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Tagged "r phoneme"

Ask A Therapist: Straw D

Posted by Deborah Grauzam on

Hi, 

 

I have a student who just started straw D with the pudding today and after 25 mins with very little progress we called it a day (I work on a school so missing an hour of class won't work). After he left, I tried it myself with the same results! What is normal for this straw? He has gone through the whole program working on his /r/ and I know this last straw is very important for retraction but it seems impossible to drink pudding through straw D. Is it common for people to feel this way initially?

 

Also, any recommendations for cleaning the straw? Water from the faucet didn't get the pudding out and neither blowing. I see quite a few kids for the program so I would prefer to only have to use one straw per student and not one each day.

 

Thank you so much!

 

Alicia

TalkTools | Straw D new cleaning kit

Hi Alicia,

I hate that you are having a hard time with straw D.  I know this is a very difficult straw but it definitely should not be taking that long.  The things going through my head first of all would be: if you cannot drink it, then it may be too thick.  Every pudding is different, but you may have to thin it to a point where you can do it. It does still need to be pudding consistency.  If you have thinned it to the point that you can drink it and your client cannot then I would question if your client still needs to be on the previous straw.  Just a thought.

As far as cleaning it, we recently developed a Cleaning Kit that includes, among others, a bulb syringe to push the liquid out of straws and a 30" flexible tube brush that fits into most straws.  If you still cannot clean straw D, I would suggest that you order that straw in bulk for all of your clients.  Unfortunately because of the diameter of this straw having to be so small to achieve the tongue retraction required, it makes it almost impossible to clean.  

Please let me know if you have any other questions.  We are always here and happy to help.

Thanks,

Liz

 

Elizabeth Smithson, MSP, CCC-SLP is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has over 10 years of professional experience working with infants, children, adolescents and adults. She earned her Master of Speech Pathology at the University of South Carolina. Liz is also a Level 5 TalkTools® Trained Therapist. She has received specialized training in Oral Placement Therapy, Speech, Feeding, Apraxia, Sensory Processing Disorders, and PROMPT©. Liz works with clients with a wide range of disabilities including Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. She works through her own private practice Elizabeth Smithson Therapy, LLC in the home setting and in the TalkTools® office in Charleston, SC.

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Ask A Therapist: Tongue Lateralization

Posted by Deborah Grauzam on

Hi TalkTools,

 

I completed your training a little over a year ago, but still would like some support when making therapeutic decisions.

 

I am working with a 12 year old boy who has both language and speech issues (the /r/ and vocalic /r/ phonemes). I just completed a screening and the oral-motor portion of the screening revealed that: a. he could not protrude his tongue straight out of his mouth (it would lateralize), b. his tongue seemed to have a little tremor, c. he had difficulty dissociating his lips/tongue.

 

I would like to add some Oral Placement Therapy exercises to his therapeutic program. Can you please make some suggestions?

 

Many thanks,

 

Wendy

 

Hi Wendy,

I have your question and will try to give you some pointer on things to try. If you haven't worked on the Bite Tubes with this client yet, I would if you identify jaw weakness. The jaw is the foundation for everything else to work properly. Next, I feel he probably has tongue weakness and increased weakness on one side based on your report. I would work on tongue lateralization exercises to the Z-Vibe tip and with the Tongue Tip Lateralization & Elevation Tools bilaterally. You will have to work twice on the weaker side depending on what you see with your assessment. You could also work on straws and horns to help with tongue retraction for the /r/ sound.

Please let me know how this goes or email back any other questions.

Thanks so much,

Liz

 

Elizabeth Smithson, MSP, CCC-SLP is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has over 10 years of professional experience working with infants, children, adolescents and adults. She earned her Master of Speech Pathology at the University of South Carolina. Liz is also a Level 5 TalkTools® Trained Therapist. She has received specialized training in Oral Placement Therapy, Speech, Feeding, Apraxia, Sensory Processing Disorders, and PROMPT©. Liz works with clients with a wide range of disabilities including Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy.  She works through her own private practice Elizabeth Smithson Therapy, LLC in the home setting and in the TalkTools® office in Charleston, SC.

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