Banter Speech & Language

Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

Speech Pathology

Ask Us Anything: 17 things our readers and followers really want to know about speech pathology (but were too shy to ask)!

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For more than seven years we’ve been writing about evidence-based speech pathology assessments and treatments for children and adults. Our website has had more than 1.3 million views, and we hope we’ve helped share useful information with families and adults who are considering speech therapy. 

Whenever two clients ask us the same question, we write an article about it. But, sometimes, a gap opens between what we might think people want to know, and what people actually want to know. Sometimes, clients, readers and followers may not want to ask us a question directly because it might be, well, difficult or even embarrassing.

By looking at the questions people actually use when searching for us, we’ve come to the conclusion that we need to work harder to figure out what people want. So, in this article, we try to answer our readers’ 17 most frequently asked questions about speech pathology. (For context, we include real world examples of what people searched to get to us.) 

Why 17 questions and not, say, 10 or 20? Well 17 is as many as we could answer this weekend! (We may keep adding to this article when we get more time.)

Why these questions and not others? These are simply the most common things people ask about. They are not necessarily the things I thought people would want to know, which is of course the point of this article.  

Disclaimer: Obviously, our answers are ours, based on our experiences managing a speech pathology clinic and working with children and adults in Sydney, Australia, and by telehealth. We do not pretend to speak for the whole profession in all settings, globally: others will no doubt have different views on some of these questions.

1. Is speech therapy the same as speech pathology?

Yes. 

An easy one to start with!

Speech pathologists and speech therapists are the same people. Speech pathology and speech therapy are the same thing. I use both terms to describe what I do. I use the terms speech therapy and speech pathology interchangeably because. They. Mean. The. Same. Thing!

Searches: Speech pathology vs speech therapy. Speech pathologist vs speech therapist. Speech therapy vs speech pathology. Speech pathology and therapy. Speech pathology or communication disorders. Speech pathologist v therapist. Speech pathology or therapy? Speech pathology v therapy.

2. What are speech pathologists? What do speech pathologists do?

We are professionals who are university-trained to help people with communication challenges, including speech and language difficulties. We work with children and adults; from babies to senior citizens. For example, in our clinic, we work with late talkers, preschoolers, school-aged children, teenagers, young professionals, middle-aged adults, and seniors with communication issues. 

Not all speech therapists work with everyone. At Banter Speech & Language, we work with adults and children from many walks of life, including:

Many speech pathologists – not us – work with people with feeding and swallowing difficulties and disorders. We do not practice in this area. (We refer people with swallowing disorders on to speech pathologists who do that work every day.)

Searches: What speech pathologist do? What’s speech pathology? What is speech pathologist? What speech therapy do? Speech pathology meaning.

3. When should I speak with a speech pathologist?

For children, here are some rules of thumb. 

In general, we suggest you speak with a speech pathologist:

  • if communication challenges are getting in the way of what you or your child want to achieve; or
  • when communication challenges are stopping you or your child from fully participating in life; or
  • if you have any concerns about your communication skills or the communication skills of a child or someone you are caring for.

Searches: When speech pathology needed? Speech therapy where to start? Why speech pathology is important. Why speech pathology?

4. How does speech pathology work?

Here’s our overview of how speech pathology for children works.

Here’s our overview of how language therapy for children works. 

Here are two overviews for how reading and dyslexia interventions work:   

Here’s our overview of speech pathology treatments for adults who stutter.

Here’s our overview of speech pathology for preschoolers who stutter.

Here’s our overview of speech pathology for school-aged children who stutter.

Here’s our overview of how principles of motor speech and neuroplasticity can help adults improve their speech. 

Here’s our overview of how speech pathology can help people with Parkinson’s Disease. 

Many (not all) speech pathology treatments are based on behaviourist scientific principles. You can real more about these principles here. 

Most of our articles focus on why speech pathology works, so look around our website if none of the articles above answer your question.

Searches: How speech pathology work. How speech therapy works. What works speech therapy? Speech therapy interventions. Speech therapy help. Speech therapy techniques. Speech therapy tools. Speech pathologist assessment.

5. Can speech therapy help toddlers?

Yes.

This is a very – VERY – common question from our readers.

Here’s what we want parents of late talkers to know.  

Here’s our overview of how we assess toddlers.

