Ann Curry Interviews Slp Parents and Baby Who Reads

Archive for the 'Blogs' Category

A big thank you to Georgia Southern's NSSHLA (National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association)  for raising the funds to purchase a  Maico portable audiometer for our hearing screening program. SSHC provides free hearing screenings to private and public preschools, elementary, middle and high schools in Chatham, Effingham and Bryan Counties. In 2019, along with 25 volunteers from GSU-Armstrong Campus we screened over 7,685 students.

Pictured are (LtoR) Sarah Roberson, Ann Curry, Volunteer Coordinator and Macall Brown, President of NSSLHA

As we enter hurricane season, it's important for all of us to have an emergency plan in place. It's even more important for those with hearing loss. Please read the article below to learn more!

• Emergency Preparation for People With Hearing Loss

As a speech/language pathologist with Savannah Speech and Hearing, I found this article on self-advocacy tips for students that stutter very interesting and helpful. When someone who stutters self-advocates, their self-esteem, social skills and confidence only increase. Check out the article below to learn more! – Cathy Nelson

• Back to School: Self-Advocacy Tips for Students Who Stutter

Graduate students in the Communication Science and Disorders Program – Armstrong State University

Savannah Speech and Hearing Center's weekly Stroke Support Group has thrived under the guidance of 20 smart graduate students in the Communication Science and Disorders Program. For the past 10 weeks these amazing young women bring joy, laughter and community to the members of the Stroke Support Group. As always we are sad to see them go!

April Garrity writes:

Communication Help for Adults after Stroke (CHATS) is a service-learning experience in coordination with an existing community stroke survivors' group at Savannah Speech and Hearing. Each week graduate students in the speech-language pathology program develop and facilitate weekly modules with the Stroke Group. These modules are designed to be fun and interactive, and typically focus on topics of functional communication for activities of daily living. Activities emphasize the use of any available functional communicative modality – including speaking, writing, drawing, and gesturing – in conversation. The goal is to provide a fun, supportive environment, in which group participants practice communication skills and build confidence in these skills.

April W. Garrity, PhD CCC-SLP
Associate Professor and Clinic Coordinator
Communication Sciences and Disorders Program
Armstrong State University

Speech-Language Pathologists, or SLPs, are specialists that help children in a wide-range of ages with speech, talking and communication. Some may think that they only need to see a speech-language pathologist if their child has a lisp or stutter. Speech-Language Pathologists do so much more than you originally thought–from mild articulation delays to more complex disorders such as autism, Down syndrome, hearing loss, motor speech disorder and other developmental delays.

It is best to catch and correct a speech-language delay or disorder when the child is young. If you think your child may have trouble with communication, talking or speech, it is best to see a professional so they can begin working with your child to correct the delay or disorder as soon as possible. A child's ability to communicate with others directly correlates to their quality of life.

Take a look and see how an SLP can help your child:

1. Articulation Skills / Speech Intelligibility

Articulation is defined as the physical ability to move the tongue, lips, jaw and palate to produce individual speech sounds. Intelligibility refers to how well people can understand your child's speech. If your child's articulation is compromised, his intelligibility will be decreased. SLPs can work with your child to produce the specific speech sound or pattern that he / she is having difficulty with. This will have a direct and positive effect on his/her overall speech intelligibility.

2. Expressive Language Skills

Speech involves the physical motor ability to talk. Language is defined as a symbolic, rule governed system used to convey a message. Language can be anything from spoken or written words and symbols to gestural symbols like a thumbs-up to indicate "I am or that is ok" or waving your hand to indicate "goodbye". Expressive language refers to what your child says. SLPs can help your child learn new words, put them together to form phrases and sentences, and in turn, help your child communicate with you and others.

3. Receptive Language / Listening Skills

Receptive language is your child's ability to listen and understand language. Typically, you will see children with stronger receptive language skills than expressive language skills. SLPs have the tools to help teach your child learn new vocabulary and how to use that knowledge to follow directions and answer questions.

4. Speech Fluency / Stuttering

Stuttering is a communication disorder that affects speech fluency, characterized by breaks in the flow of speech such as repetitions, prolongations, interjections and blocks, and typically begins in childhood. Everyone experiences this to an extent but too many breaks in speech can affect one's ability to communicate. In more severe cases, you may see tension in the neck, shoulders, face, jaw, chest, eye blinks, nose flaring, clenched fists or other unusual movements in the arms, hands, legs and feet. SLPs can aid your child by teaching strategies on how to control this behavior.

5. Voice and Resonance

Voice disorders affect the vocal folds that allow us to have a voice. This can come in many forms including vocal cord paralysis, nodules or polyps on the vocal folds, and other disorders that cause hoarseness or loss of voice. Resonance is defined as the quality of the voice that is determined by the balance of sound vibration in the oral, nasal and pharyngeal cavities during speech. Obstruction of one of the cavities can cause abnormal resonance. Hoarseness is common young children and is caused by vocal abuse such as yelling, excessive talking, coughing and throat clearing. SLPs work with children to decrease or eliminate these behaviors and repair the strain/damage of the folds.

6. Social / Pragmatic Language

Social / pragmatic language is the way an individual uses language to communicate and involves using language to communicate in different ways (greeting, protesting, asking questions, etc), changing language according to the people or place it is being used (inside vs. outside voice) and following the rules for conversation (taking turns in conversation and using verbal and nonverbal cues). SLPs teach your child these social language skills so that they can more appropriately participate in conversations with others.

7. Cognitive-Communication Skills

Cognitive-communication disorders are the impairment of cognitive processes including attention, memory, abstract reasoning and awareness. Children can be born with these deficits or they can be acquired due to a head injury, stroke, or degenerative disease. SLPs can help build skills and / or teach your child methods to assist them in their deficits.

8. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

AAC is all forms of communication (other than oral speech) used to express thoughts, needs, wants and ideas. AAC is used when we make facial expressions or gestures, use symbols or pictures, or write. SLPs number one goal is communication. For some children that have severe delays or disorders, having traditional oral speech is not possible or practical. In these cases, SLPs may work with a child and his/her family to come up with an AAC system that can be used in place of speech or used as a bridge to speech.

9. Swallowing / Feeding Issues

SLPs can be trained (in addition to speech and language issues) in pediatric swallowing and feeding issues. SLP's have intimate knowledge of the structures and functions of the oral cavities.

10. Reading

SLPs are often the first professionals to identify the root cause of reading and writing problems through a child's difficulty with language. SLPs help children build the skills they need to be successful readers by:

• preventing written language problems by fostering language acquisition and emergent literacy
• identifying children at risk for reading and writing problems
• assessing reading and writing
• providing intervention and documenting outcomes for reading and writing programs
• assuming other roles when needed such as providing assistance to teachers and parents, and advocating for effective literacy practices.

11. Educating and Empowering YOU on how to best help your child.

The best thing an SLP can do for your child is to educate you and empower you on how to best help your child. You are the one who spends the most time with your child, so you can have the biggest impact on their growth and improvement. Once you equipped with the knowledge, skills and confidence, you can be the best "speech therapist" for your child. So do not hesitate to ask questions, take notes, do homework and work closely with your child's SLP. Together, you and your SLP can make an amazing team for your child's speech and language needs.

For more information visit www.friendshipcircle.org or www.asha.org.

Ann Curry Interviews Slp Parents and Baby Who Reads

Source: https://speechandhearingsav.org/category/blogs

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