Speech-language therapy and Down Syndrome

Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month!

To honor this month, let’s talk about the language profile of individuals with Down syndrome. While I’m going to speak about language characteristics of people with Down Syndrome, it is important to note that no two people are every alike when it comes to speech and language development. Someone once told me, “If you’ve met one person with Down syndrome, you’ve met one person with Down syndrome,” which is completely powerful and true.

SLPs can support people with Down syndrome in many ways and in many areas. Let’s go!

AAC and Language Production: Research Rumination

When it comes to AAC, many, MANY myths exist (as we found out this week on the Facebook page). By far, the one I hear the most often is that AAC will become a crutch and the person using the AAC system will become reliant on the system and not talk.

This week, I read an article titled “Communication interventions for minimally verbal children with Autism: Sequential multiple assignment randomized trial” by Kasari, Kaiser, Goods, Nietfeld, Mathy, Landa, Murphy, & Almirall (2014). This team decided to investigate what, if any, affect AAC had on a non-verbal kiddo’s language production.

Let’s break it down!

The role of SLPs in ALS care

Given the quick progression of the disease, SLP support needs to happen and it needs to happen immediately. Most people aren’t aware of the role that SLPs play in the care for individuals with ALS, but like with those with other degenerative diseases (like dementia), SLPs can be a huge part of the care team. How so? Let’s talk about it in (very) brief.

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