Photo by David Blackwell

‘Tis the season to be busy, and hopefully to spend some time offline with family and friends–or maybe just relaxing. To give you one less thing to cross off your to-do list during this holiday season, ASHAsphere will be taking a winter break next week.

Thank you all for reading along this year, and to all the great ASHAsphere bloggers–thank you for making this blog the success that it is.

In the coming year, we’d love to feature more audiology bloggers in addition to the awesome SLP bloggers who already contribute to ASHAsphere. If you’re interested, please fill out and submit the blogger application.

Thanks so much for reading, commenting on and sharing ASHAsphere, and we’ll see you next year!

Last year, several SLP and SLP-related blogs were nominated for the Edublog awards. According to The Edublog Awards website, the awards are “a community based incentive started in 2005 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes. The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.”

This year, SLPs again made a strong showing among shortlisted nominees. Here’s a listing of the SLP and SLP-related nominees (hat-tip to Sean Sweeney for compiling these):

Best Individual Blog- iLearn Technology

Best Group Blog- TherapyApp411

Best New Blog- All4mychild and Speech Room News

Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog- Cindy L Meester’s Blog and SpeechTechie

Best Twitter Hashtag- #slpeeps

Best Free Webtool- GlogsterEDU

Best Educational Media/Podcast-The Compendium Blog of The A.T.TIPSCAST

Best Educational Use of a Wiki- UDLTechToolkit

Best Open PD- Edcamps

Lifetime Achievement- Special Education Teacher and Mac Genius Meg Wilson

Voting for the 2011 Edublog awards is open until 11:59 pm EST on Tuesday, December 13–that’s TOMORROW– and the winners will be announced during a live online awards ceremony on Wednesday, December 14 at 7 pm EST. You can vote once per day per category through tomorrow at 11:59 pm.

To vote, visit the Vote Here page, then select the category from the pull-down menu. Once you select the category, the list of nominees in that category will appear in another pull-down menu. Christopher Bugaj has a short video tutorial of the voting process on his blog if you’d like more direction.

Innovation—technological, organizational, and whatnot—is seen increasingly by professional associations as essential to research and clinical work, as a key indicator of a healthy profession.

The staff at the National Office are keenly interested in better understanding and promoting innovation in our association and professions. And so, we turn to you. What do you think? How has innovation improved your practice and/or research? In which ways have you been innovative in your work, particularly during these challenging economic times? We’re interested in hearing from you, either through a text or video post!

Gary Dunham, PhD, is the director of publications at the ASHA national office. Before working for ASHA, he served as the executive director of the State University of New York Press and the director of the University of Nebraska Press.

Photo by Bernt Rostad

I was recently asked to answer a couple of thought-provoking questions sent in by a
graduate student in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders. “Do you have
any suggestions for students on how to start our careers off right? Looking back over
your career, is there anything you would do differently if you could do it all again?”
For the “veterans” out there (as Oprah would refer to us), we actually do have much to
offer in the way of offering advice to those about to enter the field, so I thought I would
give this a try. After getting over the initial shock that I was old enough to be considered
veteran of anything, and then dealing promptly with the hot flash that soon followed, I
began to write, knowing that many “youngins” (another Oprahism) could probably
benefit from my 32 years in the field. Now, let me be clear. You still qualify as a
“youngin” if you are new to the profession, even if you are not a twenty-two year-old
recent college graduate. Age is not a factor here. For any who would like to benefit from
my experience, I have a few suggestions.

While under the stress of the academic demands in graduate school, I would continually
repeat the following words to myself: “This is temporary.” This saying is one of my
favorites whenever I find myself overwhelmed in a particular situation. Try it… it works!
My partner, and sister, Penny Castagnozzi shared this insight with me and I use it both in
my professional life and my personal life. “Woah! My caseload numbers just went up
again.” (This is temporary.) “I’m overwhelmed with all these reports.” (This is
temporary.) “Where did these extra ten pounds come from?” (Again, temporary.) It’s
been two days and he/she hasn’t called or texted (Temporary.)

When sitting in class, or listening to your clinical supervisor’s feedback, instead of
focusing solely on how you will retain all of this information for the test next Thursday,
shift your thinking to include an awareness that this is the information you will soon be
using to change lives, one client at a time, out in the real world. Know that you are
becoming a true “agent of change.”

During the process of seeking your first job (or making any job change), go out and do
informational interviews and shadow professionals who work within the clinical work
environments you may not have had a chance to experience while in school. When being
interviewed for a position, ask many questions, and also ask for the name of someone
who already works in this facility, so that you can interview him or her. He or she might
be able to give you information from within “the trenches” of that job, offering the real
scoop, such as the exact caseload numbers and the flexibility of the administrators.
When you do land that first job, become fast friends with the clerical or administrative
assistants in your building. They will help you learn the ropes, such as where to find the
complete list of students in a school for quick access to the contact information you need.
Bring them a cup of coffee or a treat once in a while. Let them know how appreciated
they are for helping you do your job. Suddenly, because of these relationships, you will
find your job getting easier and more enjoyable.