Here are some principles we use to help families:

Searches: Will speech pathology help my toddler? What’s speech therapy for toddlers? Will speech therapy help my child talk? Speech therapy for toddlers at home. Speech therapy 2 year old. Speech therapy for toddlers. Speech therapy for 2 year old. What is speech pathology like for toddlers? Speech therapy books for toddlers. Speech therapy toys for 2 year olds. Speech therapy words. Will speech pathology help my child talk? Speech pathology with toddlers. When speech pathology for toddler?

6. Can speech therapy help preschoolers?

Yes.

Here is some information about how and when preschoolers typically learn their speech sounds.  

Here is some information about preschoolers’ speech sound error patterns (and when they should disappear).

Here’s how unclear speech can affect later reading outcomes. 

Here’s our overview of why speech and language are so important for school readiness:

Here an overview of three evidence-based treatments we use to treat speech sound issues: 

Here are overviews of some common language targets for preschoolers, including:

Here’s an overview of the Lidcombe Program for preschoolers who stutter. 

Searches: Speech therapy for 3 year old. Speech therapy for kids. Speech therapy for child. Speech therapy exercises for a 3 year old at home. Will speech pathology help my 3 year old.

7. Can speech pathology help kids at school?

Yes. 

But we are not teachers or tutors, as we explain here.

Here are some overviews of speech therapy interventions for common issues including:

We’ve also written about common related issues like working memory, auditory processing disorder, ADHD, sleep disorders and social and emotional issues.

We’ve also published tips for teachers and others working with students with language, reading and learning disorders, social skills and Do-It-Yourself evidence-based study techniques. 

Some children have residual speech sound issues, which cause ongoing social and employment issues. We’ve written about it here.

Searches: Will speech pathology help? Will speech pathology help my child? Speech pathologist schools. Speech pathologist and academic. Speech pathologist and vocabulary. Higher level language.

8. Can Speech pathologists help with dyslexia and other reading difficulties?

Yes. 

We’ve written a free book for parents about this.

Since then, we’ve added more information:

  • We outline our approach to teaching children to read here. 
  • We outline what to do if your child is struggling to read and what works here.  

Searches: Speech therapy for dyslexia. Speech therapy reading difficulties.

9. Can speech pathology help with lisps?

Yes.

For our overview of lisps, including an explanation of different types of lisp, see our FAQs.

For our home program for children who have interdental lisps, see our Pesky Lisp Fixer.

For our home program for children who have lateral lisps, see our Slushy /s/ Zapper.

For adults who lisp, see our Lisp Fixer online course.

Searches: Can speech therapy get rid of a lisp? Speech therapy lisp. Speech therapy s sound. Can speech pathologist fix a lisp?

10. Can speech pathology help my child to say sounds properly?

Yes.

For an overview of speech sound treatments, see here.

For information about when children should be able to say each sound, see here.

For information about common error patterns like leaving out sounds and ‘gliding’ of /r/, /l/ and ‘y’ (/j/) sounds (and when they should be gone), see here. 

For a home program for trouble with the /r/ and/or /w/ sounds, see our /r/ Remedy.

Searches: Speech therapy can’t say r. Speech therapy r sound. Speech therapy r sounds like w. Speech therapy k sound. Speech therapy letter l. Speech therapy y sound.

11. Can speech pathologists help with mumbling?

Yes. 

The first step is to find out what is contributing to it – is it caused by difficulties with speech sounds or a language problem (or both), or something else? Are other things, like hearing difficulties, middle ear infections, or tonsil and adenoid problems contributing? A speech pathologist can help you get to the bottom of what’s going on and treat speech sound issues.

Behavioural speech therapy may be an option when there are no speech sound or physical issues contributing to the mumbling. For children with no speech sound issues, we have a simple home program – Mumble Buster.

Searches: Speech therapy to stop mumbling. How to stop mumbling.

12. Can speech pathology help with stuttering?

Yes.

Stuttering and stammering mean the same thing. You can read more here.

Many young children recover from stuttering, although recovery means different things to different people.

If you have a child who is stuttering, should you wait and see what happens? No. Here’s why.

There is – as yet – no cure for stuttering. But there are several treatments available to help people manage stuttering and its effects.

  • For preschoolers, see here.
  • For school-age children, see here.
  • For adults, see here.

