First, when reserving this room at the Hampton Inn, she explained to the customer representative that she required an emotional support dog to travel. The person on the phone was caring and made sure to document this special need under her reservation. Unfortunately, the person who checked them in didn’t see the note and gave the emotional family a little push back. So my first piece of advice when using a service dog is to make sure you not only request special accommodations when booking your room but also make a follow up call to remind the staff of your special accommodations, a day or two before the estimated time of arrival.

The families stay was pretty seamless after that with the exception of interacting with other guests. I personally observed one adult pat the dog on the head while a child simultaneously begged to pet the dog while her mom scolded her that you don’t pet service dogs. My family’s vest was not clear in explaining these parameters and I recommended a vest that clearly states how to act around this special dog. Attached is a link to such a vest. https://activedogs.com/search-rescue-style-dog-vest

I’m just thankful that in 1990, the American with Disabilities Act legally recognized service dogs and allowed my relative to attend this birthday party. If you want to volunteer to raise a service puppy, here is a link with contact information.

https://canine.org/get-involved/ways-to-volunteer/become-a-volunteer-puppy-raiser/

Instead of learning to talk by hearing like most kids, kids with CAS have to learn to talk like we would learn to play Piano.

Dedicated practice of each sound, each combination, each sequence until they produce their song, their own voice.

Source: https://www.musicforautism.org/

Source: https://www.musicforautism.org/

Source: https://www.varsitytutors.com/classes/search

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EOWyZ6kxXQ&ab_channel=SongsforSpeech

You can click on:

-ABC to hear a great song focusing on the phonemic sounds of the alphabet.  For reading and speech readiness, focusing on letter sounds is superior to learning letter names in the typical ABC song.  

-123 to hear another great song for learning numbers.  

-The animals for some animal vocabulary and sounds.  

-The shape sorter for learning colors and shapes.  

-The bookshelf to hear the book “I broke my trunk”.  

-The bubbles to play a game that reinforces your child when they speak or act. 

-The musical instruments to share a delightful direction song with your child.

Source: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTHE-zB2UCG0E8iqkAT9e_1J-IIh1SN1QhHK_sKTuh9beMKXH5e8Gg_W_M3tdpoO5nBdmIHkF0KXlnC/embed?start=true&loop=false&delayms=60000&slide=id.g90cb83ac2d_4_0

You can click on:

-ABC to hear a great song focusing on the phonemic sounds of the alphabet.  For reading and speech readiness, focusing on letter sounds is superior to learning letter names in the typical ABC song.  

-123 to hear another great song for learning numbers, how many body parts we have, and following directions.  

-The animals for sorting farm animals in a fun game.  

-The shape sorter so you can play a game where you match shapes with an everyday object.

-The bookshelf to hear the book Click Clack Moo.  

-The spinner to play a game that reinforces description words/ adjectives

-The musical instruments to learn a finger play song.

Source: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bipriqzGslVEuy9VonUCvf2QCxRSRk4bH3C3ar4LgkA/preview?slide=id.g90cb83ac2d_4_0

It’s a typical day downtown, but this town can’t be found on the streets of any New Jersey city. It’s all in LifeTown, an indoor downtown replica created to teach children and young adults with special needs how to navigate the everyday world.

The multimillion-dollar project will be launching on Sept. 9 with a grand opening ceremony for the public, at the LifeTown building in Livingston. 

The Life Village is the downtown replica that’s at the center of LifeTown’s 53,000-square-foot building. It provides a safe and controlled environment for children and young adults to work on life skills in a more realistic setting.

“What we want to do is create a space where it’s easy for those with special needs and the wider outside community to interact and learn from each other,” said Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, executive director of Friendship Circle.

Located inside a former warehouse in Livingston, LifeTown has been a decade-long project put together by Friendship Circle, a non-profit organization focused on providing children and teens with special needs real-life experiences while offering support and respite to their families.

While Friendship Circle does offer Judaic programming, LifeTown is a separate entity with nonreligious activities.

The village has what is commonly referred to as “the Disney effect” by transporting everyone who walks into the hyper-realistic downtown, complete with 15 fully functioning storefronts, a central street to ride bikes and pedal cars on and tree-lined sidewalks.

Volunteers play the role of shopkeepers and help teach the students about budgeting and money management. Teens can buy real bags of chips and popcorn at the grocery store, or treat themselves to a manicure at the salon. If their funds are running low students can spend time earning money at the laundromat or by cleaning up after the birds or the hamsters in the pet shop.

“What we really want is the interaction between the larger community and the special needs community, so that everyone is learning from each other,” Grossbaum said.

The children and teens can also test out spaces that are often unnerving for people with sensory issues, like the doctor’s and the dentist’s office. Here students can look at and feel the tools they might come in contact with, reducing the nerves they might have at a real check-up.

“The kids are great and the other volunteers are great and it’s just a pleasant experience,” said Bob Gray who has been volunteering with Friendship Circle since 2006. “You see the whole world differently, and learn to appreciate the little things in a person’s life.”

Gray said he has been able to see many children and young adults progress in skills and interactions with outsiders over the years and is glad that a place like LifeTown exists to give those with special needs a place to socialize.

“Every time I’m in here I’m blown away because this used to be a vacant factory,” said Michael Karp, whose son Sam is in a wheelchair and is unable to verbally communicate. “I love this place. It’s just opened up a world for families and kids like my kid. He’s never really had close friends until Friendship Circle came around and it’s just enabled him to have all these relationships with other kids and other people and experience all these different activities.”

Sometimes it is the simplest things that matter, for people like 25-year-old Hannah Solomon who uses a motorized wheelchair to get around. Her chair fits perfectly underneath the table at the florist shop making it easier for her to work on her project.

