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Hey everyone, Next week HBO is premiering a new documentary called, “Miss You Can Do It”. It is premiering on June 24th at 9pm. The documentary is following a pageant started in 2004 by Abby Curran. Abby has cerebral palsy and represented Iowa in the Ms. USA pageant in 2008.  She started the Miss You Can Do it pageant. The Miss

The American Speech and Hearing Association defines cluttering as a fluency disorder characterized by a rapid and/or irregular speaking rate, excessive disfluencies, and often other symptoms such as language or phonological errors and attention deficits. To identify cluttering, you must listen to nonstuttered speech of the speaker. Evidence for a fluency disorder (one that is not stuttering) and excessive disfluencies, would be present

Vocal hygiene is a major part of treating voice disorders related to misuse and abuse. Some of the more common disorders you might see or hear about are vocal nodules and polyps. After being diagnosed with one of these disorders by an ENT, a speech language pathologist would likely implement a plan of vocal hygiene. Some of the things the

The National Fragile X Foundation says that Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic condition that causes intellectual disability, behavioral and learning challenges and various physical characteristics. It is considered to be under the “umbrella term” of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Fragile X Syndrome is also associated with Fragile X Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome, and Fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency. To read up more

A recent study performed at the Center for Autism and Related disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute has found that 1 in 3 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders also present with ADHD.  The long-term study of 162 children who were tracked starting when they were still infants or toddlers. By age 4-8, 63/162 original children were determined to have Autism.

Hey everyone, I came across this article on the internet yesterday about a really cool project that is going on.  A famous fashion photographer is attempting to “reframe beauty” by focusing a campaign on people with disabilities. Photagrapher Rick Guidotti is “reinterpreting beauty”. He says, “There’s other ways to present this. I’ve spoken to so many genetic counselors who have

AAC devices are used by people who have little to no verbal output of speech. There are many different populations that benefit from AAC devices. Non verbal children with autism, adults with neurodegenerative diseases, people with who have low speech intelligibility, and so much more. Devices range from low tec to high high ted depending on the person’s level of

Did you know that June is National Aphasia Awareness month? Aphasia is a disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language. Aphasia causes problems with any or all of the following: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Most of the time aphasia results from damage to the left (language dominant) hemisphere of the brain. The

Tongue thrust, is the process of thrusting the tongue forward  and/or sideways against the teeth or in between the teeth while swallowing. A tongue thrust can create lots of orthodontic problems, as well as speech and swallowing difficulties.  Nobody is certain what causes a tongue thrust, but here is a list of some possible causes: Allergies, nasal congestion, nasal obstructions