office, Individual setting, group, etc.
- Staff support - Request support either with a behavior plan or with physical support from a paraprofessional or behavior technician
- Visual Use visuals and familiar icons to help students know what to expect in your schedule and session
- Have your materials ready - Be prepared, and don’t leave time for gathering materials during your session… be ready to go, and keep your student engaged.
- Behavior Plan - Does your student have a behavior plan? Seek access to it or get the process started to create one.
- Fun and Functional - Embed student interests into the session, and be the giver of fun things
- Ask for help - The top priorities are for you to feel safe, the student to feel safe, and for intervention to take place…these things need to happen, advocate for them.
I also recommend recording ABC data. Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence. Write down and track every occurrence of behavior and the correlating information. As time continues you will understand, notice a pattern, and begin to prevent these behaviors. I offer an ABC sheet in my course Help Me Find My Voice, but ABC sheets are readily available via web search.
Not only is this podcast meant to help you give a voice to your learners, but also helps you have the confidence to reach and support all of your autistic students. If you found this helpful please subscribe so you don’t miss more important information you can put to use in your therapy room.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How can you reach and engage students with behavioral barriers?
- How to approach behavioral barriers in therapy.
- 7 things to consider when supporting students with behavior barriers.
- Giving the provider confidence to help ALL autistic students.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABASpeechByRose - Rose Griffin - Instagram
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
I love talking about joint attention, but a lot of my ideas and strategies in my courses may feel like they are geared toward older preschool-age students. My tips today are for the youngest learners, toddlers aged 2 to 3. Joint attention is an important foundational skill and it is never too early to get started with these strategies!
3 Ways to Get Started with Joint Attention with Your Toddler Today
Books
Books are the lifeline for learning and sharing activities and time with our little ones. For these young learners, when reading use a positive, energetic voice. Try using board books and interactive books with flaps. With your own child, make a goal to embed at least 15 minutes to read and interact with a book every day!
Some of my favorites: Huggy Kissy and the Llama Llama series
Songs
Use YOUR Voice. Learn songs with motions to sing with your toddler. If toddlers aren't speaking they can join in by using the gestures and doing the motions as you sing. You can also use visuals like toys that match the song or printed visuals from my TPT store for early intervention songs.
Some of my favorites: Wheels on the Bus, 5 Little Monkeys, Happy and You Know It, Old McDonald
Play
Playing with toddlers is so fun and you never know what they will love and enjoy. Focus on not asking questions but just modeling simple language and narrating the activity.
Some of my favorites: Bubbles, Sensory Bins, Cars with Tracks
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- 3 ways you can work on joint attention at home today!
- Joint attention strategies for toddlers.
- Tips and tricks for embedding joint attention work in your day-to-day.
- How to read books, sing songs, and play with your child to assist with joint attention.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Books For Speech Therapy For Toddlers
Songs for Early Intervention by ABA SPEECH | TPT
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
We need to step back and wait so that the child has a chance to find their voice, whatever that looks like so that they can spontaneously and independently connect with us.
Dr. Jamie Hughs-Lika is a BCBA-D, an Early Start Denver Model Certified Therapist, and has been working in the field for 26 years. We discussed what you can do when social engagement is difficult with your child or students and why is it so important to work on this skill.
Social engagement and attention begin as early as infancy, with eye contact and small coos from your baby. When this isn’t present, and the pattern of limited social engagement continues, Dr. Hughs-Lika says differences in social attention are one of the first early signs of autism. Children with autism are less motivated to engage socially, and Dr. Hughs-Lika covers the three pillars of social motivation:
*Social Orientation: This is responding to communication and social attention with eye contact, gestures, etc.
Social Seeking: This is initiating communication through gestures, imitation, showing toys or items, etc.
Social Maintaining: This is ‘maintaining’ a social connection through turn-taking and social reciprocity.*
Dr. Hughs-Lika is also an autism mom and shares a little about her journey for connection with her son Liam. When she works with him and other children she “takes a pulse” of the interaction with these questions.
- What captures the child’s attention?
- What are the distractions?
- Where are the motivations?
- How close can I get to maintaining comfort in the activities?
- Are there interfering behaviors that are becoming inflexible or rigid?
Social communication is the cornerstone of more advanced communication. Having fun, being positive, and building a personal connection with your child are important strategies for working on social engagement and communication. During our discussion, we talked about the assessments available, Dr. Hughs-Lika’s courses, and the nuance of working on this critical skill. You can find out more about her courses and other information by finding Sage Learning Systems on social media or visiting their websites.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
Is social engagement an early sign of autism?
What are the three pillars of social motivation?
Available assessments for social skills.
Strategies and Questions to guide interactions with your child or student.
Mentioned In This Episode:
—SAGE Learning Lab
—Sage Learning Systems
—Sage Learning Systems on Facebook
—Chevalier et al article
—Fun visuals for teaching strategies
—ABA Speech: Home
—ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
“Rose, I am working with a student who is not engaging during therapy!”
This is a message I get week after week from my listeners! So this week I am playing back my most listened episode of 2022, number 62, all about joint attention. I go over some key strategies to not only increase attention during therapy but help your child or client on their journey to communication
These activities involve shared activities through playing with toys, singing songs, and reading books. It is okay if your student isn't ready to fully engage when you introduce these activities, note their baseline data, and move forward with goals. You will be amazed to see the transformation and excitement over these simple activities.
Toys:
Playing with toys in therapy is all about creating an interaction in a semi-structured environment. Remember to use simple language and allow for natural curiosity and play and not bombard with questions.
Examples of toys I love to use:
- Car and car track
- Mini Objects
- Farm Set
Literacy:
Build excitement around the book, use books with repetition, and if your kids like it try an animated voice which can be really fun.
A few books I love to keep in my therapy bag that are a great success for joint attention are,
Pete the Cat and his White Shoes, Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
Music:
Students love songs, they are familiar, and create engagement. I also love to use visuals that can be just laminated pictures or little toys that match the activity of the song. It can also be engaging to sing songs that have motions for the words.
Songs I love:
- Old Macdonald
- Wheels on the Bus
- Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
It can be difficult to keep data and set goals around these abstract ideas, be sure to check out my goal bank on ABA speech. I hope you love these ideas and get use out of them in your next therapy session!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to increase learner engagement?
- What is joint attention?
- How to embed joint attention across a student's day.
- Where to start with joint attention.
- Integrating shared activities into therapy.
- Why should you focus on the connection before communication?
Mentioned In This Episode:
IEP Goals for Students with Autism - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
Any chance to talk about collaboration, I am all about it! Janna Bedoyan and Morgan van Diepen are experienced members of the autism field. Janna is an NBCT teacher who specializes in Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Morgan is a BCBA and autism specialist. As I talk to these two today, their passion is just incredible.
Together, Janna and Morgan have just published a new book, AAC Visualized - a visual guide for AAC full of detailed pictures, examples, ideas, and strategies. The mission behind AAC Visualized is to normalize the use of AAC, advocate for acceptance and access to AAC, and empower families through AAC education. In the creation of this book, they collaborated with SLPs, Teachers, Autistic Individuals, and AAC users to get an all-encompassing view on AAC.
Janna and Morgan make it clear that it is NOT SLP versus ABA but instead there is a clear need for collaboration between the two. AAC is typically taught and used with SLPs but it's important for ABA providers to put it to use during therapy as well for these users. They share some of their tips and strategies from their book!
3 Essential Tips for ABA Providers Teaching AAC
- Follow the SLPs Lead
- Moving Beyond Requests
- Use AAC to Teach AAC
Be sure to check out their book AAC Visualized and the "sister" book ABA Visualized. You can find Morgan and Janna on Instagram to check out all of the cool things they are doing in their field!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- 3 essential tips for ABA providers teaching AAC.
- Introducing a visual guide to normalize, advocate, and empower AAC.
- How modeling AAC can familiarize staff and users with AAC devices.
- Unique strategies for AAC and ABA.
- How to collaboratively support and empower students.
- It’s not SLP vs ABA.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Shop AAC VisualizedAAC Specialist & Consultant (@aac.and.me) • Instagram
ABA Visualized (@abavisualized) • Instagram
ABA Speech
I love hearing from autistic individuals in the field who have first-hand experience with the challenges and reality of diagnosis and therapy. Carly Millis Jalowiec is the Education Assistant at Milestones Autism Resources, today she shares with me her journey to her own autism diagnosis as an adult. Carly provides great insight into the difficulty of diagnosing autism in females and why providers and clinicians have an outdated idea of autism.
Autism in girls is unfortunately too often missed. Carly explains that in the infancy of autism research was focused primarily on white boys with a narrow view of symptoms and presentations. Providers often only find a diagnosis in those with the same profile while social conditioning and traditional gender expectations create varied presentations for autism. Boys will often present autism symptoms in a very outward way while girls will typically internalize symptoms and characteristics.
Carly talks about how arriving at her adult diagnosis leans a lot into her lifelong masking and camouflaging. Masking is a really important topic in the autism field today because so many individuals want and deserve to be honored as themselves. Carly explains how masking can help individuals fit into the world and get through the day but can really hurt themselves internally. She herself says she doesn’t know where she ends and the mask begins. There is an importance to learning to navigate the neurotypical world but not at the expense of losing yourself.
This is where clinicians and providers come in. Social Skills instruction often leads therapy in the direction of hiding or changing an autistic individual with unrealistic goals. Carly stresses the importance of setting goals that do not change the individual or try to “remove the autism” because that simply won’t work. Goals and skills should revolve around redefining what success looks like for each individual in a way that honors their true self.
Research and understanding of autism have changed in such a rapid way, more than any other field. So it is SO important that we have these important, nuanced conversations to increase awareness. You can find Carly on LinkedIn and check out Milestones online for autism resources and information!
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- \What it’s really like is getting an adult autism diagnosis.
- Why is autism often missed in females?
- The difference in autism presentation for males and females.
- Why providers and clinicians have an outdated idea of autism.
- The benefits AND challenges behind masking and camouflaging autism.
- Teaching social skills to honor the autistic individual.
Mentioned In This Episode:Carly Millis Jalowiec - LinkedIn
Milestones Autism Resources
ABA Speech
Wow! I can't believe we are here… episode 100! In honor of this milestone, we are flipping the script with my friend and mentor, Lisa Chattler, interviewing me.
Going back to the VERY beginning, I had no idea what I wanted to be, so my mom gave me a career test my senior year and it actually revealed my ideal profession as a speech therapist. I really didn't know a lot about the career so I shadowed a friend of the family who was an SLP and that day I just knew it was perfect for me, so I declared my major and never looked back. Now I've been an SLP for 20 years.
Lisa asks some great questions about the learners, mentors, resources, and paths that lead to where I am today: dual certified as a BCBA and SLP, operating an online business, offering courses and webinars, and hosting the Autism Outreach Podcast. And I get to share those important decisions and people who have shaped my experience.
Since I was a kid, I've always been in trouble because I was turned sideways in my chair talking away. That is one of the reasons I love this podcast; not only do I get to talk and have great conversations but I get to do so with experts in the field that I really admire. I am happy to have this opportunity and keep spreading the word about autism, SLPs, BCBAs, and ABA through the show and my online courses.
Thanks for being a listener, and just know your dedication to the field by listening is so important!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Celebrating 100 episodes of the Autism Outreach Podcast
- An interview with host, Rose Griffin
- The people, students, and experiences that shaped Rose Griffin’s career journey.
Mentioned In This Episode:ABA Speech
Kristen Colyer is a BCBA and the Director of Children’s Services at The Infinity Center for Behavior Services. She joined me today to discuss Early Intervention and ABA for young children.
When you first get that autism diagnosis, beginning Early Intervention and ABA services is the first step for support for many parents and their child. Kristen shares what that looks like at The Infinity Center. Because we are working with young children, most often with limited or no communication, parents are the best reporters. The first step is a parent interview to gain as much insight and knowledge of the child. Next, the child will join for an additional interview with the parent. Finally, the BCBA and the child will engage in play therapy. During this time the BCBA will observe and complete assessments. The Infinity Center most commonly uses the VB-MAPP and depending on the skills and communication level of the child may administer other assessments such as the Essential 8 or social skills assessments. This process from the parent interview to the play observation could span a couple of days.
Support does not end with the child. In many cases insurance covers parent training. The Infinity Center offers parent support and twice-monthly parent training. In these trainings, they cover what’s happening in therapy, therapy goals, and how therapy activities can translate to at-home activities. Additionally, because play therapy can be oddly tricky, the center offers shadowing, training, support, and natural environment protocol practice for their staff.
Learning and receiving therapy through play is so important and really effective. Kristen shares a few of her favorite and popular toys for therapy sessions. She says children often gravitate towards cause and effect play, favorites for these include the Melissa and Doug Wooden Ball Tower and the classic Jack in the Box. They also play Mr. Potato Head and the Shoebox game, based on BCBA Mary Barbera’s book and courses.
The Infinity Center for Behavior Services is based in Maryland, if you’re in the area or would like to learn more you can check them out on social media or visit their website.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What does the assessment look like for children seeking ABA services?
- What is a robust assessment for younger students with an autism diagnosis?
- How are parents supported during early intervention?
- What does ABA look like for younger students?
- How are staff trained and supported in play and natural environment therapy?
- Top toys and tools for play therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Infinity Center ABA
Infinity Center for Behavior Services - Home | Facebook
Announcing The 2nd Annual Autism Connection Conference held in collaboration with The Autism Helper.
Join us on December 3rd for an exciting, fun, and knowledge-packed conference. The event will run from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM EST with a break for lunch. Autism Connection features 5 amazing sessions created with SLPs, Special Education teachers, General Education teachers, and BCBAs in mind.
Join our LIVE session or replay the recorded event available three days later until December 31st. When you participate you are eligible to receive a general certificate, ASHA CEUs, and ACE Provider credit.
This conference features 5 sessions to help support YOU in the classroom and therapy room:
- Can’t Do or Won’t Do? with Sasha Long, BCBA
- The Power of Joint Attention with Rose Griffin, SLP-BCBA
- Using AAC to Teach AAC with Janna Bedoyan, AAC Specialist, and Morgan Alexandra Van Diepen, BCBA
- Strategies You Can Try Before Requesting Behavioral Consultation with Matt Cicoria, BCBA
- Three Ways Teachers Can Support Neurodivergent Learners in Their Classroom with Teva Johnstone, Clinical Social Worker, and Therapist
Be sure to get registered for this awesome virtual conference! We can’t wait to see you at Autism Connection on December 3rd!
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Register for the 2nd Annual Autism Connection Conference
- 5 Amazing Sessions for SLPs, BCBAs, and Special and General Education Teachers.
- How to earn a general certificate, ASHA CEUs, or ACE conference credit.
- Learn about Positive Behavioral Strategies, AAC, Joint Attention, and more!
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech
Register for The Autism Connection Conference
Rachel Torrance is a BCBA, License intervention specialist, on the board at Milestones Autism Resources, and a Consultant working with parents, school districts, and private agencies to advocate appropriate services and achieve desirable outcomes. Rachel also happens to be my business partner at Supervision Academy, a virtual resource for attaining supervision hours to become a certified BCBA.
Becoming a BCBA requires coursework (as a master’s program or post-master’s), Hours, Supervision, Observations, Feedback, Formal Exam, and more. Supervision for a traditional path requires 2000 hours directly supervised by an experienced BCBA or group of BCBAs.
At Supervision Academy we know becoming a BCBA is hard work and stressful, and finding a supervisor can be nearly impossible at times. We offer a virtual group of supervisors providing clinical expertise, behavior skills training, guidance, feedback, and more. Additionally, we strive to provide robust supervision, tailoring your experience to your career goals.
When finding a supervisor for this very important piece of your certification we encourage you to cover all of your bases. Rachel suggests asking and considering these questions when interviewing supervisors.
- Do you have a curriculum and are you set in this curriculum?
- Are you open to thinking outside the box?
- How do you determine what you're going to teach and individualize?
- What does a typical meeting look like?
- What does supervising feedback look like?
- What experience does the supervisor have?
- Do they have a contract?
- What systems do they have in place for the supervising process?
- How do they meet HIPAA and FERPA laws for virtual interactions?
- Does the supervisor meet the rules and laws of the state for practicing ABA?
Please note that all information provided in this episode is current as of November 2022. If you’re interested in learning more about Rachel Torrance and her work you can check out her consulting website, as well as visit the Supervision Academy page to find out how we can help you with supervision to become a BCBA!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How do you become a BCBA?
- How has becoming a BCBA changed as the field has grown?
- What are the supervision requirements for becoming a BCBA?
- What is Supervision Academy?
- Questions you should be asking prospective supervisors.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Behavioral and Educational Expert ServicesSupervision Academy
Parents, have you ever been in a situation where you're fighting with your child's school to get your child the services they deserve and are entitled to? Catherine Michael has spent more than 20 years working with families on designing success for special needs children. She is a managing partner at the law firm Connell Michael Kerr as well as the founder of Coffee with Catherine, which offers classes and resources for families of children with special needs.
A Free Appropriate Education
Every child in America is entitled to a free appropriate education. This means the support, services, accommodations, and environment that they have been evaluated for and determined to need for their educational success. The Individual Disabilities Education Act, outlines federally what special needs students are required to receive within schools. Many states have even codified and extended these laws into their own state statutes to give more rights to these families.
Educational Due Process
Due Process does not create damage, the goal of this action is to resolve and settle on the necessary support and services for a child as quickly as possible. As soon as the Educational Due Process is filed, a school has 15 days to come to a resolution with the family. If a resolution is not met then an Administrative Hearing will take place. This hearing is an informal relaxed hearing often taking place in a school, where the burden of proof lies on the parents. Catherine discusses the obstacles to the qualifications of the Hearing Officers for these settings and how they can negatively affect the outcome.
If you're a professional or parent seeking to learn more about Special Education Law check out the resources at Coffee with Catherine. Additionally, if you're located in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Alaska and need legal assistance pertaining to special education, reach out via the Connell Michael Kerr, LLP website.
What’s Inside:
- Who does Special Education Law serve?
- What is Educational Due Process?
- What does it mean to receive a free appropriate education?
- How do parents and schools come to a resolution?
- What is an Administrative Hearing?
- What are the qualifications of a Hearing Officer?
Mentioned In This Episode:Coffee with Catherine
Connell Michael Kerr, LLP
As an SLP-BCBA, collaboration is a really important part of my work. Julianne Trudeau is an SLP and Director of Speech Services at Bierman Autism Center. This center grew from a small in-home provider to a clinic-based therapy center with 17 locations across the country. Bierman operates a Collaborative Service Model in which BCBAs, SLPs, and OTs work together to best serve the child.
I've shared many stories in the past about the difficulty I've both seen and experienced with the collaboration between SLPs and BCBAs. Julianne uses an analogy, I love. BCBAs and SLPs are like a married couple, they may not always see eye to eye but they have the same goal at heart. This goal is in the best interest of the child. In collaborating together, BCBAs and SLPs can take a bit from each other to become better, more informed professionals and make the child the most successful as possible at the same time.
Bierman Autism Center increases the success of their collaborative service model by embedding opportunities into the schedule. Providers have embedded meetings for communication and collaboration for their cases. They also schedule weekly clinical staff meetings, monthly center staff meetings, and quarterly meetings for centers across the region. Bierman also embeds collaborative training opportunities for staff and parents.
Intake a Bierman begins with a family tour led by the center director. During this time services, goals, and collaborative ideas are discussed with the family. This visit will be followed up with an initial assessment and the parents will be provided the opportunity to have their child's ABA supplemented with service from other center providers such as SLPs and OTs. When a family chooses to participate in a collaborative service, each department will assess the child and collaborate and touch base on overlapping areas and goals.
You can find out more about Bierman Autism Centers at their website or on social media.
What’s Inside:
- What is a Collaborative Service Model?
- What is Collaborative Assessment?
- How SLPs, BCBAs, and OTs can effectively collaborate.
- Using Collaborative Assessment to get a true snapshot of the child.
- Planning appropriately for intervention.
Mentioned In This Episode:Bierman Autism Centers
Autumn Ziemba was working as a news anchor for Fox 8 News when her son received his autism diagnosis. Through her family journey and support in the autism community, Autumn has shifted careers to become the Communications and Content Manager for Milestones Autism Resources.
As a mother of two, Autumn knew what to expect for typical development in her young children. When her youngest started showing signs of regression, loss of speech, disinterest in typical play, and others around her began to notice too, it was time for an evaluation. With the support of her family’s pediatrician, her son was able to receive a diagnosis at age 2 and a half. This was in 2017 and the times were different when it came to support, resources, and services. Her son started with play-based ABA and speech therapy for one hour a week, not nearly enough. To add to their hardship, just three months post-diagnosis her son was diagnosed with Leukemia. Their focus had to shift from early intervention to cancer treatment. After the early days and weeks of treatment, their family was able to bring back ABA therapy and other services. Now at 7 years old, Autumn's son is a Leukemia-Survivor and attending school in a special needs classroom with great support from their school district.
As a parent who has been through so much with her son and her family, Autumn’s biggest advice to professionals, providers, teachers, and anyone working with autism families is to have empathy. For her empathy, compassion, and understanding goes a long way. I’ve seen firsthand professionals and other parties be less than supportive of families with questions, and agendas. But Autumn reminds us that parents are coming in with only their children’s best interest at heart, and it's important to understand that.
For families just beginning their autism journey whether pre or post-diagnosis: Do not fear the diagnosis. Autumn shares that while a concrete diagnosis can feel scary, it can actually open up doors to resources, services, and support that you wouldn't otherwise have. Take each day as it comes, and remember not every approach will work for every child. Meet your child in the middle and allow them to be a part of their own team!
If you’d like to find out more about Autumn Ziemba you can find her family's autism story online, as well as her contact information on the Milestones website.
What’s Inside:
- Autumn Ziemba and her family’s autism journey.
- Seeing the early signs of autism.
- Navigating resources and services post-diagnosis.
- Tips for professionals communicating with parents.
- Advice for autism families.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Milestones.org
I haven’t done a solo show in a while and I am excited today to share my 10 strategies to increase student engagement. I had a client, let’s call him Adam for today, and when I started working with him, he did not communicate or even engage at all. I would bring different toys and objects to try to get his attention through play-based learning but we would just take a toy and leave. About after 4 sessions with him, his parents started asking me when am I going to use a more structure approach and really work on his communication skills. Truthfully, I felt defeated and anxious.
But at 20 plus years into my career already, I have done so much research about joint attention and how valuable this is to ABA and Speech Therapy. On our 5th session, I brought Mini Objects in a bag and although Adam’s engagement was still fleeting then, he picked up a toy form the bag and it was a shoe. Adam exclaims, “Shoe!” and we were all so excited because that was his first word during his sessions! It was in this moment that I realized that Adam has started his journey with communication and when we realize that these small steps every session matter, it opens up a path for spontaneous communication. So today, I share and break down my top 10 tips I applied to help increase Adam’s engagement in therapy.
- Start with something fun that your student enjoys.
- Work on shared activities.
- Use books for your students.
- Use a song.
- Analyze when your student needs a break.
- Target the IEP goals.
- Take the data and be specific.
- Get up and moving.
- What does your student love and enjoy and how can you embed that into your sessions?
- Where do you see the student? What environment do you work in?
Every student is different so with these strategies, you really need to be creative and discern what works for your student at the moment. What works for one student may or may not work for another. If you have a student in mind that you want to help start communicating, these strategies will really be beneficial to improving your relationships with your students and increasing their learner engagement. For more tips and information on helping students with communicating, check out our ASHA approved 5-hour course, Start Communicating Today.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A case study about a student who had zero engagement.
- Why play-based learning and joint attention is important.
- My 10 strategies to increase learner engagement.
- How to apply these 10 strategies to your therapy sessions.
Mentioned in this Episode:
ABA Speech
Start Communicating Today Course
I love this power statement: “If you don’t believe in ABA, it’s like you don’t believe in breathing.” It’s a really impactful tidbit from my chat with Dr. Joanne Gerenser, SLP and Executive Director of the Eden II Programs. Dr. Gereneser and I discuss the importance of ABA in the field, as well as what that means for collaborating with other professionals; having SLPs and BCBAs work together with ABA to serve students with autism, especially those with challenging behavior.
There are some professionals and parents in the field that just really don’t understand what ABA is. There can be a lot of mean-spirited, negative, information online about ABA depending on where you’re looking. When you really look at it and understand the professionals working in the ABA field and the help it can provide to the autism community with serious learning and behavior challenges, you will see just how important it is.
When it comes to collaboration, you can’t paint every BCBA with the same brush just the same as SLPs. The worst therapists are not representative of the entire field and you cannot walk into an interaction with telling the other professional what to do; It erodes the professional relationship.
Dr. Gerenser’s techniques for communicating with hesitant professionals:
- Build a professional relationship.
- See the person beyond the technique.
- Be humble, you don’t know all the answers.
You can find out more about Eden II and Dr. Joanne Gerenser, visit Eden II Programs online.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Using ABA in Speech Therapy
- How to collaborate with hesitant professionals
- Serving students with problem behaviors as an SLP
Mentioned In This Episode:Home - Eden II Programs (eden2.org)
ABA Speech: Home
Register for the free SLP in an ABA Setting Mentorship webinar
As therapists we know that every client is different when it comes to goals, abilities, and needs but how often are we checking up on our cultural awareness for each individual? Maria Davis-Pierre is a mental health counselor and the founder of Autism in Black. As a mother with two autistic children and autism herself, Maria understands the stigma associated with the diagnosis and is on a mission to educate on inclusive, culturally responsive therapy for black families and other underrepresented cultures.
“Is there anything culturally we should know about you?” A question Maria highlights as one of the best questionnaire form inclusions she has seen when it comes to starting therapy. As a professional and therapist working with unique individuals from all cultures and backgrounds, there are no details too small to incorporate into therapy that fit your client's culture. For example, bring culturally relevant props for a therapy lesson or check your understanding of cultural concepts that could be a typical household routine for one culture but seen as a learning deficit in another.
