September Specialty Series: Using AAC (Alternative and AugmentativeCommunication). A mother’s story.
2209, 2014

September Specialty Series: Using AAC (Alternative and AugmentativeCommunication). A mother’s story.

To continue my September Specialty series, I want to introduce Merry. Merry is an amazing mom, and I wanted to feature a mother because in my opinion, parents are the experts on their child.  I think it’s important professionals keep this in mind, so I’ll say it again. Parents are the experts on their child. Her daughter is using an AAC (Assistive & Augmentative Communication) device at the age of

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Turning Pain into a Purpose
2009, 2014

Turning Pain into a Purpose

Two years ago, I found out my almost three year old first born had Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS).  Despite being an SLP and treating CAS at the elementary level, I failed to recognize it in my baby. It was a VERY difficult time filled with overwhelming sadness for my daughter and guilt as her mother…an SLP who didn’t realize she had CAS. It rocked my world.  Not only did the

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Last year of Pre-K
2208, 2014

Last year of Pre-K

Today was Ashlynn’s official first day to her last year of preschool.  It was also two years ago today I heard the words, “Laura, this is apraxia.”                                                                                      

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The high of summer! The fear of “back to school.”
1308, 2014

The high of summer! The fear of “back to school.”

Oh summer, how I love thee. Filled with swimming lessons, play dates; visits to the park and zoo. During summer, I get to see my children be children. Their carefree smiles light up a room, and the echoes of their laughter can be heard long after they lay down their head. Yes, therapy appointments are a way of life for Ashlynn, but even speech and occupational therapy bring positive updates

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Why we need milestones, and why I can still be proud of my daughter.
2107, 2014

Why we need milestones, and why I can still be proud of my daughter.

I recently read a blog article about not buying into speech and language milestones.  The writer asserts: “Because here’s what I think of traditional milestones: f*ck them…………My baby will do that when she’s ready. This is not the Olympics, people.”She went onto explain that parents seem to make milestones into some sort of competition, and she doesn’t want to buy into that.  I get her point probably even more poignantly that she

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Speech and Language with Post it Notes
1607, 2014

Speech and Language with Post it Notes

My daughter loves Post it Notes.  LOVES them.  She loves writing some small scribble on them and then proudly sticking them up around the house to put on display. Today we drew pictures that included her target sounds to work on speech, but we also drew shapes to work on our pre-writing strokes for OT. Based on the response from my facebook post, my kid’s not alone in loving them!

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