by Allison Locke, MS, OTR/L
This year the 2018 ASHA conference was held in Therapro’s backyard in the beautiful city of Boston, Massachusetts! The ASHA Convention is the largest annual gathering of audiologists, speech-language pathologists, scientists in the field of speech, language, and hearing, as well as students. This year there were an incredible 18,143 people in attendance. Boston provided a stunning backdrop for this convention and we were all treated to an early snow storm Thursday night.
Therapro set up shop at booth 637; we were so excited to be among the many exhibitors in attendance this year! The Therapro crew consisted on Karen, Linda, and myself along with our special guest Deborah Fortin MSPA, CCC-SLP. Over the three days that the Therapro booth was up and running we had the opportunity to meet so many of you. It was heartwarming to hear comments like “we order from Therapro all of the time”, “We have so many of your products”, and “I love Therapro”. At the Therapro booth, ASHA attendees had the opportunity to play games, check out many of Therapro favorite products, and get a sneak peek of upcoming products!
ASHA attendees, who visited the Therapro booth, had the opportunity to get an early preview of Rules and Tools and speak to the author of this program, Deborah Fortin MSPA, CCC-SLP. Rules and Tools is a program of sixty-eight rules for teaching children to use social language in the context of play, conversation, and learning. This unique program targets generalized rules, uses multisensory teaching strategies, and is taught through interactive role-play in a group setting. This new program was published by Therapro and will be available soon!
This year an entire area of the Therapro booth was dedicated to feeding resources. The new book Pediatric Feeding Disorders: Evaluation and Treatment, was on full display and well received among attendees who specialize in the area of pediatric feeding.The Sensory Spoon was hugely popular and sold out quickly! Therapro occupational therapists Karen Conrad Weihrauch and Filomena Connor were involved in the design of this spoon with Chewy Tubes. Attendees loved that the spoon was specially designed to encourage self feeding for infants as young as seven months, they also enjoyed the sensory aspects of the spoon. Milton was as popular as ever; attendees loved his cute appearance and his ability to be used for a variety of purposes including with picky eaters,to model chewing skills, and to demonstrate toothbrushing. Other feeding products that were well received included the book Just Take a Bite, Flexi Cups, Funbites, Mr. Juice Bear, and the Lollacup.
Therapro’s designed to chew products were very popular. The Chewy Tube’s line of product was well recognized; we heard many comments like “Oh look Chewy Tubes!” and “I love the Ps and Qs”. Other popular chewables were the Chew Lolli, the Jane Junior Chewable Necklace, and the Bud Chews.
Our “Game Station” was a huge hit! Attendees had fun playing games like Novenops, A Fist Full of Coins, Obstacles, Trunks, and Letter Treasure Hunt. The very portable Novenops was sold out by the end of the conference and had many of you asking for it to be shipped! In case you missed the demo at the conference, here is a great video on how to play! Another popular game was A Fist Full of Coins; it seemed to be a hidden gem that got attendees excited once they learned more about it. Popular features of this game were its ability to target direction following, its use of prepositional phrases with concrete manipulatives, and it’s visual appearance being appropriate for older students. Obstacles wins the award for being the fastest game to sell out! Popular features include it’s visually appealing pictures, its ability to be used for creative problem solving, and the cooperative nature of the game.
ASHA attendees also loved our ‘toys’! Windup toys were a favorite by far; our tables were often overrun by spinning ladybugs, walking fireman, hopping smiley faces, and swimming fish. Tangles were also so much fun to play with; attendees loved the small size of the Tangle Jr.! We had a variety of Thumballs on display; designed to spark communication, these balls had attendees talking about all the great ways they can be used in practice! Our fidget kits, whistle kits, and blow toy kits were great for attendees who wanted a little bit of everything. Boinks, therapy putty, fidget pencils , Tommy Toot, Echo Microphone, and Ambi Trumpet were also popular!
We had so many other great products on display for ASHA attendees:
- Attendees loved the real life pictures used in the Photo Conversation Cards For Children With Autism And Asperger’s and the Learning To Sequence Board Games.
- Attendees were excited to be able to check out The Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale.
- We heard from many of you how useful you find the Easy Does It family of products (Fluency Intermediate, Fluency Preschool, Apraxia and Motor Planning, Apraxia Preschool, and Articulation).
- Exclamations of “No Glamour, I love those books!” were often heard as attendees walked by our No-Glamour family of products (Sentence Structure, Following Directions, Auditory Processing, and Junior: Answering Questions.
- The Photo Action and Language Cards (Manners, Nouns, Categories, Go Together, Actions, and Opposites) were hot sellers!
This year ASHA wasn’t all work for the Therapro team! We were honored to join Mary Schiavoni, the inventor of Chewy Tubes, in celebrating the 20th anniversary of Chewy Tubes. It was a great night, spent with an amazing group of dedicated professionals!
Thank you ASHA-Boston, we had a great time and are looking forward to Orlando 2019!
Allyson Locke, MS, OTR/L
Allyson is an occupational therapist with a diverse background in both sensory integration and school based practice. She currently works in a school for children and young adults who have significant medical, mental health, and cognitive needs.