Whether props, books, flashcards, etc. be cognisant of your materials and the reflection of your client within them. It is important for black children to see themselves reflected in their learning materials to not only understand but also stay engaged. It is okay if you’re not an expert on every culture and every family. Ask questions, be open, and create a dialog so that you can continue to learn and support your clients in a culturally responsive way.
What to keep in mind when getting started with culture-responsive therapy:
- It's okay to be uncomfortable, check your bias. Growth comes from uncomfortability.
- Use representative tools and materials.
- Be curious and ask questions. Life-long learning process.
- Be open, honest, and admit when you make mistakes.
As therapists and professionals are number one, the goal is to always help the children and culturally responsive therapy is a really important but often forgotten piece of that. Maria shares some great tips and insights for professionals to consider. You can find out more about her work on the Autism in Black website.
What’s Inside:
- How can we as professionals be more culturally responsive?
- Tips and strategies for being culturally responsive and inclusive in your therapy sessions?
- How to incorporate your clients' unique cultural needs?
- Check your understanding: Learning Deficit vs. Cultural Preference
Mentioned In This Episode:Autism in Black
ABA Speech: Home
Register for the free SLP in an ABA Setting Mentorship webinar
Dr. Ariana Boutain is the Vice President of Clinical Services at KGH Autism Services. At their facility, they are passionate about child-initiated and play-based therapy with NDBI.
Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention is an empirically supported approach to treating young children with autism that involves learning through play. NDBI represents a merge of ABA and developmental science.
The general framework for NDBI that Dr. Ariana and her colleagues use is the principles of ABA as well as developmentally based assessments and intervention strategies for guiding goal development and individualization. Teaching strategies with NDBI involve child-initiated, child-led play. This involves environmental setup, communication temptation, and shared control with turn-taking.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is a hot topic in the field of autism but it is a high priority at KGH. As they add SLPs, OTs, and other providers to their team they match therapy approaches, encourage play-based therapy for all disciplines and provide thorough training on NDBI.
You can find out more about the work and treatment model at KGH on their website!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is NDBI?
- Applied Behavior Analysis and Developmental Based Intervention.
- Why are child-centered therapy and play-based learning important?
- A framework for interdisciplinary collaboration.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Our Services | KGH Autism Services: ASD Treatment Clinic, Chicago & Madison
Advanced Language Learner - Sign Up Today - ABA Speech
Register for the Pyramid Educational Consultant’s Third Annual FUNctional Communication Conference on October 17th & 18th
ABA Speech: Home
Whether you’re a parent, professional, or an autistic individual, you have most likely seen the Autism Puzzle Piece. Like myself, you might even have a sticker or magnet on display as a symbol of your support for the community. But what is the real symbolism behind it? In this episode, I have the honor to talk with Thomas McKean, an autistic adult who had an integral part in the development of this icon.
Prior to Thomas’s collaboration in the creation of today’s autism puzzle piece, the original icon developed in 1963 was a puzzle piece with a child crying. This symbol represented the hopelessness, sadness, and confusion for children with autism at the time. In the 1960s, there was little to no research, ethical treatment, or support for autism families.
When Thomas and his colleagues developed the new symbol in 1999 they knew the view and information about autism had changed a lot. There was much more hope and a positive shift had taken place in the community. They wanted to embody that. The autism symbol as we know it today is represented by a puzzle piece reflecting the information we are still missing and learning as we add new “pieces”, it features a multi-colored design to represent diversity in the community.
"If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism." - Dr. Stephen Shore
This representation of diversity is so crucial to Thoma’s advice when it comes to division in the field. He says, the difference is not bad, in fact, it's necessary. Because each individual with autism is so different it's important for professionals to see things differently and really work toward an individual approach. No professional is going to have all the answers for every autistic person, and when we understand that, we can peacefully collaborate.
Thomas says one of his most asked questions is how to help parents who are just venturing into their autism journey with their child. For that, he has 4 steps.
- Read and Learn
- Find Support
- Attend conferences, presentations, and network in the community.
- Start OT and receive an evaluation for sensory processing.
- From there you will learn the pieces of how to support, treat, and help your child.
This was such an enlightening talk on the true vision and meaning of such an important icon in our community. I hope you found it just as interesting as I did!
#autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- The Symbolism behind the Autism Puzzle Piece.
- Advice for professionals on resolving division in the autism community.
- 4 steps for parents entering the autism journey with their child.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Thomas A. McKean
Thomas A. McKean | Facebook
Advanced Language Learner - Sign Up Today - ABA Speech
Register for the Pyramid Educational Consultant’s Third Annual FUNctional Communication Conference on October 17th & 18th
ABA Speech: Home
“Rose speaks through the lens of the SLP and BCBA which is incredibly helpful in bridging the communication between the two fields. Rose keeps students' individual needs at the forefront of decisions on therapy targets and she incorporates autistic voices and has worked hard to keep therapy and training relevant to autistic learners. I appreciated her practical therapy ideas and sharing of materials to get started.” Jenny Blackman, SLP
Introducing ABA Speech’s newest course, Advanced Language Learner. A brand new 5-hour ASHA and ACE-approved course. Are your autistic learners struggling to break beyond their basic communication skills? Plateauing? This course is packed full of helpful, transformative content to bring your learners and your therapy to the next level.
What can you expect to learn?
-Effective assessments
-Collaboration tips and techniques
-Developing expressive and receptive communication skills
-Strengthening social skills AND respecting individuality
-IEP Meeting Tips
-Effective group intervention
-Guest Lecturer: Oliver Wendt, Matrix Training
-Monthly group mentoring and support with access to the online community
-Materials: Adapted books, no prep group activities, language book, leisure activity visuals, and so much more.
Do not miss out on this one-time-only FOUNDERS pricing: $197 available for 1 week only!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to go from basic communication skills to skyrocketing speech and language growth
- What you can expect from ABA Speech’s newest course: Advanced Language Learner
- Information and materials for assessments, collaboration, IEP goals, group intervention, and more.
- Founders Price for a brand new ASHA and ACE-approved course.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Advanced Language Learner - Sign Up Today - ABA Speech
Register for the Pyramid Educational Consultant’s Third Annual FUNctional Communication Conference on October 17th & 18th
ABA Speech: Home
“Rose, I’m not sure how to plan a session. I have 5 autistic students that I need to see for group therapy to work on social language instruction and I am not sure what activities to plan to help them remain engaged and work on their individual and social language goals.”
I received this question in an email from one of my listeners! So today’s episode I am sharing my customizable framework for planning group therapy, along with some great resources, activity ideas, and freebies!
Group Therapy Framework
Tools: SmartBoard or iPad for sharing visuals with group
Question of the Day
- Try a “Would You Rather” or other choice-based question.
- Have students come up to tally their choice, and encourage interaction with the next peer
- Check out my Let’s Talk and Would You Rather resources for the SmartBoard
Literacy-Based Activity
- Read an adapted book with real-life pictures, real-life scenarios (book should have one sentence, one picture - I have linked some I created but feel free to DIY your own!)
- Pull up book on large screen, smart board, or iPad
- Read TOGETHER, differentiate reading by having students read known sight words
Extension Based Activity
- Expand and dig deeper into the functional vocabulary related to the adapted book
- Try a simple writing activity
- Another great idea is categorizing and labeling based on the book
Leisure Based Activity
- A fun activity that our kids love and can be generalized at home
- Relevant to use over the lifespan
- Ideas: Modified Uno, Modified Connect Four, The Grocery Store Game, Yoga
I have linked all of the resources and freebies I shared today that can be used in this customizable framework for planning group therapy sessions for autistic learners, be sure to check them out!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- A framework for planning group therapy instruction for autistic learners.
- Free activities for group therapy.
- What shared goals can you work on within group therapy?
- How can group therapy benefit all learners?
- How to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction in group therapy.
- Encouraging participation and social engagement in a group.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Fall Freebie Would You Rather by ABA SPEECH
Farm Visit Adapted Book by ABA SPEECH
Grocery Store PPT
Register for the Pyramid Educational Consultant’s Third Annual FUNctional Communication Conference on October 17th & 18th
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
What is it that develops speech production in our learners? Today, Tamara Kasper, BCBA and SLP, is sharing some really great and specific information on how speech production and reinforcement differs between typical developing children versus children with autism.
Speech Sound Production
In typically developing children, speech sounds are reinforced differentially and automatically when making sounds that sound like words. For example, they get a cookie when they make a sound that sounds like cookie or they get happy, hugging excitement when they say something that sounds like mama or dada. Naturally, typical children are encouraged by the sounds and interactions in their environment and want to match the sounds made by the people they value in their world. This is where self-correction and refinement comes in because they will notice and hear how their sounds may sound different from the adults around them.
In non-typically developing children, specifically those with autism, they are more sensitive to social stimuli and are less likely to be affected by the attention of their parents or guardians in regards to their sounds. So the traditional, automatic reinforcement to make and refine sounds is not occurring. Additionally, these learners will not likely notice how their sounds sound different from those around them, leading to no self-correction as sound production continues.
Therapy for Speech Sound Production
Tamra shares her assessment and criteria for determining readiness for working on speech production. She collects metrics from the VB-MAPP, indicating responses, manding rate and variety, instruction cooperation development, and echoic repertoire. The scores and data from these metrics will relay whether a Natural Environment or Structure Teaching therapy is appropriate for these students. Within these systems, Tamra discusses the programs she uses. She shares today a little bit of her rubric on how she assigns these programs based on the needs of the child and assessment criteria.
If you’d like to learn more about Tamra, you can find out more about her work and some video tips at Northern Speech Services. Additionally, if you’d like access to her therapy rubric discussed today and other resources, you can reach her via email.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Acquisition of speech production in typical vs non-typical children.
- Do typically developing children shape sounds to match those in their environment?
- How do we know when an autistic learner is ready for speech sound production in therapy?
- Assessment and Criteria for determining therapy training for sound production.
- Training programs for natural environment and structured teaching therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:tkasper@centerautism.org
Northern Speech Services
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
September 13th FREE Webinar 8-9 pm EST registration link
September 14th Free Webinar 8-9 pm EST registration link
Nothing can cause more stress than an IEP meeting looming in the future. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Stephanie DeLussey, IEP coach and veteran special education teacher, joined me on the podcast today to share some tips and suggestions for making IEPs not only painless but more productive.
Goal Setting
SMART goals are a big buzzword in the education community, but what does it mean? Stephanie breaks down the acronym;
Specific -Is the goal individualized and a direct skill, no generalizations?
Measurable - Can the goal be tracked with data?
Attainable - Is this goal realistic for the student?
Relevant - Is this goal relevant to the student's needs, capabilities, and grade level?
Timebound - Is the goal given a realistic timetable to be met by the student?
Objectives and benchmarks are often used interchangeably when discussing goals, but they are not the same. Objectives are larger skills broken down into smaller skills and goals. A Benchmark looks more like the Annual IEP Goal but is broken into steps to achieve it. As Stephanie called it, ‘same staircase, different way to climb it’.
Every state's guidance when it comes to skills can be very different, some have State Standards, some have Common Core, some have Essential Elements. Depending on even your district or your individual school, whether you include these in your IEP goals or not. Stephanie explains how this relates to the IDEA Federal Law, state laws, and local recommendations.
Stephanie’s Top Two Tips for IEP Preparation:
1. Send Draft IEP - Stephanie recommends always sending home a draft IEP including the present levels of baseline data and the proposed goals. This levels the playing field for the caregiver, and provides much more collaboration between guardian and education team.
2. Consult the General Ed Teacher - Recognizing that there can be animosity between special education and general education teachers, Stephanie encourages collaboration and to work together on IEP accommodations to create individualized and classroom specific modifications.
You can find out more about Stephanie via Mrs. D’s Corner for educational resources and The Intentional IEP for IEP support.
What’s Inside:
- Tips for IEP Development.
- What is a SMART goal?
- The difference between objectives and benchmarks.
- How are state “standards” used in IEP goals?
- Does state testing affect IEP goals?
- Stephanie’s top two suggestions for IEP meeting preparation.
Mentioned In This Episode:
The Intentional IEP
Mrs. D's Corner
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
September 13th FREE Webinar 8-9 pm eastern registration link
September 14th FREE Webinar 8-9 pm eastern registration link
When it comes to parents advocating for their child’s education there can be so much to navigate, many times parents don’t even know their legal rights. Amanda Selogie and Vicki Brett are attorneys and founders of The Inclusive Education Project, a non-profit organization that educates families on special education rights.
If you have a child receiving in school therapy or you're a school based provider, you may have heard the term IEE. But what is it? An IEE is an Individual Education Evaluation performed by a qualified person not employed by the school district. This evaluation is a legal right detailed in 34 CFR § 300. 502.
The purpose of IEE is to service the child. Not the parent. Not any providers. Not the school district. This is why these can be such a great tool. Parents might seek these out if a child’s education plan is missing critical assessments or if there is a disagreement in the analysis of any assessments. The idea is to get a full scope and understanding of a child’s abilities and needs to best inform their education and any interventions or services. When requesting an IEE it's important to look at what’s the concern with the current assessments, and what is the goal an IEE can help achieve?
If you’re a school based provider, do not be offended about the request for an IEE. The need for an IEE does not mean a therapist, or provider is not doing their job. There are certain limits that can prevent authentic results, such as access to limited assessments, testing environments, and sometimes a damaged rapport. The benefit of an IEE being conducted by a non-school district employed provider means that often the evaluator has different, more complex qualifications and expertise. Meaning, the evaluator can assess and analyze across disciplines. An IEE evaluator can offer fresh perspective, new environment, and more variety in assessment options.
When we’re determining an education plan for a child, more information is ALWAYS better. The more everyone knows about a child's needs and abilities, the more detailed and purposeful goals can be made. Amanda and Vicki are doing great work spreading awareness of parents rights for their children’s education. You can reach them at their website, social media, or via email.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is an IEE?
- How can therapists use and embed information from an IEE?
- How to utilize an IEE within an IEP?
- What legal rights do families have in their child's education?
- What are the benefits of an IEE?
- What reasons might a child need an IEE?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Inclusive Education Project
@inclusiveeducationproject - Instagram
Inclusive Education Project - Home | Facebook
admin@iepcalifornia.org
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
There is so much opportunity for communication in our students' natural environments. But how can we use this intentionally and build our therapy plan around it? Dr. Cindy Gevarter, BCBA-D and assistant professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of New Mexico, joins me to discuss real world applications for naturalistic communication training in your therapy sessions.
Assessments:
When beginning therapy sessions for students, assessments are important for understanding students skills, goals, and needs. Dr. Gevarter listed several of her preferred assessments for naturalistic communication training that we have talked about on the show many times!
- Communication Matrix
- VB-MAPP
- Early Start Denver Model
Planning:
Naturalistic communication is not random play, when preparing for a session keep in mind opportunities, routines, and priorities that are typical for your student. But you can’t just wing it. Dr. Gevarter recommends planning with an Activity Matrix: skills and goals associated with activities and embedded strategies. Follow through with developmental extension, parent coaching, and an environment set up for natural communication. A lot of the strategies and planning we discuss apply directly to 1 to 1 sessions, but Dr. Gevarter elaborates on how to plan for dyads and group settings by intentional peer to peer interaction or typical routines such as circle time or an art activity.
Data:
In a natural environment, we can’t pause a student while we record data. Dr. Gevarter suggests simplifying your data for quick observations. You may try using a rating scale or other shorthands that you can understand when noting responses, and goal planning. Remember that this is informal data collection used to inform your sessions, don’t overcomplicate it!
Why Natural Environment?
I often find parents in in-home sessions surprised that our therapy isn't taking place at a table with structured activities. While there is a time and a place for the table, there is a major benefit to utilizing a student's natural environment. When participating in natural play or natural environment activities, students are seeing and receiving natural reinforcement from their communication. They can actually see and experience the benefit of communication.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How can we adapt the natural environment of our sessions for communication?
- How to use an embedded approach for natural communication.
- Using naturalistic training in 1:1, dyads, and group sessions.
- Real world opportunities for your next therapy session.
- How to simplify data collection for observation in a natural setting.
- What are preferred assessments for naturalistic communication training?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Cindy Gevarter, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Collaborative Autism Grant
Project SCENES
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
I always joke that it is my mission to meet all the unicorns out there, the dually certified SLP and BCBAs, as there are less than 500 in the world. Today I am talking with Dr. Teresa Cardon and Dr. Lina Slim both SLPs and BCBA-Ds. We are focusing on a subject that it a hot topic but near and dear to my heart, collaboration.
Too often I see and hear problems between SLPs and BCBAs in therapy, IEP meetings, etc. But we need to be communicating and collaborating for our clients! Dr. Cardon and Dr. Slim share their perspectives on what barriers exist that are making these relationships so difficult.
First and foremost is communication, frequently there is not respectful, humble, and open communication between these two providers. Additionally, specialty specific jargon is thrown around that can confuse and frustrate other professionals who arent “in the know”. Interpersonal skills, self-reflection, and bias awareness are really key to keeping communication productive. Try going into every conversation with your professional team of other specialties with the understanding that no one is wrong, we just see things differently.
We also discuss logistical differences such as philosophy and theory. Your philosophy as a therapist can really impact your practice and how you view other providers. Whether you approach with a behavioral, developmental, or social theory will really guide your thinking and reception of collaboration with differing points of view.
Dr. Lina Slim shares with us the ideas of the Four Domains of Authentic Interprofessional Culturally Aware and Responsive Collaborative Practice.
- Cultural Sensitivity and Responsiveness
- Cultural Competence
- Cultural Humility
- Cultural Reciprocity
We are in agreement that collaboration has to be more common practice in our fields. Working together will benefit the health and educational outcome of the clients we serve. It is necessary, because it is simply not possible for one person to have all the answers.
We have got to start teaching this practice before our new therapists enter schools and facilities! Dr. Slim and Dr. Cardon both share how they are advocating and encouraging this in the field through there work in this great episode!
What’s Inside:
- Why is collaboration important for SLP and BCBAs?
- Common barriers in SLP/BCBA collaboration?
- The Four Domains of Authentic Interprofessional Culturally Aware and Responsive Collaborative Practice.
- Can your theory of practice affect your ability to collaborate?
- Why medical jargon is negatively affecting collaboration?
- The importance of respect and humbleness in collaboration.
Mentioned In This Episode:
TCardon@thechicagoschool.edu
Linaslimtop@gmail.com
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
Starting preschool for both typically and non typically developing students is a big step, and there are a lot of important factors to consider. Dr. Katie Walton of Ohio State University oversees the Nisonger Center, an Inclusive Preschool Program. This center works with students with and without disabilities from birth to age 5.
What is Inclusive Preschool Programming?
Inclusive in short means that it includes all students, regardless of learning needs. What this looks like can vary from practice to practice. Some schools might just incorporate all learning types and work to meet all needs and others might focus on special needs services while incorporating typically developing children. Early intervention practices, while important for specific needs, are actually best practice teaching that can benefit any and all students, especially in a preschool setting.
Assessments, Planning and Goal Setting
Planning and goal setting are essential for any classroom and any student. At the Nisonger Center they use a curriculum based assessment, APES, for daily planning for all students. Therapists and providers within the school will do individual assessments for needs and goals setting within IEP teams for students who require additional support. Additionally, important for any preschool program is a robust social and emotional skill plan. The team at Nisonger works hard to set functional goals, on what social and emotional skills look like in action, versus checking a box on a goal list. Dr. Walton also shares about the really great collaborative loop from their preschool team to public schools, for IEP goals and transition. This is such a huge benefit for school based providers and families for a full understanding of a child’s needs and abilities.
Are you a parent considering preschool programs for your child?
It can be confusing, overwhelming, and hard to know what's right when looking for a program for your preschool aged child. Dr. Walton provides some questions for parents to consider and ask their prospective programs.
- What does the day look like? Curriculum, schedule, structure.
- How are daily schedules and activities adapted for different learning needs?
- What are the discipline policies? How are behavioral problems handled? Is there an emphasis on positive reinforcement and strategies?
- Bring your child: How do they interact with your child? How do they respond to your child's normal behaviors? How does your child respond to the environment?
An Inclusive Preschool Program has so much to offer both children with and without disabilities. Whether you’re a professional working in a preschool or a parent ready to place your child in the right school, consider the ideas we’ve discussed in today’s episode to ensure the best practices are being used for your child and their unique needs!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What does Inclusive Preschool Programming actually mean?
- What should parents look for in a preschool program?
- How inclusive programming can accommodate a wide variety of learning needs.
- How preschools work with public schools on planning and goal setting for students.
- What assessments might be used in an inclusive preschool setting?
- Setting functional goals: What do interactions and skills actually look like in practice?
- How early intervention practices can benefit students both with and without disabilities.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Nisonger Center Early Learning Program
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN
The social setting of our world is ever-changing and developing, for autistic individuals it can be hard to understand and keep up with the skills to navigate it! Dr. Ali Arena is an SLP, BCBA who specializes in social skills. While Dr. Arena works primarily with autistic adults, she shares some great tips that can be applied across the lifespan.
As a provider, working on Social Skills requires a strong and trusting relationship with your client. Dr. Arena shares about how she has learned about her clients interests and hobbies and allowed them to be the expert in the conversation. She also reminds therapists to create connections and rapport before diving into their interests because these connections become genuine. Another tool Dr. Arena uses in her therapy are dyads, she finds peer group practice between neurodivergent individuals can be really impactful in understanding social cues and norms.
Masking is something autistic individuals in the community are really speaking out against. Dr. Arena agrees that being true to yourself and not changing are important. I reference what a previous guest had called camouflaging, as a tool to follow societal rules. Sometimes as an adult, you just need to know how to talk to your boss or your professor in college. Following social rules can be necessary for autistic adults and that's where Dr. Arena comes in. Her clients come to her to repair social communication, either for work, relationships, or other problems they might be having. It’s not masking but rather building, learning, and refining new skills.
From focusing on REALISTIC social situations for all ages to helping autistic adults with romantic relationships, Dr. Arena has some great tips for therapists, parents, and any professional working with autistic individuals on social skills. You can find out more about her at her website or on Instagram.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Navigating constantly changing social skills.
- How to adjust mindset after social rejection for autistic individuals.
- Coaching relationships for autistic adults.
- Masking vs Camouflage in a nuanced society.
- How to encourage realistic communication and connections.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Dr.Ali - Connection Creator (@connectingwithali) on Instagram
Ali Arena Communications: Home
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
Use coupon code SUNNYSALE75 and save $75 off Start Communicating Today and $75 off Help Me Find My Voice. Offer ends July 31st.
Have you ever felt like an assessment didn’t truly tell the story of your child? Shellie Bader is an SLP with a really incredible and valuable career. Today she is sharing all about Dynamic Assessment and how we as Speech Therapists can use this to enrich and drive speech therapy.
Oftentimes, formal and informal assessments are not comprehensive enough to determine the “story of the child”. Dynamic Assessment is a qualitative assessment we are able to use, to get the bigger picture. It is an alternative or supplemental assessment, with a method that provides the ability to understand what a student can learn. This tool can help determine whether a child has a learning difference or a learning disorder, and how a child learns and is specifically helpful with students who use English as a second language or have other special circumstances.
Where do you start with intervention when it seems like everything should be a goal? Along with Dynamic Assessment comes a Mediated Learning Experience. In which the therapist picks a skill that is relevant or important to the child. This learning potential observation occurs over one session, so the therapist can determine the abilities of the child within the learning process.
When completing a Mediated Learning Experience, the information collected can drive you directly to the creation of IEP goals. Through working on a skill, the therapist will actually be able to see the prompts that are successful, the supports needed, the targets a student struggles with, and how the skill should be scaffolded.
A Dynamic Assessment and a Mediated Learning Experience is another tool for your SLP tool belt to help determine how a student learns specific skills while always working on meaningful, functional skills for the student and their independence. If you’re interested in finding out more or talking with Shellie Bader, you can reach her via LinkedIn or email!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- How can we have tools that will drive the road map for intervention?
- How can we help students increase their functional communication skills, independence, and joy?
- What is Dynamic Assessment?
- How can SLPs use Dynamic Assessment in the therapeutic and evaluation process?
- What is the distinction between a learning difference versus a learning disorder?
- What is a mediated learning experience?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Shellie Bader, M.A., CCC-SLP - LinkedIn
ShellieSLP@gmail.com
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
To receive 75$ OFF BOTH of these courses in the month of JULY, use code SUNNYSALE75.
Happy Summer!! I am excited to announce that we are hosting a SALE for the month of July on our courses, Start Communicating Today and Help Me Find My Voice.
These are CEU courses with ASHA and ACE approval for SLPs and BCBAs. Summer is the perfect time to take advantage of your free time and get the tools to help your autistic learners from toddlers, preschool, and school age.
Start Communicating Today is a 5 hour course for toddler and preschool aged learners. Get confident in your abilities to help your learner use their voice. In this course you will find support and research backed tools for assessments, IEP goal setting, structuring therapy and so much more.
Help Me Find My Voice is a 5 hour course for school age learners. Working with this age can be overwhelming and intimidating. In this course you will find the tools for success all in one place, with support for assessments, IEP goal setting and meeting structure, engaging therapy plans, and even AAC support.
The purchase of both of these courses include 3 month access to the 5 hour course, research backed tools, and printables. As well as ASHA reporting and CEUs.
To receive 75$ OFF BOTH of these courses in the month of JULY, use code SUNNYSALE75.
I cannot wait to see you in the courses!
What’s Inside:
- What is Start Communicating Today?
- What is Help Me Find My Voice?
- ASHA, ACE approved CEU courses AVAILABLE NOW.
- JULY 2022 Sale on ASHA approved courses on ABA Speech.
- Find Research backed tools and resources for therapy with toddler through school age learners.
Mentioned In This Episode:
SALE CODE: SUNNYSALE75
Start Communicating Today – Waitlist – ABA Speech
Help Me Find My Voice – EVERGREEN – ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Is your learner difficult to engage? Are you not sure where to start? Is your learner not communicating? Knowing where to start can be stressful!!!
