Tag Archives: speech-language

Access a variety of speech and language therapy resources designed to support communication development in children and adults. These resources include tools, assessments, and activities for speech-language pathologists working in schools, clinics, and home settings to enhance expressive and receptive language skills effectively.

Therapro at the ASHA 2023 Annual Convention

November 21, 2023Events & Conferencesconference highlights, speech-languageAllyson Locke, M.S., OTR/L

A Recap of Unforgettable Moments

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) 2023 Annual Convention was a whirlwind of excitement, innovation, and meaningful connections. Therapro was thrilled to be a part of this prestigious event held in the vibrant city of Boston, Massachusetts. We had a fantastic time showcasing our wide range of products, connecting with industry friends, and participating in some unforgettable highlights that made the event truly special.

Pirate Lucky’s Special Visit from Kokolingo

One of the most memorable moments of our time at ASHA 2023 was the special visit by Pirate Lucky from Kokolingo. Lucky’s visit brought an element of fun and excitement to our booth that left our guests both entertained and informed about Kokolingo. Kokolingo is a speech articulation app, developed by a licensed Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologists, that will help accelerate progress through gamified speech articulation exercises. Lucky, with his colorful attire and boundless energy, engaged visitors and provided a peek into the world of Kokolingo. His visit was a hit among attendees and left a lasting impression on all those who stopped by the Therapro booth.

Live Demonstrations of Speech and Language Learning Games

At Therapro, we believe in the power of play to promote speech and language development. ASHA 2023 allowed us to demonstrate some of our favorite games designed for this purpose. Attendees were treated to live demonstrations of Novenops, Trunks, Lion in My Way, and many others – all fantastic tools for speech and language pathologists, educators, and parents seeking innovative ways to engage and support children in their language journey. The interactive nature of these games truly captivated the audience, illustrating the effectiveness of play-based learning.

Lion In My Way: A Game of Imaginative Solutions

Product Spotlight: Social Language Rules & Tools

Social Language Rules & Tools: A Preschool Curriculum of activities to improve social–ability

Therapro’s “Product Spotlight Corner” at ASHA 2023 featured the book Social Language Rules & Tools: A Preschool Curriculum. This curriculum is a valuable resource for professionals working with young children, providing a structured and engaging framework to teach social language skills. Attendees were able to explore this curriculum up close, gaining insight into how it can benefit their therapy sessions and classrooms.

Visits from Friends of Therapro

Our booth at ASHA 2023 was not only a hub for our products but also a gathering place for friends and collaborators in the industry. We were thrilled to welcome friends of Therapro, including Hillel from Spark Innovations, Dawn from ezpz, and Mary from Chewy Tubes. These connections and partnerships underscore the sense of community and mutual support that characterizes the world of speech and language therapy.

Demonstrating Our Wide Range of Products

At Therapro, we take pride in offering a diverse range of products to support speech and language development. During ASHA 2023, our team had a blast demonstrating our extensive catalog, which spans from assistive technology, to oral motor tools, to feeding solutions, to games that foster social and emotional language development. Our goal is to provide professionals and caregivers with the tools they need to make a positive impact on the lives of those with speech and language challenges.

The ASHA 2023 Annual Convention in Boston was a memorable experience for the Therapro team. We are grateful for the opportunity to connect with fellow professionals, showcase our products, and contribute to the advancement of speech and language therapy. The enthusiasm and passion of everyone we met at the convention were truly inspiring, and we look forward to continuing to support speech and language development for years to come.

Thank you to everyone who visited us at ASHA 2023, and we can’t wait to see you again at future events and conferences. Together, we’ll keep making a difference in the lives of those we serve.

Activities to Improve Social–Ability in Play

October 18, 2023Social Emotional Learningsocial participation, speech-language, therapeutic toysGuest Blogger

Teachers and speech language pathologists (SLPs) can use highly interactive social language roleplay activities to improve the social-ability of their preschool students. During these fun lessons children learn strategies to help them to establish joint attention so that their communication attempts will succeed.

Why do so many Of preschooler’s attempts at communication fail?

Failed communication attempts are not uncommon for preschool-age children, especially those with social language challenges, such as autism. The missing key is joint attention.

