July 2014 - Marshalla Speech & Language

Month: July 2014

Strength vs. Motor Patterns — The Nitty Gritty

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I was at the IAOM convention in the fall of 2013, and I heard you speak on oral stability. You used your hands to describe the difference between oral strength and oral movement patterns. Can you post it here? I would like to share it with my colleagues and I can’t remember what you said. This is probably the best way I have discovered to describe the difference between movement patterns and strength of movement. Hand Movement vs. Hand…

Jaw Sliding

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Could you talk about young kids with articulation disorders who demonstrate significant jaw sliding? What causes this when there is no neuromuscular problems? Jaw sliding left and right pulls the tongue laterally away from its alignment with the palate. This causes articulation of the tongue to the palate to be off and this distorts sound quality. Treatment is to stabilize the jaw at midline. There is no telling why these things occur. All movements are asymmetrical to a certain…

The Consult Model

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What do you think of the consult model? I got into this profession to work directly with children, and now I am being told I have to engage in a pure consult model. I am mad and frustrated. I find several problems with the consult model. Young therapists coming out of school are being asked to consult with parents when they actually have not figured out how to do therapy themselves yet. Without working directly with clients, young therapists…

E for Final “Er”

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My four-year-old client substitutes E for final Er, as in teachee/teacher. Have you seen this before? Should I be extra worried about it? To me this is just another minor problem with R. Nothing special just not very common — kids screw up R in more ways than are imaginable! The kids I have seen like this correct their errors easily. Most of their families thought the error was very cute and were sad to see it go!

Incisor Grinding

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Do you have any treatment for incisor grinding? I wrote about this recently regarding clients who are lower-functioning, but in general — Changing any oral habit is a matter of engaging in the following points: Identify the problem. Help the client become aware of the problem: What can he do to track how often he does this? Get more info about it: E.g., what does the orthodontist/dental say about it and what methods do they recommend. Identifying specifics about…

Cutting Artic from School Therapy

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I am helping with policy development in my district and we’re facing significant budget cuts. We have to cut mild artic kids from the caseload. Do you have any advice about this? I am wondering if they are considering cutting services for very low functioning kids too. Kids with very low communication skills tend to be seen quite often these days, often 2-3 times per week. On the other hand, high-functioning artic kids are being seen less and less…