The Speech Link: A Speech Therapy Podcast SpeechTherapyPD.com

This episode addresses an important dilemma: Am I on the right therapy track with my young children, and am I coaching their caregivers correctly? Rachel addresses these issues through 7 critical developmental skills and organizes them in a format and framework for you to increase your confidence and effectiveness with children and their caregivers.

This episode explores the need for orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs) information and practical application for clinicians and our university programs. Dr. Reed, a university professor, established the world’s first university-based clinic for those with OMDs. She shares OMD info and trends as well as her 20-year efforts to generate awareness of this important and much-needed area.

This episode explores the importance of developing confidence and joy in school-aged children who struggle with learning differences. The presenters pinpoint the confidence and joy robbers, e.g., events and experiences, and list the red flags of those at risk. They discuss social-emotional health issues and how professionals can intercede to build teams of support. The role of the SLP is highlighted.

This episode explores articulation therapy, motor control, proprioceptive feedback, and neuroscience. Details are provided for the neural connections to acquire and maintain oral motor behaviors and the oral resting posture. Efficient neural programming of the tongue, jaw, lips, and velum enables optimal speed and precision of movement for speaking. What happens, and what do we do when it doesn’t?

The use of myofunctional evaluation and therapeutic strategies can be invaluable in the remediation of many speech sounds, such as, /l/, /s/, /z/, and /r/. In addition, the sounds are more likely to remediate if the tongue rests in the correct position. We’ll focus on students who can produce the targeted sounds in words, etc. but have difficulty generalizing them into spontaneous speech.

Have you ever wanted to use music in your therapy but were unsure how? Learn simple, direct, and fun methods from Rachel Arntson. She shares strategies to use music to improve imitation, receptive and expressive language, speech sound productions, sound blending, and more. Music is a “magical” tool to build social interaction and is a fun way to incorporate the home practice of targeted skills.