Strategies for Affordable Speech Therapy via Telepractice

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Online Speech Therapy

Image source: Cochlearimplantonline.com

Are you looking forward to the holidays? If you’re like me, you’ve spent the last month writing down the perfect gift ideas for everyone on your list. It’s great to take a break from your everyday routine now and then, but holiday spending can put quite a dent in your budget. And raising a child with special needs can stretch your budget to the max. On top of speech therapy sessions, your child might have occupational therapy, physical therapy, applied behavioral analysis (ABA), and countless visits to the doctor’s office. Speech therapy can be affordable, but it might require a little trial-and-error to find the solution that best fits your family’s needs.

This week, we’ve focused on online speech therapy. Learning proper articulation with online resources like Speech Buddies University is a great way to keep your child engaged in the lesson plan. Plus, accelerating your child’s progress with the use of Speech Buddies in addition to other speech therapy techniques can help reduce the total amount of speech therapy required. This can cut your bill drastically – which is definitely helpful when you’re juggling gift-buying for all those fashionistas, jewelry lovers, and others on your holiday list. Here’s a look at some strategies for making online speech therapy (aka telepractice) affordable for your family.

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The Benefits of Online Speech Therapy: An Interview with Jeremy Glauser of Visual Speech Therapy

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Lauren Works with Online Speech Therapy at VST

Courtesy: Jeremy Glauser

Yesterday, we discussed a speech therapy technique that has recently been gaining more mainstream attention amongst speech-language pathologists (SLPs): online speech therapy. If that caught your attention, you won’t want to miss today’s interview with Jeremy Glauser of Visual Speech Therapy (VST), a telepractice service. Jeremy is passionate about helping children with speech disorders excel in life. To that end, Visual Speech Therapy offers real-time, face-to-face online speech therapy sessions with qualified SLPs via their specialized software system. VST speech therapists are highly qualified to train clients in the use of Speech Buddies to accelerate articulation progress. Visual Speech Therapy is dedicated to providing customized, effective speech therapy to clients. Below, check out Jeremy’s discussion of the ways that telepractice can benefit your child.

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Speech Therapy at Home with Telepractice

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Telepractice for Speech Therapy at Home

Image source: Lakesideautismblog.wordpress.com

Do you remember life before the Internet? When I was a kid, we didn’t even have a computer for quite a long time. When we finally got one, the modem was one of those ancient dial-ups. I could start loading a Web page, run around the block a few times, and it would still be loading by the time I got back. We might curse modern technology for its glitches and for constantly making us buy new upgrades, but the truth of the matter is that it quite often makes our lives easier. When your child is diagnosed with a speech disorder, you can find a qualified speech-language pathologist (SLP) via Google. You can also look up activities for speech therapy at home. You can practice speech therapy techniques with your child using the online Speech Buddies University. The simple, easy-to-use interface of Speech Buddies University may be used at various levels and for various target sounds.

And now, you can even take your child to see his speech therapist without getting into the car. Speech therapy at home with telepractice has been making waves in the speech therapy world lately, with good reason. It’s convenient, it works, and it lets you connect with a qualified SLP no matter where you live. So what, exactly, is telepractice?

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Helping Your Child Overcome Dyslexia

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Dyslexia Mindmap

Image source: Dyslexiauntied.blogspot.com

It’s hard for parents to watch their kids struggle, and kids with dyslexia or a speech disorder have a particularly hard time in school. Consider going back to “school” to learn about your child’s difficulties and how best to help him. You won’t even have to worry about paying back more student loans. The Speech Buddies University offers online practice exercises and training videos so that you can learn how to help your child. In the case of dyslexia, early intervention is critical, as we discussed in yesterday’s post about new methods to diagnose dyslexia before the child even learns to read. If you believe your child might have dyslexia, take him to a speech-language pathologist (SLP) for an evaluation.

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Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas for Speech Therapy Activities

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Family Dinner Time - Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas

Image source: Oneinabillionblog.com

Looking for Thanksgiving dinner ideas? As you search for new recipes, don’t forget to incorporate speech therapy into the holidays. As the parent of a special needs child, it can often be difficult to see the forest for the trees. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the day-to-day grind of IFSPs, IEPs, and a plethora of other acronyms that we lose sight of the more important things in life. While they can be stressful, the holidays also provide an opportunity to step back, take a breath, and cherish your family. And while you’re looking for some Thanksgiving dinner ideas, remember that at-home speech therapy techniques can easily be incorporated into mealtimes, even during the holiday.