One child begins to talk about his painting, “I made a fish.”, but the other child turns away. There’s no joint attention, so communication fails.
One child asks, ”Where is the truck?”, but the other child talks over them commenting on their bridge. There’s no joint attention, so communication fails.
One child requests the red train, “I wanna have the red one?”, but the other child talks about his new shirt. There’s no joint attention, so communication fails.
One child comments on their toy cat, “My cat is scratchy.”, but the other child just ignores them. There’s no joint attention, so communication fails.

Joint attention ensures that both the speaker and the listener are looking at, referring to and or thinking about the same topic. Adults take responsibility for creating joint attention with children by getting down on their level, by following their lead and by persevering in calling their attention to interesting objects or events. Therefore, communication with adults is often successful.

However, peers with social language challenges are less likely to be able to initiate and or respond to other’s attempts at joint attention resulting in many missed opportunities to successfully close the communication circle.

Age Expectations

It is interesting to note that most babies should be following the gaze of their parent by turning to look at whatever their parent is looking at by 6 months of age. Babies begin pointing by 8-9 months. Babies use gestures, eye gaze and vocalizations to get caregiver’s attention by 12 months (for more, see Developmental Milestones on page 196 of Social Language Rules and Tools).

What is happening?

In order for a communication attempt to succeed, the speaker and the listener have to create joint attention toward each other, toward an object or toward an idea. Joint attention is the key to success in completing the communication loop. Many preschoolers, especially those on the spectrum, are still developing this skill. That’s why communication attempts with adults, who take responsibility for creating joint attention are much more likely to succeed than preschooler’s communication attempts with peers. The speaker needs to be aware of their listener’s needs.

“If I don’t get their attention then they won’t know I’m talking to them.”
“If I don’t get close enough to them they might not hear me.”
“If I don’t say it in an interesting way they might not notice me.”

The listener needs to be responsive to the speaker.

“If I don’t look up or say a word then they won’t know I heard them.”
“If I didn’t understand what the speaker said then I need to ask.“

There’s a lot that can go wrong!

What to do?

Many children with special needs, such as autism, benefit from specific and direct social language instruction. The Social Language Rules and Tools Curriculum provides this type of instruction. Key features of the Rules and Tools Curriculum include:

It is focused on specific chanted rules.
It is prompted with non-verbal devices, such as, gestures, pictures, objects, etc.
It is presented in integrated group lessons.
It is modeled by typical peers and supportive teachers.
It is incorporated into increasingly novel play, conversation and learning activities.

TAP AND CALL TEACHING PICTURE used to teach joint attention

An example of an activity that provides needed direct social language instruction is Tap and Call, from the Rules and Tools Curriculum. Tap and Call is the first rule of the 68 rules and lessons in the Social Language Rules and Tools Curriculum and is taught to increase successful interactions by ensuring joint attention. If you teach preschoolers to Tap and Call then:

The preschooler who is speaking will get close to the listener
The preschooler who is speaking will look at the listener
The preschooler who is speaking will gain the listener’s attention

With this the preschooler who is listening is much more likely to respond with eye contact or a verbal response; they will establish joint attention and the communication circle will be complete!

How to teach this?

Roleplay! Through roleplay, parents, teachers and speech language pathologists can engage preschool children in interactive lessons to teach these skills.

Pointer finger icon from Rules and Tools

For example, using a large pointer finger prop (which is easily and inexpensively cut out of foam board) creates drama as adults model Tapping and Calling their listeners before they talk. Best of all, this can become an interactive game for the preschool audience watching the role play. Encourage your preschoolers to call out “FREEZE, YOU NEED TO TAP AND CALL!” when the adult role players ‘forget’ to Tap and Call before talking.

Enhance the learning experience with a multisensory element like singing. In the example above preschoolers can say and clap out a chant: “They might not notice me at all, if I forget to ‘Tap and Call’!”

Using songs when teaching social language rules can tap into different learning styles. Songs have been shown to improve attention and memory. Tap and Call has a song to the tune of “TAPS” (see Social Language Rules and Tools Curriculum for the words to the Tap and Call song).

Adults and peers can use the large pointer finger prop/token along with the chant and song to playfully generalize the Tap and Call rule to the classroom during snack, games, crafts, and free play activities. These props, chants and songs can be sent out of the classroom to many different settings within the school and to the child’s home to ensure generalization of new rules to different environments and to different people.

How to find out more information?

Refer to Rule 1.1 of Social Language Rules and Tools Curriculum for details about these interactive roleplay lessons and the multimodality teaching methods.

