Love is in the air at Abington Speech Pathology and RemoteSpeech.com!
Love is a powerful emotion and a primary motivator for the industry of Speech-Language Pathology.  Whether we acknowledge the commitment that a parent demonstrates in seeking and managing communication therapy for their child, the hard work and creative strategies a Speech-Language Pathologist develops for that patient in need, the long hours invested by speech-language students to hone their skills and enter the workforce, or the diligent research and planning a School Administrator will invest to ensure that the needs of their district are met, they are all motivated by the same thing…. Love.  And, love is a powerful emotion. It is such a strong driving force, that it is a common theme that is weaved throughout our blog entries each and every month.  In this article, we have searched far and wide for the top stories that best demonstrate the simplicity and purity of “love.” We hope these stories might help to inspire you this Valentine’s Day.

The Power of Loving Words

New parents at the Cayuga Birthplace are encouraged to start conversations with their infants from the moment they meet.
“Babies can hear sounds in the womb. When parents make loving, soothing sounds, the conversation begins. Research shows children in utero react to their mother’s talking, and when they are born, they will turn right away and rec­ognize their parents’ voices,” says Sue Brower RN, a clinical instructor at Cayuga Medical Center.
The hospital began emphasizing the impor­tance of those early parent-child conversations as part of a community-wide “Thirty Million Words” initiative. The name refers to a recently published book “Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain.” READ MORE

Temple Clinic Helps Transgender Women Find New Voices

Erica Cirulli calls the unique program a ‘game-changer’
Erica Cirulli described the beginning of her transition from presenting as a man to a woman as a methodical one.
She identified several “pillars” on which to focus initially, including coming out to people as a transgender woman, beginning hormone therapy treatments and undergoing laser hair removal.
Cirulli, 29, of Philadelphia, also wanted to change her voice, which she described as “super deep,” even though it did not cause her dysphoria.
“It didn’t cause me that kind of grief or angst at the time,” Cirulli said. “But I knew if I was going to be presenting this way, I couldn’t walk around talking like I used to. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable and a lot of people probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable around me. Which is sad, but it’s the truth.”  READ MORE

New Bremerton Speech Therapy Clinic Aims To Help The Underserved

BREMERTON — The newest speech therapy clinic in Bremerton hopes to cater to underserved kids, free of charge.
Early Life Speech and Language, a nonprofit founded and sponsored by the Scottish Rite Masons, quietly opened its new Bremerton clinic in the Chase Bank building on Pacific Avenue late last year.
The nonprofit focuses on 2- to 7-year-olds who struggle with communication. It’s a group that is often overlooked because of high costs, lack of insurance or school programs with stringent regulations, speech pathologist Beth Novak said.
The best part? Early Life’s clinic is totally free. READ MORE

Ipswich man on why a speech impediment is no impediment to success

If you were to speak to Justin Butcher today, you wouldn’t be able to tell he had ever had any difficulties with his speech.  But to get to where he is today, the 42-year-old from Ipswich had to work extremely hard to say words that for many of us, quite literally, rolled off the tongue from a young age.
Justin’s journey from what he describes as the “hidden disability” of speech and language difficulties to a good career with a happy family is a remarkable story that shows an impediment with speech is no impediment to intelligence or success. READ MORE 

Never Underestimate What Any Child Can Do’

Dominic Leiva’s success story
In today’s world, most people know someone with a diagnosis of autism, considering one in 59 children are identified on the autism spectrum. Here is a story of one unique child from Fayette County, and how he is teaching us about what all children can do with patience, endless support and thinking outside of the box.
Dominic Leiva, the son of Geovanny and Heather Leiva, is a fifth-grader at Bell-Aire school in Washington Court House. Dominic was diagnosed with autism at 2-and-a-half-years-old. He had all the typical signs of autism; no verbal communication, rigid interests, he was not making social connections and engaged in self-stimulating activities to regulate his central nervous system.
Once the diagnosis became official, Dominic started in several interventions, including speech therapy. READ MORE 

Language and culture: Aboriginal Speech-Language Pathologist Helps Vancouver Island Kids

Kristan Nelson was recently hired at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre
Nelson is an Aboriginal speech-language pathologist who specializes in pediatric early intervention, and she works at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre (VNFC).
While her goals are the same as any other speech-language pathologist –to develop a child’s ability to understand and convey a language– at the VNFC there are additional aspects to her job.
“Here it is adapted to be responsive to relationship building, which is a big piece of supporting Indigenous populations, where there have been negative experiences with social services or mainstream health services,” Nelson says.  READ MORE 
 
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