Yesterday was my third multidisciplinary salon and afterwards I just thought what a great idea it is to have professionals from different areas discussing issues that are relevant to but to all. Attendees included myself, Kai Long speech pathologist, and in order of appearance Tina Millar, speech pathologist contracting in Boston public schools, Robyn Glover psychologist in private practice in Cambridge, Suzanne Flax speech pathologist in private practice in Wellesley, Mark Harper, psychologist in private practice in Cambridge.
One thing we all agreed was that the discussions that we have had at that multiple disciplinary salons have enriched all of our practice an understanding of what we do. The topic today was language-based learning disorders versus dyslexia, but it became clear that we had to first tackle the job of defining language-based learning disorder. Without my assistance Rebecca I had not been able to do the research, so Robyn whipped out her trusty phone and found several definitions one by ASHA, “Language-based learning disabilities are problems with age-appropriate reading, spelling, and/or writing. This disorder is not about how smart a person is. Most people diagnosed with learning disabilities have average to superior intelligence. http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/lbld.htm. More to come…