It’s state convention time! Each year our state’s speech-language pathology organization (TSHA: Texas Speech –Language-Hearing Association www.txsha.org) holds a three to four day convention. This year it is being held in Fort Worth, TX and Michelle Garcia Winner is one of the presenters! The convention allows speech therapists from all over to the state to come together to receive Continuing Education, to network, to present research studies, to find jobs, to buy materials, to catch up with other speech friends and professors and more.

What is Emotional Regulation? According to the SCERTS® Model (www.scerts.com), it is “the development of the ability to maintain a well-regulated emotional state to cope with everyday stress, and to be most available for learning and interacting.”
As adults, we constantly emotionally regulate ourselves all the time whether it be for calming purposes or for energy-boosting purposes, etc. Our children need our direct help to regulate themselves as well as how to learn how to regulate themselves without our help.

What are Transactional Supports?
Transactional Supports is a term that the authors of the SCERTS® Model created. Transactional supports are the supports WE provide our children to help them: understand, use verbal language, use social communication skills and more!
Some examples are:
1) Music
2) Breaking down your language
3) Routines
4) Contextual Cues
5) Visuals
What Transactional Supports help my child?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Thankful
In the spirit of Thanksgiving week, we thought we’d take a step back and share a couple little moments with our kids and families that made us smile the past couple of weeks. We feel very thankful to be involved in the lives of so many amazing parents, children and other professionals.
-Being handed a handmade Thank You card from one incredibly cute 5 year old. This was then followed by the best hug I have gotten in a good while.

Important for Me, Important for You
I can’t remember a single class in high school where I had a peer with a disability. I can remember the kid with a disability that was the varsity basketball “manager”. I did not know him. I never talked to him. I never talked to him about how much he loved going to the basketball practices and how much he loved shagging balls for the team. I never asked him what it was like to sit with the team during a pep rally. I was not his friend.

Therapists are dedicated, trained professionals that are here to help your child learn, grow and progress. Therapists are NOT miracle workers. Therapists can NOT fix or cure your child in the 1 to 3 hours a week that they see your child. But what therapists can do, is give you and your child the tools and the pathway to take so that YOU can make the progress at home.

The answer to this question is YES and NO. Echolalia used functionally can help your child use and understand language; however, echolalia used non-functionally can have the adverse effect and can actually hinder your child’s progress.

So, we had our speech evaluation, it's been a year since the last one. We actually had quit going to speech because it wasn't helping, nothing was coming of it. So, we quit and strictly did ABA at the time, the first day he tried to say ball--buh, kai actually said a sound other than the jargon he was speaking, two weeks later, Kai was talking.