Community Care Rehabilitation, LLC

"Gillian is a seven-year-old girl who can't sit at school. She gets up constantly, gets distracted, flies with her thoughts, and doesn't follow the lessons. Her... teachers worry, scream at her, punish her, reward her the few times when she is still. Gillian cannot sit or stay put for long periods of time. When she gets home, her mother also punishes her. And so Gillian is not only punished daily at school but at home as well as if humiliation in front of all her colleagues was not enough. One day Gillian's mother is called to the school. The lady, sad, knowing that bad news awaits, holds her daughter's hand and together they enter the school interview room. The teachers talk about an illness, an evident disorder of the girl. They think Gillian is hyperactive and maybe she needs medication. In the interview, an old teacher appears who knows the girl and her story. He asks everyone, her mother and colleagues, to follow him to a room, where the girl can be seen. Before leaving, the teacher tells the girl to be calm, that they will not take long, and meanwhile leaves an old radio with background music on. Alone in the room, she hears the music, she immediately gets up and begins to move up and down following the music in the air with her feet and heart. The old teacher smiles, while her classmates and mother look at him in bewilderment, as is often the case with old people until he exclaims: "Look, Gillian is not sick, Gillian is a dancer!" And, she advises her mother to enroll her in a dance class and asks her colleagues to make her dance from time to time. The girl has her first class and when she gets home, she says to her mother: "They are all the same as me, no one can sit still." In 1981, after a beautiful ballet career, after opening her dance academy, after receiving international recognition for her art, Gillian Lynne was chosen as choreographer for the musical Cats. " ~Marion Nugnes A big kiss to all the different children. Wishing that they find adults on their way, capable of welcoming them for who they are, and not for what they lack. See more

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Yesterday Anna.Dee.SLP and I gave you the definition for communication temptations and today we give you some of our favorite (and simple to do!) ones! The k...ey with these is to WAIT- and look at your child expectantly. If the child does not respond, it’s ok- you can model what you would think they would say, and then try again! What would you add?

Repetitive speech practice is necessary for establishing new motor plans in children with apraxia of speech. There is one big problem, however. Repetitive speec...h practice is NOT exactly fun. So, the million dollar question is this: How do we make something intrinsically NOT fun, fun? For very young children, the key is to pair repetitive speech tasks with something that IS fun. And one thing I have learned after being an early intervention provider for two decades is that little ones LOVE to... PUT IN...DUMP OUT...and DO IT AGAIN! Check out the pics to see a few ideas for repetitive speech practice activities based on this concept. If the child is able to say the target word, they do all the talking. For a preverbal or minimally verbal kiddo, the adult becomes the child’s voice, saying the target word repetitively as the child puts the item in the container. The adult should speak in a slowed down, enthusiastic, playful manner...pausing after every two or three trials to give the child an opportunity to say the target word...but with absolutely no pressure to do so. For preverbal or minimally verbal children with apraxia of speech, pressuring them to talk can have adverse effects. One of the strategies I coach families on is how to provide opportunities to talk all day long, but with no pressure to do so. Here’s how OPPORTUNITY WITHOUT PRESSURE looks: say the target word, pause, look expectantly at the child, provide a cue, pause, if no response, become the child’s voice and say the word. Move on. As much as possible, avoid instructing the child to say words. Say ball. Say cow. Say milk. If saying say... was an effective strategy, then speech therapy would not be necessary. If you want to learn more about my approach to working with very young children with apraxia of speech or suspected apraxia of speech, be sure to check out the book I co-authored with the magnificent Dave Hammer called, The SLP’s Guide to Treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech (see link below). https://www.cariebertseminars.com//The_SLP%27s_Guide_to_Tr . . . #cariebertseminars #slpsofinstagram #instaslp #earlyintervention #speechtherapy #slpeeps #speechies

This might just be the smartest dog in the world!