March 2013 - Marshalla Speech & Language

Month: March 2013

Push-In vs. Pull-out

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What is your opinion about push-in vs. pull-out therapy? Is anyone doing research on this? As far as I know, no one is doing research on in-class versus pull-out therapy for articulation. I cannot address this question as it concerns language. In my opinion, in-class stimulation is good for the following: Building general vocabulary and concepts Establishing general communication routines Encouraging basic syntactic structures Stimulating phonological awareness Engaging in articulation carryover activities Teaching elocution Teaching early-developing phonemes—P, B, M…

Is a Frontal Lisp Outgrown?

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My 4-year-old son has a frontal lisp. The school is refusing services and says he will outgrow it. Is this true in all cases? No one that I know of is researching this area any more and there are big questions like this one that are going un-answered. There seem to be two types of frontal lisps. The first is an immature speech pattern that will go away with time––by 7-9 years of age. The second is the result…

Teach the Feature First

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Do I understand your advice? […] When working on producing the ‘hissing” sounds, my focus should be on the airflow and not the correct sound production. For example, the client can’t say Ch but is able to get a lot of airflow on her attempt when probed. So I should reward her when she says Ts instead. Is this correct? My experience and research on normal development demonstrates that children learn MANNER before they learn PLACE features. Thus, stridency…

Tongue Thrust Following the Swallow

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My friend’s daughter has a tongue thrust (the tongue pushes forward after the swallow). The orthodontist gave her one technique–– holding gum on the roof of her mouth while she swallows. Do you have any other ideas for tongue thrust techniques for a very typically developing 2nd grader? First a few words about the general nature of this question: Asking someone for ideas about teaching a correct swallow is like asking someone for techniques to fix an articulation error. …

Whining Toddler

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I am working with a child 2;6 who substitutes /n/ or /m/ for many other consonants. We have worked with words she says often, and she can make the correct sounds in words with a model, but talking on her own she just sounds like she is whining. Two-year-olds can be so variable, and what looks like something very severe can turn out to be nothing. She simply may be jargoning, and her jargon happens to sound like whining. …

Tongue-Tip on L

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My 4-year-old client has learned L with his tongue-tip down. Should I let him continue this pattern, or should I teach him to make a tip-up L? In my opinion, you always want the tongue-tip to be elevated when it is supposed to be on T, D, N, and L. You want your client to be developing oral movement patterns that will help him succeed all the way through to mature speech. So you are teaching him things today…