Searches: Can speech therapy cure stuttering? Can speech therapy help with stuttering? Speech therapy to stop stuttering. Can speech pathologist cure stuttering?

13. Can speech pathology help me with my accent?

Yes.

Accent modification is controversial and often unnecessary. There is no one right way to speak English (or any other language). English is a global language, and we should celebrate local differences, like Singlish or Indian English, rather than criticise them.

Sometimes, accents get in the way of being understood. Sometimes, they can get in the way of important life goals like getting a job or a promotion. For most adults, ‘getting rid of an accent’ is not realistic. But there are evidence-based principles of clear speech that can help increase your intelligibility and comprehensibility while staying true to yourself and your heritage.

Here’s our overview of how speech therapy can help people to modify their accents. 

Here are things you can do to increase your intelligibility.

Here’s why some people choose to modify their accents. 

Search: Speech therapy to lose accent.

14. Can speech pathologists and speech pathology be more convenient for people?

Yes.

The great thing with technological advances in recent years is that we can provide speech therapy anywhere. We have lots of rural and international clients, including in remote areas without another service.

We can use Zoom, Skype, Coviu, or Google Meet or Hangouts to help children and adults in their homes by telehealth. Speech pathology is nearby anyone with an Internet connection!

We’ve been doing stuttering therapy by telehealth for years.

We also make home programs and online courses for people who want to do speech therapy in their home. A good example of this is our self-paced preschool language readiness course.

Searches: Speech therapy nearby. Speech therapy with Google Meet. Speech therapy with Zoom. Speech therapy with Skype. Speech therapy with Coviu. Speech therapy via Zoom. Speech therapy via Skype. Speech therapy to do at home. Speech therapy with distance learning. Speech therapy online. Speech therapy online courses. Speech therapy telehealth. Can speech pathologists travel? Speech pathology to do at home? Speech pathology telehealth.

15. Do you need a referral to see a speech therapist?

No. 

You can call and have a chat with us any time Monday-Saturday. If you decide to book in, you do not need a referral and can get started straight away.

For people with reading difficulties, you do not need to wait for a formal diagnosis of dyslexia to get started. Evidence-based treatment for reading difficulties is the same for people with and without a formal diagnosis of dyslexia, and the earlier you get started, the better.

To get in touch with us, go here.

Searches: Do you need referral for speech pathologist? Speech pathology without IEP.

16. Are rebates and insurance available?

This depends on your circumstances, but usually, in Australia, yes. You can read more about rebates and insurance here.

Searches: Speech pathology Medicare. Speech pathology private health insurance.

17. Where can I find quality speech pathology resources, exercises, worksheets and games?

Here. We love to share our knowledge and to make practical resources to help people.  

We’ve seen a surge of interest in our therapy resources recently, both from families and other speech pathologists. Our library of resources continues to grow. 

By way of overview, we have published:

And we’re just getting started!

Searches: Speech therapy activities. Speech pathology facts. Speech therapy books. Speech pathology blog. Speech therapy books for parents. Speech therapy tips for parents. Speech therapy exercises for 3 year olds at home. Speech therapy games. Speech therapy game apps. Speech therapy home exercises. Speech therapy materials. Speech therapy materials pdf. Speech therapy online free. Speech therapy pictures. Speech therapy questions. Speech therapy resources. Speech therapy resources for parents. Speech therapy sentences. Speech therapy toys. Speech therapy videos. Speech therapy worksheets. Speech therapy websites. Speech therapy webinars. Speech therapy YouTube. Speech therapy you can do at home. Speech therapy courses. Speech pathology images.

Any unexpected searches you came across?

Yes. Here are our four favourites, with our answers in brackets:

  • Is speech pathology hard? (Yes. It is.)
  • Is speech pathology a good career? (Yes. It’s great.)
  • Can speech pathologists have tattoos? (Of course.)
  • Speech pathologist with a dog. (You must be looking for someone else. We’re cat people!)

Bottom line

With this website, we set out to make speech pathology less mysterious and more transparent. This whole enterprise exists to share quality information with you about speech pathology and to answer your questions. We welcome any questions you may have about speech pathology, speech therapists or communication disorders – even tricky and confronting ones. 

Readers and followers: You can ask us anything!

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

Want to book an appointment?

Our 2020 assessment and therapy slots are filling up fast.