Some children are missing positive communication experiences over and over in every possible interaction with peers, teachers, siblings and parents. What a lot of missed opportunity and missed reinforcement from those possible interactions! Unlike ABA and Playfulness therapies where adults do all the work, Social Language Rules and Tools Curriculum teaches communicatively challenged children to recognize and implement subtle, key rules or behaviors that their more successful peers use intuitively all day long.

The rule sets are listed in developmental order based on literature review (included in the program on pages 195-229).

Stay tuned for the next Talk and Play blog for Lesson 1.2 Answer, ‘What?’

Guest Author: Deborah Fortin, author of Social Language Rules & Tools: A Preschool Curriculum

Unveiling the Excitement: ASHA Schools Connect 2023 Highlights

August 1, 2023Events & Conferencesconference highlights, speech-languageAllyson Locke, M.S., OTR/L

Creating community, supporting students at the ASHA Schools Connect 2023 conference!

From July 13th to July 15th, 2023, Long Beach, California witnessed a vibrant gathering of school based speech and language professionals and vendors at the 2023 ASHA Schools Connect conference. Our team from Therapro was delighted to participate in this enriching event, and we are excited to share with you the three standout highlights from this remarkable conference.

1. Expanding Horizons: Connecting with Vendors and Embracing Innovation

One of the most exhilarating aspects of ASHA Schools Connect 2023 was the opportunity to connect with vendors who showcased cutting-edge products and assessments. For Therapro, this was a gateway to introducing new items on our website and expanding our range of therapeutic supplies. Among the remarkable additions are the innovative ezpz feeding products, designed to make mealtime a breeze for children with various needs. These products promote independence and self-feeding while encouraging healthy eating habits.

In addition to feeding products, we have also embraced new evaluation tools that empower speech-language pathologists in their practice. Some new additions to the Therapro website include the Oral Passage Understanding Scale (OPUS) and the Early Functional Communication Profile (EFCP) . The OPUS has proven to be a valuable tool for assessing listening comprehension and the EFCP measures subtle, functional changes in nonverbal communication skills in children with severe disabilities.

Be sure to check out all of the new products recently added to the Therapro website and stop back often to see all of the updates that are coming!

2. Empowering Therapists: Product Demonstrations

The Therapro booth at the conference showcased the latest therapeutic products, with a focus on empowering therapists and engaging their young clients. One of the best parts of conferences is debuting our newest products. At ASHA Schools Connect the star attractions was Kokolingo, a versatile and interactive language-building game. Its adaptability allows therapists to customize sessions according to individual goals, making articulation therapy engaging and fun for children of all ages.

Beyond unveiling new products, we also reintroduced classic favorites like NOVENOPS. This captivating game has been a staple in speech therapy for years, promoting language skills and cooperation among players. As therapists and attendees rediscovered the joy of NOVENOPS, it served as a reminder of the enduring impact of tried and tested therapeutic tools.

3. Spreading Joy: Prizes and Giveaways

ASHA Schools Connect 2023 was not only an occasion for learning and networking but also a time for celebrating the community’s dedication and passion. As part of the festivities, Therapro proudly hosted a series of exciting giveaways, including a generous Therapro gift certificate. This certificate gives therapists the freedom to explore our extensive catalog and select the supplies that best suit their therapeutic needs.

In addition to the gift certificate, we were thrilled to give away a copy of “Social Language Rules and Tools: A Preschool Curriculum,” an essential book for professionals seeking to enhance social communication skills in preschoolers. This valuable resource is packed with practical strategies and activities to foster meaningful connections and enrich social interactions.

picture of woman holding the book social language rules and tools

picture of a woman holding the therapro speech and language catalog

Embracing Growth, Innovation, and Collaboration

The ASHA Schools Connect 2023 conference was a success for Therapro, fostering new partnerships, introducing innovative products, and reigniting enthusiasm for timeless therapeutic tools. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have been part of such an enriching event, and we’re thrilled to share these highlights with our community of therapists.

As we move forward, we are committed to continuously expanding our range of therapeutic supplies, ensuring therapists have access to the latest tools to empower the young minds they work with. At Therapro, we firmly believe in the power of growth, innovation, and collaboration, and we are excited to embark on this journey together with all the incredible professionals who make a difference in the lives of children every day.

We eagerly look forward to the next ASHA Schools Connect event, where we can once again join this dynamic community, learn, grow, and celebrate the remarkable field of speech and language therapy.