I am here to help with my top 5 strategies to get your autistic learner communicating today!
Strategy 1: Create a Fun Atmosphere
Present a toy the child will enjoy. Play with the toy and use simple language.
(play dough, cars, musical toys, mini objects, etc.)
Strategy 2: Observe
What does your learner like to do? How is your learner currently communicating?
(Make notes about their likes, and dislikes. Is your learner vocalizing, using pictures, pointing, pulling to an item, etc.?)
Strategy 3: Engage in Shared Activities
Connection before communication
(Reading a book, singing a song, playing with toys)
Strategy 4: Create a Positive Atmosphere
Positive Vibes Only: Use simple language, do not bombard your learner with questions.
(“Wow, I see a truck!” Vs. “What is that? What color is that”)
Strategy 5: Remain Flexible
What you planned may look different than how it actually happens. Adapt the skill to following the learner's lead.
Now you can rest easy because that starting point is not out of reach! If you want to learn more including all about assessments, goal setting, therapy structure, tools and resources, join my toddler and preschool course: Start Communicating Today!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- A listen at Rose Griffin, of ABA Speech, most listened to the webinar.
- Early Intervention strategies for toddler and preschool-aged students.
- Find a starting point for formal or at-home therapy sessions.
- Help YOUR learners to Start Communicating Today!
- Tools and tips for SLPS, Parents, and Special Education Professionals.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today
I first found Calonda Henry on TikTok, where she shares tons of great tips and information for parents and professionals. Calonda is a Florida based SLP where she owns a certified Woman and Minority owned practice, Broad Horizons Speech Therapy. With summer here, many learners are not receiving their school based speech and language services and parents may want to know how to help.
As parents, we want to do the very best for our child and it can feel overwhelming and intimidating to need to "carryover therapy" on your own in the summer. Calonda reminds families that speech and language practice can be generalized in your everyday environment, and can be free, easy and very natural. You don't have to plan the perfect table activity to get really enriching practice for your child.
In everyday activities and simple interactions, there are so many opportunities to practice general or specific speech goals.
- Scavenger Hunt: Are you taking a walk outside? Are you going to the grocery store? Look for items that start with certain letter sounds, practice and emphasize this sound as you find items.
- Categories: Find items in your house that only fit into certain categories or belong in a certain room, label them, ask questions, and practice them.
- Movement: practice sounds and vocabulary in isolation by making up movements and dances while saying the sounds or words.
- Car rides: Play car games like I Spy or ask WH questions
- Headbands: This is a great family game you can purchase or DIY that works on a variety of skills like vocabulary, attributes, asking questions, and yes/no responses.
- Screen time: For many families, screen time and technology use is bound to happen, create conversation and ask questions around the game your child is playing or download a fun educational app that can build in practice
- Games: Family game time uses and practices many fundamental skills such as executive functioning, planning, social, NS back and forth communication
The most important tip: Interact together, at the end of the day interaction with your child is so powerful for practicing all of their speech and language goals. Play games, ask questions, read books, talk about your activities or meals. This creates a low demand setting where your child can generalize their speech and language goals while having fun.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to support speech, language, and social goals in the summer.
- Games and simple ideas for speech practice this summer.
- How parents can generalize speech practice into their everyday environment.
- Why practicing speech and language goals can be simple and low demand activities.
Mentioned In This Episode:Broad Horizons Speech Therapy (@broadhorizonsspeech) TikTok
Broad Horizons Speech Therapy - Instagram
Broad Horizons Speech Therapy
Speech, Language, and Education Parent Support Group of Florida
Meet Calonda Henry of Broad Horizons Speech Therapy
ABA Speech: Home
Dr. Trina Spencer has been a Board Certified Behavior Analyst for the last 21 years and is currently a Fulbright Scholar at the Center for Augmentative and Alternative Communication in South Africa. Today, she shares about her career journey, and all of the incredible and inspiring work she is doing in the field. Dr. Spencer's goal is to encourage research-practitioner partnerships, interprofessional collaboration, and anti-ableist practices.
On the day of our recording, Dr. Spencer was celebrating the launch of ECHO Autism - South Africa. ECHO Autism is a virtual learning network of providers offering real-time access to autism and behavioral experts. This advisory board of Echo Autism is the first on the continent of Africa.
Among her research and fascinating work, she has designed instructional tools. Story Champs is a multi-tiered system of language instruction used in a variety of educational settings across several countries. This structured program provides robust teaching procedures that allow for use in one on one settings as well as small or large groups. Story Champs includes 65 lessons that scale from preschool to 3rd grade. Goals in this system include story retelling, personal stories, fictional stories, writing personal stories, and answering WH questions but the scope and skills included with this instruction are vast! Social academic language is promoted throughout the instruction as well as in use in the reading opportunities taken straight from the learner's social studies and science curriculum.
The CUBED Assessment is a free downloadable comprehensive assessment that works great with story champs but can also be used and accessed independently of that program as well.
"The CUBED is a family of screening and progress monitoring tools that accurately, reliably, and efficiently measure decoding, language comprehension, and their product, reading. There are two main subtests of the CUBED – The Dynamic Decoding Measures and the Narrative Language Measures, which together measure 18 targets." - Language Dynamics Group
I am so excited to follow along with all the AMAZING work Dr. Spencer is doing and will continue to do in the field. Be sure to check out all the amazing linked resources she shared today to purchase Story Champs, download CUBED, and so many more freebies!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How Dr. Trina Spencer is bringing interprofessional collaboration and anti-ableist practices to South Africa.
- What is Echo Autism?
- What is Story Champs?
- All about a multi-tiered system of language instruction.
- Cubed: A free comprehensive assessment.
- How to find Dr. Trina Spencer’s plethora of resources.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Trina’s Tool Box
Language Dynamics Group
Northern Speech Services
ABA Speech: Home
With the traditional school year coming to an end, SLPs and parents may be wondering how you can support your learners' communication throughout the summer months. I was so excited when I happened upon Bridget’s, from Speech Therapy Talk, blog post all about summer speech activities! She is on today’s episode to share 11 fun, easy, and affordable ways to get outside, enjoy the summer, AND practice communication skills. Whether you’re continuing speech therapy through the summer in a private setting, a school SLP looking for ideas to share with families, or a parent ready to continue the work from speech therapy at home this summer, these are GREAT tips that both you and your learner will be sure to enjoy!
- Water - Fill up a rain barrel or other water-holding receptacle and PLAY. There are opportunities for concepts like wet and dry, vocabularies like fill or dump, requesting tools as well as articulation.
- Bubbles - Store-bought or try to make your own giant bubbles. Practice early words like open and pop, concepts like big and small, and articulation.
- Sand - Kids get excited with sand. This is a great sensory activity and super engaging. Try hiding objects in the sand and labeling them when finding them, as well as trying sensory and action words.
- Hula Hoop - Sound of shaking them, rolling the hoop, jumping into the middle, or using as a target, hula hoops can be used as a very active tool in a diverse way to sprinkle in whatever goals you’re working on. Skill ideas: imitation, colors, action words, joint activity.
- Chalk - Drawing pictures, roads for toy cars or bikes, and writing words, this is an easily diversified and engaging activity that can cue any skill.
- Flower Walk - Walk around town or your neighborhood and look for flowers! You can count, identify colors, label, and work on articulation. Use it as a scavenger hunt with a very specific purpose!
- Follow the Leader - With a Twist - Take turns hiding items outside and give directions to find it. Skills: Prepositions and giving and understanding directions.
- Explorers - Go exploring, try going to a new place and use “explorer” vocabulary: Find, Discover, Look, See, etc. A great space for spontaneous communication!
- Nature - Collect nature items and create scenes and stories. Skills: Who/Where/Why questions, setting, imaginative play, etc.
- Balls - Use all different types and sizes. Roll, throw, toss, etc. This is an active and engaging activity that can be used for whatever goal you’re working on.
- Find an Item - Go outside and look for something specific. Skill: Thinking and reasoning.
These are activities that just SCREAM summer to me. Many of these tools are free, lying around your therapy room or house, or very affordable! The great thing about these activities is the scope for practicing varying skills is huge, you can apply almost any skill or goal to these activities and have fun doing it! If you want to learn more about Bridget, her ideas, and resources, you can visit the Speech Therapy Talk website!
speechtherapy #autism
What’s Inside:
- Ideas for working on communication during the summer.
- 11 ways to support your client’s or child’s communication during the summer months.
- How to make working on communication FUN!
- Creating natural, functional practice opportunities for home.
- Easy, accessible, affordable activities for summer communication practice.
- How to get outside and practice communication.
- How to turn common family activities into communication practice.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Speech Therapy Talk
Speech Therapy Talk Membership
ABA Speech: Home
It can often be intimidating to get started and understand working with students with complex communication needs. Dr. David Rehfeld is a dual certified, SLP and BCBA and an assistant professor who joins me today to discuss the importance of support to students using AAC and their caregivers.
The individuals who spend the most time with a client need to have the most buy-in when it comes to effectively using AAC. Dr. Rehfeld encourages this support with Caregiver Coaching. Caregivers are any of the people your client spends more time with than you, parents, guardians, teachers, and one on one support staff. The goal of Caregiver Coaching is to minimize perceived effort to make the most impact. Providers working with caregivers often have ideas of “easy” ways to integrate the AAC device into routines but should consider unique needs and preferences that assimilate into their existing life.
Caregiver Coaching is provided using the Behavior Skills Training Model. BST is evidence based practice to provide instruction to facilitate success of skill mastery. Dr. Rehfeld explains it in four phases.
Phase One - Understand: What are we working on? Why is it important?
Phase Two - Model: Show and demonstrate the skill.
Phase Three - Observe: Encourage and provide opportunities to practice.
Phase Four - Feedback: What are you doing well? What can you improve on?
When you’re helping someone with AAC, you’re not just helping one student but you’re helping all of the future AAC users this person works with in the future. Keep in mind the importance of rapport, and positive reinforcement by providing praise when you see caregivers doing the right things!
Dr. Rehfeld is active in working with students aspiring to work in the speech pathology field. You can find him at the many conferences he attends or speaks at. Dr. Rehfeld encourages others in the field to attend conferences, seek out resources, and keep adding as many tools to their belt to help their clients as they can.
speechtheraphy #autism
What’s Inside:
- Helping students with complex communication needs.
- Supporting students with AAC.
- How to support teachers and providers who are working with students using AAC.
- Why is caregiver coaching important?
- What is Behavior Skills Training (BST)?
- What are the four phases of BST?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Start Communicating Today Live - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Many times, assessments and standardized tests don’t tell the whole story of the learner. So, what do you do when you’re overwhelmed with where to start with a younger nonspeaking or autistic learner. When I first started my career I remember being discouraged at times and with a lack of the resources available unlike what we have today, I had to find the information myself and blaze that trail. Today I want to share how I get started with these learners, to help them find their voice and start communicating today.
Top 8 Foundational skills for young autistic learners:
1. Joint Attention - There is power in shared activities, a time that generates spontaneous communication. Both the therapist and the learner in an activity surrounding Literacy, Music, or Play. Check out the episode for my list of favorites!
2. Imitation - Keep it fun and functional by practicing during play. The key is playing with similar items in a way that the child will want to repeat. For example, role-play with a baby doll.
3. Requesting - Work on meaningful words that can make communication powerful for a student's real life. Specific requesting skills teach students that communicating can get them something!
4. Matching - There are so many great skills that come along with matching like scanning and engagement. I share a bit about how I use my favorite resource and modify matching games to work with the students' level.
5. Play - Play routines and leisure skills are SO important. Work on playing with fun games, shape sorting, and building around their language level.
6. Following One-Step Directions - This is critical not only in school but at home. Be sure to think about your kids and how their communication impacts their day outside of the therapy room. Examples: “Put your coat on” “Stand by the door” etc.
7. Labeling - Students should be comfortable talking about things in their environment. Be aware of your students' level and chronological age, is it appropriate to use flashcards? Or is it important to work on it during play?
8. Fill in the Blank - “Ready…Set….___” This skill starts with, “I say something, you say something”, which opens the door for so much communication, like asking and answering questions!
All of my advice today comes from my experience in private practice, where I am afforded the opportunity to work one on one. Be sure to take into account all of your circumstances, therapy opportunities, and resources when planning to individualize these skills to your students. If you have questions or want to know more about my favorite resources discussed in today’s episode, you can always contact me at ABA Speech.
ABASpeechTherapy #Autism
What’s Inside:
- How to know where to start in intervention?
- What to do when assessments don’t deliver clear results.
- Helping students find their voice and start communicating today.
- Real Foundational Skills that can be individualized to your students.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Start Communicating Today Live - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
I think it’s so important to think outside of the box when engaging our students in therapy. Today I am talking with Kim and Amy from Talk Yoga, two SLP friends who met at work and combined their passion for speech and yoga to help their clients grow.
Not only is Yoga a fun, engaging activity in itself but as a trained yoga instructor, Amy has adapted poses for her clients into what she calls Articulation Poses. Talk Yoga really believes in the whole body of the child and how all of their physical movements inform the movements inside the mouth. Articulation poses are modified versions that connect to oral motor skills for articulation and connect the body to the mouth.
Another use for yoga that Amy and Kim embed into their practice is teaching vocabulary using alliteration associated with movements. For younger students, skills like labeling, imitation, and even imagination work can be really engaging through yoga. Yoga is a shared activity and leisure skill that can be benefited from across the lifespan, Amy and Kim emphasize that their work can be applied to any age range.
As a therapist, it can be difficult to find shared activities that generalize into the community or home, but yoga is perfect for this. Yoga is accessible to anyone and families can enjoy yoga together as a connecting activity. One tool Amy and Kim use is allowing the student to become the teacher, having students dictate and verbalize the poses creates so many language opportunities!
Yoga is a practice grounded in breathwork, calm, and mindfulness. Amy and Kim embed this into each and every one of their sessions, starting with breathwork. The best part of this is it not only calms and prepares your client, but you as the therapist can enter the best headspace to be there with your client.
I know firsthand that I see spontaneous communication explode in shared activities like Yoga. Amy and Kim provide so many tips and ideas for embedding yoga into your therapy sessions, I can’t wait for you to try them!
autism #speechtheraphy
What’s Inside:
- How to incorporate yoga in speech therapy.
- What skills can you work on with yoga in speech therapy?
- How to engage students and have fun in speech therapy?
- Embedding yoga into daily work with communication.
- How starting sessions with breathing exercises can benefit the therapist and the client.
- The importance of shared activity and leisure skills across the lifespan.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Start Communicating Today Live - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
Talk Yoga
Talk Yoga SLP Podcast
In my 20 years of experience, I have divided my time between school-based and private setting therapy. I have dedicated my career to autistic learners and today I want to share my TOP TEN tips on developing an IEP and conducting a successful smooth IEP meeting. These tips will ensure you are prepared, remain calm, and work to the benefit of the student, especially when working on more difficult cases for students who are non-typical or non-speaking.
- Record Review - The last comprehensive evaluation is very important. Has your student had an evaluation from an outside provider? What has the student previously worked on? Do they have prior IEPs and what do they look like?
- New Evaluations - What is the right evaluation for the student? My personal favorite is the VB-MAPP, I love the way it looks at language and communication. I also recommend the Functional Communication Profile - Revised, and the Assessment of Functional Living Skills is great for older students. Additionally, there are Speech Therapy Tests such as the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, The Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals.
- Communicate with ALL Members of the Team - This includes teachers, parents, school-based providers, and any outside providers.
- Questions for Developing Goals - Do the targets take the learner's chronological age into account? Are the goals informed by typical development? Are these goals ambitious enough? How will achieving these goals improve the learner's quality of life? Are major barriers to progress considered? Are safety risks addressed?
- Shared Goals - The speech therapist collaborates with the teacher on speech goals. The goal is developed together and practice is embedded throughout the learner's day. For example, A Cooperative Leisure goal worked on across both spaces, in therapy, and in the general classroom.
- Specific, Measurable, and Consistent Goals - Ask yourself if the goals are specific? Are they measurable? And if another teacher, parent, or professional read them, would they make sense? Foundational Skills are important for younger, nonspeaking learners. These can include joint attention, imitation, requesting, and matching. For older students, ask can goals be tied to leisure and vocation.
- Data Collection - Consider how you're going to take data while you're writing the goals.
- Baseline Data - For autistic learners especially, be sure to include baseline data in the present section of the IEP. Baseline data is crucial to inform goals and to show progress.
- Send a Draft Home - Get Feedback! Some parents may have lawyers, advocates, outside providers, etc. It is important to make sure all members of the team are aware of the IEP goals and incorporate and embed the feedback that you can.
- Hold the Meeting, Work with the Team, and Create an Amazing Plan for your Students!
austism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Top 10 Tips for a successful IEP Process.
- Helpful tips and strategies to use today.
- All about school-based IEP development for autistic learners.
- Working on an IEP with a large team.
- How to handle non-typical or difficult situations in an IEP meeting.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today Live
Are you feeling stressed? Are you feeling like you just can’t achieve that work-life balance? May tends to be a tough time for many providers, educators, and even parents. Today I talk with Marie Muratalla, SLP, Podcaster, Mindset Coach, and creator of the Say Thanks More Gratitude Journal.
Like many of us, in 2020 when the COVID shutdown began, Marie struggled to bear the weight of her job. In a time when her job was no longer what it was, she battled her personal identity and where that separated from her work identity. This began her business, grounded in the practice of gratitude which she was always passionate about, Marie created Thanks More Gratitude Journals and advocated for the use of mindful habits to set boundaries and create joy.
Marie’s Mindful Habits
1. Daily Gratitude Practice: Try journaling or starting small by writing down one thing you’re thankful for. It can be at any part of your day and can be as simple as a dedicated 5 minutes during your morning coffee or before bed.
2. Morning Meditation: Marie practices 3 minutes of meditation each morning, it doesn’t have to be the same amount of time. It can be whatever works for you. But locking that time in to ground yourself and let go of all other thoughts for just a moment is so important.
3. Bring Presence into your Routine: Whether it's even yoga, affirmations, journaling, meditation….Set intentions and a time to be present for yourself. Marie shared some great apps that she uses to build these routines into her day.
Something so many struggle with is work-life balance. Marie’s number one solution to this is setting boundaries. It can be hard but try to focus on where you are at the moment, and not bring thoughts about work home or into your weekend. For Marie, this means removing her work email from her phone and being firm with colleagues when they ask her questions outside of work.
Mindfulness and gratitude practices are research-based and are proven to reduce stress and increase joy and productivity. Studies have shown that by participating in a gratitude practice, like journaling, you are increasing serotonin levels and decreasing cortisol levels. This practice reduces stress because you are able to take ownership of your emotions and feelings and you are putting it into a safe place. The more you practice these, the more you bring yourself to that balance present place.
Try these tips yourself by introducing these positive habits one small step at a time. If you’d like to learn more about Marie Muratalla or the Say Thanks More Community, you can find her on her website or on social media.
autism #speechtheraphy
What’s Inside:
- How can a daily gratitude practice benefit your mindset?
- How can you shift your mindset to create balance with work?
- Tips for creating mindful habits in your daily life.
- How burnout can create stress in work and life.
- How a mind-shift set can effectively reduce burnout and benefit mental health.
- Why it is important to set boundaries to create a work-life balance.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Thanks Morris
Marie on (@thanksmorris) • Instagram photos and videos
Marie on (@thanksmorris) TikTok
Down Dog
I am - Daily Affirmations on the App Store
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
ABA Speech: Home
Start Communicating Today
I have been following Theresa Richard’s business journey for a while and when I recently learned about her son’s autism diagnosis, I had to learn more about her. Theresa is an SLP, Board Certified Specialist in swallowing and swallowing disorders, Business owner, Podcaster, Author, and creator of the MedSLP Collective. She started her business in 2013, began blogging in 2014, and moved into the podcast world in 2017. I have really enjoyed following her work and Theresa does an excellent job disseminating information in a lesser-known field.
Theresa proclaims that she has such a passion for helping children with special needs. She recently sold one of her mobile FEES businesses and donated all proceeds to the foundation, set up in her son’s honor. Theresa’s son was born with an extremely rare chromosomal abnormality. There was no concrete syndrome which was extremely lonely to not be able to find a support group or community.
Her journey brought her family on a big move from New York to Florida to seek out therapy for her son at age 5. During the assessments to receive a therapy placement, her son received the shocking diagnosis of Autism. While this knowledge was surprising and unexpected, it affected their lives in a positive way. This diagnosis opened the door to a whole new world of support. In Florida, under this diagnosis, Theresa has been able to find the perfect school and specialized therapists that see him at school.
A team working toward the benefit of your child is so important, and Theresa speaks out to families to let them know that facilities and schools, and therapists who are ready to work toward that are out there. Theresa on her journey has had a variety of experiences and she shares her advice for providers from a parent's perspective: open-ended, nonjudgmental communication is vital. She makes these conversations, questions, and discussions an important part of her son’s therapy plans.
Theresa’s parting words for parents new to the journey of autism, is to not be afraid to reach out. Social media and groups can be a negative place but don’t go there, surround yourself in the positive groups and the positive voices. As an autism mother it can be scary and lonely but there are people out there who want to help and support you!
You can follow Theresa Richard and her journey by checking out her website or following her on social media!
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- Theresa Richards's business journey as an SLP.
- How to find the school right for your child's needs?
- Utilizing external therapists in a school setting?
- Parent advice for SLPs and therapists.
- A family's unique autism journey.
- Parent to parent advice on a diagnosis of autism.
- The importance of support in handling a diagnosis.
Mentioned In This Episode:Thank you to this episode's sponsor, Mightier. We make video games that help kids build their emotional strength.
Learn how to #beMightier at www.mightier.com
— MedSLP Collective
— Theresa Richard Medical SLP
— TheresaRichardSLP on Instragram
— Theresa Richard on Facebook
— So You're Having Trouble Swallowing Paperback – August 11, 2021
— ABA Speech: Home
I am always interested in learning more about the variety of students I can help. Today I am interviewing Annie DiVello, an SLP who specializes in Selective Mutism. At the time Annie was in grad school, it was believed that selective mutism was more of a mental health disorder and that SLPs were not involved, but even now there is still a real lack of information or resources both in school and in private practice.
What is Selective Mutism?
Selective Mutism (SM) is essentially a phobia of speaking, along with comorbidities. This fear of speaking can be attached to a singular person, people, or places, during certain activities. Selective Mutism often occurs along with anxiety disorders or other speech disorders.
Supporting Learners with Selective Mutism:
Annie discusses the importance of a ‘Round Table’ of support for students with Selective Mutism. These learners cannot be worked with in isolation and should be supported by a variety of professionals that are experts in the complex variety of needs of students with selective mutism.
When it comes to assessment, Annie directs the question about performance vs. skills and ability. A student's performance is not always indicative of their skills, especially in the case of Selective Mutism. Annie provides some tips for SLPs to collect this information, including parent interviews and respectful videoing. Selective Mutism can be effectively diagnosed with a multidisciplinary team at the age of 30 months.
Getting started with therapy for students with Selective Mutism:
- Who is the student and what are their needs
- Bring in Selective Mutism experts
- Implement a comprehensive plan with monthly progress monitoring
- Work on communication confidence: one on one work with a key worker
- Utilize an integrated team approach
- Small steps programming, beware of rapid exposure
As a school-based clinician, you may not come across students with Selective Mutism, but working with experts like Annie DiVello is such a key piece in developing a framework for your therapy with students with more complex needs. This episode is packed with great tips for SLPs working with learners of all ages. Annie is an ASHA-approved CEU trainer, you can find out more about her and her work on her website, AnnieDiVello.com.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Selective Mutism?
- How to build a roundtable of support for learners with selective mutism.
- Being a ‘Brave Voice Coach’ for learners with selective mutism.
- Strategies for younger and older learners with selective mutism.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Annie DiVello Consulting
ABA Speech: Home
I love any opportunity to chat with adults with autism who can share their insight on diagnosis, support, and living life with autism. Billy Mayfair is a top professional golfer in the United States, who found his diagnosis late in life in 2019. Today he shares his journey in early life and the concerns that led to his evaluation, and how those answers have helped him find the support he needed.
Growing up golf was a safe haven, he found joy in being alone. Unlike those who receive an early diagnosis, because Autism was not on the radar Bill did not have support in school. He found school to be very difficult and struggled all the way through. Billy's high school counselor even told him not to try to go to college, that he needed to just go out and get a job and struggle for the rest of his life. This was a huge motivator for him, propelling him into completing college and into his golf career.
Billy's wife was instrumental in seeking a diagnosis. There was a pivotal moment during a golf tournament in which he was wrongly disqualified. When he did not comprehend what was happening and he wasn't speaking up for himself, his wife's concerns pushed him to an evaluation. Billy shares that even though he knew something was going on, he was reluctant to seek answers and even took weeks to actually read the findings report.
One of Billy's key struggles throughout his adult life has been with thought delay presenting as unpleasant facial expressions. Oftentimes when he needed more time to think about something, he looked defiant and angry. He's learned that it's okay and even important to ask for more time to think or process. It's really key to self-advocacy.
With this late in life diagnosis, Billy has adapted to new support such as seeing a neuropsychologist and even a nutritionist who is helping him connect the dots between his diet and his brain.
Billy and his wife are currently working on starting a foundation to support athletes with autism and their family members.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What support helped Billy in school and early in life?
- The importance of self-advocacy.
- What concerns can lead to a late-in-life autism diagnosis?
- Supports Billy seeks as an adult with autism.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: HomeBilly Mayfair on Twitter Thank you to this episode's sponsor Mightier - We make video games that help kids build their emotional strength. Learn how to #beMightier at https://www.mightier.com/autismoutreach
On today's podcast, I had the opportunity to learn from Haley Moss. Haley is an author, lawyer, educator, speaker, and is also autistic. In this episode, she shares her perspective on important issues in the autism and neurodivergent community, as we have a conversation surrounding inclusivity in therapy and society.