Call

Speech Therapy by Telehealth (Video Conferencing): Parent Guidelines

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During these difficult times, we’ve had quite a few enquiries about Plain English Telehealth Guidelines, so we’ve decided to make ours freely available to other speech pathologists.

Download it from our teachers pay teachers store

If you download this resource, we would love if you could leave some feedback on TpT. Also, feel free to follow our TpT store!

Take care of yourselves and stay safe!

30 things parents tell us they look for in excellent speech pathologists

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We want parents to be informed about, and engaged in, what we do when we work with their child.

Research – and clinical experience – tells us that parents want to work with a speech pathologist who is:

  • right for them; and 
  • right for their child. 

This means we must impose high standards on ourselves, our team, and our professional colleagues.  

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our services, we looked at peer-reviewed research and client feedback.  It highlighted 30 key themes for us to think about when:

  • selecting and training our speech pathologists; and
  • improving our services.

Related articles:

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Concord West, North Strathfield, Rhodes, and Strathfield, and all other suburbs of Sydney.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee, and is a Board Member of SPELD NSW.

Speech pathology for kids: Is it time to put away the Pop-Up Pirate and just do the therapy?

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Most speech pathologists who work with preschoolers and young school-aged children have hundreds of toys and games* to use in speech-language therapy.

Why?  

The superficial answer is to motivate children to do the work. But the real answer is much more interesting. It took a surprising amount of reading to find some answers. And we have to travel back in time to explain it in context.

Once upon a time, in the land of rewards and punishments…

In 1957, an American scientist called B.F Skinner published an influential book called “Verbal Behavior”. This work inspired lots of research applying so-called “behaviour principles” to the treatment of speech and language disorders, including stuttering, articulation disorders, and expressive and receptive language disorders. 

Skinner and his followers thought that you could objectively observe, measure and then change a person’s behaviour by manipulating what happened (or didn’t happen) when the person did (or didn’t do) something. “Behaviourists” (as they came to be known) argued that one way to seek to change a person’s behaviour is to reward the behaviour you want, and to punish the behaviour you don’t want. 

None of this will be a surprise to parents and teachers. Many parents – me included – use things like reward charts and pocket money to motivate children to complete tedious yet important tasks like washing up and making their beds (Joussemet et al., 2004). And gold stars, certificates, and privileges are used frequently to promote behaviour in schools (e.g. Newby 1991), especially for children with behavioural issues.  

By the 1970s, many speech pathologists were applying behaviour principles in their speech and language therapy sessions. For perhaps most of us, this is still the case today. University courses to this day teach elementary goal-setting, session planning, data collection and outcome measurement using the language of behaviourism. 

What does speech-language therapy based on behaviour principles looks like?

Before the therapy session, the speech pathologist creates a list of objective, measurable goals for the child to demonstrate. For example: “Mary will name high frequency, regular past tense verbs in subject-verb sentence forms, with 80% accuracy in the clinic with the speech pathologist”.  The speech pathologist will prepare a list of target verbs to trial for that goal, e.g. hopped, jumped, kissed, etc. as well as materials (scripts, worksheets, flashcards, etc.) to help stimulate the target.

In the session, the speech pathologist:

  • presents the child with some materials and words, e.g. pictures and instructions for each target verb. These are designed to stimulate the child to act in a certain way and/or to say something (e.g. to name the verb depicted on the flashcard in subject-verb sentences, e.g. “He hopped”);
  • impartially observes and measures the child’s response (whatever it is); then
  • responds to the child’s response with a consequence. The consequence depends on the goal and the child’s response. In other words, the consequence is contingent on the child’s response:
    • If the child’s response is what the speech pathologist wants to achieve – e.g. a past tense verb in a subject-verb sentence – the consequence will be positive, to reinforce the response, and to make it more likely that the child will repeat the behaviour under similar conditions in the future. In other words, the child is rewarded if she produces the target behaviour correctly.
    • If the child’s response is not what the speech pathologist wants, the consequence is negative: to make it less likely that the child would repeat the behaviour in similar conditions in the future. In other words, the child is punished if they miss the target.

