By Pam Marshalla
Q: My toddler-age clients sometimes fuss and cry, even scream. I know this is normal behavior for a little kid, but I am a young therapist with no children of my own yet, and I simply do not know how to handle it. Do you have advice for me? Sometimes it is the language we use that causes stubborn and uncooperative behavior. Changing our language can improve some of these situations. Let me illustrate with a story. đ I was…
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 âVowel Tracksâ 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…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Recently I came across an SLP who was using oral-motor tools but not following sanitary procedures. Ahhhhhh! What resources can I share with her? SLPs must follow sanitary procedures at all times when touching a client in, on, or around the mouth with the hands or other objects. The following notes are from my upcoming book, The Marshalla Guide. Sanitizing the Hands Wash the hands with a sanitizing soap. Dry the hands with a paper towel and dispose of…
By Pam Marshalla
Recently, this blog was featured in Kidmunicate’s list of their favorite Top 75 Speech Pathology Websites for 2015Â . I am honored to be listed as #52! Thank you, dear readers, for your continued support of my work and our profession — Â especially those of you who’ve been reading for all 9 years that this blog as been around! (Or all 30-ish years of my writing career!) And thank you to Kidmunicate for selecting my blog.
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Do you have any advice for helping preschoolers begin to use two-word combinations? The best way I ever have found to stimulate two-word combinations is to model them melodically following the basic research done on Melodic Intonation Therapy (see resources below) — this research was done with adults, but people have applied it to kids ever since it first came out. I use a two-tone high-low melodic pattern. Model the first word on the high tone, and the second…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Can you help me deal with a situation? I work in the schools. A private SLP accused me in a meeting with parents recently of not using the correct âmotor planning methodsâ with a mutual apraxic child. Do you know what she is talking about? She really embarrassed me. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I regret the competitiveness that some therapists have, and absolutely detest the way some private therapists treat SLPs in the schools. You should not have had to experience that….
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Do you think that clients really can improve when parents never attend therapy as is common in the public schools? The notion that children only can improve when parents are involved is a modern idea that runs counter to the way therapy has been practiced throughout the past century. In 38 years I rarely have involved parents all the time. I have parents watch parts of therapy when they are around, and I give them encouraging information about how…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am working with toddlers for the first time after a 10-year career with elementary school children. They are different! Can you guide me? This is what I would tell a graduate studentââ With a toddler, the most important thing to change from therapy with older children is that you have to STOP trying to get him to do what you want him to, and you have to START doing what he is doing. In other words, stop saying,…
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…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Every week I encounter more statements by SLPs about never doing anything in therapy that has not been proven in research. These statements virtually always concern oral-motor techniques. How do you respond to this? I am so concerned about the limited thinking that has begun to dominate our profession that my heart is bleeding. I am not concerned only with OM. I am concerned about the profession at large.  đ Follow me here. Letâs talk about OM and then…