"Be yourself, but not like that". It can be extremely exhausting for adults to keep up with behaviors that are seen as typical and don't come naturally to them. Haley compares Neurodivergent social skills to being bilingual. It's not that they don't have social skills, they are just different and no matter what or how they try to make them "alike" neurotypical individuals it will always come out with an "autistic accent". She emphasizes the importance of teaching the reason behind typical social skills as cultural needs versus them being "better" or "normal". Everything someone does has a reason behind it and tying trust and understanding to that is really helpful.
What is Neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is a difference in cognition in which everyone's brain works differently. Neurotypical brains operate in ways that may be expected in a "normal" manner. Neurodivergent is a scope of operation involving the brain out of the box, outside of what would be "expected" ways to include autism, ADHD, mental health, intellectual disabilities, and acquired disabilities such as traumatic injury or illness.
What is Ableism?
Haley shares a definition from the Center for Disability Rights, "Ableism is a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities and often rest on the assumption that people with disabilities need to be fixed in one way or another." Ableism is much more prevalent in society than people realize, especially in the manner of accessibility and that neurodivergent individuals are not given seats at the table for key discussions.
Practicing Empathy in Your Therapy Sessions
As professionals, we truly want to help people. One of my goals with this podcast is to help therapists and providers do better by knowing better. Haley shares some of her tips from a neurodivergent perspective on how to be empathic as a provider.
- Behavior happens for a reason. Behavior can mean so many things, it's important to apply that by taking the whole person into account.
- Describe individuals' specific high and low support needs. These can evolve over time but when aware of these needs, individuals can advocate for themselves and other services can provide support where possible.
I learned so much during this chat with Haley. If you'd like to learn more or connect with her, you can find her on her website and all social media platforms.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is ableism?
- What is neurodivergent?
- How to be inclusive in your therapy practice.
- How to practice with empathy.
- What does true acceptance look like?
- Autism and social justice.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Haley Moss
ABA Speech: Home
SLPs have such a broad scope. We get so much training in graduate school but creating specializations based on your passions really happens through your own research and work out in the field. So there are many areas that fall under the scope of speech therapy that not all SLPs understand completely or feel comfortable with. As my listeners know, Autism has become my area of focus, so I really did not have a lot of awareness or understanding about Dyslexia. This chat with Jeannette Roberes was so educating and informative for me.
Jeannette is an SLP, software engineer, and educator who specializes in Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a combination of characteristics involving reading, writing, and talking. An individual with Dyslexia is going to struggle in one or all of these areas. Symptoms can include late talking, slow to learn words, and a severe delay in reading.
Jeannette has made some great strides in advocating and educating on Dyslexia and how to support her students. She and her colleagues are working on a book to educate SLPs on how to appropriately assess, treat, and diagnose students presenting with Dyslexia.
Her tips for intervention for Dyslexia revolve around a multisensory structured language approach involving decoding, fluency training, vocabulary, and comprehension. She says that a successful session is tapping into the essential components of teaching reading. Jeanette talks about the big five: Phonemic Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension. When working with Dyslexia or any literacy based skill, books are your greatest resource, there are so many activities that can be planned around one book even over the course of 4 sessions. It also instills a love of reading that is so important.
Jeannette is really passionate about using diverse inclusive books in your literacy opportunities, because in our therapy sessions we are preparing students for a world in which they will interact with individuals who don’t always look like them. She calls books sliding glass doors, a stepping stone or path into a bigger world. She encourages families and therapists to read books reflecting both disabilities and different cultures.
You can find out more about Jeannette on all social media platforms by searching in Bearly Articulating and check out her book, Technical Difficulties: Why Dyslexic Narratives Matter In Tech, available on Amazon.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is Dyslexia?
- How to support students with Dyslexia.
- How to embed literacy in speech sessions.
- The importance of valuing diversity in literacy.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Bearly Articulating Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers
Amazon.com: Technical Difficulties: Why Dyslexic Narratives Matter In Tech eBook : Washington, Jeannette: Kindle StoreABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
Today, I am providing 15 strategies for SLPs working in an ABA setting. I have had the opportunity to work in ABA settings in addition to traditional schools. Whether you're new to the ABA world or thinking about taking a position in a specialized setting, these tips are some that I find so helpful for you, your colleagues, and your clients.
- Learn about your work setting: Understand your role and how it fits into the existing set up of the facility. Do not hesitate to ask the important questions!
- Build rapport with staff: Sometimes collaboration comes easy and sometimes it can be difficult. Get to know your team members and build relationships to facilitate working together.
- Learn about the science of Applied Behavior Analysis: Onboarding is going to differ from setting to setting, if it's new to you, it's important your facility is offering you proper training. I offer two courses with ABA Speech, Help Me Find My Voice and Start Communicating Today, that are great options.
- Learn about common assessments: If you're new to an ABA setting, understanding testing from the BCBA side can really change your approach to therapy. My favorite is the VB-MAPP but there are others.
- Provide information about speech therapy: Keep it positive and disseminate your goals and scientific approach. Always frame it with your client's best interest in mind.
- Feel comfortable with the jargon: There are so many words, you may or may not use them in conversation but you need to understand what you're talking about in a clinical setting.
- Think about creating shared goals: Once you understand the assessment, you can create goals with other teachers. The power of communication is incredible and it is important to collaborate and share goals across the setting.
- Embed communication across the learner's day: Communication takes place all day long, students can really flourish when they have more opportunity for practice and data is being tracked by all staff.
- Streamline your data collection: Many providers take data in all sorts of ways, when a student is working on a goal across settings, keep data collection in one place so that it is accessible and functional.
- Have access to your students' behavior plan (if applicable): Understand how to plan antecedently for students' unsafe or problem behavior. Make a copy and keep it on hand. Additionally, plan your environment accordingly, you want to feel comfortable serving all of your students.
- Collaborate: If there are other staff members who are going to be having a lot of time with your students, take the time to teach them about communication. These are the staff that are the most critical to building rapport with. You are the team!
- Think about parent communication: This communication is going to differ greatly in a specialized setting versus a traditional school. Stay in the loop of what is common practice for your facility and what parents need from you as far as communication goes.
- How are you providing service to students: Structure of therapy and instruction will differ depending on students needs. This can be pushing in, pulling out, one on one, and group therapy.
- The SLP and the BCBA ethical code both discuss collaboration: This is important, there are barriers, and I'm here to support you.
- Agree to disagree: We do not have to agree on everything but one thing we can agree on is, we want to help our students. Make decisions based on data.
If you're looking for more in depth information, you can check out my courses Help Me Find My Voice and Start Communicating Today. Also, be on the lookout in the coming months for my newest ASHA-approved course on SLPs in the ABA setting! I am also available for Discovery Calls if I can be of more service to you. See you next time!
#autism #speechtherapy
Today I had the pleasure of talking with my BCBA supervisor and trailblazer in the field. Kelle was introduced to the world of autism at a really young age, which led into special education and continued on to her large body of work. In this episode she is sharing with us, from her wealth of knowledge, about how to work with students with problem behavior and what to do to support learners when it becomes a barrier to therapy.
The first step, with any therapy case, is to understand your learner. You can do this by reading the files, interviewing the parents, teachers, and other providers, and talking to the learner. You really want to know who this child is, what they like, and how they work so that you can pair your environment and therapy up to these things. Take a deep breath, take your time, and just build that relationship.
If you've built that rapport and problem behavior is still occurring, you can analyze the appropriate next steps. When tier 1 or non-dangerous behavior is occurring it is important to move forward with therapy. Note it, track data on it, but keep doing what you're doing. Try to avoid accidentally reinforcing that negative behavior. But what if it's more?
What is an FBA?
A Functional Behavior Assessment, is a formal assessment process that must be requested as a part of an IEP. This process is worked through the team of providers, parents, and anyone who works with the learner. Next, a direct observation occurs to track patterns and antecedents. Finally, an actual analysis may be necessary where the learner will be tested. We do all this to guide us to an accurate behavior intervention plan.
What is the BIP?
A Behavior Intervention Plan written into an IEP to guide and shape therapy. A BIP can not be created without an FBA. Whoever develops the BIP needs to be the one to train and support staff on how to support the learner.
When it comes to these plans and conversations, they are often occurring because things are not going well which can cause some contention between professionals. Kelle and I both discuss how we find it helpful to remind the team that we are in fact on the same team and that the common goal is to help the learner!
To close out this awesome interview, Kelle shares a little bit about her upcoming conference, The Verbal Behavior Conference. This began in 2018, became virtual throughout COVID, and is occurring both live and virtual this year. There are a ton of great speakers and leaders in the field and so many trending topics on the billet.
autism #speectherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is the FBA?
- What is a BIP?
- What can you do when problem behavior becomes a barrier to learning?
- How can speech therapists support students with problem behavior?
- Why does problem behavior occur?
Mentioned in this Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
Verbal Behavior Conference
There is a strong bond between joint attention and both receptive and expressive language skills. When we work on joint attention, we are showing that our learners' communication is powerful! I am sharing a few tips and ideas that I use to build connections before communication while working on joint attention goals.
These activities involve shared activities through playing with toys, singing songs, and reading books. It is okay if your student isn't ready to fully engage when you introduce these activities, note their baseline data, and move forward with goals. You will be amazed to see the transformation and excitement over these simple activities.
Toys:
Playing with toys in therapy is all about creating an interaction in a semi-structured environment. Remember to use simple language and allow for natural curiosity and play and not bombard with questions.
Examples of toys I love to use:
- Car and car track
- Mini Objects
- Farm Set
Literacy:
Build excitement around the book, use books with repetition, and if your kids like it try an animated voice which can be really fun.
A few books I love to keep in my therapy bag that is a great success for joint attention are,
Pete the Cat and his White Shoes, Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
Music:
Students love songs, they are familiar and create engagement. I also love to use visuals that can be just laminated pictures or little toys that match the activity of the song. It can also be engaging to sing songs that have motions for the words.
Songs I love:
- Old Macdonald
- Wheels on the Bus
- Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
It can be difficult to keep data and set goals around these abstract ideas, be sure to check out my goal bank on ABA speech. I hope you love these ideas and get used to them in your next therapy session!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How to increase learner engagement?
- What is joint attention?
- How to embed joint attention across a student's day.
- Where to start with joint attention.
- Integrating shared activities into therapy.
- Why should you focus on the connection before communication?
Mentioned In This Episode:
IEP Goals for Students with Autism - ABA Speech
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
I am excited to share my top 10 tips and strategies for supporting middle and high school-aged students. This is an area where I feel not a lot of information is available. I am very fortunate to work with kids across the lifespan from preschool ages in my private practice to middle and high school in the school setting. While I generally focus on helping autistic learners, these tips can be great for anyone working with older students.
-
Build rapport.
This can be difficult and likely won’t happen overnight but it will greatly affect your relationship and effectiveness with the learner. -
Analyze your service delivery options.
Your students likely have a large array of needs, how can you change the environment, setting, and therapy approach to meet those needs? -
Know who is on the team.
Do your students see other therapists or other providers? Keep communication open and available for all the team members for your learner’s success. -
Focus on independence.
Independence looks different for every learner and encouraging this can be done in a variety of big and small ways. -
Create shared goals.
It’s great to collaborate with other teachers and share goals, these can be developed together and supported across settings. -
Analyze the function of your goals.
Always ask, how are these goals important across the lifespan? Know why you’re working on something and the scope of sequence to accomplish these goals. -
Consider working on communication as it relates to vocation and leisure.
As we get older, vocation and leisure become increasingly important, students should feel really comfortable in these areas. -
Analyze data collection.
Use a variety of data collection related to goals in different forms. Self-monitoring can also be a great tool for data collection. -
Go over goals with your students.
At the middle and high school, students become part of their goal-setting team, encourage participation in IEPs and keep them aware of the why behind their therapy goals. This is a great time to share how you're going to support them and what to expect. -
Reach out with any questions.
Utilize resources available to you! I would love to help and share the resources I’ve created as well as support through a Discovery call.
I hope you found these tips helpful. Please reach out if I can support you!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- How can you support middle and high school, autistic learners?
- Can build a rapport affect therapy?
- Why should older students focus on independence?
- Should older students be involved in their goal planning?
- What resources are available for older autistic learners?
Mentioned In This Episode:
—Double Up Vocabulary and Leisure Game - ABA Speech
—Vocational Binder
—Discovery Call
—ABA Speech: Home
—ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
Apraxia is something a lot of my listeners are really interested in learning about. I had Dr. Edythe Strand on the two-part episode, number 44. Today Dr. Jennifer Moore, SLP, and co-owner of Brave Wings Therapy brings us some strategies on understanding Apraxia with autism and applying the interventions to autistic learners.
What is Apraxia and is it common in autism?
Childhood Apraxia Speech is when the brain has difficulty planning and directing the muscles in a sequence to produce speech. Students with Apraxia might have difficult transitions from one syllable to another, you might see oral groping, vowel distortion, or errors in prosody. Autism rates have risen, current studies show approximately 1 in 44 children is diagnosed with autism. Although research does vary, within that subpopulation there is a coexistence of Apraxia in about ⅔ of those cases.
How can Apraxia interventions be applied to autistic learners?
Many SLP’s struggles because there are great evidence-based assessments such as DTTC and REST for apraxia. However, with these approaches, there are many prerequisite skills required for an authentic, best practice result that do not align with the “box” our autistic learners need. Effective assessments for these learners will require outside-of-the-box thinking using a mix of these approaches with modifications unique to each learner.
When assessing an autistic learner, we really have to be dynamic in our approach. This means looking at sensory differences, current communication style, AAC use, receptive language, and cognitive ability and assessing each of these areas. Jennifer suggests structuring the therapy environment and before therapy, activities to be conducive to the learner and the assessments.
Picking functional targets for autistic learners?
Jennifer uses the term “Power Words” as an important start for learning targets. This means words that are of high use for them in their everyday life that are going to be heard and used often with a big impact. With these functional words, SLPs can look at what the student already has in terms of the sounds and oral motor skills and how to shape it. The Principles for Motor Learning guides instruction, practice, and retention for learners with apraxia and Jennifer provides great guidance on this.
This was such an informative episode on modifying assessment and treatment for Apraxia in autistic learners. You can find out more about Jennifer and her work on Instagram, Facebook, and on the Brave Wings Therapy website.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What are Apraxia assessments?
- How sensory differences that may affect autistic learners.
- How to pick targets for autistic learners.
- Communication when working on interdisciplinary teams.
Mentioned in this episode:
Don’t miss Pyramid Educational Consultants’ Second Annual FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th and 5th, 2022! Pyramid’s international team of behavior analysts, and dually certified speech pathologists, led by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost, the developers of PECS, have created all new and expanded content that includes a broad range of practical information related to the field of behavior analysis. Day one will focus on content related to educational programming and program development. Day two of the virtual conference will present information related to behavior analysis and communication. Earn up to 8.0 BACB CEUs including one ethics and one supervision credit when you attend the full virtual conference. To learn more about attending the FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th & 5th, visit pecsusa.com!
— Dr. Moore on Instagram
— Brave Wings Therapy
I often get requests for how therapists can help students who are engaging in problem behaviors that create a barrier to learning. In this interview, my colleague Sasha Long of The Autism Helper shared her “Five Favorite Antecedent Strategies”.
If you’re not sure what antecedent means, Sasha gives a great explanation. For the purpose of this list, antecedent means to be proactive. This is a list of best practices that when used to their fullest potential can help teachers, therapists, and even parents become proactive instead of reactive in the face of problem behavior.
1. Evaluate the Physical Environment. Remove elements of distraction or possible sensory overload. We might not always be able to remove it all together, but we can minimize or be aware to be of support to the learner.
2. Routines. Kids and adults thrive off of routine and knowing what to expect. Be sure to include several grounding activities throughout the day. We’re all human and things come up but how can you plan ahead to maintain a routine even when there is a change in the day?
3. Schedules. We often have schedules for the whole day but mini schedules are the secret sauce. Try to break down the steps into every group and activity. If you can associate each activity with a visual cue in the order it happens. Keep it simple and applicable to the receptive language skills of the learners.
4. Visuals. We all use them, but, why are you using them? Take a look at the receptive language skills of your learners and figure out what kind of visuals they need. Make visuals a purposeful strategy as opposed to pictures used for the sake of taking up wall space.
5. Reinforcement of replacement behaviors. When you build up good behavior, you’re not going to need to be reactive. Provide praise when students are engaged in positive replacement behaviors. Find the good even if it's small!
Our end goal when working with students and implementing this list to see an increase in communication and a decrease in problem behaviors. Sasha is a wealth of information. You can find out more about her and her work through her blog and podcast, The Autism Helper.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Proactive strategies for students who engage in problem behavior.
- What to do when problem behavior becomes a barrier to learning.
- How to help students who engage in unsafe behavior during therapy.
- What are Sasha Long’s Top 5 Antecedent Intervention Strategies?
- How to set up your therapy environment for the safety of your students.
Mentioned In This Episode:Don’t miss Pyramid Educational Consultants’ Second Annual FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th and 5th, 2022! Pyramid’s international team of behavior analysts, and dually certified speech pathologists, led by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost, the developers of PECS, have created all new and expanded content that includes a broad range of practical information related to the field of behavior analysis. Day one will focus on content related to educational programming and program development. Day two of the virtual conference will present information related to behavior analysis and communication. Earn up to 8.0 BACB CEUs including one ethics and one supervision credit when you attend the full virtual conference. To learn more about attending the FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th & 5th visit, pecsusa.com!
The Autism Helper
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
I am announcing a huge upcoming event, the Autism Connection. If you are an SLP, BCBA, teacher, or even a parent, this is going to be a great event. I partner with Sasha Long who’s also a BCBA and she’s got really great strategies that are actionable and applicable.
This is a live PD in which participants will receive CEUs and certificates of attendance. Be sure to check out the talking points, event schedule, and get registered!
Learn about the Autism Connection. The inaugural LIVE PD event is taking place on March 12th. Brought to you by ABA SPEECH and The Autism Helper. A LIVE ASHA approved and ACE event!
Schedule: (Eastern Time)
Time: 9:45 am -10:00 am
Topic: Welcome
Presenters: With Rose and Sasha
Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Topic: Make the Environment a Tool not an Obstacle
Presenters: Sasha Long M.A. BCBA
Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Topic: The Performative Power of Language in Therapeutic Spaces: Steps Towards Neurodivergent Affirming Practices Presenters: Mari Cerda BCBA LBA
Time: 12:00 pm -12:15 pm Topic: Break Presenters: Break
Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm Topic: Modified Play and Leisure Skills For Preschool and Elementary Aged Students Presenters: Rose Griffin M.A. CCC/SLP BCBA
Time: 1:15 pm - 2:30 pm Topic: LUNCH BREAK Presenters: LUNCH BREAK
Time: 2:30 pm- 3:30 pm Topic: AAC Intervention: Supporting Communication Partners and AAC Users in Naturalistic Communication Environments Presenters: Kate Grandbois, MS, CCC-SLP
BCBA
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Topic: The Best Kept Secrets of Collaborative IEP Goal Writing
Presenters: Stephanie DeLussey and Rose Griffin M.A. CCC/SLP BCBA Time: 4:30 pm - 4:45 pm
Topic: Wrap Up and CEU Reminders
Presenters: Rose and Sasha
Get Registered for the Autism Connection Now!
Thank you to our sponsor:
Don’t miss Pyramid Educational Consultants’ Second Annual FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th and 5th, 2022! Pyramid’s international team of behavior analysts, and dually certified speech pathologists, led by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost, the developers of PECS, have created all new and expanded content that includes a broad range of practical information related to the field of behavior analysis. Day one will focus on content related to educational programming and program development. Day two of the virtual conference will present information related to behavior analysis and communication. Earn up to 8.0 BACB CEUs including one ethics and one supervision credit when you attend the full virtual conference. To learn more about attending the FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th & 5th, visit pecsusa.com!
What’s Inside:
- What is the Autism Connection, Live PD event?
- How can you attend this live event?
- Can you receive CEUs or other certificates by attending the Autism Connection?
- All about a great live event for SLPs, BCBAs, teachers, and parents.
Mentioned In This Episode:Get Registered for the Autism Connection Now!
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
We focus a lot on therapy for young learners, but what about when they grow up? Support for older autistic learners and adults is so important. In this episode, I interviewed Jared Stewart, autistic adult, professional, and BCBA.
For many, characteristics of autism may not be apparent until life demands exceed their skill set. He shares his experience in the school system, how bullying, and the skill demands affected him. He finished his 7th-grade year with a refusal to return to school and spent the next year doing correspondence school from his bedroom. He began school again at the start of 9th grade with the realization that everything he wanted to do was on the other side of education.
Jared talks about a calendar planner one of his teachers helped him create that really changed the way he managed school, giving him a new sense of control. At that point, he learned that he could learn the systems of success. Creating systems is a really great tool for autistic individuals and with the mastery of these, anyone can learn to do bigger and better things.
From his first-hand experience as a high school student to college student, Jared has excellent insight on the needs for public school support and beyond. Focusing on strengths and building up the confidence of your autistic learners is key to their success as they move from school to the real world. Additionally, helping learners understand their unique challenges and working on them is important too. Masking is a hot topic in the autism world today, Jared shared his take on what he calls authentic masking as an important skill to connect your authentic self with your neurotypical community.
Jared pointed out that we often forget that autism is a developmental delay. As autistic individuals get older, brain development begins to catch up to neurotypicals and they can really do some powerful things. He sees it first hand with his work at the Scenic View Academy, a residential academy in which autistic adults live, work and get paid for their work. The school customizes plans for students that last on average about 2-3 years. In this program, they learn all the skills to function and keep themselves safe in daily life physically, mentally, emotionally, and sexually.
This was a great chat about focusing on the transition mindset when preparing autistic learners for beyond public school. Jared is so knowledgeable and passionate about helping others. If you’re interested in the Scenic View Academy you can find out more information online or if you’d like, you can get in touch with Jared who is happy to help in any way he can.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Making school more impactful for all learners.
- How to help older students understand their strengths.
- How we can frame how we will support older students.
- How to identify the areas students might need support after school and why.
Mentioned In This Episode:Don’t miss Pyramid Educational Consultants’ Second Annual FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th and 5th, 2022! Pyramid’s international team of behavior analysts, and dually certified speech pathologists, led by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost, the developers of PECS, have created all new and expanded content that includes a broad range of practical information related to the field of behavior analysis. Day one will focus on content related to educational programming and program development. Day two of the virtual conference will present information related to behavior analysis and communication. Earn up to 8.0 BACB CEUs including one ethics and one supervision credit when you attend the full virtual conference. To learn more about attending the FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th & 5th, visit pecsusa.com!
ScenicView Academy
As Speech-Language Pathologists, it can be overwhelming to create a therapy plan for learners with no speech at all. Where do you get started? In this episode, I talk with Terri Smith. She is an SLP and the founder and owner of Bluebird Speech Therapy and Consulting Services.
Help Me Find My Voice and Start Communicating Now are two courses I offer online for professionals and parents. Terri shared with me how she found ABA Speech and has attended and utilized these resources. She describes her takeaway from these courses as a “Road Map” for therapy with autistic or nonverbal learners. These courses provide real actionable tips, step-by-step ideas for therapy, and most important assessments that focus on communication skills that are crucial for nonverbal learners.
Requesting is an important skill that Terri focuses on in her therapy. She finds that this gives her learners power by realizing their communication means something! Additionally, it's all about the fun, child-led activities built into social and gameplay that make a big difference, especially when working with nonverbal students. One rule she works by is planning therapy based on learners' developmental age, not their chronological age.
Terri works with students with autism to support functional communication and behavior strategies through play-based activities. As a consultant, she also supports other professionals in the field. Oftentimes, SLPs and BCBAs work together simultaneously with families and clients. Even myself as both can sometimes disagree on treatment plans. It’s important to remember when it comes to speech that the SLP is the expert, but also to continue to have that professional dialogue. Regardless of the points of disagreement when a professional is passionate about something it is obvious that their intention is just what's best for the learner.
Every student we see is very different with very different needs, it is important for therapy to match that and change client to client. This is such a great interview in which Terri and I talk about some great tips, tools, and guidelines for getting started with therapy, as well as the big difference my online courses can make!
What’s Inside:
- How can ABA Speech online courses help SLPs and other professionals?
- Where to get started in intervention.
- How you can help your students communicate.
- How to bring fun into therapy.
- The assessments and roadmap for beginning therapy.
**Mentioned In This Episode:
Thank You To Our Sponsor:**
Don’t miss Pyramid Educational Consultant’s Second Annual FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th and 5th, 2022! Pyramid’s international team of behavior analysts, and dually certified speech pathologists, led by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost, the developers of PECS, have created all new and expanded content that includes a broad range of practical information related to the field of behavior analysis. Day one will focus on content related to educational programming and program development. Day two of the virtual conference will present information related to behavior analysis and communication. Earn up to 8.0 BACB CEUs including one ethics and one supervision credit when you attend the full virtual conference. To learn more about attending the FUNctional Behavior Conference on April 4th & 5th, visit pecsusa.com!Pecsusa.com
bluebirdspeechtherapy@gmail.com
Bluebird Speech on Facebook
Facebook: @TerriSmithSLP
Instagram: @BlueBirdSpeech
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
I always love to get parents' perspectives but it’s not often I get to hear the unique view of a parent turned professional. In this episode, I interview Emily Estades, my friend, graduate student, parent, and SLP. Emily is the mother of two children, her daughter, the oldest, has a dual diagnosis of Autism and Rett Syndrome, and her son with Anxiety and ADHD. Her journey started with her daughter's many appointments, meetings, and therapies, eventually inspiring her career as an SLP.
Prior to dealing with speech therapists for her daughter, Emily remembers speech therapy as something kids got pulled out for in the middle of class but not much else. Through attending therapy with her daughter, she got an inside look at what it really was and she began to question and learn. She feels that the time period in which they were first attending therapy with their new diagnosis was a transitional time for the profession and her initial experience was really affected by this. Everyone was working in the best interest of her child, but it felt like they were learning right alongside them. That has really influenced how she works with families now as an SLP. Trying to keep an open mind, provide support wherever she can, and provide information and resources if they are wanting to learn too.