In some of the behavioural speech pathology research published in the early and mid-1970s, the researchers talk about “reinforcers” and “punishers” (e.g. Brookshire, 1973). Although these terms inspire visions of bribery and electric shocks, they are much less dramatic in speech therapy:

  • Reinforcers might include rewards like stamps, gold stars, certificates, tokens (like Pop-Up Pirate swords, shells, dinosaurs, and plastic-gold coins), play-time with desired toys like Lego or Ooshies, time for desired activities like screen time, (rarely) food, ticks, and verbal praise.
  • Punishers might include things like the absence or removal of rewards or (mildly) negative comments on behaviour.   

Why use reinforcers?

Even in this early research, speech pathologists knew that reinforcers and punishers (now usually called consequences or contingencies) served at least two different functions:

  • Incentives: Rewards can motivate children to do things we want them to do. Some children may also be motivated to act in a way that avoids being punished. 
  • Feedback: Rewards and punishments can signal to the child how they are performing relative to a given target behaviour. Getting the reward signals that they are doing well. 

Not so simple in practice

The problem with using rewards as an incentive to do the work is that the child might not do the work without the incentive, e.g. in other places and with other people. This is a big problem: there is no point doing speech therapy if the results don’t transfer to the real world.

In practice, the two functions – incentive and feedback – are often mixed up. For example, imagine the target is for the child to say regular past tense verbs correctly in subject-verb sentences. The speech pathologist shows the child a picture of a kangaroo mid-jump and says: “I took this picture last week. Can you tell me, what the kangaroo did?”

  • If the the child says “The kangaroo jumped!”, the speech pathologist might reward the (wanted) behaviour with a stamp and/or verbal praise (hopefully something specific, and not the dreaded “Good talking!”).
  • If the child says, “The kangaroo jump”, the speech pathologist might ‘punish’ the (unwanted) behaviour by withholding the stamp, and perhaps recasting the sentence, “The kangaroo jumped. What did he do? He jumped”.

In this case, is the child construing the rewards and punishments as an incentive to keep going, as feedback on her performance, or a mixture of both? More importantly, what if the child doesn’t care at all about the stamps and praise, but just wants to learn how to say past tense verbs properly to avoid feeling embarrassed when speaking with friends about what happened on the weekend? Or, worse, what if the child doesn’t respond at all to reinforcement, puts her head down on the table and goes on strike? 

Behavioural therapy has its limits

In the late 1970s, and 1980s:

  • many speech pathologists started to question whether behavioural training was always appropriate, especially for a biologically primary function like language. Some researchers found that many speech and language skills taught well with behavioural techniques in the clinic with the speech pathologist did not transfer across to the “real world” in natural, non-training contexts (e.g. Prizant, 1982, Lovaas et al., 1973); and
  • several competing theories of language development emerged, including social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), interaction theory (Bloom & Lahey, 1978), and transformational grammar theory (Erreich et al., 1980). Some – particularly transformational grammar theory –  made speech pathologists question the use of reinforcement in language therapy. Some speech pathologists started to focus more on a child’s natural social, language and physical environments, and to work in more natural, more facilitative, and less intrusive ways. 

In the 1990s and 2000s, researchers showed (or at least argued) that:

  • in some cases, rewards can undermine children’s natural interest in activities, and also interfere with the cultivation of their ability to value uninteresting but important activities (e.g. Ryan & Deci, 2000);
  • for activities that a child finds inherently interesting, using rewards can lead to a decrease in intrinsic motivation, i.e. spontaneous engagement decreases when rewards are added (Deci et al., 1999);
  • encouraging the use of fantasy and affording opportunities for choice can promote a child’s interest and task engagement (e.g. Cordova & Lepper, 1996);
  • the goal of therapy should be to promote autonomous self-regulation – not just compliance with external controls – and that rewards may interfere with the internalisation of the activity’s value. They advocate “autonomy support” – encouraging initiative and providing meaningful rationales for requests, and minimising “controlling” language –  a beneficial alternative to rewards (e.g. Joussemet et al., 2004); 
  • principles of motor learning – including delayed, infrequent feedback on results (not production) – should be employed when targeting motor speech disorders like apraxia of speech or hypokinetic dysarthria; and
  • if mismanaged, external rewards can slow down therapy, distract from the child’s goals, and decrease the dose of therapy the child gets in each session.

The missing piece: What does the child think?

