Free Webinars for Apraxia Awareness Month

Presented by: Angela Morgan Ph. D and Haley Oyler

Dr. Angela Morgan, a researcher in the area of genetic links for CAS, discussed the history and basic terminology of genetic testing and research results from past and current studies. This research leads to targeted therapies and improved outcomes for children. Haley Oyler provided insights learned during her genetic testing journey which led to a diagnosis for her son who has CAS.

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Motor Speech Practice –
Out and About and Across the Day,
Making Practice Fun and Making Practice Matter

Presented by: Theresa Fagundes Diener, M.A., CCC-SLP

Helping children with childhood apraxia of speech achieve practice opportunities outside of structured therapy sessions is critical for motor speech learning. This webinar focuses on ways to help children with CAS achieve target productions across settings, communication partners, linguistic contexts, and activities. Video demonstrations will illustrate teaching strategies to help families elicit and reinforce common “power” words and phrases in fun and meaningful ways. There will be an emphasis on commonly targeted early syllable shapes and functional words and phrases.

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Presented by: Karen Pardyjak, M.S., CCC-SLP

This webinar offered the viewer the opportunity for focused learning on Prosody with a specific focus on Stress and Co-articulation.  It addressed the fact that kids with CAS may have breakdowns that affect how natural they sound when they are talking.  The presentation briefly provided some suggestions on how to analyze and measure prosody in a clinical context.  There was a strong focus on techniques to use to address prosodic breakdowns throughout the different phases of the therapy process for CAS.

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Presented by: Sue Caspari, M.A., CCC-SLP

IEP goals are written in order to address a child’s individual needs.  Most children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) will have needs in more than one communication area.  A child with CAS, who clearly has speech production needs, may also struggle with social pragmatics, have difficulty with expressive language, have atypical variations in the melody of their speech, and may need to supplement their verbal speech attempts with an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system.  What is the difference between these communication need areas, and does the child with CAS need a goal for each one?  This 90-minute webinar will focus on how goals can be written for different communication need areas.  Resources will be provided describing methods for effective IEP goal writing.  And cases will be reviewed demonstrating children with different communication profiles including examples of the goals written based on their specific need areas.

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Presented by: Lynn Carahaly, M.A., CCC-SLP, and Nicole Newman, M.Ed.

In this session the presenters will focus on the common errors that both parents and school districts make during IEP meetings that may affect students with severe communication disorders, such as childhood apraxia of speech. Participants will see advocacy in action and will come to understand the educative value of their voices during IEP Meetings. This session will also focus on effectively opening the discussion on assistive technology as well as inclusion services across the curriculum. The importance of asking for a full comprehensive evaluation before the IEP team “releases” a child from special education will also be discussed.

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