Month: September 2015

Newsletter Archives Now Available

By Pam Marshalla

Dear Subscribers, We have decided to republish Pam Marshalla’s presently-discontinued books and CDs, so that the entirety of her body of work may continue to be available for future generations of SLPs. In the next year, I plan to bring back the CD Vowel Tracks and the Apraxia Uncovered 3-CD set, along with (hopefully) another lesser-known but widely-taught-live course called Improving Intelligibility in Apraxia and Dysarthria. The first item which we have already reprinted is Pam’s book, The Complete Newsletter…

Read More

Which First: Consonantal or Vocalic R?

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I have read “Successful R Therapy” and am wondering, do you work on Consonantal R or Vocalic R first, and why? I tend to work on Vocalic R with a retroflex R first because I like to teach the contrast between Ah (Jaw low, mouth open, tongue low) with R (jaw high, mouth almost closed, tongue curled up and back). I also find that starting with a big Ah and teaching the client to prolong it helps him hear…

Read More

Fixing an Inhaled “S”

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My client breathes in (inhales) on S. How do I fix this? Teach him to exhale and inhale on demand using a straw or other blow toy. Then teach him to exhale and inhale on S. Teach him to hear and appreciate the difference between an inhaled S and an exhaled S. Teach him which one is correct. Practice the exhaled S. Work on syllables, words, and so forth. Also, see my previous post on this topic.

Creating Oral-Nasal Resonance Balance

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My client sounds hypernasal on certain phonemes. How do I work on this? This question is a regular one that comes into my office. It used to be that textbooks on articulation from Van Riper’s era dealt with this topic quite succinctly, but now with our over-focus on phonology and out downplay on all things phonetic, we seem to be forgetting these basic old-time procedures. I will have a chapter of methods on this in my next book, The Marshalla…

Read More

The Research: Apraxia and Low Cognition

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My client is 7;0 and is being denied SL services because he has cognitive impairment and apraxia. The insurance company is saying that there is no evidence to demonstrate that he will improve because of his cognitive problems. Will he improve? Is there supportive research on this? Have you seen these kids improve? Children or adults with cognitive impairment bring unique challenges to the work of speech-language pathology. When reviewing the research in this area recently I found very…

Read More