Celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month.  Here are some practical tips any parent can use to encourage better understanding and use of language.  Try some of these out and while you are out celebrating BSHM why don't you give a big hug to all the hearing and speech professionals out there??? 

•Model grammatically correct language in your home
•Explain words that are new for your child
•Describe your activities as you are doing them
•Turn off the television
•Read books with your children
•Talk with your child even if they cannot respond
•Give your child time to formulate his answers to your questions
•Accept signs and gestures as well as vocalizations for minimally verbal communicators. This will make your child less frustrated
•Expand on what your child says to increase expressive language
•Play games to practice concepts like taking turns, following rules and attending to a task
•Support your child to help complete homework assignments
•Build your child’s esteem by providing positive reinforcement • Play games that help your child categorize
•Involve your child in cooking or baking activities. Talk out-loud about each of the steps

April is Autism Awareness Month

In honor of Autism Awareness month here are some facts and statistics on autism: 

• 1 percent of the population of children in the U.S. ages 3-17 have an autism spectrum disorder.
• Prevalence is estimated at 1 in 110 births.
• 1 to 1.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder.
• Fastest-growing developmental disability; 1,148% growth rate.
• 10 - 17 % annual growth.
• $60 billion annual cost.
• 60% of costs are in adult services.
• Cost of lifelong care can be reduced by 2/3 with early diagnosis and intervention.
• In 10 years, the annual cost will be $200-400 billion.
• 1 percent of the adult population of the United Kingdom have an autism spectrum disorder.
• The cost of autism over the lifespan is 3.2 million dollars per person.  

You may read this today and not know anyone who is affected by autism, but chances are with its prevalence growing you will someday.  Every time you roll your eyes at someone who has a child who is out of control at the supermarket take and minute and stop to think that maybe that child has autism and the parents are doing everything they can to cope and deal...and get groceries.  

From the mouths of SLPs

Don't know where I got this idea, but I thought it would be good to post things that therapists would say to parents if they could say it in complete anonymity.  I have to say that the older I get and the longer I do this there is not much that I hold back from families, but I can remember thinking back when I first started working "I can't tell them that. I don't have any children of my own and they will think I am judging them".

In my graduate work and career I have met some of the most genuine and hard-working SLPs.  People who lose sleep over their patients and dedicate their lives to helping others.  I thought why not ask some of these fantastic folks..."what do you find yourself saying over and over to families...whether out loud or in your head"?  Here are some of their answers:

- No matter how much your child loves the toys we play with in therapy that does not mean you should go out and buy every one of them.

- Don't be afraid to ask questions or interrupt something you don't understand.

- Be silly!

- You don't deserve to be judged by anyone that works with your kid.  If you feel it is not a good fit, then say something.

- Have realistic expectations of your child and their disorder and the time frame in which progress will occur. this means understanding typical development and your child's disorder.


- Read books daily


- Talk, Talk, Break, Talk


- Play.. (I mean sit on the floor and do nothing else) play with your kid.


- Consistency is key.


- I may not have all the answers, but we can work together to find them.


- Please PLEASE take that pacy away from your child.  

So there you have it.  And just because I think I need to add some more pictures to my post...Here is a picture of me with some of my fav SLPs.  

So...What's the Difference?

For all you faithful readers out there (little chuckle), sorry I have been so bad about posting.  I have been so busy and out of town.  I have been networking like crazy.  I joke that it is probably a bit like Chinese Water Torture for all the people in the networking groups to hear me over and over again "My name is Ginger Jones and I am a speech-language pathologist and I am the owner of Jones Speech-Language Pathology Services".

As I have said before most people don't even know what a speech-language pathologist is so I thought I would post a helpful explanation about the difference between speech and language.

Check out this link from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association.

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/language_speech.htm

ASHA has great resources for professionals as well as the general public.  Check them out on the web.  You can find a link under my helpful links at the top of the page.

Look How Far We've Come Baby

So over the weekend I had to opportunity to speak to a group of adults with hearing loss.  Initially when I was asked to speak I thought "what in the world am I going to talk about???".  But after some thinking and reminiscing about talks with my grandparents about raising children with hearing loss I came up with a topic.  I called it Aural Habilitation...These Days.  


I started off my talk with  my story about running into a cashier at Target who wore hearing aids.  When I told the cashier I was an SLP she told me how much she hated going to therapy when she was growing up.  Of course I was a little saddened to think...will my patients say that one day???  I try my best every day to be creative with ways to make my therapy seem like play.  Mostly because we know that a child's work is play, but also because I would much rather play grocery store than do a worksheet.

I went on to tell about how parent involvement is the center of my practice and how each session is focused on training the parents of how to work with their children at home.  I showed a video of a typical therapy session with a 2 and 1/2 year old with hearing loss.  I could just see it in their eyes how amazed they were at therapy these days.  A couple of them even raised their hands to tell me about how speech when they were growing up was just imitating the words of their clinicians.  Ummm no...Miss Ginger don't play that game.

I really can't take any credit for how the tides have changed.  There have been so many great researchers and therapists before me who have paved the way for making learning to communicate functional AND fun.  I am so grateful to do what I do this day and age and for the gift of learning from history.

Here are some pics of the day...

You can see my sweet mama in the third one in the pink sweater.  Isn't she beautiful?

Thanks to the Nashville Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America for allowing me to be a part of their meeting.

I'm So In

Personal post today....just because.  If you held a gun to my head and asked me to tell you any of my close girlfriends' phone numbers I couldn't do it, but if you happen to ask for the 1-800 provider numbers for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee and United Healthcare I could tell you.  So is my life lately...

I knew when I left my former (very valued) job that I was trading one set of challenges for another, but I don't think I knew just HOW challenging dealing with insurance companies would be.  So today I type as an in-network provider with Blue Cross Blue Shield.  Unsure of what the next 180 days of this contract will bring, but I am 100% confident in my ability to roll with the punches and learn from it.

A negotiated contract...one very small step for mankind...one HUGE step for me.

You Gotta Fight...For Your Right(s)

You don't have to fight for these rights...I just wanted to write a post about parents' rights and I couldn't think of a catchy title.  Thanks, Beastie Boys!  

I am not talking about legal rights.  That is a whole 'nother post that would take days.  I'll get to that, but for today here is a list of rights you have as a parent of a child with special needs.

You have the right:

- to feel angry

- to seek another opinion

- to privacy

- to keep trying

- to set limits

- to just be a parent

- to be unenthusiastic

- to time off

- to be the expert in charge

- to dignity

- to hear the truth

You don't have to be a super-parent, you don't have to live your child's special needs every minute of every day.  I bet that you are better at doing all the things you've been told you need to do than you could imagine.  It just doesn't seem as effortful when it is a habit.