Finally, although you will walk into that new job setting as an ASHA certified and
licensed expert in speech pathology or audiology, remain humble. Let others, especially
those not in your profession, see you as someone who is there to help, and not intimidate,
them. Hold your head up high and demand respect, but do it in a way that is tactful and
engaging.

So, “youngins,” have fun and enjoy the ride! As rides go, it will be filled with spins,
turns, slow upward climbs, smooth sailing plateaus, and exciting downhill runs. At the
difficult turns in your journey, remember to say to yourself, “This is temporary.”

Nancy Telian, M.S., CCC-SLP, is co-director of Reading with
TLC with Penny Castagnozzi. Nancy and Penny are the authors of Lively Letters and
Sight Words You Can See, programs that develop phonemic awareness, phonics, and
sight word skills. They are nationally recognized speakers and can be contacted for
inspiring keynote addresses or presentations on their own programs at 781-331-7412 or
penny@readingwithtlc.com. For more information on Nancy and Penny or the programs
they’ve created, visit www.readingwithTLC.com.

ASHA’s Listen To Your Buds safe listening campaign is taking off at warp speed and landing in San Diego next week.  Mayor Jerry Sanders has declared “Buds In The Schools Week,” November 14 – 19, throughout the city during which ASHA will engage young students in campaign activities.  Six lucky elementary schools will participate in concerts presented by Listen To Your Buds Musicians’ Coalition members Oran Etkin and Moona Luna. 

ASHA has also partnered with USO San Diego to put on a holiday concert for military families on Saturday, November 19.  The concert will feature the U.S. Marine Band as well as Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band. Winner of a 2011 Parents’ Choice Foundation Gold Award, family entertainer Lucky and his band will share the Buds’ safe listening message with attendees.

To keep up with all the Buds’ activities, you can follow Listen To Your Buds on Facebook.

In recent years the percentage of “at-risk” children has been steadily increasing across pediatric speech-language pathology caseloads.  These include adopted and foster care children, medically fragile children (e.g., failure to thrive), abused and neglected children, children from low socioeconomic backgrounds or any children who for any reason lack the adequate support system to encourage them to function optimally socially, emotionally, intellectually, or physically.

At times speech-language pathologists encounter barriers when working with this population, which include low motivation, inconsistent knowledge retention, as well as halting or labored progress in therapy.

As a speech-language pathologist whose caseload consists entirely of at-risk children, I have spent countless of hours on attempting to enhance service delivery for my clients. One method that I have found to be highly effective for greater knowledge retention as well as for increasing the kids’ motivation is incorporating multisensory stimulation in speech and language activities.

To date, a number of studies have described the advantages of multisensory stimulation for various at risk populations. For example, in 2003 a study published in Journal of Research in Nursing and Health described the advantages of multisensory stimulation for 2 week old Korean orphans who received auditory, tactile, and visual stimulation twice a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks. This resulted in significantly fewer illnesses as well as significant gains in weight, length and head circumference, after the 4-week intervention period and at 6 months of age. Another 2009 study by White Traut and colleagues published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, found that multi sensory stimulation consisting of auditory, tactile, visual, and vestibular intervention contributed to a reduction of infant stress reactivity (steady decline in cortisol levels).   Moreover, multisensory stimulation is not just beneficial for young children. Other studies found benefits of multisensory stimulation for dementia (Milev et al, 2008) and coma patients (Doman & Wilkinson, 1993), indicating the usefulness of multisensory stimulation for a variety of at risk populations of different age groups.

After reviewing some studies and successfully implementing a number of strategies I wanted to share with you some of my favorite multisensory activities for different age-groups.

Before initiating any activities please remember to obtain parental permissions as well as a clearance from the occupational therapist (if the child is receiving related services), particularly if the child presents with significant sensory issues.  It is also very important to ensure that there are no food allergies, or nutritional restrictions, especially when it comes to working with new and unfamiliar clients on your caseload.

Multisensory stimulation for young children does not have to involve stimulation of all the senses at once. However, there are a number of activities which come quite close, especially when one combines “touch ‘n’ feel” books, musical puzzles as well as paper and edible crafts.