Emily really gets it as a parent and SLP. As someone who attended IEPs on the other side of the table long before she became a professional, I wanted her advice on how providers can keep parents as a vital part of the team. She had some great tips!
How can providers lead parent-inclusive IEP meetings?
•Be mindful of the perspective and language you are using with the parent.
•Be compassionate and be empathetic, parents are doing the best they can.
•It is the professional's job to build the bridge between home and school or home and therapy.
•Not everyone likes to be called mom and dad. Give them their identity, use their name or ask for their preference.
•Do not doubt parents when they talk about positive behaviors that are happening at home. •Take that opportunity to learn and build rapport.
•Encourage parents to take part in the team, provide videos, write in the daily notebook, etc.
•Build rapport and be gentle. Diagnosis is only the beginning for a parent, this is the hardest thing for them to talk about.
These are some great things to keep in mind for professionals out there wanting to be sure their parents are included. And for parents, remember these are things you and your family deserve, be sure to advocate for them during IEP meetings. Emily is a dear friend and it was great to hear her perspective on this. You can learn more about her and her practice at The Inspired SLP.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- A unique parent perspective at the IEP table.
- Tips for professionals on leading a parent inclusive meeting.
- Tips for parents from diagnosis to advocacy.
- The parent and professional journey of Emily Estades, The Inspired SLP
Mentioned In This Episode:www.theinspiredslp.net
inspiredslp@gmail.com
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
FREE Masterclass- Best Strategies in 2022 To Reach Your Autistic Students
Is ABA therapy the right choice for your autistic child? Today Rebecca Shellito, mother, wife, nurse, and non-profit organizer join me to share her family's autism journey.
Rebecca’s son Nico received his autism diagnosis shortly before his third birthday and by 4 years old he was in full-time ABA therapy. They were incredibly lucky to find a local provider, covered by insurance that they were comfortable with. I know some clients and friends personally that drive to see their preferred provider outside of their local area. Wherever your provider is, comfortability is key. Speak up. Ask questions. Don’t stop until you feel comfortable.
ABA comes with so many logistics and scientific terms. As a parent, it can feel like a foreign language and be both overwhelming and intimidating. Rebecca took my online course, Help Me Find My Voice, early on in Nico’s ABA journey, and she said it changed the game. The course gave her the confidence to interact with Nico’s therapists and truly understand everything that was happening. No longer did she feel like a sidebar they had to break things down for but more of an active participant in her son’s therapy team.
Starting full-time ABA at the age of 4, Nico is now 9 and has seen some real progress. Beginning in a developmental preschool and then regular preschool with an ABA aide, he has now fully moved into a traditional elementary school. Nico is in 3rd grade and participates in general education for half his day and a more restrictive environment in special ed the other half. Rebecca plans to enroll him in some ABA after-school programs and playgroups in the future.
No matter how prepared you are, getting the diagnosis of autism for your child can be overwhelming. Rebecca shares some great advice for parents and families just beginning their journey with autism and ABA. You can learn all about the great things she’s doing through her non-profit Uniquely Nico, where she supports parents and autistic children.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Is ABA the right choice for your autistic child?
- How to find the right provider for ABA therapy?
- How progress through ABA can transform your child’s life?
- How the Help Me Find My Voice course can help families.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Uniquely Nico
Uniquely Nico on Facebook
Uniquely Nico on Instagram
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
Best Strategies in 2022 To Reach Your Autistic Students
Assessments are extremely necessary for understanding the skill set of your learner, setting goals, and making meaningful progress. As a therapist, administering these assessments can be so overwhelming and frustrating, especially when your students have complex needs and are not able to meet the standardized completion. Today, I am sharing my top 5 tips and strategies for autism assessments to make assessments a positive tool in your goal setting for therapy.
-
The Functional Communication Profile - Revised
A readily available, informal but thorough assessment. I love this assessment because it looks at a student's ability to attend to a task, receptive language, expressive language, and social language. The FCPR gives a great baseline for your student's overall speech skills. Most speech therapists have it right in their therapy office, it’s been around for a while and it is available through a variety of distributors. -
VB-MAPP
The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program really streamlined my process for my students who were autistic or had complex communication needs. The information that a VB-MAPP will give you is so necessary for goal setting. It’s broken into three developmental levels, Level 1: 0-18 months, Level 2: 18-30 months, and Level 3: 38-40 months. -
Informal Screeners
In my ASHA-approved programs Start Communicating Today and Help Me Find My Voice, I include informal screeners. These have been put together based on my 20 years in the field and what I find helpful to look at. For students with complex needs, these screeners help take a clear look at foundational skills. Also for older students, these screeners can facilitate questions like what have we tried before and how did that go? This is a great supplement for the road map to progress alongside formal assessments. -
Observation
Observation makes up a gold standard assessment. Spontaneous communication can be notated just on pen and paper. This can be during structured or unstructured time, preferably both, so you can understand the different modes and attempts for the students' communications in different settings. The most valuable information comes from the questions, what does my student look like as a communicator in these different areas? -
Parent or Team Interview
Talk to the team of teachers working with the student and talk with the parent. Sometimes teachers are the lead on a case and may be sending home forms that include really valuable information. Also, talking to the parents is crucial because it's important to understand where they are coming from and what their concerns may be. Communication with the team will also facilitate understanding progress being made across the students' environment.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Top 5 tips and strategies for an autism assessment.
- How to get a robust assessment for goal setting.
- How to build a step-by-step road map for meaningful progress for your learners.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
If you’ve been listening for any amount of time, you know that I am all about keeping therapy fun and functional. In this episode, I have some great examples of games for your therapy or at home with your child that you can put into practice right away. These games are all about leisure skills. We spend the majority of our lifespan participating in leisure skills so it is so important to work on these skills with our learners.
Two of the best assessments for identifying and understanding the needs for leisure skills with your students are the Assessment of Functional Life Skills and the Functional Communication Profile Revised. Both of these have direct sections and questions that pertain directly to leisure skills as life skills and clue you into what your learner needs to work on. Observation is also key. My favorite thing to do is take a look at my students' gym classes and see their communication, leisure, and social skills at work in a less structured setting.
When planning for therapy you really have to ask, what skills can we work on in therapy that will help them with their overall engagement, peer interaction, social skills, and most importantly their joy and happiness? Modified leisure skills are so fun to work on and really make a difference beyond therapy and into their shared time with family and for older students when they join the general community.
What we do every single day is important. Not just in therapy but also when they go home with their family. Today I share a few of my favorite modified games for working on leisure skills. I go into how I make them accessible for my students and where to find resources for these games. Many of these games highlight skills like turn-taking, imitation, duration of the task, direction following and so much more.
Activities and Games for Leisure Skills:
- Modified Scrabble
- Modified Uno
- Double Up
- Grocery Store Game
- The Game Gal
- Yoga
- Lifting Weights
- Listening to Music
These are just some examples of really functional and exciting ways to take on social and leisure skills. I really urge you to take a look at your therapy and the skills you’re working on and ask yourself, why am I working on this? What purpose do the skills and activities you’re currently working on serve? What we are doing every day needs to transcend beyond the classroom and be important across their lifespan!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
—What are modified leisure activities?
— Why are leisure skills important?
— How are your therapy practices transcending the classroom?
— How do skills build across the lifespan?
— Can therapy be fun and functional?
— How can therapy activities be generalized for family time?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Social skills for students with autism - MODIFIED UNO
Social skills for students with autism - Modified Scrabble
Social skills for students with autism- The Grocery Store Game
Social skills game for mixed groups - ABA Speech
Word Generator - The Game Gal
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
As we close out the year, I wanted to highlight my most popular episode. This week, I’m re-sharing Episode 3, where I break down IEPs and discuss everything that goes into creating goals in speech therapy for autistic learners.
Setting IEP goals for autistic learners can be incredibly difficult, especially when you’re working with emerging communicators. At the beginning of my career, assessment tools were limited and I found out along the way the goals I set for my students were unclear and hard to measure. Assessment, collaboration, and functional goals are all important pieces of the puzzle for setting up your student and the therapy for success.
Standardized tests are commonly used in the classroom, but they are so tricky because they often do not give us the snapshot of skills we need for autistic learners. Assessment tools I recommend if you have access are the VB-MAPP and the Functional Communication Profile. If you don’t yet have access or need to start on a more basic level, I like to look for specific early learner skills. These are those small basic skills that lead to learning bigger skills and tasks. These are measurable communication skills that start in even really young learners such as labeling, verbal imitation, intraverbal skills like filling in the blank, matching, and group listening.
When you have brought all the pieces together, it’s time to set the vision for their communication programming. I have 5 questions for you to ask as a part of my practical and systematic approach to establishing functional goals for your autistic learner.
- What behavior are we targeting?
- Is it appropriate for our client?
- How is this goal specific?
- Is the goal observable?
- What does mastery look like?
No matter the skill level, the age, or the context of your therapy practice, this approach will help you consider all the important pieces behind each goal. If you’re a parent, this can help you know what questions to ask your therapist and IEP team to ensure the right goals are being observed and measured for your child. As a part of this episode, I have included a downloadable link for my IEP Goal Bank, be sure to check it out as you work with your team and parents to set specific, actionable IEP goals for your autistic learners.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Strategies for embedding parents’ concerns into their child’s IEP goals.
- Examples of what a specific, observable goal looks like in the classroom.
- My recommendation for assessment tools for autistic learners with limited or emerging communication.
- What skills should we be looking at in our autistic learners?
Mentioned In This Episode:
IEP Goals for Students with Autism - ABA Speech
Working with toddlers and preschool aged autistic learners- learn more about our Start Communicating Today Autism Course
Working with school aged autistic learners- learn more about our autism course- Help Me Find My Voice
ABA Speech: Home
ABA SPEECH Your Autism Resource
Is autism really different in girls and is that affecting reliable diagnosis? I had the opportunity to chat with Robin Roscigno, founder of AuTEACH, former teacher pursuing her PhD, and autistic mother to her autistic daughter. As she speaks from her education background and personal experiences, Robin gives a really great insight on a deeper look into how we are evaluating and educating autistic students.
The CDC website reads that autism is 4 times as common in boys as it is in girls. Why are we still saying that? Is it more common in boys or are their crucial elements being missed when it comes to diagnosing females? The thing is autism is not different in girls, it just presents itself differently.
When looking at autism in girls, we are talking about internalized experiences vs. externalized behaviors. With girls, a lot of their repetitive thoughts or fixations are happening internally, or they present in somewhat typical female expectations. This could be a little girl playing the exact same scripted play scenario multiple times daily for weeks with no deviation or insensibly organizing and caring for her barbies. At the core, if the behavior is an “expected” or “traditional” female activity within normal gender roles, parents of girls can expect to get push back on an autism diagnosis. Boys and girls are socialized very differently and in fact many of the hallmark signs of autism can be disguised as socialized behavior for women. This makes it easier for girls with autism to hide their symptoms and prevent a reliable diagnosis.
Social skills and navigating social situations can be an area where autistic girls are ill-equipped. Robin highlights the typical socialized behaviors of how girls interact with one another and it can be very difficult for girls with autism to operate within that. Her reminder for parents and teachers is to stop assuming children don’t want to socialize. In fact, it can involve a lot of shame and internal pain, especially when the student has a desire to be a part of the group. To combat this, Robin talks about a whole school approach. This means not only talking to students with disabilities but to students without disabilities as well. It’s not that one group has all the social skills and one none, it’s that they have different skills and they can learn on both sides. It’s an opportunity for double-sided empathy.
Robin shared some great suggestions and potential resources for parents of girls with signs of autism. Taking data at home and finding a reputable doctor are some key points for making an evaluation fair and accessible regardless of gender. Advocate for your child and what you as a parent are seeing that raises concerns is so important.
You can find out more about Robin and AuTEACH on her TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and on her website. This was an awesome chat, I hope you got something great out of today’s episode!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Characteristics of autism in girls.
- Guidance for providers working with autistic girls.
- Advice for parents with female children and autism concerns.
- Why are girls not receiving autism diagnoses as readily as boys?
- Is autism different in girls?
- How to get a fair autism diagnosis for girls.
Mentioned In This Episode:
AuTeach
AuTeach (@auteachofficial) • Instagram photos and videos
Autism Education (@auteach) TikTok
AuTeach - YouTube
Wow, Episode 050! This is amazing. I want to start by saying thank you for listening, this so far has been an incredible experience. 1 year ago, my own kids had a snow day and I had just finished up my podcasting course. I was super nervous but I came into my little walk-in closet and pressed record. Throughout these last 50 episodes, I have learned so much and I want to share with you these important lessons.
1 - Nathan Morgan, Episode 16
Nathan taught me that the autism community prefers the term autistic, rather than a person with autism. School for a long time has taught people their first language with all disabilities, but this has really changed and autistic people are letting their voices be heard. It's still important to ask people their preferences, but the majority of the community aligns with that language.
2 - Chris Wenger, Episode 17
Chris shared the quote, “How you do anything, is how you do everything”. I had never heard this before but it gave me pause, and really taught me to stop rushing through even the little things, and give my best.
3 - Braxton Baker, Episode 20
Braxton uses a framework of 5 Ps for reflection on IEPs. These are Process, Purpose, Possibilities, Progress, Peace. Focusing on the person at hand and these “Ps” is so important, and I am so glad he shared that!
4 - Dr. Mary Barbera, Episode 8
Mary shares her personal experience and journey in the autism world beginning with her son’s diagnosis in the 1990s. She has a book, podcast, and some incredible online courses that really help parents be their child’s best advocate and work on so much more than speech. This perspective is so important as a professional, to hear from parents and their stories. She is a great friend and mentor.
5 - Kate Grandbois, 32
Kate and I discussed The Communication Bill of Rights. This is an incredible resource located on the ASHA website. This is such a powerful tool that anyone can access and it really reinforces the work we do as professionals.
6 - Crystal Sanford, Episode 39
Crystal shares the importance and supports an advocate provides for parents. It was great to learn as a professional what exactly an advocate does because it can be such an area of contention in the IEP room. Since this episode, I have actually signed up to start doing advocacy work and will be offering it very soon as a service through ABA Speech.
7 - Kayla Chalko, Episode 41
Kayla is a play-skill expert. In this episode, we discussed play milestones, including pretend to play and at what age that is supposed to happen. One great thing she reminded me of is to take away the need to be perfect. Your lesson or activity does not have to be perfect to be helpful or effective.
8 - My walk-in closet makes the best recording studio! If you want to see where I am recording, be sure to check out the recording of this episode on YouTube.
9 - You can’t do it alone. Not as a professional, not as a parent, not with anything. Special thanks to my business mentor, my amazing assistant, all of my wonderful guests, my social and graphic design helpers, as well as the audio production team who makes my show sound amazing!
10 - There is still so much to share. I have so much planned for the future and episodes that will absolutely blow your mind.
This is a wonderful opportunity to hear a variety of perspectives that are truly so important. I have always loved to talk, so this podcast has been perfect for me. I love people, I love being around them, I love helping them. This show is an extension of what I really love to do personally and professionally. Thank you again so much!
speechtherapy #autism
What’s Inside:
- How did I get started with this podcast?
- Lessons I have learned throughout the last 50 episodes.
- Life lessons for myself.
- A special thanks to all wh
Dr. Megan Miller is a thought leader in the field of behavior analysis and special education. In this interview, she and I discussed the Early Start Denver Model and its importance to early learners. Play is such a critical piece to communication and this model sets up parents and providers to build joint attention skills.
Imitation is such an important skill, many individuals look to this as a way to learn things and copy skills. However, it is so much more, it is a skill in which communication begins. If we are missing that piece, higher level communication is not going to take place. Where does imitation most naturally occur? Social interaction. Joint attention activities are often child led activities and this is where the most AHA moments occur.
If natural social interaction isn't developing, parents often don’t initiate unintentionally, they instead substitute their interactions with “formal” language practice. It’s really critical that parents learn to be silly and have fun engaging in a social or play format. It can sometimes be difficult, and it definitely requires a certain element or attitude, but when you’re really into it the kid responds.
Many parents may be intimidated by play based social activity. What is great about the Early Start Denver Model, provides a framework for joint activity routines. The first part is to observe the child to find out what they are interested in. The second is developing the routine, early on this involves imitating the child’s play. The third part is creating variety in the routine, so once you're engaged in an activity the child has started, the adult changes it up. This might mean throwing a ball instead of rolling it, or even just rolling it fast instead of slow. Just small little changes in the play the child is already interested in, which opens up so many opportunities for language and communication for the child to direct the activity. The last part is the closing, preparing to end the activity with a child and move on to the next thing.
Whether it's birth-3 or older, professionals and parents alike have to set aside our intentions or vision for the interaction with the kids. Dr. Miller brings up a great point about how aversive it can be if kids are always redirected to play the way the adult wants, because communication really begins with the child’s preference and slowly teaches flexibility. Oftentimes we miss the obscure playful interactions non-neurotypical students may be showing us because we have these ideas of what “fun” should look like, and with that we miss great opportunities for communication with the child.
There is so much information online, as well as providers who practice very differently, which can be a good thing but also has some negatives. Parents have certain ideas about structured, table centered activities and can at times not understand the purpose of play based interactions in therapy. Dr. Miller drives home that research is there for naturalistic communication and that it comes from spontaneous play. The Early Start Denver Model book backs up the need and importance of social activity and this can be used to help parents and even providers understand the need and importance of play.
Dr. Miller’s advice is for more people to understand that students who are not neurotypical do not have to communicate the same way as neurotypical individuals. She says, “We are more comfortable, learn better, and are less stressed when we are accepted”. My wish is that we can all spontaneously communicate in a way that makes sense to us, so I find that so profound! Be sure to check out Dr. Megan Miller and all her work with the Do Better Movement!
autism #speechtherapy
What's Inside:
- The Early Start Denver Model.
- How important the Early Start Denver Model is to early learners.
- Where imitation mostly occurs.
Dr. Lisa Audet is an extremely knowledgeable special education teacher, SLP, and professor at Kent State. In fact, over 20 years ago she was my professor! She specializes in communication and independence for autistic adults, works with these individuals on her campus, and has a unique viewpoint for those of us working with younger adults with autism at the middle and high school level.
Because socially and academically the needs are very different from high school to college or work-based settings, it can be hard for parents and professionals to identify the needs of students preparing for transitions. Dr. Audet identifies these needs as learning a sense of self, self-care skills, and understanding their strengths. As therapists, we often focus on students' needs and teach them new skills, but approaching therapy with a strength-based model can help students self-identify and determine jobs and settings that best suit them.
Self-monitoring is so important for everyone. For autistic individuals, this can provide success in a variety of ways. This means understanding when they are uncomfortable, when they have a need, or how to understand and repair a relationship or situation when they’ve missed a boundary. Dr. Audet uses the Stop-Think-Make a Plan method for her students to teach them to assess their situation and determine solutions before a problem arises.
Older autistic students in high school may be preparing for college or for placement in a work setting. Dr. Audet talks about the ways we can not only set up the student for success but educate employers on the individuals in the work environment. Students should be entering work environments that align with their interests, strengths, and desires, not what “makes sense” to the providers they work with. Alternatively, there is work to be done in the education of employers because many times fear of hurt feelings prevents great learning and developmental opportunities from taking place.
As a professor at Kent State, Dr. Audet has a great understanding of what Ohio has to offer its young autistic adults as well as other individuals with other disorders. The Office for Ohioans with Disabilities has a vocational counselor on every state campus. She shares all of the great resources they can provide to students who voluntarily seek their assistance. The Organization for Autism Research has a book that is a great resource for college-bound individuals with autism.
There is a lot to be done to support and initiate success for young autistic adults, especially with their varying places on the spectrum. Every state varies on the resources they provide, so be sure to look into all of the resources and options available locally to you!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Developing a sense of self within autistic young adults.
- Self-care and self-advocacy for autistic individuals.
- The importance of a strength-based therapy model.
- Self-monitoring for success.
- Transitioning from an educational environment to a post-secondary environment.
- Communication in the workplace with autistic adults.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Working with toddlers and preschool-aged autistic learners - Start Communicating Today Autism Course
Working with school-aged autistic learners - Help Me Find My Voice
ABA Speech: Home
One out of four typical children will develop a pediatric feeding disorder. Does that statistic shock you or does it feel extremely relatable? Melanie Potock of Munch Bug is an SLP and Pediatric Feeding Expert. She has written 6 books on feeding, speaks around the world, and is a coach to parents and children struggling with picky eating.
Picky eating is a wide, all-encompassing umbrella term that spans many many feeding issues from babies to school-aged kids. A point Melanie really drives home during this interview is that feeding is developmental. Just as you would be concerned if your child was not hitting their other milestones, feeding issues should receive the same concern. So much goes into feeding including cognitive, motor, and even parenting skills.
How can you start strong? Can feeding be a joyous experience? Feeding when speaking about food variety and solids begin at 6 months old. This is a really crucial time to learn babies' cues; when are they hungry? When are they done? When are they satisfied? This type of communication between baby and parent is called responsive feeding. A topic in which Melanie has devoted an entire book to!
For toddlers and school-aged children who may be showing signs of picky eating are not ruined by good eating habits, remember to shift your mindset. Children grow at an extremely rapid rate from birth to about 18 months when it begins to slow down. A child who may have been eating everything in sight may suddenly not need as much to fuel their body. This is OK. The key at this age is to continuously try new things, in a positive way.
What about the age-old trick of sneaking veggies into dessert? Have you ever made avocado pudding or black bean brownies to get that extra nutrition in for your toddler or young child? Melanie’s advice is to take the words trick or sneak out of your vocabulary when it comes to feeding. Did you sneak the black beans in or did you try a fun new recipe? Let kids know what’s in their food and tell them that you are just as surprised as you are that it tastes so yummy. It is okay to experiment with foods and recipes, it's even normal, and that sets the stage for adventurous eating.
So what are some characteristics of picky eating that need intervention? Look for rigid patterns such as not tolerating new food on their plate, not eating at the table most of the time, and not eating in a new environment (school, classroom, restaurants). Sometimes kids are being kids, but these are things that happen more frequently than not. You may also see irritability before, during, or after each feeding, taking a long time for feeding, coughing and gagging, more frequently, gurgling, or frequent vomiting. Any stall in the development of feeding warrants intervention.
If you are feeling stressed about feeding, get help now. Even if it's just a consult or a few extra tips and slight changes to your existing feeding routine. The longer you wait to get help or make changes, the more unlearning that will need to take place and the chance of extensive feeding therapy in your future. Talk to your pediatrician, reach out to Melanie, or seek out other forms of feeding support.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is picky eating?
- What are the characteristics of a picky eater?
- When do you need to get intervention for picky eating?
- Is feeding developmental?
- How to make feeding time a joyous experience?
- Feeding tips for babies, toddlers, and school-aged kids.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Melanie Potock
Melanie Potock on Instagram
TalkTools Virtual Conference Feeding First
Do you ever walk into a new gym class and feel uneasy or nervous? If you do, you're not unlike many kids who hesitate or resist transitions. Not all children with autism experience difficulty with transitions, but it is something many struggles with. In this interview with Dani LoVecchio from Bridge Kids of New York, we discuss tips and advice for making transitions smoother.
Whether it be starting a new school or service, being away from the caregiver for the first time, or smaller transitions throughout your child’s day, there are ways to make it better for the parent, professional, and the child.
Dani’s Tips for Smooth Transitions with Autistic Learners:
- Get prepared - What is the new transition? Start gathering all the information about this new place or activity and share it with your child. Expose them to the new faces and places they will see. Set positive expectations for the new transition.
- Utilize a visual schedule - A visual schedule can be different for every child. Some might just need a written schedule somewhere they can see. Others might need pictures or photos and a more detailed and personal schedule.
- Keep a comfort Item - Is there a stuffed animal, special picture, blanket, or toy that brings your child comfort? It is okay and even beneficial to let them bring this item into their new space.
- Practice time away - Time away can be scary for any parent, let alone a parent of a child with a disability. However, it is so important to prepare for separation that will take place during services and school by utilizing a well trusted and trained babysitter.
- Skip gradual introductions - Many centers and schools offer a slow or gradual introduction instead of jumping into 5 days a week. This can often create more stress and unknowns around the new transition and even take longer for the child to adapt. Go right to the full schedule to set a strong foundation.
Routines and schedules are great for kids, especially kids with autism. They teach the learner what to expect and to trust what will be next. However, we all know there is no such thing as perfect and life happens. As the child gets older, be sure to prepare them for flexibility and what to do when a schedule change or a transition isn’t the same.
Dani and I also touched on communication between providers and parents. This is always so important but even more so when working on new transitions. Be sure to have a clear communication plan in place so as the parent or professional, you’re on the same page and continuing support.
Transitions are part of every single person's day. They aren't always big scary new ones, but they can feel that way to some autistic learners. I loved getting to talk to Dani today and hope you can put some of her great advice to use!
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What are transitions and what do they look like for autistic learners?
- Tips for easing transitions, big and small.
- Can you keep routines and still be flexible?
- Determining a communication system between parents and providers.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Bridge Kids of New York
Bridge Kids NY on Instagram (@bridgekidsny)
Bridge Kids NY on Facebook
Whether you're working with a young child, teen, or adult, executive functioning skills are among the most critical and practical skills we need. In this interview with Sara Ward, an SLP specializing in executive function, she shares the unique background that makes this work so special to her, as well as some really interesting approaches to assessment and intervention.
Many people have different explanations for executive functioning. Sara defines executive functioning for young children in the most basic form, sequencing. As you reach middle and high school, you’re continuing to plan with a window of time and space that is continuously growing. It’s very easy for parents and professionals to be a child’s “prosthetic frontal lobe”, we visualize the students through space and time and we at times over prompt.
So in a neurotypical brain, this is the ability to visualize where you are in a future time or space. 90% of the time, task planning happens in a different place from where you execute the plan. Naturally, as you might plan your day and anticipate the tasks necessary to accomplish your daily routine, you may use gestures to prompt your steps.
