Solving barriers to implementation

You mean, I can’t just record the language sample right into SALT? When talking with people new to SALT I frequently hear, “Oh, I have to transcribe the sample? Can’t I just record into SALT?” There is typically a look of disappointment when I reply that the speech recognition software available to us today just isn’t accurate enough for our purposes. The goal of LSA is to document functional,...

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COVID-19 has thrown service providers more curveballs than Sandy Koufax - or for the younger folk - Andy Pettitte. Many of us SLPs had to abruptly (and maybe uncomfortably) shift from face-to-face to telepractice as a service delivery model. Thankfully, today’s technology offers a work-around.  ASHA’s practice portal on telepractice states, “Assessment and therapy procedures and materials ...

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Hey, So in day # “I don’t even know” of this new normal, this is what I’ve noticed! My son fronts /k/ and /g/ initial positions and it’s driving me crazy, even though he just turned two. #relaxslpmom. Online yoga is not my jam because I end up in child’s pose the whole time and slacking like crazy.  I think my dog is tired of us all being home. Nope, still don’t like running.  ...

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In the first installment of this article we discussed the case of Brendan Dassey, a young man with language disorder who was tried and convicted of murder despite profoundly problematic police interrogation methods. Brendan was a minor at the time. Brendan’s case was both tragic and fascinating. It was even the focus of a Netflix documentary, Making a Murderer. More importantly, it raises big q...

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First and foremost, I have to say thank you to my very dear friend Mari Bliss. Mari and I carpooled to and from work 4-5 days a week for 2 hours a day. Mari challenged me personally and professionally, taught me and all of the district SLPs how to use SALT, and she advocated for the purchase of SALT for bilingual speech language pathologists in my district. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be ...

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May 26 - 31: Communication Disorders in Adults A Family Story My perfectly healthy, happy, and extremely social mother of 85 years recently hurt her knee. The pain became excruciating and the family was called into action for doctor appointments and subsequent in-home care. In order to heal, she needed to stay off her feet and was limited to sitting in chairs and bed rest. During her recovery ...

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Dr. Kimbrough Oller Professor and Plough Chair of Excellence The University of Memphis School of Communication Sciences and Disorders The technology produced by the LENA Foundation for all-day recording in the home with a battery-powered device worn in infants' and children's clothing has added a major new method to the study of the acquisition of language. There has been a great deal of emph...

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Hopefully you already know that language sample analysis can be used to analyze the speech and language of special populations, such as clients with Down syndrome (DS). But you might be wondering just exactly how well it works and how valid the SALT analysis can be. Well, SALT and associated researchers spent about a decade looking at that question. And as an added bonus, that research has give...

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Is LSA using SALT a standardized assessment? No. But we think you should be taking language samples anyway. We frequently hear from SLPs that they can’t - or don’t - use LSA because it’s not standardized. We recognize that standardized tests are a necessary part of the process for qualifying students for services. We also recognize the debate over the use of standardized tests to make substanti...

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 Why don’t you use language sample analysis in your practice? “It takes too much time.” “The results are difficult to interpret.” “It’s just hard to learn how to do it.”   “The whole process is too difficult.” Sound familiar? I promise you, it’s not as bad as you think. There are a lot of misconceptions and outdated ideas about language sample analysis floating around out there. So ...

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