Research based on “cognitive evaluation theory” suggests that it is not the reward itself that determines whether it will magnify or diminish the client’s intrinsic motivation to do a task, but what the client thinks about the reward:

  • If the child thinks getting the reward is the purpose for doing the work, the child may associate the work and the reward as something controlled by the speech pathologist to achieve the speech pathologist’s goal. If so, the child may stop doing the work when the speech pathologist isn’t there and the reward stops or is removed. 
  • If the child thinks that the reward is just an indicator – a sign – of her competence and success, her intrinsic motivation may not be undermined. The child may think that the reward just shows her that she can do the task (e.g. Hagger et al., 2014). 

This research is similar in some ways to the 1970s studies on the incentive and feedback functions of rewards, except that it looks at rewards from the child’s perspective and makes predictions about what will happen when the reward is removed based on the child’s views.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Despite these developments, behavioural treatments remain popular, in part because they often help children achieve their goals! Examples include:

  • Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) and Discrete Trial Training (DTT), common treatment approaches for children with autism spectrum disorders;
  • the Lidcombe Program for preschoolers who stutter, a treatment that uses verbal (spoken) reinforcers and punishers (contingencies) to improve speech fluency; and 
  • many therapies for preschoolers and school-age children with speech sound disorders and/or developmental language disorders, including traditional articulation therapy and some drill-based therapies for expressive syntax.

In practice, many speech pathologists – me included – use “hybrid” approaches that combine behaviour principles with more naturalistic, interactive therapies that reward the spontaneous production of the target through the natural consequence of hitting the target (rather than an external reward). For example, I sometimes use elements of so-called milieu therapy to work on indirect requests. With this approach, the child gets the object they want if they ask for it using the target grammatical form, e.g. “Can I please have the Batcave?”

Clinical bottom line

We have a lot more to read on this important topic. But some important practical conclusions flow from the research we have reviewed to date, which will continue to affect how we use rewards in therapy:

  • Behaviour principles still play a big role in speech pathology for preschoolers and school-aged kids, especially for objective goal setting, outcome measurement, and of course for evidence-based behavioural treatments like the Lidcombe Program for stuttering.
  • Speech pathologists need additional tools so they can mix and match therapies and adapt their approach to each child’s goals and needs. We need to be less rigid, and more flexible – especially when behaviour principles aren’t working for a client.
  • Even for younger kids, we should explain what we are working on and why it might matter to them in the real world before getting stuck into the work.
  • When it comes to external rewards, speech pathologists should continue to think carefully about why and how they are using them in therapy. 
  • Ideally, we want children to view external rewards as indicators of their success in hitting their goals (rather than as the purpose of the activity).
  • To increase self-motivation, we should give kids more choices in therapy (e.g. in the order of activities and the type of rewards offered for their hard work and success).

For children who are intrinsically motivated to work on their communication skills for the purpose of achieving their goals, we should put away the external reinforcers and just get on with it! 

Related articles and resources:

Principal sources: 

Brookshire, R.H. (1973). The Use of Consequences in Speech Pathology: Incentive and Feedback Functions, Journal of Communication Disorders, 6, 88-92.

Ogletree, B.T. & Oren, T. (2001). Application of ABA Principles to General Communication Instruction. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 16(2), 102-109.

Joussemet, M., Koestner, R., Lekes, N., and Houlfort, N. (2004). Introducing Uninteresting Tasks to Children: A Comparison of the Effects of Rewards and Autonomy Support, Journal of Personality, 72:1, 140-166.

Hagger, M.S., Keatley, D.A., Chan, D.C.K, Chatzisarantis, N.L.D., Dimmock, J.A., Jackson, B., Ntoumis, N. (2014). The Goose is (Half) Cooked: a Consideration of the Mechanisms and Interpersonal Context is Needed to Elucidate the Effects of Personal Financial Incentives on Health Behaviour. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21:197-201.  
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* Our shelves, for example, are packed with Pop-Up Pirates, dinosaurs, gold coins, stamps, magnets, stickers, Pokemon cards, Tumbling Chimps, Transformers, Star Wars, Lego, Ooshies, and board games. Like nesting birds, we’ve also collected loads of natural objects, including polished rocks, shells, carnivorous plants and even (plastic-encased) bugs. We use these things regularly in speech therapy sessions with preschoolers and school-aged children. 

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Concord West, North Strathfield, Rhodes, and Strathfield, and all other suburbs of Sydney.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.