An intervention Sara uses that is really successful in young children is teaching them to gesture. So a child with really great executive functioning skills would use very specific verbs to describe the steps necessary for their future plans. With a child who is lacking in executive function, you might prompt them to show you with their hands. Oftentimes, when students are able to feel the steps with their hands, the attached verb comes. So there is this language and movement attached with task execution.
How do you determine the need for executive functioning? Assessments are tricky because SLP’s are not licensed to administer tests related to neuro-capability. Evaluators tend to look at Executive Skills through observation and rating scales. Sara recommends the Barkley Attention Deficit Executive Function Scale, because of the way it differentiates between attention deficits in comparison to executive skills in the individual. CEFI, Clinical Executive Function Inventory, is an online tool that Sara suggests to accurately characterize kids' behaviors related to executive functioning. She also mentions several other tests and scales that can be used, in addition to looking at existing speech and language assessments with an executive functioning lens.
Sara provides so many great suggestions and tools for working with students on executive functioning and the program she developed. As an experienced SLP, I myself found this information so enlightening. I cannot wait to take these tools to my next IEP meeting and to my therapy. I hope you found this just as helpful.
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is executive functioning?
- Why are executive function skills important?
- Assessment and intervention for executive function skills.
- Executive functioning in young children, teens, and adults.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Cognitive Connections: Executive Function
Welcome back to part 2 of my interview with Dr. Edythe Strand. If you haven’t listened to part 1, be sure to go back and listen to get the full scoop.
Edythe is a very important leader in her field. In addition to the Dynamic Assessment, she also researched and developed a critical treatment for children with severe apraxia, Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing. DTTC, as it is known, is an innovative treatment in which a hierarchy of cues is used to demonstrate and initiate motor-speech skills in children with apraxia.
In most therapies, we are constantly taking data, every meeting or every session. However, the Dynamic Assessment and DTTC is such an involved, hands-on, and therapist-led treatment data and scoring doesn’t need to take place at every visit. In Edythe’s work at Mayo, they would take data every 3 visits using multidimensional scoring. She notes that the importance of data is not as prevalent during an intensive treatment like this as opposed to when she is doing research.
When working on something as important to communication as language, whether the child is typical or has autism, the type of language, the number of words, and the words that are chosen to work on are so important. Especially in the cases of students with severe apraxia and autism, functional and fundamental words during practice and DTTC are crucial.
In this episode, Dr. Edythe Strand touches on the commonalities between apraxia and other diagnoses and disorders such as autism. She explains all of the research, practice, and genuine desire to help kids with severe apraxia that has gone into her work. She is such a wealth of information and has provided so many great links and references for this episode, so be sure to check them out!
What’s Inside:
- What is DTTC Treatment?
- Taking data with DTTC and Dynamic Assessment.
- Choosing important words for treatment.
- Is there a connection between Apraxia and Autism?
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech: Home
Child Apraxia Treatment
Apraxia-kids: Home
Videos for Parents and Clinicians:
Overview of possible causes and types of problems in speech development
Definitions and Descriptions of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Examples of different levels of severity in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Differentiating Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) from other types of speech sound disorders
Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
How parents can help their child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS): Other resources
Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Information for Parents
5-hour general course on CAS or the Once Upon a Time Foundation, through the University of Texas, Dallas.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech -- by Dr. Edythe Strand, Ph.d. View video FOR FREE and receive ASHA CEUs! www.utdallas.edu/calliercenter/events/CAS/
Welcome to part one of my interview with Dr. Edythe Strand. Edythe was a professor at Mayo College, former head of Division of Speech Pathology, Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic, and a practicing Speech Pathologist and clinician. Her research has focused on developmental, acquired, and progressive Apraxia speech.
What are the characteristics of Apraxia? Edythe noted that Apraxia is not a medical diagnosis but rather a label for a speech sound disorder. Different from other speech disorders, Apraxia affects the movement needed to make a sound. Characteristics might include, difficulty programming and planning, movement gestures, awkward movement through a movement transition, mistiming, blending of manner, distorted sounds, intrusive schwa, inconsistency in the context of repeated production.
Therapy for students with Apraxia looks a lot different than other language disorders. Speech-Language Pathologists typically go straight for phonemes and articulation. However, Edythe further drives home that Apraxia treatment is focused on movement. So instead of enunciating letter sounds and syllables, the clinician is going to emphasize the movement that creates the sound. This is called Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing, or DTTC, treatment.
Dynamic Assessments are the best evaluations for students with Apraxia and are really different from a lot of the typical assessments in speech pathology. It involves a hierarchy of cueing, and scoring is based on response to that cueing. Versus in Static Assessment, typically there is a picture or a question; the child responds once and the clinician notes the response. Edythe Strand developed her own Dynamic Assessment, DEMS (Dynamic Evaluation of Motor-speech Skill). She shares some examples of who and how this assessment would be used. The benefits of Dynamic Assessment include knowledge of a child's preferred cueing and an understanding of the severity of the disorder.
Be sure to check out the amazing resources from Dr. Edythe Strand and stay tuned for part two of this really interesting interview!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- The characteristics of Apraxia.
- What is Dynamic Assessment?
- How to approach therapy with students who have Apraxia?
- What is DTTC treatment?
Mentioned In This Episode:
Child Apraxia Treatment
Apraxia-kids: Home
Videos for Parents and Clinicians:
Overview of possible causes and types of problems in speech development
Definitions and Descriptions of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Examples of different levels of severity in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Differentiating Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) from other types of speech sound disorders
Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
How parents can help their child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS): Other resources
Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Information for Parents
5-hour general course on CAS
Childhood Apraxia of Speech -- by Dr. Edythe Strand, Ph.d. View video FOR FREE and receive ASHA CEUs! www.utdallas.edu/calliercenter/events/CAS
In this interview, Dr. Kerry Magro, one of the first speakers who is also autistic, shares his communication journey. Kerry was non-speaking at 2.5 and received an official autism diagnosis at 4. Despite not speaking in full sentences until 7 and facing a variety of sensory challenges, the support of his loving family and over 15 years of a multitude of therapies helped him overcome many of his barriers. All of these paved the way for his achievement in a degree in sports management before he realized his true passion for disability advocacy and received his Ph.D. We discuss how, with the right support in place, anyone can find their voice.
Kerry describes his early speech behavior as non-speaking versus non-verbal because of the sounds he was making. While they weren’t words, these sounds turned into pronunciations and through speech therapy broke ground to start communicating, in any way possible. I work with a lot of students who are not yet spontaneously communicating, and it is always my focus to create budding communication. Kerry describes the two biggest things that helped him grow from non-speaking to a professional speaker were speech therapy and music therapy.
When you receive a diagnosis of autism for your child, sharing this information with them can seem scary or overwhelming, especially when a child is young. Kerry shares how his parents told him after a fun game at school where the teacher told him he was special and wanted to know why. His parents told him that he has autism and that it meant he learned differently, but that he was no less of a person than others. While that may seem simple, Kerry says it was life-changing for him as he grew older and began to understand his disability, sit in on IEP meetings, and become an advocate for himself.
Leaving the support of the elementary, middle, and high school and moving on to college is quite a transition, whether you’re a typical learner or not. Kerry says for him, the best support for him as he entered college was understanding his accommodations, understanding his needs to succeed academically. For him specifically, he needed more time on tests, a private room due to sensory needs, and a note taker due to his dysgraphia. He is actually working on a book about the transition from high school to college with advice and experience from many autistic voices.
As a professional in this field, my goal is always to support my students, but sometimes it can be hard to know what language is preferred. Kerry talks about the importance of letting neurodivergent individuals and self-advocates identify themselves. It’s really not up to a professional to dictate the preferred language of someone else. Many are taught to use the label, a person with autism, but Kerry prefers the language, autistic individual. He also stresses that parents and professionals should stop using functioning labels. The best way to describe your child is to list their strengths and weaknesses. Autism is such a wide spectrum, so person-centered approaches are essential to the autism community. If you’ve met one autistic individual, you’ve met one.
Be on the lookout for Kerry’s contribution to the book Life After the Lockdown: Resetting Perceptions on Autism, just released this September. This fall, he is gearing up for many speeches for National Bullying Prevention Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month, as well as the spring release of his book Autistics on Autism for World Autism Month, in which 100% of the proceeds will go into his scholarship fund.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- Dr. Kerry Magro’s communication journey.
- The importance of speech and music therapy.
- Non-speaking to professional speaker.
- Telling your child their diagnosis.
- Autism and transitioning to college.
- Understanding preferred language and labels.
How are you utilizing effective communication with parents? Parents, how are you effectively communicating with the educators in your child's life? Ria Reive from HiMama is a former early childhood educator. She shares actionable tips to improve communication with parents and teachers. As well as the overall benefit from effective communication in a school setting. You may not see how impactful parent engagement can be in the day-to-day, but down the road, there is going to be an immense benefit when both the parent and the educator have the knowledge on both sides.
What are Ria’s three big strategies for effective parent communication?
- It all starts with being yourself because you are starting the map of engagement from the get-go.
- Continue to be a source of knowledge for the parent. Be that stepping stone when a parent is ready for help, they may not be accepted right away, but if you continue to be that source, you may be surprised by what they are taking in.
- Seek professional development on communicating with parents, take the time to invest in yourself, and you will find those interactions and engagement are a lot more successful.
So what kind of daily information are you providing parents on a day-to-day basis? For Ria in the classroom working with younger kids, that's going to be feeding, naps, diaper changes, etc., and then kind of how their day went, did it go amazing, or maybe they had a rough day and some of that daily info can clue in on that. So when she was in the classroom, that was translated via paper. However, we talk a lot about how parents do not need one more piece of paper, and that's where HiMama comes in. HiMama provides a digital piece of communication for efficient, direct, dissemination of information between teachers and parents.
What happens when there may be a problem or disagreement? Ria and I talk about the benefits of creating an action plan. Decide how you’re going to handle problems with parents and remain professional and supportive. Remember, there is a time and place, during drop-off at the classroom door, probably isn't it.
It takes a team to educate and support students with autism, and all students. Parent engagement and communication from both sides is a skill really integral to the success of the child at hand.
autism #speechtherapy
What's Inside:
- The importance of effective communication with parents and teachers.
- Actionable tips for educators to improve communication.
- What kind of information should be communicated between parents and teachers?
- How to handle tough conversations.
- What is HiMama and how could it help your education communication?
Mentioned In This Episode:
HiMama - The Best Childcare App for Daycare Centers
ABA Speech: Home
Have you ever wondered about how your child should be playing? Today Kayla Chalko, SLP from Walkie Talkie, talks with me today about the importance of play for learning. We talk all about play milestones and the importance of parent-to-child connection in building up to those.
What are the benefits of play? The amount of time that someone could spend doing formal instruction, versus the time spent playing while introducing content, much more information will stick. Shared activities with an adult and child or multiple children also bring impactful connections and social skills.
Parents can get nervous when hearing the word milestones, especially if they find their child isn't measuring up. Milestones are a guideline and a point on which to work from. So what are some basic play milestones?
6 months - 12 months: Engaging in social games such as peek-a-boo or patty cake, usually paired with words and songs. Silly games involving back and forth and imitation.
18 months: Using tools to pretend actions like hammering, pouring and mixing. Playing with sensory items. Developing their imagination with more pretend play, they may pretend to feed dolls or mom.
2 years: Continuing pretend play. They may imitate normal activities from their home. They may play house, clean up, and imitate the caregivers. At this brainstage, they are ready to pretend based on their environment. Beginning to try joint play with other kids.
Change your mindset from working specifically on milestones to genuine connection. Play can be an intimidating word for parents, but make it all about connection. What makes you and your kid feel silly? Start with something like that, loosen up and feel silly. Mindset is the most important piece; this is how you create connection with the child, and that's where those play skills will come through.
Therapy should be fun for the child and for the clinician. Creating an atmosphere that is fun and functional is important. A lot of therapists are eager for a list of toys for their therapy room. Kayla’s go-to toys are her balloon pump, a ball, markers, puppet books, and bubbles. However, she says regardless of toys, it is all about the mindset and connection. Sometimes your best toys are your hands, voice, and facial expressions. It doesn't matter what you’re playing with; it's how you're playing with it.
Kayla’s closing advice is to get rid of the pressure and perfection. Stop worrying about milestones and connections. She says that if parents can focus purely on connection with their child for just a week, she guarantees that they will improve and learn so much more over the course of that time!
autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- A breakdown of play skill milestones.
- What does play look like for children 6 months to 2 years of age?
- How parents and providers can support play skills.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Walkie Talkie Speech Therapy | Speech Therapy in San Diego
Ineffective communication in all humans, will affect how we behave. Children who cannot communicate, do not have the life experience to handle their feelings and situations and that presents in their behavior. Ashley Scott, SLP-BCBA, shares in this episode the ongoing and intentional processes of building expressive language in children.
There is a difference between having vocabulary and functional language skills. A child may be able to count, say their ABCs, or identify color, but they may not be able to communicate. So they may know the color orange, but if they want an orange, can they say “mommy I want an orange”. Functional language is not just talking but using words to request, negotiate, and communicate with their parents and peers.
It is not cut and dry, “a kid can talk so they start talking”. If you are working on getting a child to talk, there are so many things that need to be in place, so it is important to have less focus on words and more focus on foundational skills as simple as learning to sit. Ashley’s advice for parents is to ask fewer questions. Narrating is a key to building language skills and understanding the meaning behind words. Ask less questions and comment and narrate everything as you and your child are doing it. Pair everything you’re doing with real words, to build connections between the activity or item and the word.
We want to expose kids to a rich vocabulary, but when kids aren't communicating, keep words simple. They don’t have to be long sentences, but instead small phrases and keywords. For example, you don’t need to say “you’re putting on your shoes” instead hold and point to the shoes and say “shoes on” or you don’t need to say “let’s open the door now” instead say “open” but say it a few times, clear and exaggerated.
One of Ashley’s big questions for therapists and parents is, “how much are you facilitating?” Wait time is a big piece. It is critical to give children time to process and respond. One thing Ashley said that makes so much sense is working on language is an art form, a unique balance between foundational skills, modeling, narrating, and allowing silent time for processing language.
Another key part of therapy is that the skills a child can perform in therapy should be able to be performed, across all of their environments and with all people they interact with. It's important to create opportunities for communication. This differentiates the difference between can’t do or won’t do. Reinforcement is critical, modeling what it looks like to respond to a request. Repeating a request over and over is not effective. Say it one time, and if they do not comply, physically complete the request with them. For example, you don't need to say come here over and over. If they do not come the first time, show them what coming here looks like.
Building expressive language is about building independence. There are so many teaching opportunities that are missed because as adults we meet the child’s needs that they can do themselves and we do not give them the opportunity to ask for help or demonstrate their knowledge. The biggest takeaway for parents and professionals here is language and communication is more than just talking.
#autism #speechtherapy
What's Inside:
- Getting started with expressive language delays.
- Real tips and strategies for parents and professionals.
- The art form of building expressive language.
- Building language happens in more than just the therapy room.
Mentioned In This Episode:
FREE live webinar- Autism Therapy Strategies for Toddlers and
Crystal Sanford is an SLP, Autism Mom, and owner of Sanford Autism consulting. She is sharing her professional and parental journey. Crystal’s focus is on IEP advocacy and parent support.
It's really integral to include parents as part of the team. The whole process can feel daunting for parents. To begin with, parents can feel isolated in dealing, and navigating the special ed process can make it especially hard. Therapists can feel defensive and nervous, but parents can be really overwhelmed and advocates play such an important role. IEPs are really a different language for parents. Advocates go in as a liaison and support person to bridge the gap between school and parent. They will ask some of the parents’ concerns, discuss goals, and make sure the parents’ voice is heard.
One thing about the pandemic was the creation of Zoom IEP conferences. I don’t think we’ll ever go back to 20 sweaty people sitting around a room. The addition of Zoom conferences has allowed the setting to be more flexible and collaborative. In the past, it's been very “us against them” in some cases, now we’re all together and we're focusing on the success of the child.
Parents should always trust their gut and ask questions. For parents that are new to the process, think about your child and what works well for them. Use that information. If things are coming up that you’re not sure about, ask those questions. Be persistent in what you want for your kids, but also be a listener. The law requires special education staff and therapists to provide what is appropriate for your child, not what's best. Crystal works with parents on understanding the difference, and how to find balance.
It is so important for parents, therapists, and other professionals that are involved in the IEP or service process to remember that the key focus is the child. Parents really are the expert on their child. Crystal’s tip to convey this is to develop a “Parent Input Statement”. Every year they should draft a statement to include who their child is, their diagnosis, what works well at home, focus points for the school year, and the best way to contact them. As the child gets older, include them in that process as a segue to self-advocacy.
It is okay to think out-of-the-box for kids. It’s important for therapists to advocate why they are teaching things and how they are working for them. Oftentimes, skills and therapy gets generalized; it's necessary to get therapy into real situations, especially in older grades in middle and high school when you're working on big life skills.
Crystal has such a great perspective on therapy and parent involvement as a professional and parent. I hope that by listening to this episode, you’ve found some tips to put into action in your next IEP meeting or therapy session, whether you’re the parent or the provider! If you have any questions, please reach out to me and be sure to sign up for my free webinar, Autism Strategies for Toddlers and Preschool Aged Students.
#autism #speechtherapy
What’s Inside:
- What is the purpose of parent advocacy?
- The IEP process, and how it’s changed through the pandemic.
- Parents as the experts on their children.
- Teaching self-advocacy in children.
- Out-of-the-box therapy.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Register for my new FREE live webinar- Autism Therapy Strategies for Toddlers and Preschool Aged Students
Knowledge is power. When you know more, you’re going to understand more. If you are listening in real-time, my brand new toddler course launches this week! I have created the course, Start Communicating Today, for parents and professionals to help their toddlers and preschool-aged students with Autism communicate.
This ASHA-certified course, from the set-up to the material, is parent-friendly. With Covid, there are a lot of families on waitlists or who aren't able to get the service level they need because of safety concerns. This is a great course for anyone with a child with Autism, a struggling communicator, and even those waiting for a diagnosis. By signing up, you gain access to the course AND access to a private Facebook group full of members of both this toddler course and my school-aged course. This page is a place of community, dialogue, and feedback.
Start Communicating Today is a 5-hour course broken up into 7 Modules. This course is full of great information you can actually use in your everyday therapy practices. I was very systematic in the creation of this course. You will see these modules build upon each other in a flow of importance. Every single module comes with a printable, to reference as a resource in everyday therapy.
I created this course to answer the question; what do we work on with students who are early learners and not communicating on their own? These modules provide detailed information, resources, examples, and even video tutorials on implementing these best practice tools.
The Seven Modules:
Assessments: The “Gold Standard” Assessments, what assessments do I find helpful, and all of the points that make up a good assessment.
Goal development: How to set goals that drive the success of intervention for toddler-age students.
Foundational Skills of Communication: Expressive Language, Communication, Play, and Joint Attention.
Materials: The language developing materials I use with preschool and toddler-aged students.
Group skills: How to frame group therapy and resources and ideas for planning.
Training: Creating a cohesive team for parents, paraprofessionals, and therapists.
Data Collection: How to capture and use data while maintaining engagement.
I have been able to connect with amazing parents and therapists who have taken my courses through the Facebook group. I am so excited to be able to share this information with you. Please reach out to me if you have any questions, and be sure to sign up for my free webinar, Autism Strategies for Toddlers and Preschool Aged Students.
What’s Inside:
- My new course for toddlers with Autism; Start Communicating Today.
- The seven modules of my new course.
- How to work with toddler and preschool aged students.
- How to help early learners with struggling communication.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Free Webinar - Autism Strategies for Toddlers and Preschool Aged Students
Allison Fors is an SLP, blogger, and product creator. She has worked in both a school and private setting and is now a stay-at-home mom focusing on her resource creation.
Today we’re discussing the big word in the development world; milestones. What does that even mean? A milestone is a skill that 90% of children are doing at that age. The problem is, we often treat milestones as averages when an average is about what 50% of children are doing and that is where you see a bigger gap.
When looking at milestones, it's important to understand the difference between expressive and receptive. Expressive is how the child communicates, whether verbally with words or through signs and gestures. Receptive is what the child understands. Children will typically have a higher receptive communication. If you have a pre-verbal child, determine how they are expressing physically and the amount they can show they understand.
It’s not just about the milestones, you have to look at the whole child. Figure out what their speech looks like, physical development; you really need the big picture. Allison, as a product creator, has developed easy-to-read graphics for the milestones and all of the areas that Speech-Language Pathologists cover. It has such a broad scope of practice and this can be helpful for determining what SLPs can help with and how. Allison has also created a grammar resource for older children where there isn't a lot of guidance in the SLP world.
The more charts there are for guidance to help parents and professionals, the better. Looking at milestones, If you have concerns, do not wait. Get your child assessed by a pediatrician or in a clinic. If you’re on a waitlist like so many families, there are always options out there if you're able to pay for private care. There are also online options.
Allison's advice for professionals to look at the whole child. Do not get sucked into these developmental marks. There are so many pieces of the puzzle that could really change the direction of therapy or the level of concern. Her advice for parents is don’t wait, time is precious and it is better to be safe than sorry when talking about the development of your child.
I am coming out with a toddler course that you can find on my website. It’s going to be great information for parents and professionals. In this episode, I share some important information that will be included. Be sure to get on the waitlist!
What's Inside:
* What are milestones for speech and language?
* How to analyze the milestones, whether you’re a parent or professional.
* How to look at the whole child to understand the whole scope.
Mentioned In This Episode:
ABA Speech - Join the Waitlist!
Jaclynn Bosley is a great friend and colleague who I have worked with across many different settings over the years. She is the owner and operator of Thrive Early Learning Center. We discuss the importance of family involvement, some ideas for parents as they’re seeking the support of ABA therapy, and what early intervention looks like in Jaclynn’s center.
Getting a new diagnosis can be overwhelming for parents. Jaclyn reminds parents to take a deep breath and go to the expert and have them provide you with the road map of where to go next. Also, steer clear of Facebook groups and internet forums, it can often be a scary place if you don’t have the right questions or all the information. Trust your gut with your providers and do your research on the program that's right for your family.
We discuss some things to look for and think about when looking for and starting therapy.
Indicators of a good program:
- Transparency.
- Parental involvement.
- Children’s positive nonverbal cues.
- Human connection and relationship with the provider.
Funding sources for therapy:
- State-specific scholarship programs for children with Autism or other disabilities.
- Health Insurance. This is typically only for early intervention and can come with stipulations of reduced hours or a cap on hours as your child gets older.
- Beginning at 3, what services are your public schools required to offer?
For the Thrive Early Learning Center, Jacylnn starts with the initial intake. This will be in a scheduled block of time when no other students are in the building so that the child can have a full roam of the space. Parents and the clinical director will be present to observe and take down lots of anecdotal information. Assessments will take place once a child starts. At Thrive, they use ABLES or VB-MAPP. ABLES is great for students with more communication needs. VB-MAPP works for students with more language skills.
For group therapy at Thrive, it is typically a small group of 3-5 kids. One person is giving instruction as the students are participating, other therapists will come over and quietly prompt and redirect individuals if they get off task. One-on-one support can be a barrier layer because the therapist becomes the interpreter. Teaching students to cue into their environment by looking around to see what their peers are doing. Fading out prompts. They practice watching and listening to a leader during circle or story time. Then allow for shared activity during literacy centers, craft time, and gross motor play.
Jaclynn’s advice is that navigating therapy is a marathon, not a sprint, you don't have to be perfect coming out of the gate. Give yourself the grace to change and adapt. There is always time to make progress. When you first get a diagnosis, put yourself on narration mode, to keep your child immersed in the language, talk to your kids like you would even if they don't have a disability, and watch the journey unfold! You’ll get there together with your providers, and it will keep that journey happy!
What’s Inside:
- Parent involvement in therapy.
- Indicators of a good provider.
- What therapy looks like at Thrive Early Learning Center.
- Jaclynn’s advice for parents with a new diagnosis.
As we prepare to go back to the classroom for face-to-face education, I think it's important to talk about play and social skills for our younger students. Unstructured play time can be something students with Autism or other complex communication issues really struggle with.
Often these students do not independently engage so it's important to ask, “What can I do to help these kids engage?” As a therapist, my goal is to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction and encourage shared activity. One of the ways I do this is by implementing modified games at the end of group therapy. These games look very different from their original counterparts. This is because they are more accessible for students with Autism and other complex communication issues by eliminating the need for strategy and putting the emphasis on a shared group experience.
Modified Games
Musical Chairs
As opposed to traditional musical chairs, I never take a chair away. I give the directions, “when you hear the music you walk when it stops you sit down”. This is fun because the students are moving and you can use popular music or themed music. All you need is a device to play music like your cell phone, chairs, and the students.
Memory
Cards of all different types to play this game are usually readily available. This game can typically take an hour or more, so to cut time and make it more accessible, I remove the majority of matches. I go through and pick the matches, and put one part of the matches in a pile face down, and then line up the other part of the matches face up. This way they can see all the pictures. They take turns picking a card and finding the match. What’s great about this is that it is a game that they can definitely play at home with their parents or family too!
Simon Says
I modify this game by ALWAYS saying “Simon says”. Essentially I am the leader (Simon) and I am giving directions and demonstrating and they are following directions by imitating. This is not only great practice for leisure skills but also imitation.
GoNoodle
This is a free website with amazing dances and brain breaks. If you have a smart board, you can let students go up and pick the video. All the dances have motions to imitate and cooperate with the group, they are so fun and interactive that you’ll want to move along too!
The Grocery Store Game
I've been playing this game for 20 years, it is super fun. You write different letters of the alphabet down. The sentence starter for this game is “I bought…”. Go around the room and start with the letter and have students say what they bought with the corresponding letter, i.e. “I bought apples...I bought bananas...etc.” I have even created a resource with visuals to help students who are having difficulty recalling a word. A great thing about this is that it is also accessible to students using AAC devices.
