Talking Smart Speech Therapy

11/23/2022

The (unarmed) guy who took down the Colorado Springs shooter is an army combat vet. He co-owns a brewery with his wife, who is the Head Brewer. Their motto, since opening Atrevida Beer Co. has been, "Diversity, it's on tap!"

The holidays are upon us. They have a website. They sell merch. You know what to do! https://www.atrevidabeerco.com/

- Aaron Rittmaster

10/10/2022

If you need this-just know

"Worry often gives a small thing a great shadow." - Swedish Proverb
>> https://bit.ly/NLmorningchirp

07/03/2020

After 20 years of working with families and kids of all ages, I will be hanging up my play-doh, bubbles, and balloons at the end of July. It’s bittersweet for sure. A bit of my heart will always belong to kids with special needs long after I’m no longer a Speech Therapist. During this time, I have learned to be more patient, listen better, and feel deeper. I have observed that some families love so deeply that there seem to be no limits to what they can accomplish. I know, too, that kids are like cupcakes-there is a lot under the frosting that makes them tick. And from my own personal experience, love is the answer to meet a child’s challenges. Many of my former client’s families or my former students still keep in touch with me. To you- I want to say Thank you for allowing me to be an intimate part of your life. It has been one of my greatest honors. I will always have the memories and I’ll never forget you. Thank you for helping mold me into the person that I am today. I wish you all of you great love and great joy.
All my love,
Anne

07/01/2020

Did your children receive early intervention (EI) services? If so, PLEASE take a few minutes and help protect CO’s EI program from significant changes and budget cuts. Share your quick testimonial here: https://padlet.com/marlamooreslp/x7berewe8a8udpv9. Password: FAMILIES. (I got permission from one of the leaders of the group to share the Padlet info. Scroll all the way to the right and share your story under “Parent Testimonials.”) As a speech therapist, I’ve experienced how crucial these early services are for our youngest babies and kids, as well as their families. These interventions truly transform lives and help shape better futures for kids and families. Please help protect CO Early Intervention!

06/28/2020

This is really important information! Please be aware. In some states, Early Intervention is not free. We are very fortunate to have this system in our state. Personally, this has greatly impacted many families and kiddos in positive, life-changing ways.

The state of Colorado has a huge budget deficit and plans to make significant cuts to early childhood programs, specifically early intervention. Early intervention provides important services to children with developmental delays and disabilities. The state is not only planning to make cuts to provider reimbursement (via elimination of telehealth stipend, state billing for parent education, and potential future rate cuts), but is planning to push through massive cuts via changing the eligibility criteria for program qualification from a developmental delay of 25% to 33% or greater. This will result in nearly 1/3 of the population the program serves to no longer qualify for these extremely important services at future evaluations.

Why should you care? First and foremost, our children are our future and every effort to improve their well being and ability to thrive should be important to all! Not only will these changes result in children not receiving adequate services to support their disability needs, but it will also radically impact the need for future services. These type of cuts also further impact low income families and widen the gap of healthcare disparities. From an economic standpoint, this will actually result in much higher taxpayer costs for their care over time. The Heckman Equation research tells us, "Every dollar spent on high-quality, birth-to-five programs for disadvantaged children delivers a 13% per annual return on investment. These economically significant returns account for the welfare costs of taxation to finance the program and survive a battery of sensitivity analyses... Policymakers would be wise to coordinate these early childhood resources into a scaffolding of developmental support for disadvantaged children and provide access to all in need. The gains are significant because quality programs pay for themselves many times over. The cost of inaction is a tragic loss of human and economic potential that we cannot afford."*

Please take action! SHARE this post or one of your own! These changes are scheduled to be voted upon as early as June 30th and July 10th. Please don't let this long term change be pushed through without public awareness and a chance for voices to be heard. Contact your local policymakers and news stations! Let's get this news out there before it is too late!

**Update: Want to help us advocate?! Contact Marlamooreslp@gmail.com **

*Information obtained from: https://heckmanequation.org/resource/research-summary-lifecycle-benefits-influential-early-childhood-program/

06/25/2020

This week’s question from a parent: “So you said if your child won’t eat a new food you could try playing with it or touching it first. But what if they won’t even try touching it?”
There are lots of different steps that children take before they get comfortable enough with a food to eat it. While it’s true that touching it can help them feel more confident with the texture, there’s plenty of steps that you can take before that too!
Today’s Ask a Therapist Thursday is about what other activities you can try. I love involving children with the food without the pressure to eat it. That can look different in different households, from helping with grocery shopping, to cooking, to leaving the food at the center of the table during a meal (without the pressure to even put any on their plate). The key idea is to create positive experiences and associations for your child around this food. Ideally, these positive experiences will contain some possible opportunity for touching the food, once your child is ready.
One of my favorite activities to get kiddos more comfortable with touching foods is to use them as a stamp for artwork. Almost any veggie can be a great stamp. If your child is reluctant to touch it starting out, they could always use a fork to move the veggie. Most kids want to hold the veggie in no time!
Let me know what other questions you have! I’ll answer them in upcoming Ask a Therapist Thursdays!!

06/25/2020

My first recommendation to parents of late talkers: try using sign language or pictures to help them communicate! It supports VERBAL language. And in my personal experience, I have noticed many younger kids who are verbal learn words quicker when it is paired with a sign!