29 free resources for speech pathologists in private practice to improve client care (and 11 other useful ideas)

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29 free resources for speech pathologists in private practice to improve client care (and 11 other useful ideas)

As a profession, speech pathologists are generous to a fault. I’ve discovered that most speech pathologists (including very senior academics and over-worked clinicians) are delighted to share their knowledge with those of us in private practice. The key challenge is connecting the dots: carving out the time to find and filter the research, and to then apply it to our practices to improve client care.  

Some organisations and professionals are doing terrific work to make it easier for busy speech pathologists to find and translate research into practice. For example, The Informed SLP and many universities are now using social media and new technologies to help practitioners find out about their work. But we could all do more to help bridge the gap between research and day-to-day practice. 

To do our bit for knowledge sharing – and to help manage our fear of missing out on the joint Speech Pathology Australia-New Zealand Speech-Language Therapists’ Association (NZSPA) Conference in Brisbane last week – we spent each night of the conference going through the #NZSPAConf tweets to find resources, tools and tips that could help our practice and other private practices to improve client care. 

So here is our list, including:

  • 29 useful free resources we discovered (or rediscovered) from the NZSPA Conference tweets last week, with links to the actual tools and resources; and
  • 11 other ideas, including mental models, pending research, and other useful information to help clinicians in private practice. 

In most cases, the authors of the resources are clear from the links, although we’ve tried to add in twitter handles (or at least lead author names) where we could find them. Any errors of interpretation are ours alone.

Note that our selection bias was extreme: we chose things that were of immediate, practical, clinical interest to us in a busy private practice; and our interests are wide and eclectic! There were (literally) hundreds of other resources and tips on other topics that we could have shared from what was by any measure an amazing conference.

If you know of (or created!) other free evidence-based resources that would help private practitioners, please feel free to let us know, and we will add them to the list!

Tool/resourceLinksCredit/contact
The Squirrel Story (narrative Ax with Australian norms)https://www.languageandliteracyinyoungpeople.com/apps-resources

https://www.blacksheeppress.co.uk/product/squirrel-story-narrative-comprehension-assessment-nca/

https://www.blacksheeppress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/SquirrelNCA_IntActForm19feb.pdf		Suze Leitao @Suze_Freogirl, Emily Dawes @emilydawesSLP and team at
Black Sheep Press (UK)
Oral inferential comprehension intervention for children with #devlangdis (full free Rx resource)https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sh93neh6ql658xq/AADrIdNSms49Pr9el9D_51eda?dl=0
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265659018815736?journalCode=clta		Emily Dawes @emilydawesSLP, Suze Leitao @Suze_Freogirl and team
Health literacy and SLP Report Writing presentation (the slides themselves are a master class in Plain English, and clear expression)https://www.harmonyturnbull.org/2019/06/03/conference-presentation/Harmony Turnbull @SP_Harmony
PEERS for Young Adults program for social skills (free social communication videos)https://www.routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138238718/videos.phpElizabeth Laugeson
Marleen Westerveld’s free resources, including discourse level narrative, retell tasks and a free photo bank you can use for a variety of receptive and expressive oral and written language taskshttps://www.marleenwesterveld.com/resources/Marleen Westerveld
@MWslp
A treasure trove of Phonological Awareness Resources (University of Canterbury)https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/education/research/phonological-awareness-resources/Gail Gillon @gailtgillon
Accessible information about speech, language and communication https://www.speakupsalford.nhs.uk/Via @speechiemsm
ERLI (comprising 120 typical first words and gestures, developed for young children in remote Northern Territory, but of potential use for many other populations, too)https://www.facebook.com/pg/EarlyRemoteLanguageInventory/photos/?ref=page_internalCaroline Jones and colleagues
PFASE (free e-course on paediatric feeding!)https://central.csds.qld.edu.au/central/courses/219Clinical Skills Development Service (Queensland)
OZI-SF (Australian MacArthur Bates vocabulary Ax) – watch this space!https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0142723716648846?journalCode=flaaMarina Kalashnikova and colleagues
ReST (evidence-based CAS treatment)http://sydney.edu.au/health-sciences/rest/Tricia McCabe @tricmc and colleagues at the University of Sydney
TIDieR – Better Reporting of Interventions descriptions to allow better replication (checklist/guide)http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/tidier/Tammy Hoffmann and colleagues
Free – Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised (SUGAR) https://www.sugarlanguage.org/Bob Owens and Stacey Pavelko
Decoding Dragon to chase away the guessing monster (literacy)Lyn Stone @lifelonglit
Michigan 10 key skills for early literacy instructionhttps://memspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Booklet-FINAL-9.14.17.pdfVia @tricmc
Liberator AAC resources and informationhttps://liberator.net.au/support/educationhttps://liberator.net.au/
MOSAIC Online Ax for observations of people with intellectual disabilitieshttps://www.mosaiccommunication.com.au/@AndySmidt
Intelligibility in Context Scalehttps://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/ics@SharynneMcLeod
SoundLog Noise Dosimeterhttps://itunes.apple.com/au/app/soundlog-noise-dosimeter/id1063941394?mt=8Australian Hearing Services
Ottawa Patient Decision Aid to support families https://decisionaid.ohri.ca/
Drooling Quotienthttps://www.aacpdm.org/UserFiles/file/drooling-quotient-instructions.pdfvan Hulst and colleagues
Drooling Impact Scalehttps://www.aacpdm.org/UserFiles/file/The-Drooling-Impact-Scale.pdfSusan Reid and colleagues
CSDRNetwork Transcription Guidelines (Guidelines Relating to Clinical Management of Child Speech Disorder | North Bristol NHS Trust)
Guidelines Relating to Clinical Management of Child Speech Disorder		Via @speechieellie
Promoting use of home languages:YouTube Resources from NSW Health SESLHD How Childcare Educators can support bilingual children?:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-7-KN4gFCc