There are a lot of things you can work on as a therapist in group settings: Greetings, engaging in the group, student engaging in a variety of tasks, expanding leisure repertoire, joining others in play, and sustained social time. All of these are accessible for students who are yet verbally communicating, up to students who are fully conversational.
I put these resources together to provide real tips and strategies to put to use to increase communication in play and social skills across all environments. I really want you to feel comfortable and ready to get to work helping your students and children. There is so much communication involved in interaction and fun that should be explored!
What's Inside:
- Play and Social skills for students with autism and other complex communication issues.
- Tips for returning to face-to-face school post-pandemic.
- Providing all-day communication, practicing individually and with peers.
- Facilitating peer
Dual certified SLP-BCBAs are rare in our therapist community, so many providers find it very difficult when collaborating with other professionals who overlap the scope of care. I am discussing a great professional article that tackles this hot topic with my former supervisee and fellow SLP and BCBA, Eleyonzettah E. Bonilla. The article, Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Between Behavior Analysts, and Speech-Language Pathologists, is available on ABAI.
For many SLPs or BCABs, it is difficult to see when other people are doing what you are trained to do. It can often feel like you're being encroached on. This is bound to happen when many times the care requires an overlap. Eleyonzettah and I talk about how crucial it is to embrace this overlap. The article actually discusses the importance of highlighting the strengths of the different providers. When working with two providers who have knowledge about multiple different points of care, you have an advantage.
Training can be a great aspect of collaboration. When working with other providers, you can facilitate role extension and role release. While you may not ask another provider to teach a skill from scratch, you can release an extension of practicing a skill by training the other provider on what you need from the learner. We do not own these skills, the skills are there as points for teaching.
When facilitating a collaborative relationship, professionalism is key. Eleyonzettah and I both relate to having poor encounters with other professionals. We feel that many other SLP or BCBAs also encounter other professionals they do not care for, this does not mean every encounter has to be negative. It is important to keep language and communication clear and productive. When you're speaking with another provider during collaborative work, the patient should be first. You are a team with the goal of helping the learner.
Discussing this secret problem in the ABA community, Eleyonzettah and I kept coming back to a common theme. The child, learner, or patient comes first! Our job is to facilitate learning and quality of life for our learners and collaborating with other professionals can sometimes be the only way to do that!
I enjoyed this discussion with Elenyonzettah greatly and it is my hope that you found some tips or beneficial information in today’s episode that you can put into practice right away!
What's Inside:
- SLP and BCBA Collaboration.
- How to work with people from different fields and expertise.
- Translating research into everyday practice.
- Putting the child or learner at the forefront of the work.
We should inspire and not require students when on our journey to beginning communication. Anne Page emphasizes this as she joins me today to discuss her role as an Assistive Technology Lead and the importance of how we use AAC with our students.
Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) is a tool that can be used for students with varying needs and accesses. We discuss the wide variety of applications on the market for use as AAC. Anne gives us some points of thought for parents and professionals as they are choosing AAC for their students.
- What are the individual's needs?
- How is the individual able to access the app?
- What is the history and future of the development of the app?
- Will the app sustain rich language for the long-term use of the individual?
In addition to applications, we discuss the physical device used by our students. There are many AAC apps specifically designed for use with an iPad. However, there are still dedicated devices in use out there. The type of device is really important when considering the access point of the child and the insurance coverage of the device. As iPads are becoming more common as AAC, Anne has noted that some apps with heavy-duty iPad cases are now being approved via insurance.
It doesn’t have to all be high tech. There are many low tech options out there that can be used in addition to devices. These can be great to overcome the barriers AAC can have such as use in an outdoor or pool environment, a problem with the device’s battery, and so on. Anne tells us about the Core Board she created that is available free on her website!
When beginning AAC, start with preferred activities. Use AAC with things that bring your students joy. Once students are successful using their device and applications, then teaching using non-preferred activities can start.
AAC should help our students find their voice because communication is a human right. Anne highlights throughout this episode that this should be a positive experience that inspires our students. I hope you found this show informative and can put these ideas and strategies to use with the AAC users in your life!
What's Inside:
- What is an Assistive Technology Lead?
- What AAC apps are available and how to choose one.
- How to help every single student find their voice.
- Inspiring not requiring students.
AAC is a special space that crosses over through many shared professional settings. Kate Granbois joins us on the episode today to talk about her job as an AAC specialist, the ins and outs of Augmentative Alternative Communication, and getting comfortable with the process. Kate warns about her title of “AAC Specialist”, while it's a real job and title, and she holds a lot of knowledge on this topic, it's important for many other professionals in the AAC user’s life to be empowered in this skill set as well.
The most important part of AAC is the user. The Communication Bill of Rights is a great resource and really highlights the fact that communication is a human right. So when collaborating, it's important to recognize that no one owns just one environment. The AAC user needs to be supported across all environments to remove barriers. Taking the AAC user's family and friends values into consideration is a critical and ethical piece that is crucial to the success of the user across their life. AAC is not just important for accessing curriculum in the school. There are social aspects and basic need aspects, and the environment needs to revolve around the whole user, not just the professional's therapy room.
AAC is more than just communication, it is also knowledge on equipment, vendors, the law, and documentation. Kate gives us some broad steps for getting started with AAC assessment.
- Familiarize yourself with the Communication Bill of Rights and assessment frameworks.
- What does it take to “sit in the seat”, to do the assessment?
- Know the products and features and understand the feature matching process.
Know and understand the documentation and the legal requirements.
There is never a perfect set up when it comes to therapy and AAC, but it's important to not let an AAC device disrupt therapy implementation. Kate says it's a science and an art, and it's okay for everyone’s therapy to look different. She also shares some resources for how to get more comfortable with your therapy with an AAC user and their device. At the end of the episode, Kate reminds professionals to be compassionate because everyone is coming from a different place. Our job is to help communication skills, and communication is a lot more than learning how to ask for things.
I hope that you were able to gain some new information or will utilize the resources discussed today to empower communication with your clients and better improve your therapy!
What's Inside:
- Shared communication and collaboration.
- What is the “Communication Bill of Rights”.
- AAC assessment through intervention.
- Resources for getting comfortable with AAC.
The family-centered approach is a key component of therapy at Nikki McRory’s facilities, McRory Pediatric Services. Nikki is on the podcast today, sharing how she uses a transdisciplinary approach for speech therapy. She uses the Behavior Skills Training framework in her early intervention programs with both the parents and the learners.
What are the steps for Behavior Skills Training with parents?
Step One: Information
Explain what the skill you're working on is and why it is important. This can be verbal and written.
Step Two: Model
Model and discuss this skill. While demonstrating the specific skill, talk about what you're doing and provide further clarification.
Step Three: Practice
Role play with the parents to give them the foundation for the skill, but also allow them to practice with their child.
Step Four: Feedback
Be sure to let parents know what they are doing well, but also let them know what to change or improve on. Keep repeating steps 2 and 3 until they are where they need to be.
When working with parents, Nikki looks at the whole picture for the family. This means taking into account their cultural, linguistic, and social-emotional differences. Her formula to train parents is directly embedded into her early intervention programs. Every Friday, parents are pulled from the therapy to work on a new skill together with clinicians and will practice with their child in therapy the following week.
If you’re a professional feeling nervous about telling parents what to do, remember that parents are the expert on their child, but you are the expert on speech and language. You are in the best position to help parents help their children. Nikki leaves us with a special sentiment for parents about the long haul of therapy and the importance of self-care!
Be sure to check out the resources we’ve shared, I hope this has helped professionals get an idea of how to facilitate parent coaching and given some inspiration for parents to get involved in their child’s therapy!
What's Inside:
- The Framework for Behavioral Skills Training.
- Robust Parent Training Component.
- What is a Family-Centered Approach?
- Helping Parents Interact and Communicate with Their Children.
Social Skills are more than just etiquette and manners. Ashley Rose, founder and clinical director of Mission Cognition Social Skills Development Center, is here with me sharing about the importance of social skill instruction. Ashley describes social skills as the inner workings of social interaction. She takes a very individualized approach when deciding exactly what to work on by learning what exactly is making it difficult for an individual to have positive interactions with themselves or others.
Ashley’s centers provide the perfect atmosphere for individualized groups. She has three leveled groups, Group A being the developmental play group, for individuals with emerging language. Groups B and C are best suited to individuals with more language skills, and is her more signature Behavior Skill Training group.
The planning for Ashley’s groups focus on individualization. Ashley has developed 15 Global Focus Areas that she uses to target training in her groups. She has also developed an in-house assessment tool to identify these areas. For each group, she uses templates such as Group at a Glance, Student Snapshots, and Goal Sheets. The idea behind all of this is rationale, every group facilitator should be able to explain the ‘why’ behind the goals selected for any individual. The end goal for every play group, whether it be developmental play or behavior skill training, is to give the participants autonomy and allow ease of social interaction in their natural environment.
We also touch on the topic of Masking. Autistic voices are speaking out against this practice as harmful and unethical, and Ashley tells us why. At one point, the idea of teaching Masking was to help individuals with Autism reduce the appearance of self-stimulatory behavior to help them “fit in”. However, this behavior is actually a self-regulation tool. Another way Masking has been used is to teach scripting in social situations. Instead of relying on scripting, Ashley teaches language use in a more natural template. Her goal is always to give her students the most autonomy and individuality as possible.
Self-advocacy and Independence are the words of the day that Ashley leaves us with. No matter the age, it is important to give your child the tools to communicate what they want and need, but equally what they don’t want. Ashley shared some great resources today and gave some awesome tips for parents and professionals for creating ease in social situations and interactions that will affect their children or students every day.
What's Inside:
- Social Skill Instruction
- Selecting and Setting Social Skills Goals
- Intake, Assessment, and Development
- Framework for Planning Groups
- Planning for Generalization, Applying Skills in the Natural Environment
- Masking
Play-Based Speech Therapy can open the door to so much interaction. My guest, Emily Cohen, talks about using Play-Based Therapy with her clients and all of the benefits it can provide. Emily Cohen works with families with children as young as 15 months old, coaching the parents. We talk about all the elements of play, interaction, and language and I share some pretty cute anecdotes from my therapy experiences with play.
Engagement is such a huge part, and the more they are engaged the more meaningful their learning will be. Imitation and nonverbal imitation can be the start of engaging in play. Emily shares the idea of a mirror “game”, sitting in front of a mirror practicing making large body movements, and even using hand over hand when needed.
Patience, flexibility, and following the child’s lead is key when creating an engaging play space for therapy. Kids may not always use or interpret toys or activities in the way we expect things which can make for even more enriching experiences.
Stay away from toys that have batteries. When we are interacting with a child and a toy that has all the bells and whistles, moving and making noise, the toy ends up doing the work. Go back to basics and allow the student to use the toy as a prop so that you can truly build new and meaningful interaction.
Interaction comes before language, so there are so many opportunities for skills in play even nonverbally. As a speech therapist, Emily coaches parents on playing with their children and working with their kids to find these opportunities. Her advice for parents is to remind them that they are their child's best teacher, every time their child is watching them is an opportunity for learning.
What’s Inside:
* Play-Based Speech Therapy
* Following the child’s lead
* Open-Ended Toys
* Facilitating social, play, and language interaction
* Interaction before language
We have school-based SLP, Marisha Mets with us today. Marisha talks with us about the benefits of using language samples, her tips and tricks, as well as resources from her blog SLP Now. She talks about the origin of these resources, that many teachers and SLPs can relate with. A heavy caseload and a necessity to be efficient led Marisha in the direction she is now to share these tips with other SLPs.
We discuss the basics of what a language sample actually is, snapshots of the students' use of language in a functional manner in their natural environment. Marisha highlights that we can use many types of samples including play, conversation, story retell, story generation, expository, and persuasive. All of these samples will elicit varying levels, giving unique information on student performance according to the context.
When looking at language samples versus assessments, Marisha talks about the differences in the data. She tells us the importance of knowing not only what students can do and say but if they are making it functional. Task-based assessments can too often lead to confusion when a student can do something on paper but not in their natural environment. We share some times and places to check-in and get a look into a student's natural language function.
We talk about how language functionality is a key point in setting goals for students with autism. Students may have the words but not know how to use them. Using language samples can pinpoint this as well as set goals and targets on what we can plan for them.
Marisha also shares ideas about how to get these language samples and how to track them. She shares resources she's found along the way as well as those she's created and can be found on her blog. Marisha answers my end-of-episode question with her best advice for other SLPs!
What's Inside:
- What are Language Samples?
- Why is Language Samples important?
- How to collect Language Samples?
- Free Resources
Today I have Kimberly Scanlon, licensed and certified speech-language pathologist, best-selling author, and fellow busy parent. She has written two great books in the world of speech therapy, Toddler Talks and My Toddler’s First Words. Kimberly works as a private practice speech therapist doing primarily home-based visits and she is here giving us some tips on how to build early interventions into day-to-day life.
Because Kimberly is a home-based therapist, she has less barriers in communicating with parents and families. This allows her to relate to being busy and just trying to fit that language development in.
The ideas and advice Kimberly shares today focus around these central questions:
What does your day look like? What is your typical routine? What do you like to do with your child? When is the best time of day for you to reach your child?
We discuss ways to embed language and early intervention into your routines by finding connection-building activities that don't take away from your daily life. This makes each activity symbiotic with various parents’ personalities, cultures, and what they are at a base level comfortable with.
If you’re already cooking or doing laundry, think twice about setting your child in front of a screen. Instead, think about how you could be getting them involved. We discuss how there are so many language opportunities in everything we do and our toddlers just want to be with us. Make chores fun and make them learning opportunities with these tips! Don't be afraid of this undertaking, you don't have to have them participate in the entire chore just a small part.
Kimberly leaves us with this special advice, reminding parents to do the best they can and not worrying about being perfect. Take several moments throughout the day every day to just enjoy your child, judgment, and worry-free to be fully present and enjoy the moment!
What's Inside:
- Early intervention and language strategies for busy parents
- Simple ideas for embedding language practice into daily life.
- Kimberly’s special advice to parents.
Speech and language development is more than just the words being produced and children need to be emotionally supported and encouraged to communicate. Parental involvement is critical, but professionals are often so focused on the kids that they don’t notice the parents are depleted. Lindsey Nitake uses her Help Me Grow Speech social media accounts to get information out there.
Every family is different and unique and the tools we offer need to be adapted to fit with a family’s style, so listening to feedback from parents is important. Sometimes parents are overwhelmed by the wealth of information. They need help to figure out which resources will work for their child.
Social media is a great way to provide parents with educational support. It’s the most effective and efficient way to spread the information because it allows you to share resources more widely. It’s particularly useful when in-person sessions are not possible. Lindsey uses TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to share information.
To be better professionals, we need to listen to each other and support each other as well. As a profession, we can be quite combative with each other. It gets very emotionally charged. BCBAs and SLPs may have different approaches but collaboration is important so professionals need to have a team-based mentality.
New SLPs have to learn a lot on the job. It’s really hard being a new SLP. Oftentimes, when you start working with kids, you find out that it’s not what you learned in graduate school. You need support to figure out a treatment strategy to help them. Social media is a nice way to provide mentoring.
When you’re working on communication, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Communication is more than just words. It’s the environment and relationships with people. You have to consider the child and their environment as a whole, and the family unit is a big part of that, which is why having parents on board is so important.
What's Inside:
- The importance of parent involvement in speech-language development.
- Parent education and support.
- Sharing SLP resources on social media.
- Mentoring new SLPs.
- Collaborative services.
Lori Frost is a traditionally trained speech-language pathologist who has spent most of her 40-year career in public schools working with preschool and elementary kids. She met Dr. Andy Bondy when she was working in the Delaware Autism Program and that’s when she began learning about applied behavior analysis. This fundamentally changed her practice and made her more aware of what was leading to good outcomes and what was leading to poorer outcomes for the students she worked with.
When she was working with Dr. Bondy in the Delaware Autism Program, they were helping a little boy who was non-speaking. They tried a range of things including speech imitation, sign language, and picture point systems but he made little progress. When he wasn’t able to communicate, he displayed challenging behaviors. It was only when Lori presented individual pictures carefully selected to be of interest to the child, let him touch the picture, and pass it to his communication partner, thus doing something very overtly to communicate, that he made progress. This was the beginning of PECS or the Pyramid Educational Consultants in 1992 where it grew to have 6 phases in its protocol, offices in 15 countries and made the manual available in 16 languages.
The long-term goal for the kids is to be as independent as possible and independence is only possible if you initiate, so teaching the kids to initiate communication is the first skill taught in the PECS protocol. The starting point always has to be tailored to each student’s likes and the things they enjoy. It can take time to figure this out.
If kids start with PECS at the right time, they usually transition to a speech-generating device quite easily. This normally coincides with phase 4 of the PECS protocol when the kids have mastered the following skills:
- Initiation
- Picture discrimination
- Able to make some picture sentences
Even after this transition, PECS remains a useful backup for when technology fails or is misplaced or forgotten. PECS has great results with younger kids. Around 80% of kids who are six and younger who are on PECS for nine months to a year start to talk.
Lori’s most important advice for parents or professionals supporting autistic kids is to listen to the kids and be guided by their wants and needs.
What's Inside:
- How PECS began.
- How PECS has grown.
- The importance of initiation of communication
- How useful are speech-generating devices as communication tools?
- When should speech-generating devices be introduced?
Laura Smith was a speech-language pathologist, mostly in elementary education, before her children were born. After her daughter was born, she realized that she wasn’t reaching her developmental milestones. She crawled and walked late and feeding, dressing, and speech were also delayed. When her daughter was diagnosed with apraxia, she focused her professional interest on learning everything she could about it and started her private practice specializing in childhood apraxia.
For many parents, the diagnosis of apraxia feels devastating. They wonder if their child will ever speak. What does the future hold? It’s normal to feel sad and to grieve and there should be no guilt about having these feelings. Once you have a diagnosis, you can have a plan.
Early Signs of Apraxia:
- Lack of babbling - a quiet baby.
- Vowel sounds but a lack of consonants.
- Lack of a word by age one.
- Pop-out words - words that a child says a handful of times and then never says again.
- Word sounds morph into other word sounds.
- A “go-to” sound - a sound that is frequently repeated.
How to find an appropriate therapist:
- Search on Apraxia-Kids.org for a therapist in your area.
- Find a therapist through The Prompt Institute.
- Ask the right questions using the list on SLPMommyofApraxia.com.
Resources for speech therapists and parents:
- Apraxia-Kids.org is full of articles and on-demand webinars.
- Dr. Strand’s free online course, Diagnosis and Treatment of CAS, is packed full of useful information.
- Dr. Edwin Maas’s webinar, Principles of Motor Learning and Childhood Apraxia of Speech, is a great place to get an understanding of the basic principles of motor learning.
Laura’s most important advice for parents of kids with apraxia:
- Recognize that this is a lifelong neurological disorder.
- Early and appropriate intervention promotes the best outcomes.
- Don’t be scared to advocate for your kid.
- Have a growth mindset and be willing to learn.
What's Inside:
- Laura’s personal journey of having her child diagnosed with apraxia - testing, assessment, diagnosis, and intervention.
- Diagnosing apraxia - early signs and characteristics
- How to find an appropriate therapist
- Resources for speech therapists and parents
Whether you’re a professional or a parent, you can use these strategies from Chloe Hill in the classroom, in therapy, or at home. As a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist, Chloe’s focused on pre-reading or emerging reading skills. She works with students to help them develop phonological awareness. For young readers, it can be as simple as:
- Becoming aware of letters
- Understanding that letters stand for something
- Exposing them to books
- Pointing out print while out in public
Chloe and I also cover some of our favorite reading strategies in the classroom. Chloe loves the CROWD strategy which stands for:
C- Completion prompt
R- Recall prompt
O- Open-ended prompt
W- Wh questions
D- Distancing prompt
What if a book is too hard for a child to understand? We also cover strategies you can use to adjust it for a child’s level. This episode is chock-full of so many early learning resources that can help any parent or professional who is looking for inspiration. Check out Chloe’s TPT store or follow her Instagram account for more ideas too.
What's Inside:
- A book can be a window or a mirror into a different world, and we should consider the diversity of our literature collection for the children we teach.
- How Chloe uses the CROWD technique to teach different reading concepts throughout a story.
- We should be mindful that reading progress looks different for everyone.
- How is reading development taught to children with complex communication needs?
Michele’s oldest daughter’s first word was “calculator”. Because she was highly verbal and seemed to need less intervention, Michele struggle to get a diagnosis for her. Her second son’s presented quite differently, but Michele suspected that he too had autism. Knowing that early intervention was key, Michele was so disappointed to realize that it took until they were pre-teens to get help. She just wanted to understand why her children behaved the way that they do, and this sent her on a journey to get a Master’s in Behavioral Therapy.
Michele speaks directly to parents in her podcast Navigating the Spectrum. As a mom and an ABA therapist, she knows that an autism diagnosis can have an emotional pull on parents. For her though, the diagnosis was a relief since it means that she could get to work helping her children.
In this episode, we have a great conversation about some of the negative perceptions about ABA therapy, and how she approaches those challenges in her practice. She points out that you can do speech all day when you’re in the office, but that it only starts to click when the child also does speech at home with their family. One of the major reasons that she approaches therapy as a whole family event is that she knows exactly what it’s like as an autism mom herself. She practices inside Colorado, and outside the state, she provides teletherapy services.
We are putting together a top-notch teacher of ABA therapists and SLPs to provide teletherapy beyond Ohio. I am so excited for this new venture that will be able to help more children and parents around the world. Check out my website for more information.
What's Inside:
- For girls and highly verbal children, getting an autism diagnosis can be especially difficult since they don’t present like the checklists that most doctors are working from.
- Because she knows that there may be a team outside the school system, Michele works hard to include parents in the IEP goals so that everyone can be on the same page.
- As a parent and an ABA therapist, Michele would like Speech-Language Pathologists to know that she doesn’t always understand their lingo.
After Kelsey’s son started seeing a speech regression at 15 months old, she started on the journey to have him diagnosed. Pretty soon she realized that her second son was also exhibiting many of the same signs. Kelsey moved from Alaska to Canada because she hoped that universal healthcare would help her, but the waitlists in Canada were so long that she soon saw that without taking a more active role in therapy, she wouldn’t have good services for her sons.
When the local therapy center told Kelsey, “Brentley cannot come if he doesn’t wear a helmet”, that was the last straw for her. Because there was no plan for how a helmet was going to help him or what the plan was to eventually remove the helmet. It was just their quick solution to an immediate problem. That’s when Kelsey decided that she could use Mary Barbera’s courses and her own strategies to help Brentley.
I’m really into teaching my students lifelong leisure skills for maximum life enjoyment. For families, there can be a lot of barriers to enjoying activities together. I love following Kelsey on Instagram because she’s made it her goal to teach her sons to enjoy the outdoors safely. There are a lot fewer social rules outside and it’s a low-barrier activity.
There are parents like Kelsey all over the world. Parents who want the best for their children with autism, but don’t have access to resources or services. Whether it’s a waitlist that’s holding you back, a rural area, or any other of the dozens of reasons that parents can’t get the help they need, I want you to know that I see you. We’re going to be offering more teletherapy services very soon. I’m putting together a dream team so we can expand and help even more people. Check out my website for more information!
What's Inside:
- One of Kelsey’s main goals in therapy is to make sure that her sons aren’t isolated, and that’s really driven her to get outside of her comfort zone.
- Living in a rural area with limited resources helped Kelsey realize that she can be a primary resource for her children’s services and therapies.
- Performing what she calls “low-key assessments” lets Kelsey constantly keep tabs on where her sons are at developmentally.
How do you differentiate your speech therapy work from your autism work? Does it even matter? Serving the whole child, Braxton Baker, an SLP, and BCBA is a huge advocate of the big picture approach to therapy. For him, ABA gave him the vocabulary to describe what he's doing, which he can, in turn, apply everywhere. For me, after ten years of being both an SLP and BCBA, I can agree with him. ABA is just how my brain works now, and it helps me approach life with a better understanding of the learning processes.
In this conversation today, Braxton shares some of his therapy philosophy. He starts off IEPs and therapy goals with what the end result needs to look like in the natural world. Because he believes that if you’re not focused on the end result, then you miss the entire point of therapy services. You’re going to hear about how he brings in what he calls the 5 Ps into creating better goals and IEPs for his clients:
- Creating processes
- Giving them more purpose
- Creating more possibilities
- More overall progress
- Making more peace
Sometimes emotions can run high at an IEP meeting, so Braxton’s approach is to diffuse the situation with “Do you think that this person or anyone here would have intentionally done something to be harmful?”. If the answer to this question is yes, then you have more than a communication problem; you have a trust problem.
Braxton’s approach is authentic, and it fits well into the real world. You can connect with him on Facebook. And if you love social media, check out my new TikTok channel!
What's Inside:
- The questions you can ask in an IEP meeting to make sure that all stakeholders are on the same page.
- How to make your sessions less rigid and embrace flexibility to meet your students’ needs better.
- Braxton prefers to think of ABA not as a therapy technique, but as a way to describe the world.
- If generalization doesn’t occur, did you actually teach a new skill?
Since July 2010, Erin Long has been the president and founder of Worldwide Speech. Parents who are living abroad may find themselves seeking specialized speech therapy, but for whatever reason, they’re struggling to find speech-language therapists in the countries they’re living in. That’s where Erin’s company steps in. Her services have expanded over the last decade, and she calls herself “a special ed company for anyone living abroad”. Erin spent a lot of time proving that teletherapy can work, but now it’s what people want.
Have you ever dealt with the paperwork for moving an IEP abroad? Erin says that it loses its status as a legal document since it’s created under the auspices of American law. Sometimes companies are reluctant to send employees overseas if there’s a child in the household with an IEP because complying with it in a foreign country can be incredibly hard. Erin’s company provides speech therapy, OT, and special education for children all over the world, no matter where their parents’ jobs take them.