Here’s one of my favorite speech language therapy session activities for children 2-4 years of age. I use a board book called Percival Touch ‘n’ Feel Book to teach insect and animal related vocabulary words as well as talk about adjectives describing textures (furry, smooth, bumpy, sticky, etc).  As I help the children navigate the book, they get to touch the pages and talk about various plant and animals parts such as furry caterpillar dots, shiny flower petals, bumpy frog skin, or sticky spider web.   We also work on appropriately producing multisyllabic words and on combining the words into short sentences, depending of course, on the child’s age, skills, and abilities.   With this activity I often use animal and insect musical puzzles so the children can hear and then imitate select animal and insect noises.

Also, since all of Percival’s friends are garden insects and animals, it’s fairly easy to turn the book characters into paper crafts. Color paper templates are available from free websites such as www.dltk-kids.com, and range in complexity based on the child’s age (e.g., 2+, 3+ etc).  While looking innocuously like simple paper cutouts, in reality these crafts are a linguistic treasure trove and can be used for teaching simple and complex directions (e.g., after you glue the frog’s arm, glue on his foot) as well as prepositional concepts (e.g., glue the eyes on top of the head; glue the mouth below the nose, etc).

So far we have combined the tactile with the auditory and the visual but we are still missing the stimulation of a few other senses such as the olfactory and the gustatory.  For these we need a bit more creativity, and that’s where edible crafts come in (inspired by Janell Cannon’s ‘Crickwing’).  The child and I begin by constructing and gluing together a large paper flower and dabbing it’s petals with various food extracts (almond, vanilla, raspberry, lemon, root beer, banana, cherry, coconut, etc).  Then, using the paper flower as a model, we make an edible flower using various foods.  Pretzel sticks serve as stems, snap peas become leaves while mango, tomato, apple, peach and orange slices can serve as petals.  After our food craft is finished the child (and all other therapy participants) are encouraged to take it apart and eat it.  The edible flower is not just useful to stimulate the visual, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory senses but it also encourages picky eaters to trial new foods with a variety of textures and tastes, as well as serves to develop symbolic play and early abstract thinking skills.

It is also important to emphasize that multisensory activities are not just for younger children; they can be useful for school-age children as well (including middle school and high school aged kids). In the past, I have incorporated multisensory activities into thematic language and vocabulary units for older children (see resources below) while working on the topics such as the senses (e.g., edible tasting plate), nutrition (e.g., edible food pyramid), the human body (e.g., computer games such as whack a bone by anatomy arcade), or even biology (building plant and animal cell structures out of jello and candy). From my personal clinical experience I have noticed that when I utilized the multisensory approach to learning vs. auditory and visual approaches alone (such as paper based or computer based tasks only), the children evidenced greater task participation, were able to understand the material much faster and were still able to recall learned information appropriately several therapy sessions later.

I find multisensory stimulation to be a fun and interactive way to increase the child’s learning potential, decrease stress levels, as well as increase retention of relevant concepts.  Try it and let me know how it works for you!

References:
Doman, G & Wilkinson, R (1993) The effects of intense multi-sensory stimulation on coma arousal and recovery. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. 3 (2): 203-212.

Ti, K, Shin YH, & White-Traut, RC (2003), Multisensory intervention improves physical growth and illness rates in Korean orphaned newborn infants. Research in Nursing Health.  26 (6): 424-33.

Milev et al (2008) Multisensory Stimulation for Elderly With Dementia: A 24-Week Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Pilot Study. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias. 23 (4): 372-376.

Tarullo, A & Gunnar, M (2006). Child Maltreatment and Developing HPA Axis. Hormones and Behavior 50, 632-639.

White Traut (1999) Developmental Intervention for Preterm Infants Diagnosed with Periventricular Leukomalacia. Research in Nursing Health.  22: 131-143.

White Traut et al (2009) Salivary Cortisol and Behavioral State Responses of Healthy Newborn Infants to Tactile-Only and Multisensory Interventions. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing. 38(1): 22–34

(This post originally appeared on www.smartspeechtherapy.com/blog/)

Resources:

• Anatomy Arcade: http://www.anatomyarcade.com/
• Cannon, Janell (2000) Crickwing. Harcourt Children’s Press.
• DLTK Printable Crafts for Kids www.dltk-kids.com
• Enchanted Learning: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/halloween/pastaskeleton/ How to make a pasta skeleton;
• Enchanted Learning:  http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/edible/ Edible Crafts
• Percival Touch ‘n’ Feel Book (2005). Bendon Publishing International

Tatyana Elleseff MA CCC-SLP, is a bilingual speech language pathologist with a full-time hospital affiliation (UMDNJ) and a private practice (Smart Speech Therapy LLC) in Central, NJ. She received her MA from NYU and her Bilingual Extension Certification from Columbia University. She specializes in working with bilingual, multicultural, internationally and domestically adopted at risk children with complex medical, developmental, neurogenic, psychogenic, and acquired communication disorders.