DocMooreSLP

September 7th is Grandparents Day! Be sure to call or write a letter to your Grandparents letting them know just how much you love an appreciate them. Above is a photograph of my Grandpa Richard Mahon and Grandma Helen Mahon with my adorable dad when he was a child. The second photograph is my Grandpa T.H. Fitzpatrick and Grandma Naomi Fitzpatrick celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary.  All of my grandparents have passed away with the exception of my Grandma Helen, who will be 91 this year! I personally feel it is important to recognize our Grandparents. I know that all of mine were incredibly influential in my life.  So in honor of my Grandparents and all Grandparents out there I created this material so that you can talk about Grandparents day with all of your kids! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Happy-Grandparents-Day-1424321  This packet includes the following: - A mix of “wh” questions + some how questions. (12 in total). ...

Recently, I have had a significant increase in my patients post stroke or TBI that have visual attention deficits. One app that I have enjoyed using and hope to purchase is the "Visual Attention TherAppy" app by Tactus Therapy. This is a visual scanning task where the patient has a specified target they must identify by scanning left to right through multiple lines. This app offers two major features, an assessment feature and a practice/therapy feature. The task of the patient/student is to visually attend to one or two targets presented. The patient must scan from left to right and line-by-line. If a symbol is missed a tone will sound on the iPad to alert the patient that they must go back and re-scan. Below is a picture of a two trial task. As you can all see I have the Lite version. The full version currently costs $9.99. The benefit of the Lite version includes: the option of 1 or two targets to attend to, a signal that can bring attention to eithe...

About a month ago I had the opportunity to travel to Indiana for the Blom-Singer Tracheal-esophageal Prothesis course! First, I just have to say WOW! This was such a fantastic course, and to have the opportunity to learn from Dr. Blom and his colleagues was nothing short of awesome! I am amazed with the creativity and inginuity in the makings of the various prothesis. When I first started in this field my knowledge base of a laryngectomy was limited. When I started working at my outpatient facility I was inspired to continue expanding my knowledge base due to our population. To understand the tracheal-esophageal prothesis (TEP) we first must ask, what is it? Why does a person need it? How is it used?  Why would someone need a TEP? After a person is diagnosed with a laryngeal cancer they are typically offered one, more or all of the following options: 1. Surgery to remove tumor 2. Radiation 3. Chemo 4. Partial laryngectomy 5. Full laryngectomy When a person...

Every Speech-Language Pathologist dreams of the day when they will have back-to-back perfect treatment sessions. Imagine finding that perfect game, having all three of your patient’s brothers and sisters sitting quietly off to the side as you and your patient work without interruption; or imagine zero behavioral outbursts, despite challenging your patient with more difficult tasks. More often than not, this “perfect” treatment session is not what my treatment session looks like!  During a treatment session or an assessment my telephone will ring or a colleague will knock on the door.   Shoes and socks are not just slipped off, but are thrown into the air for an unknown reason. The special reinforcement snack (that I bought especially for my patient) is now considered “yucky” and inevitably the bubbles, which are my back up for when all goes wrong, are spilled everywhere. The toy or game that I imagined the patient requesting, describing, or problem solving ...

In graduate school, I always enjoyed going to Dr. Linda Barboa's class. I enjoyed her classes because she provided theory/evidence within her teachings and she provided real life experiences. When I found out that Dr. Barboa and Elizabeth Obrey were writing a book about Autism, I was thrilled! Stars in Her Eyes provides an informative look into Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This book gives a unique perspective from a Speech-Language Pathologist, an educator, and a mother of two children with ASD. This collaboration may have been my favorite part of this book! To have the opportunity to not only hear what an SLP would say about a topic but also see the perspective of a mother and an educator was incredibly helpful. It serves as a reminder that a multitude of perspectives can add value to treating a child with Autism. Though I am not a mother, I imagined myself as a parent who discovered her child has Autism. From this view, I felt validated that my child is not the on...

For the past couple of days I have been home with the flu. Yuck.  Below is me in a nutshell... But I won't let the flu get me down! The past couple of days I have been working diligently on getting this project done. I started this project probably a year ago! Crazy it took me that long to finish it but it is great quality! The two links below will lead you to my teachers pay teachers store. There I have added two confrontation naming materials, a lite version and a full version. In the lite version there are 10 confrontation naming tasks that include a hierarchy of cues for the patient. In the full version there are over 90 confrontation naming tasks, a hierarchy of cues for each task and a way to track progress for the patient! I hope you enjoy it, I know that I am super excited to use it personally in acute care, long term acute care and my outpatient facility! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Functional-Confrontation-Naming-Lite-Version-1064510 http:...

This past summer I had the opportunity to go to the Level 1 PECS course. PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. It is an augmentative and alternative mode of communication for a wide variety of patients. One topic that was briefly covered was “wait time.” I am so thankful that I was able to begin implementing this into my practice. I can’t tell you how many children I have on my caseload that will grab toys without permission (which I typically like to turn into a language opportunity). Out of these children that want things immediately there are several that will begin to have a behavioral breakdown due to not receiving their desired item/object/attention immediately. How often have you seen this scenario occur? Child: (Going to the slide unsupervised while mom and therapist talks). Mom: “No no you need to wait until we are done talking” Child: (Continues to go to slide). Mom: “No no you need to wait.” (Mom begins to approach c...