Helping your child learn two languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIrD7PkeDdg
Youth Voices in Youth Justicehttp://talkingtroublenz.org/presentations-publications/youth-voices-about-youth-justice/Talking Trouble NZ
Multilingual Language AxThe Alberta Language Development Questionnaire ALDeQ (Paradis) – questionnaires, intended to be administered in interview

Non-word Repetition Task 		Johanna Paradis


Dollaghan & Campbell
Multilingual Speech Axhttps://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments@SharynneMcLeod
Office Lens (App) totake photos of whiteboards and presentations (free)https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/microsoft-office-lens-pdf-scan/id975925059?mt=8Via @robertPwells
Boys and literacy acquisition https://digitalmediaprojectforchildren.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/boys-and-literacy-acquisition-introduction/@ProfRvach

Other clinically relevant things I found out about from the NZSPA Conference tweets:

Topic/issue/modelMore about itResearch to watch/follow
New tongue tie research
Holly Salt, Sharon Smart @sharonsmart79, and Mary Claessen @SpeechMary
More about the duty of Care vs Dignity of Risk, including in the context of dysphagiahttps://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6btzquVia @emilywaites
New drooling research on its way
Michelle McInerney
Linda Worrall’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective Aphasia Therapists
Goal Setting model for aphasia (SMARTER): Shared, Monitored, Accessible, Relevant, Transparent, Evolving and Relationship-centred (Hersh et al., 2012)		@aphasiologist1

Watch out for soon to be published systematic study about Childhood Apraxia of Speech + evidence-based tips to help us to differentially diagnose Childhood Apraxia of Speech@LizMurraySpeak and colleagues via @speechiellie
Launch of the Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitationhttps://www.latrobe.edu.au/research/centres/health/aphasia
More on the effects of classroom noise on language comprehension



@SamHarkus
Australian Hearing
Why classroom acoustics are an issue for SLPsRebecca Armstrong @bec_armstrong18
4 dimensions Maori health model (NZ)https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/maori-health-models/maori-health-models-te-whare-tapa-wha
Better Scientific Posters design templateshttps://osf.io/ef53g/
Excellent review/discussion  of the Simple View of Reading https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19404158.2019.1609272Kate Nation @ReadOxford

Image: https://tinyurl.com/yysosxss

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Concord West, North Strathfield, Rhodes, and Strathfield, and all other suburbs of Sydney.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year! Banter Speech & Language is open for 2019!

Call us on (02) 87573838 if you’d like to organise an appointment, or to find out more about our services. Check out our new video:

 

 

Banter Speech & Language Banter Speech & Language
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Concord West, North Strathfield, Rhodes, and Strathfield, and all other suburbs of Sydney.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.