Even for rural Americans, teletherapy is a viable option. Children with mobility issues can benefit from virtual services, and older teens who may be reluctant to admit they still go to therapy can see a therapist privately from their home. For some of Erin’s clients, virtual services offer support and a lifeline for the main caretaker who was previously isolated in a community that had no services of any kind.
Therapists and teachers have had to adjust in the last year, and it’s been inspiring to watch that pivot! If you want more tips and strategies on how to use teletherapy effectively, sign up for my FREE webinar on supporting children with autism virtually.
What's Inside:
- Rehabilitative services all over the world are just not equal to American standards, so the demand for American therapists is high.
- Providing services across multiple time zones can lead to some interesting scheduling problems, but with a little planning, families, and providers can flex with this challenge.
- Even stateside, virtual services can fill a niche for students who aren’t mobile or who live remotely.
Landria Seals Green’s mother says, “A child’s education is as good as the adult in front of them.” With that as her mantra, Landria became a medical-based SLP. For 20+ years, she’s focused on AAC technology, and she’s done a lot of AT work. At a Verbal Behavior workshop, she saw Dr. Vince Carbone present what she describes as speech therapy on steroids. She felt confident about her work as an SLP, but in order to become the best kind of therapist and to improve her marketability, she knew that she needed the BCBA certification.
What really drew Landria to the dual certifications was the method of collecting data. Becoming a BCBA made her more finite in her methodology and gave her more tools to help her students. And as a therapist who is looking for any tool that will help her understand the child and see where they’re at, Landria has loved the possibilities that have opened up for her students.
Are we working with families to make sure that all of the funds and services they receive actually benefit the child? Landria sees the therapist’s role as a bridge to the child’s future. She listens to the family’s dreams for the child because she has what you might call a “greeter” theory. Is everything that you’re working on with the child only going to land them a job as a greeter at the store? And is that what the family wants for that child?
I think you’ll love this big picture approach to therapy that sees the child as a whole person rather than the small parts you might see in your weekly sessions. For more inspirational and fun-filled ideas about SLP and BCBA strategies, follow Landria on her social media channels as SLP Guru.
What's Inside:
- Why Landria prefers to find features on an AAC that fits a student rather than trying to make an AAC work on the student.
- By focusing on the “rhythm of communication”, Landria teaches students how to respond appropriately to peers, teachers, and casual strangers.
- Helping students find authentic social connections is a challenge that Landria takes on with a unique out-of-the-box approach.
Chris Wenger, whom you might also know as Speech Dude, comes from a family of educators. He started off as a special ed teacher, but he moved into the speech-language field when he realized that the tools he needed to help students were in speech pathology. Because he’s been on both sides of the IEP table, and because he was a teacher first, he’s seen a wide variety of students and he knows how to write an IEP that ropes in parents. Today we have a fantastic conversation about creating a curriculum that teaches older students how to interact online or with their peers on social media.
Starting with the phrase “How you do anything is how you do everything”, Chris’s interactions with his students online often inspire his TikTok videos and Instagram posts. Students need to be able to make inferences and they need the ability to perspective-take. If you see a picture that you like, you comment once on it. But five times? People will wonder what’s going on with you. If you comment on a really old video or post, it can give away that you’re doing a deep dive on a person’s profile. These are the kinds of scenarios that Chris identifies so he can teach his students how to interact appropriately online.
What’s a digital footprint and why should students care? Even for kids in the AP classes, they still need some explicit instruction on online “netiquette” so that they understand that what happens online can affect their offline life. The idea that kids today instinctively understand online behavior doesn’t help kids who actually don’t. That’s where Chris tries to fill in that gap.
Chris’s best advice for a future or present SLP is simple: You don’t have to be a perfect SLP; just do your best to be a happy one. Your positive vibrations can be felt throughout your classroom. Check out Chris’s social media channels or his Boom Learning store for more strategies or curriculum for older students.
What's Inside:
- How to get a teen to turn their camera on when no one really wants to.
- Chris teaches his students about “the hidden curriculum”, or the unspoken rule about how to act online.
- If you want more engagement out of a classroom or an audience, Chris’s positive energy and approach fires up participants.
As a young child, Nathan Morgan was diagnosed with autism. Along his journey of speech therapy, IEPs, and occupational therapy, he felt inspired to give back to his community so he went into social work. Today, through his day job and his self-advocacy work, Nathan supports families who are trying to navigate what autism means.
Within the autism community, people have different ways they like to interact with other people. Some may prefer a blend of verbal and sign language, or only verbal, or some verbal but mostly some form of technology. Unfortunately, verbal communication is still the communication that most people want to push, and this leads to some tension over how to encourage inclusivity when everyone may prefer a blend of communication methods.
The pandemic has been an awesome opportunity for individuals with autism to connect with others in ways that make them feel the most comfortable. Nathan approaches this with the question, “What can we take moving forward that will help us improve our community?”. From virtual conferences to Facebook groups to face-to-face game nights, Nathan shares a variety of ways that the autism community is interacting and communicating with each other throughout the pandemic.
If you’re looking for more ways to engage and communicate with your students, check out my FREE April webinar called 5 Strategies to Help Your Students with Autism Engage and Communicate. Everyone who attends the live session will receive free therapy material and a certificate of participation. See you there!
What's Inside:
- Knowing that communication is going to look differently for different people, Nathan has created group interactions that allow adults and teenagers with autism to communicate in the way that they feel most comfortable.
- Nathan shares his thoughts on how autism can be weaponized in language and discusses both his professional opinion and personal perspective on whether to say “autistic” or “person with autism”.
- For adults with autism, it can be harder to find resources, especially when you combine that with the myth that autism is a childhood disease, so Nathan is taking on that challenge with his Facebook group.
Are you nervous before a therapy session because you don’t know how it will go? Let’s make therapy fun and functional again by giving you the tools you need to reach every single one of your students. If you have students with autism and they’re not making a lot of progress, or you’ve used every trick in the book to help a student and you’re stumped, my course Help Me Find My Voice is a great next step for you.
Inside Help Me Find My Voice, you’ll learn:
- Assessments to use with students
- Common SLP terms explained
- Simplified goal setting concepts
- Easier data collection
- How to plan therapy sessions for students with emerging skills
You’ll also have lifetime access to this course, plus access to a private Facebook group where you can collaborate with other SLPs.
This course is geared for speech-language pathologists, but it also benefits anyone who’s working on communication issues with students. Enrollment is open now, but it will close on April 14th. And I don’t know when I’ll open this course again.
We’ve had over 400 people join us already for this 5-hour ASHA-approved course because the bite-sized modules mean you can fit your learning into your busy day. The cost is $99, and we will send you the proper CEU certificates upon completion.
I also have a FREE webinar on April 6th, 7th or 13th called 5 Strategies to Help Your Students with Autism Engage and Communicate. If you attend live, you’ll receive free therapy material and a certificate of participation.
What's Inside:
- When you’re seeing a student with autism or with complicated needs and they’re not communicating on their own, what can you do?
- If you need ASHA CEUs, but don’t have time for a course, I’ve structured this course to meet your current time constraints.
- Come and collaborate with other professionals to help you breakthrough any roadblocks you might have on difficult cases.
Recently, Deidra Darst was able to take her son who has autism to get his first big haircut in four years in a salon. Using tips she learned in my Help Me Find My Voice course, Deidra’s son has really grown in his communication abilities. As a Speech Language Pathologist, Deidra has seen first hand how ABA techniques can blend or enhance the work she does with clients. You’re going to love hearing how BCBAs and SLPS can collaborate to help students find ways to share their voices.
In her work as an SLP, about half of Deidra’s caseload was students with autism. But it wasn’t until her own young son was diagnosed that she got a true window into what a parent was experiencing. She realized that 30 minutes of therapy a week just wasn’t enough, and she wanted to help parents take a more active role in therapy. Since then, she’s learned how to support parents better in her SLP practice, and she leads with the phrase, “If you have questions, ask”.
How can SLPs and BCBAs learn from each other? This idea of collaboration is one that Deidra and I really explore. What we’re doing is similar, but we’re calling it different names. And we miss out on the chance to collaborate positively when we can’t understand each other. Deidra and I talk about some techniques in each of our respective fields that can enhance the work each professional does for a child with autism.
Be sure and check out the Help Me Find My Voice course that helped launch Deidra’s success, and send her an email if you have any questions.
What's Inside:
- Using vocabulary that parents and other professionals can understand and improve the chances that our goals are aligned and everyone’s headed in the same direction.
- Teletherapy has had a surprising benefit for therapists because it’s given them more contact and communication with parents.
- Deidra’s advice for parents and professionals working with autistic children.
- The hardest part of therapy is actually communicating with the team and making sure we’re all on the same page.
How do we help our students generalize their language skills in the community and the larger school environment? Fellow “unicorn”, BCBA, and SLP, Katie Castro is an alumni of my Help Me Find My Voice course, and she’s also a clinical director of speech therapy at Children’s Autism Center.
You can’t just hope that a student figures out how to generalize on their own. As therapists, we can build a system that helps lead them to generalize. Generalization is teaching students to apply skills in different environments and circumstances. We may not realize that when we teach a word, there are many different examples of that word. For example, how many kinds of dogs are there? If we show a picture of a Labrador and only that kind of dog, it doesn’t teach a child the variety that is inside the word “dog”.
It’s hard for therapists to have the resources they need to teach generalization which is why I ended up creating some. Katie talks about how she uses multiple examples and teaching loosely to help a child learn a less strict definition of a word.
It’s important to keep really specific data when you’re working with students, but when you combine specific data with IEP goals and first trial data, it can be difficult to keep track of where a student is progressing. If you want to make your progress reporting easier, then Katie and I have some techniques to streamline the process.
For more SLP strategies, be sure to check out my FREE webinar 5 Strategies to Help Students Engage and Communicate. Register now for this April event.
What's Inside:
- How I use a variety of flashcards to expand the concept of basic vocabulary words like dog, cat, or car.
- Maintenance goals can feel like a drag for a child, so I share ways that I keep it fresh for that child.
- Collecting and reporting data might feel complicated, but Katie and I have both streamlined the process so that it’s easier and takes less time.
- Katie incorporates parent training to help reinforce what a child learns in speech therapy, and that has actually been made easier by the pandemic and telehealth sessions.
There are times I feel stressed as a therapist because I want to get through all of the goals for my therapy session, so that’s why I love Liz’s playful approach to therapy. Liz Willis is an SLP who went back to school for her BCBA so that she could provide speech therapy and ABA services. Her dual degrees have made her feel more confident in the services that she provides, and you can really see how they inform how she structures her therapy sessions.
It can be tempting to jump straight into the language piece of an IEP, but Liz suggests that you consider focusing on the social and play piece first. Every interaction begins with social engagement, and when therapists nail down the basics of engagement first, expanding into other skills can reap dividends.
Liz is passionate about supporting teachers and providers, and she shares some of her favorite strategies including:
- How to use play centers to teach language skills.
- Her favorite assessments and why you should use more than one.
- How to encourage play in students who only like one kind of play.
As an educator or service provider, there are going to be times when you just don’t have the skills your students need. Liz says that you need to recognize when you don’t know something and refer your clients out to someone else. There are so many pieces to the therapy puzzle, and collaborating makes your job easier. If you’d like to connect with Liz, you can reach her at her website, on Instagram, or at Liz@communicationandbehaviorsolutions.com.
What's Inside:
- How early learners who have autism may play differently from their typically developing preschoolers, and why that matters.
- Does every moment need to be language enriched?
- Which comes first: engagement or play? Liz gives her thoughts on this chicken vs. egg dilemma.
Have you ever worked with a student who needs an AAC, but you don’t know which one would work best for them? If you have, then you’ll appreciate this episode. Annabeth and Mara from The Fanny Pack Therapist have found that their respective therapy styles, as a speech language pathologist and an occupational therapist, mesh so well that they teamed up to help more students.
Annabeth and Mara love how AACs empower students to find ways to communicate their thoughts and needs with the people around them. They’ve found that AACs don’t prohibit verbal speech, but simply give a child a way to communicate while they work toward verbal speech. You don’t want to miss their ABCs of AACs on their Instagram page from October 2020.
By collaborating together, SLPs and OTs can get a more holistic view of a child. While the SLP is evaluating a child’s expressive and receptive skills, an OT can come in and see where a child’s fine motor skills are. And once they’ve passed the initial evaluation, together, the SLP and OT can try signs, low-tech options, verbal speech, and just about anything else to see what works.
I hope this episode gets your wheels turning on how you can work with other professionals or how you can help your students or clients use AACs to meet their therapy goals. Make sure you check out The Fanny Pack Therapist for more ideas on collaborating with other therapists.
What's Inside:
- Listen to how Annabeth and Mara collaborate in the age of COVID.
- The importance of shared goals with other intervention specialists, and what that can look like for your students.
- Communication is a basic right, and an AAC gives a student a chance to communicate.
- How can someone improve their competency in the AAC world if they don’t have any previous experience?
Something I find so inspiring is to watch a student find a way to communicate with the people who exist in their world. For over 47 years, Susan Berkowitz has been helping students with autism learn to communicate by whatever means are necessary. Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), Susan is reaching students who are complete non-speakers or who struggle to communicate the full range of their thoughts and feelings.
Susan has a wealth of knowledge, and she’s passionate about helping teachers, parents, and fellow Speech-Language Pathologists find the tools they need to teach their students. She tells the amazing story of one of her students who stopped his self-injurious behavior after she created a POG book filled with 120 pages of pictures that he was able to use to communicate that he wanted to run outside.
There are so many options for AACs, and since the technology for this field is so new, there will continue to be new options every year. Susan has found it helpful to become good friends with the AAC customer service reps so that she has direct insight into this industry.
If you think one of your students would benefit with an AAC, or you’d like to learn more about apps, games, or strategies that you can use in your therapy sessions, Susan is really a wealth of information. Check out her book, her websites, or her TPT store for more resources.
What's Inside:
- Why we should never rearrange the symbols on a child’s AAC system.
- How to move a student beyond requesting and into communicating.
- Susan’s tips for using technology to teach students how to communicate.
- If you have limited cognitive energy, you’re limited by how much effort you can put into communication.
Can you imagine if someone stood over you and evaluated your behavior with a clipboard while you were trying to act naturally? Organically evaluating your student or client’s progress while they participate in group activities can be a challenge, but it’s one that Shayna Gaunt happily takes on.
There are a variety of assessments that are available to use to help you figure out where a student is at, and Shayna often combines assessments because none of them are completely perfect. She’s rewritten the VB-MAPP to help with some of the more abstract skills that students have to learn, and she shares with me how she creates groups for in-person or telehealth therapy sessions.
Shayna and I know that it can be lonely and overwhelming for therapists, especially since so many of us are virtual now. I am so excited to announce The ABA Forum, which will be a free virtual conference for SLPs, RBTs, and ABA therapists to help give them resources to support their clients. On March 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, we invite you to join us from 7:00-9:00 pm for a chance to network with other experts. And while this event is free to attend, CEUs will be available to purchase if you need them.
What's Inside:
- When putting together a group session, a certain level of independence is needed before a group will benefit the student.
- Social skills can mean a wide variety of skills, from ordering something from McDonald’s to standing in line at school.
- Learn how to obtain CEUs through The ABA Forum on March 2nd-4th.
The day before his 3rd birthday, Dr. Mary Barbera’s son Lucas was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe autism, and she felt like she’d fallen into a hole. Even though she had a nursing background, she still felt completely unprepared to help her son. Lucas wouldn’t keep his clothes on, he only spoke pop-out words, and she had no idea how to even start helping him.
Like many other parents, Mary took on the role of the lead therapist as she worked to find proven therapies and techniques that would help Lucas. In the early 2000s, it was like the Wild West in the ABA world. Inspired by her work trying to find solutions for Lucas, Mary went on to get a BCBA-D, and wrote her dissertation on The Effects of Fluency-Based Autism Training on Emerging Educational Leaders.
Mary is passionate about helping families help their young children. She believes that the sooner we can get to the parents and teach them how to help their children, the better their families will be. Today, 1 in 6 children have some kind of developmental disorder. The increase in this population puts stress on the medical community that hasn’t quite caught to the demand. Many of these parents are sitting on a waitlist because therapy places are backlogged.
The information that Mary shares help parents get a headstart on how to help their children, and it puts tools into their hands that help them become their child’s best advocate. Her newest book Turn Autism Around: An Action Guide for Parents of Young Children with Early Signs of Autism will be published on March 30th, and if you sign up now, you can join her book launch team.
What's Inside:
- Mary shares the early signs of autism that parents and professionals should be prepared to identify.
- Why Mary chooses to focus on the age 1-5-year-old age group, and why she stopped giving lectures to focus on other means of getting her message out.
- Mary shares some of her most influential mentors, and how she’s been able to collaborate with some of them.
Lisa Chattler works with middle school and high school students as an SLP. In this podcast, we talk about how to teach conversation-based skills to students who are struggling with asking and answering questions. All of us learn some form of “faking it”, where we pretend to be interested in casual small talk with strangers or acquaintances. For children with autism, this back-and-forth can be even harder as they learn to ask and answer questions while actively listening to their conversational partner.
Lisa’s strategies cover different learning styles for students, and include:
- Using videos as prompts to retell a story
- Teaching students to summarize a story
- Having an expository retell
- Modeling a conversation and asking “Did I get that right?”
- Transcribing the conversation
Students who are confident in therapy can sometimes stumble during tests or in classroom discussions. Why do some students avoid asking for help? Lisa shares her thoughts on the self-advocacy piece of asking questions that we may be overlooking as we work with our patients.
What's Inside:
- The classroom goal structure can affect whether a student learns to ask questions.
- Teaching exactly to the test will completely miss the concept of whether a student can answer questions correctly.
- How to create IEP goals for teaching students how to ask and answer questions.
- The one piece of advice that Lisa, after 42 years as an SLP, would pass on to new speech-language pathologists.
Pediatric speech-pathologist Cari Ebert’s passion is the birth to three stages where she focuses on laying the foundation for children to begin to speak. And even though my focus is on middle schoolers with autism, we have a similar approach to teaching children. I loved hearing how Cari lays down a solid foundation of nonverbal skills before she moves on to teaching speech.
A big focus of Cari’s therapy work is setting a child up for success by teaching them how to “learn to learn”. Speech therapy isn’t about making the child less autistic; it’s helping the child learn how to engage with the important people in their life. With that in mind, Cari shares how she uses these 5 foundational skills to prepare a child to learn.
Cari's 5 Autism Early Intervention Foundation Skills
- Non-verbal imitation
- Joint attention
- Self-regulation
- Purposeful play
- Early language development
Cari is passionate about helping children with autism communicate in any way possible. Listen carefully to how she uses PIE, or participation, independence, and engagement, to move children forward with her goal to help them find a way to communicate with the people they care about.
What's Inside:
- How to get a child in a ready space to learn requires strategies to bring them up to or down to the right level.
- AAC should not be the last resort because every child needs and deserves a way to communicate.
- The language Cari uses when she discusses a child’s behavior is something she carefully considers so that it doesn’t affix a negative label on the child.
- Every moment doesn’t have to be a speaking moment with the child, especially when you’re in the beginning stages of building rapport.
Working on social skills virtually presents its own special challenge, and I am so excited to talk with Tricia Detig from Detig Dialect about strategies she uses in her virtual therapy sessions. Tricia works with children in grades 6-8, and she really feels like these students are thriving academically with virtual work.
However, being at home and away from constant peer interaction means that students are even more distracted by phones and everything going on around them, and their therapy sessions focusing on social skills have taken on a new challenge.
Tricia has restructured her therapy session so that in small chunks of time, she’s able to:
- Focus on small skills
- Practice that skill
- Embed a couple of games
- Throw in some targets
Because her students are older, Tricia is able to use virtual games like Baamboozle and Among Us to reinforce social skill goals. There are some other expectations that she just doesn’t have for this age group, like letting them sometimes leave the camera off, but by explicitly giving instructions, she’s able to control the session’s outcome much better. More than ever, middle school students with autism need someone they can trust, and that has continued to be a focus for Tricia throughout the pandemic.
What's Inside:
- How Tricia uses Google hangouts, Google chat, and Google calendar to connect with her students.
- As part of a larger objective to help students transition to high school, Tricia teaches them how to talk to people that they don’t want to talk to.
- Tips for teaching social skills goals when everyone is still stuck at home.
- Tricia shares her favorite games and how she uses them to reinforce therapy sessions, and to reward students’ behavior.
Have you ever worked with students who have trouble engaging in a session? If you have, then you’ll love this conversation with Jessie Ginsburg. As a speech pathologist and the CEO of Pediatric Therapy Playhouse in Los Angeles, Jessie helps young kids on the autism spectrum build foundational skills.
For SLPs, one of the biggest misconceptions is that we’re supposed to immediately start working on speech when a child walks in the door. But without foundational skills in place, we won’t be able to have an improvement in speech. That’s why Jessie focuses on three areas first before diving into speech therapy. You’ll hear how she uses regulation, engagement, and motivation to build that foundation for her clients.
Therapy can’t occur in a child until they’re in the optimal level of arousal. Think of the challenge of teaching an “Eeyore” energy level child, or a “Tigger” energy level child. Using alerting or calming activities, Jessie talks about how she gets a student’s energy centered just right so that work can begin.
Motivation is so specific to each student that it will take some sleuthing to uncover what makes a student want to learn. Jessie loves involving parents to help her get the low-down on what students like, and she often collaborates with parents to see a child’s sensory preferences.
Collaborating with other speech-language pathologists can help you strategize when you’re stuck on how to help a child with autism. Connect with Jessie’s Facebook group, or visit ABA Speech for more tips and advice.
What's Inside:
- Hear how Jessie aims to go as long as possible without bringing out a toy in a therapy session.
- Because every child brings daily challenges with them, Jessie practices flexibility in her practice to meet those challenges.
- How can you increase a student’s attention to a task once they’re in the perfect optimal space?
For emerging communicators, defining goals can be so stressful. I want to help relieve that overwhelmed feeling for you that I often had at the beginning of my practice. As you create speech therapy IEP goals, I want you to keep in mind how assessment, collaboration, and functional goals all work together to support and sustain the student as they work with you throughout the year.
One of the common tools used in the classroom is a standardized test, but for students with autism, this may not give us the best information. Oftentimes, children with autism may not be able to answer, or their manding may not be assessed. Instead, I prefer to use the VB-MAPP test or the functional communication profile.
As you set the early learning goals for your students with autism, you’ll need to consider measurable communication skills they may already have like labeling, verbal imitation, filling in the blank, matching abilities, or group listening skills.
Once the initial assessment has been given, and the team collaboration has produced a good picture of where the student is and where the team would like to send him, then it’s time for you to apply a practical and systemic approach to establishing the year’s goals. In this episode, I’ll share with you why these questions are so important to ask as you write the IEP:
- Why is this goal important for this student?
- What behavior are we targeting?
- Is it appropriate for our client?
- How is this goal specific?
- Is the goal observable?
- What does mastery look like?
Please take a minute and download my IEP Goal Bank to help your team as you write specific and actionable IEP goals for your students.
What's Inside:
- Strategies for embedding parents’ concerns into their child’s IEP goals.
- Examples of what a specific, observable goal looks like in the classroom.
- Because standardized tests can’t measure the progress we are often looking for, I share my favorite assessment tools that will give you a better idea of where your student’s strengths and weaknesses lie.
I have a great routine established for my students when we’re in person. I love working on yoga with them because I think it’s a lifelong leisure skill. I use cards to demonstrate the yoga pose we’re going to practice and then together we hold the pose for ten seconds. This year, as so many of my tools have had to be adjusted to fit into teletherapy, I’ve been happy to see that I can still do yoga with my students virtually.
For many of us, flexing into the teletherapy space has proven to be a challenge. In addition to dealing with unfamiliar technology, we’ve also had to come up with creative ways to teach the same skills without being in person. And we’ve had to find how to get around new barriers for therapy, including the challenge of scheduling and having students at home without parental support.
My five favorite autism teletherapy strategies can help you set up boundaries and expectations for students that will help them thrive in this challenging season.
- Set up expectations for how the environment should be structured around the student.
- Decide how we can engage students during therapy.
- Use resources that are engaging, including my 3 favorite ones that I’ve just discovered this year.
- Include some parent training that will help parents become better therapy partners.
- Recap the therapy session so that everyone is on the same page at the end of the session.
Despite the challenges of this year, I’ve found that teletherapy has made it easier to communicate with families, and it’s led to more frequent communications as well. This opportunity can help us build stronger relationships with our students’ families.
What's Inside:
- Three of my favorite resources for engaging students over distance learning.
- The ways that you can support parents as they navigate teletherapy.
- As you recap the therapy session, you’ll get a chance to frame the session in a way that parents can understand what was addressed in that session.
- My favorite virtual field trips that will improve your therapy experience and help you connect with your students.
One of the most meaningful moments I had as a speech therapist was as I was watching a mentor work with a student over the age of 18. She was teaching him to use a static device to request the things that he enjoyed, and it was such a joy to watch him find a way to communicate with the world.
In this podcast series, I’m going to teach strategies that help children with autism learn to communicate. As a Speech-Language Pathologist and a board-certified behavior analyst, I love working in both public and private settings. It gives me an opportunity to see many different kinds of situations and students and adjust my communication techniques to reach each one.
Whatever setting a Speech-Language Pathologist is in, you can find them working on a variety of tasks like:
- Teaching augmentative communication
- Creating functional IEPs
- Taking meaningful data
- Working together as a team
- Helping students engage in therapy
No matter the tasks, the setting, or the age of a patient, if a topic touches on communication in any way, I’m going to address it here with my guests. Don’t miss the preference assessment that I use to engage with my patients who are on the autism spectrum that immediately helps you connect with them.
What's Inside:
- Why I love speech-language therapy and my goals for this podcast series.
- The education and training I received formally were fantastic, but stepping into a real-world practice has made me realize that I want to teach other therapists about learning new skills that will reach the variety of children and adults that they’ll see.
- My number one strategy for engaging hard-to-reach children, and how you can implement it in your own practice.