“I love the fact that you could have the typical kids working with the special kids and it’s home for everybody. Everybody walks in here and it’s amazing they can find something for themselves,” said Lori Solomon, Hannah’s mother.

“It’s all about giving them meaningful experiences, teaching them life skills and hopefully doing a project they can go home with,” Grossbaum said.

Information about becoming a volunteer can be found on the LifeTown website. The village will be available for school groups but is not open to the general public outside of special events.

Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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Source: https://www.nj.com/news/g66l-2019/08/f0effa4f943151/meet-njs-newest-downtown-its-designed-for-kids-and-adults-with-special-needs-.html

Source: https://onekid.com

“It’s adorable on a kid. It’s not cute on an adult,” says Anthony Koutsoftas, PhD, an associate professor at Seton Hall University’s Department of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP). It’s important to consider the ways speech disorders can impact children academically and socially. “The child may not talk much [in] class, or participate fully in school. Or, the child may not have many friends, or may be bullied,” says Susan Karr, associate director of school services at The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

Even if your child seems to be thriving despite having a stutter or trouble articulating certain sounds, problems may become more obvious as academic expectations increase and socializing becomes more sophisticated. If your child appears to be struggling, here’s how to help.

Schedule an appointment to address your concerns. You may find that your child’s speech issues are age appropriate, or that the issue is structural and a visit to an ENT is in order. Your doctor may take a wait-and-see approach, even if you don’t want to. That’s fine. But remember: The doc only sees your kid for a few minutes, while you see him every day. If you suspect something’s wrong, go with your gut. “Ninety percent of parents that have concerns are usually right about it,” says Koutsoftas. “Don’t defer to pediatricians. If you think something isn’t quite right, there’s no harm in getting an evaluation,” says Maplewood-based speech therapist, Reesa Solomon. “Trust your instinct.”

Federal law mandates that students with disabilities receive services. Either a parent or teacher can request an evaluation from your child’s school, which must take place within 90 days of parental consent—provided the school’s child study team determines one is warranted (proof that speech has been an ongoing concern helps). Each school district may have its own process, but generally speaking, a request sets off a cascade of actions culminating in an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) complete with SLP​ services—or it doesn’t.

“A disorder has to adversely impact the child’s functioning in the school. If it’s a mild situation, the school may say that child doesn’t qualify for service,” says Karr, adding that said impact can vary from academic struggles to problems on the playground. Services are offered based on fairly strict criteria, so if your child scores too high or the teacher doesn’t see a serious problem, you may not qualify for speech therapy at school.

“If your child doesn’t qualify based on the criteria but you or the teacher still have concerns, contact a private speech language therapist,” says Solomon. “You want your child to be understood. It’s a quality of life issue.” Even if your child does qualify for school services, they may not be long enough or frequent enough for your kid. Not only are many school SLPs​ overloaded with students, there’s a limit to how much time a student can be pulled from the classroom, so you may want to supplement with a private SLP.

References from friends or family and local parenting boards will likely reveal a wealth of state-licensed SLPs accredited by the ASHA (search asha.org for providers), says Solomon. Once you’ve narrowed your list, schedule a phone consultation to make sure they have the right credentials (a masters or doctorate plus certification), along with experience in your child’s issue and a style that suits him or her. If this is supplemental, ask that your child’s school and private therapist collaborate to reinforce similar goals. “It’s good to [coordinate] so that both SLPs are aware of what the other is working on,” says Karr.

Cards on the table…speech therapy can be expensive, and it’s often not covered by insurance. “Some will cover in-network, some out-of-network, but they often won’t cover general therapy,” says Solomon. This means that while they may cover rehabilitative sessions (like after a stroke), they won’t cover habilitating services designed to improve skills that haven’t developed properly. So before choosing a therapist, ask your insurance what diagnoses and treatment codes are covered—if they don’t match your child’s evaluation, expect to go the out-of-pocket route.

If private speech therapy is simply unaffordable, Koutsoftas​ suggests inquiring at a university with a speech clinic—it won’t be free, but it’ll be significantly cheaper and possibly offered on a sliding scale. Still coming up empty? “Consult a speech language pathologist for a session or two, and request exercises to do with [your] child,” he says. Ask if you can sit in and observe. It’s not ideal—“compliance isn’t always great with parents,” he says—but it may be better than nothing.

How long will speech therapy last? “That’s the big-ticket question,” says Solomon. “It depends on the severity and nature of the speech language disorder, the motivation of the student and the commitment to home practice. Those things all come into play.” At the onset of treatment, your child’s SLP will develop with a plan for frequency and duration of services, along with an individualized set of long- and short-term goals, whether it’s working towards age-appropriate (not perfect) speech, improving stutter control (versus eradication) or becoming consistently understood by strangers. “We never work towards 100 percent mastery,” says Solomon, and it’s not uncommon to work up to a goal and take a break. Both can help keep expenses at bay, as can taking daily homework seriously.

“We believe that [daily] practice is what kids need,” says Koutsoftas. “It’s a repeated muscle behavior, like going to the gym. Even if your child’s seeing a speech language therapist twice a week, it’s not nearly enough. So ask for homework if [it’s not given] by the speech therapist.”

Along with insisting kids practice their speech therapy drills for a set amount of time each day, it’s important to model proper speech patterns (like repeating words back correctly) without overcorrecting or being too critical. Positive feedback on proper enunciation is also important. “Some parents get too hyper-focused on pronunciation,” he says. You don’t want to be that parent who interrupts an exciting story to point out a verbal mistake.

Outside of their dedicated practice time, what they’re saying still needs to be more important than how they’re saying it. And that’s ultimately what we all want for our kids—not just to be understood, but truly heard.

—Jennifer Kantor is a parenting and lifestyle writer.

Source: https://www.njfamily.com/is-it-time-to-get-your-kid-speech-therapy