Two “Don’t Miss” Presenters on Artic and Language

This has been a great week for me in terms of professional development.  On Tuesday, I attended a statewide teleconference hosted by PaTTAN featuring Char Boshart on fixing those pesky frontals, laterals, and vocalic /r/ sounds.  I have seen Char present twice before, and find I always learn something new from her.  She has an amazing way of breaking down artic production into clear, sequential parts that make you want to smack your head and say “how didn’t I see that?!”  Owner of Speech Dynamics, “dynamic” is certainly a word that describes this energetic presenter who always keeps it fresh and  interesting (and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about artic therapy!).  Check out her website for great information that you can purchase and download.  And, by all means, if you ever have the chance to attend one of her presentations — DO IT!  Of the many things I learned from Char, here’s one valuable tip that I will pass on to you — a chant that every SLP should teach every artic student:  “The sides of the tongue go on the sides of the teeth.  The sides of the tongue go on the sides of the teeth.”  Say it with me, this time with feeling: “The sides of the tongue go on the sides of the teeth.”

My professional development continued on Friday when I had the distinct pleasure of attending a seminar on “SLPs and RtI” given by another dynamo, Linda Seth.  Linda is the creator of the G.R.O.W. (GET RID OF WORKSHEETS) series of language lessons, available on her aptly named site, MakeFunofLearning.com, and co-author of the popular artic books for Sue Sexton’s 5 Minute Kids program.  What a wealth of wonderful, fun, and wide-ranging ideas this SLP has for teaching language, and for becoming more effective in the classroom. I have a number of her books, all well used, and the lessons never get stale.  And I highly recommend Linda as another “don’t miss” presenter!  One nugget from Linda’s presentation demystifies “Evidence Based Practice.”  We tend to think that “evidence based” means “techniques proven to be effective by research and written up in scholarly journals.”  Well, that IS true, but Linda says we shouldn’t stop the definition there.  “Evidence based” can also mean that we tried something on our own and it WORKED!  Like when, in desperation to get a /k/ from a kindergarten, I said “make the spit sucker sound you hear at the dentist’s office,” and darned if he didn’t!  There’s my evidence, and I have put it into practice every since.   What “evidence based” tricks do you have?  Post them on the message boards under THIS WORKS FOR ME, and we’ll all be happy to give ‘em a try!

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