Essential Sensory Strategies to Boost Engagement in Your Autistic Students

A deep understanding of sensory processing is integral to our work with autistic children. In order to target our communication goals in the most effective way possible, our students need to be regulated. The neurodiversity movement is growing and as Speech-language Pathologists (SLPs) working with autistic children, we should be on the forefront, learning how to best support our clients and their families. This presentation will inspire a new way of thinking about the SLP’s role in addressing sensory needs, and provide strategies that align with a strengths-based, neurodiversity affirming approach. Attendees will walk away with new ideas for integrating sensory strategies into their sessions in order to improve attention, build engagement, and increase communication.

Creating Thematic Units to Target Grammar

Improving the grammar of children with language disorders can present many challenges. Clinicians know that repetition is important, but often “drill” activities lack context and do not actively engage students. In this lecture, the evidence bases for intervention techniques supporting the development of spoken grammar within contextualized mini units will be reviewed along with practical tips for developing your own grammar units for a variety of spoken grammar targets.

No Time to Plan? 3 Strategies for Epic Speech Therapy Sessions

Many school-based Speech-language Pathologists (SLPs) struggle to manage a heavy workload with little-to-no time for therapy planning. In this course, SLPs will be presented with a simple evidence-backed framework that they can use to maximize the effectiveness of their therapy sessions. From streamlining data collection to selecting meaningful therapy activities, SLPs will walk away with practical tips that they can implement right away.

Unleashing Creativity as an Adult Speech Language Pathologist

Some Speech Language Pathology (SLP) students feel that entering into the Adult based SLP world doesn't allow space for creativity or "fun" compared to the Pediatric SLP world. This could lead to fewer graduates applying to specific work settings or developing niches within the Adult SLP sector. This presentation seeks to break down potential career barriers by helping SLPs gain perspective of the creative and FUNctional ideas that can be applied to clinical care when working with adult populations.

What does K say? But he doesn’t talk! Early Metalinguistic Reading Skills

Many children with severe phonological disorders or language impairment in the preschool years are at risk for mastering the print code in kindergarten and first grade. Other children, who exhibited typical language development in their preschool years, exhibit metaphonological language difficulties when they must decode print. Children’s difficulty in mastering the code is complicated by the fact that English orthography is among the most complex orthographies in the world. Children at risk for dyslexia and other long-term difficulties in decoding print can be identified in their early school years. Speech-language pathologists can play a major role in developing children’s metaphonological skills essential for efficient print decoding. This session will explain the relationships between “the simple view of reading” and language disorders and dyslexia; the role and development of metaphonological skills essential for decoding print; “red flags” for diagnosing dyslexia; and strategies to develop early phonological awareness skills.

Trauma-Informed Care For All SLPs

No matter what setting a Speech-language pathologist (SLP) works in, they will work with a patient who has experienced trauma. Although there is no prescriptive therapy technique, there is trauma-informed care. This is where we ask ourselves how can we reduce causing retraumatization, even if it was unintentional. In this session, we will discuss the start of trauma-informed research, where we are today, and what still needs to be done. We will also discuss how SLPs specifically can benefit from using trauma-informed care in their work setting.

Influencing School Culture: Being the Change You Want to See

Being a Speech-language Pathologist (SLP) in a public school setting requires not only clinical proficiency, but key relationship skills to effectively collaborate with students and across a multitude of administrators, staff, and family members. These relationships can present significant challenges. How can we better equip ourselves to positively influence the culture of our schools by being effective change agents? We will consider some important components of becoming culture influencers: - Understand the difference between explicit and tacit skills - Identify the tacit skills that are needed to influence culture - Gain relational currency with our collaborators - See ourselves as leaders, no matter our title or position

Natural Language Acquisition: Echolalia as Another Way to Acquire Language

Did you know that there is more than one way to acquire language? This course will focus on Natural Language Acquisition (NLA), which is the way that Gestalt language processors develop language. From echolalia to complex self-generated sentences, NLA is based on research that has been largely unknown for the past 40 years. This presentation will introduce you to a whole new world of ideas that will completely change the way you practice.