Heart Song Speech & Language Therapy

01/07/2024

Today at Cerebral Palsy clinic Nathaniel’s neurologist asked how his summer was going.

Nathaniel responded, “Andrew’s house go.”

“You went to Andrew’s house? Who is Andrew?”

“Brother,” Nathaniel said. “Canyon baby walk and talk.”

Nathaniel reported on our visit to Texas last week to spend time with his brother and family including a little niece. The doctor, nurse, and PT made a fuss over Nathaniel being an uncle at age ten. I prompted him to talk more, “Tell them what Andrew has in his front yard.”

Nathaniel paused for a long moment. Everyone waited. A victory in itself. He turned to his device and said “table.”

Blank faces around the room. The nurse laughed. Nathaniel hid in my shoulder in shyness as he realized his communication wasn’t clear.

“Explain more, buddy,” I encouraged. I had no idea why he said table either.

He said “table horses,” adding a +S suffix to make the word horse plural. Again a victory. But I still didn’t understand why he said table.

The doctor, who studies brains and was brilliantly tracking with Nathaniel better than anyone else in the room jumped up excitedly. “STABLE!” she said. “Your brother has a stable and horses!”

“Yes,” Nathaniel said.

Table is probably the closest word Nathaniel has on his device to stable.

“Wow,” I said aloud. And without thinking I threw a fist in the air like a mom at a football game whose quarterback son just rushed for a game winning touchdown.

“You can say that again,” the doctor replied to me.

Nathaniel and the doctor went on to talk about how many horses are in Andrew’s stable and if Nathaniel rode them.

As the doctor suggested, I kept saying wow over in my head. Wow! That was genius on Nathaniel’s part. Wow! The doctor expected Nathaniel’s competence and searched for meaning. Wow! He used rhyme to get as close as possible to what he wanted to communicate. Wow! He tried again. He gave more info when his communication broke down. Wow! We’ve never talked about words that rhyme with table. He made that connection independently. Wow! AAC plus literacy instruction is pretty incredible.

AAC intervention is insufficient without comprehensive literacy instruction. It isn’t enough to get devices into kids’ hands and teach them a couple core AAC words over the course of the school year. That model was ten years ago when we started our AAC journey. I’ve long said parents are starting to expect more. Because of kids like Nathaniel, doctors who know brains are going to start expecting more too. Wow!

01/07/2024

I see you taking your kid to therapy while your friends take their kids to football or ballet.

I see you sneak out of the conversation when all your friends boast about achievements and exam notes.

I see you juggle events and meetings.

I see you sitting on the computer for hours investigating what your child needs.

I see you make a bad face when people complain about what looks like nonsense.

I see you disappear little by little but you keep going beyond for your family.

I see you pull strength from weakness with a force you didn't even dream you had.

I see you showing respect for teachers, therapists and medical professionals who help your child and help you.

Watching you wake up early in the morning to do it all again after another chaotic night.

I see you when you're on the edge of the precipice struggling to live.

I know you feel invisible, like no one notices.
But I want you to know that I see you.

I see you push forward always. I see you choose to do everything you can to give your child the best care at home, school, therapy and the doctors.
What you do matters. It's worth the struggle.

On those days when you wonder if you can make it one more minute, I want you to know I see you.

I want you to know that you are beautiful.
I want you to know it's worth it. I want you to know that you are not alone. I want you to know that love is the most important thing, and that you are the best at it.

And in those days when you see an improvement, those moments when hard work has its reward, and you can taste success, I'll see you then too.
And I'm proud of you.

Whatever day today.....you're doing it right.

And I see you. ❤

✒ Alethea Mshar
📷 John Walker / Flickr

05/22/2023

01/06/2023

The ventral vagus nerve runs from the brain stem past the inner ear and voice box touching the lungs, heart, diaphragm, and gut.

80% of the info in the vagus is moving from the body to the brain. 20% of the info in the vagus is moving from the brain to the body.

When the brain is getting enough safe signals from the body, it tells the ventral vagus to activate allowing us to feel centered and coherent even through difficult emotions.

Vagus activation does not keep us from feeling sad or angry or afraid or any other "negative" emotion. But it does allow us to experience emotions without flooding or overwhelm.

Vagus stimulation can bring us into a state of internal resonance where we feel connected to our emotions rather than merged with them.

More nervous system education here: https://www.traumageek.com/blog

10/24/2022

It's sad when students say "I'm bored", they need our help to strengthen their curiosity.

10/12/2022

💚💛💚

06/02/2022

The love of books begins very early in life. Sharing books early on also nourishes the development of speech and language skills.