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Sensory Toys for Children: Top Products for Kids to Include in Your Toolbox

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Sensory Toys for Children - Ball Pool

Image source: Dfdsseaways.co.uk

There are countless at-home speech therapy techniques that you can do with your child to encourage his progress. You may have already invested in educational toys and games to serve as tools for speech therapy lessons, such as flashcards for target sounds or Speech Buddies for articulation practice. As well, consider the use of sensory toys for children.

As your baby grows, he learns about the world around him with various senses. Using a multisensory approach to speech therapy can not only improve knowledge retention, but it may also boost your child’s motivation, according to Tatyana Elleseff, M.A. CCC-SLP. Sensory toys for children may also be used as prompts to encourage vocalization. The child may be asked to describe the feel of a fuzzy tennis ball, for example, or the scent of a cookie. Consult your child’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) for advice on using a multisensory approach to at-home speech therapy techniques. This is particularly critical if your child has sensory processing disorder (SPD). This is a neurological disorder that disrupts the way in which a person processes information. Over-stimulating a child with SPD can result in an adverse reaction.

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Essential Tricks & Tips for Using Flashcards for Kids

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Toddler Using Flashcards for Kids

Image source: Notjustcute.com

Flashcards for kids are often saddled with a bad reputation. And indeed, drilling a child relentlessly with the same set of flashcards in the same manner over and over again might cause the youngster to get a little bored with them. On the other hand, repetition is critical for articulation practice and other speech therapy techniques. So what’s a parent to do? Try incorporating games that your child will enjoy into the flashcards routine. Customize the games to your child’s particular interests, if possible. And as always, talk to your child’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) and find out what games she is using in speech therapy to keep your child engaged. She can also offer some advice for customizing flashcard games and the flashcards themselves to your child’s particular speech and language needs.

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Autism Advocacy: How Temple Grandin Conquered Her Diagnosis

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Autism Advocacy - Temple Grandin

Image source: Indyweek.com

Autism advocacy and awareness has received a boost in the U.S. in recent years. There has also been an alarming rise in autism diagnoses. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 88 children will be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by the age of 8. Although we know more about autism than ever before, much still remains a mystery. Many parents would give anything to be able to communicate with their nonverbal children and ask them how they perceive the world around them. This is one of the many reasons why Temple Grandin is such an influential hero in the autism community.

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Speech Therapists Rave About These Tools for Speech Therapy

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Language Development Tools for Speech Therapy

Image source: Prathamdelhi.org

It’s that time of year again: As soon as my skin starts to feel lizard-like and shriveled in the cold weather, I know it’s time to start making lists of ideas for holiday gifts. Not to mention stocking up on heavy-duty moisturizers. When you’re a parent, killing two birds with one stone is a great way to make the holidays easier on your budget. Fun educational gifts like tools for speech therapy will seem just like toys to your kids, but you can feel satisfied that the youngsters are learning something at the same time. It’s a technique that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) use all the time. Speech therapy sessions often seem just like playtime. But while your child is playing pirates or princesses with the speech therapist, he or she is also working on his narration skills, sentence formation, articulation, and vocab acquisition. Consult your child’s speech therapist for ideas on tools for speech therapy to use at home. She can offer ideas that are customized to your child’s specific speech disorder and needs.

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Essential Speech Therapy Activities & Techniques

by Jacky G. Speech Therapy Techniques
Speech Therapy Activities - Baby Reading Paper

Image source: Mylot.com

Are you the type of person who dips a toe in the pool to test the temperature or do you prefer to dive in headfirst? It’s often difficult to navigate an entirely new field of study, whether you’re just beginning to learn about speech therapy activities or whether you’re analyzing MySQL performance with TCP/IP network traffic. The technical jargon might seem impossible at first, but if you keep reading everything you can on the subject, it will eventually become second nature to you. Although your child’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) will be doing the lion’s share of the work, your child can greatly benefit from doing speech therapy activities at home with you. By accelerating his progress, you can watch him overcome his speech disorder even sooner. So without further ado, here are some of the common speech therapy activities and techniques your child’s SLP might use with him. Bear in mind that every child and every SLP are different, so be sure to consult your SLP about the best speech therapy activities for your youngster.

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