Speech-Language Therapy
Each person has different strengths and weaknesses. Part of the speech language pathologist job is to help each person understand and use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses. Discovering each person’s strengths is like uncovering pearls. The goal is to learn how to use an individuals strength to decrease or navigate around their speech language deficit. It’s […]
What did I learn?
In my last post I wrote about a woman I helped to re-learn to read. What did I learn from her? An injury to the brain can make us not like something that we once loved. Children with no acquired injury but with reading or language impairments, after years of failure often want to avoid […]
The Brain: Making new connections
My first job as a speech pathologist was in a rehabilitation hospital that specialized in traumatic brain injury. It was memorable for so many reasons. Working with acquired brain injury patients taught me that no one chooses to do badly. I was able to see that all our behaviors both positive and negative are a […]
Traumatic brain injury: Why would you ever need a Speech Pathologist?
My first job was working at a rehabilitation hospital that specialized in traumatic brain injury. It was a very interesting job because when working with a patient with an acquired brain injury the behavior present after the injury can be related to the site of the injury. I closed head trauma to the left side […]
Lagging skills: So what’s a mom/ Speech Pathologist to do?
During my observations I noticed once my daughter began to scream she was no longer able to think. Unexpected transitions set her off, and even though she has a very good vocabulary during times of anger she used few words. Rewards, time out, punishments hugs, natural consequences didn’t work. Anticipating situations that caused the rages […]
Writing remediation
I work with many amazing students, but one student I worked with has been especially remarkable because of his persistence, determination, evolving self awareness, and hard work. He meets his disabilities head on with full awareness of his limits while refusing to let them stop him. He has a moderate to severe language-based learning disability […]
Why do I need this anyway? Working with young adults:
I love working with teens and young adults! I work with all ages, but I love the challenge of working with teens. It’s a time when independence has to be nurtured. It’s no longer acceptable to just say, “This is what you will do?” It is a time when providing the rationale for what you […]
Predicting, planning, and organizing: Why can’t I do It?
Problems with time management is one element of executive function, other elements include predicting, organizing, and planning. We all occasionally lose our keys. I know I do, but I once had a client that was constantly late to every appointment because they could not find their keys or pocketbook. For most of us a few […]
Executive functioning: What is it?
Executive functioning is a buzz word in the learning disability community that often seems mysterious. I have first hand experience with executive functioning problems. My daughter wakes up for school and takes at least 40 minutes if not more to get dressed and brush her teeth in the morning. Unfortunately the bus leaves at the […]
The greatest predictor of academic success
Did you know the greatest predictor of academic success is vocabulary development? However, the single most important indicator of success in life is social emotional intelligence. So for example if you have 2 people equally educated with similar vocabulary development the one with the better social skills will likely out perform the other. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21017939/ How […]