July 2015 - Marshalla Speech & Language

Month: July 2015

Small Business Changes

By Pam Marshalla

Hello, I’m Shanti, Pam Marshalla’s daughter. I own and operate Marshalla Speech & Language. My mom passed away in June, 2015, having not published many of her most recently-created books and materials. Moving forward, we will continue to print Pam’s already-published works, and other books, DVDs, CDs, and posters of Pam’s that have already been scheduled for publication over the next several years. Pam’s pivotal work, The Marshalla Guide, is still in the design and illustration process, and will be…

Stimulating Anterior Consonants

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I am working with a 5 year old boy who is unable to lingua-alveolar consonants except an occasional N in isolation and occasionally in the initial position of syllables. I am able to get the tongue placement for /t/ and /d/ but as soon as he tries to say the sound, he makes the /k/ or /g/. Any suggestions would be most appreciated! The anterior consonants T, D, N, L, S, Z come in because the jaw begins to…

Vowels and Intelligibility with Apraxia

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My son is 2.5 years old. He can say 6 words: Mom (ma), ball, up (uh), gone, please (pease), and truck. I am feeling overwhelmed with how to incorporate the 3 tracks of your “Vowel Tracks” material. Can I start with one track? He gets really frustrated with wanting stuff. I am getting worried he won’t talk. The purpose of Vowel Tracks is to show how to focus on vowels as new words are being added to a child’s…

Phoneme-Specific Nasality

By Pam Marshalla

Several questions have come in recently about how to get rid of hypernasality on a specific phoneme, particularly the hypernasal R and the nasal snort on one or more of the sibilants. I’d like to address these questions together… We are talking about clients who produce nasal emission on one or more specific phonemes in the absence of more generalized hypernasality. These clients sniff, snort, or allow some nasal sound to escape during production of their error phoneme(s). Peterson-Falzone and…

Lateral Lisp on Th

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My client lets air come out the side of his mouth when he makes Th. It’s not a big deal, but it is noticeable and distracting. This could be classified as a minor lateral lisp. The client is lacking the firm push of the side of his tongue against his side teeth that would prevent the airstream from staying midline. I would use a straw. Place one end of the straw outside the central incisors and tell him the…