One of the critical elements in the SATPAC Program is having lots and lots of repetitions. While this may seem tedious, it is so important for changing the incorrect motor pattern of our students’ speech to a correct one. Think of how many times they have said their error sound incorrectly in their lives and we have to change all of that.

What made me think of this is a significant event that is happening in my life. My wife and I are watching our 9-month old granddaughter Abby during the workday Monday through Friday. (And my wife does it all on Tuesday and Wednesday when I’m at work). Watching Abby develop is really fascinating and it makes me wonder why I wasn’t paying attention to this when my infant kids were growing up (perhaps fatigue?). Anyway, as she is learning to crawl, walk, eat with a spoon, speak, etc., I see her doing the same movements over and over. Many things she figures out by herself like crawling but other things we reinforce. Using a spoon, for example, I will guide her hand into her mouth holding the spoon in a horizontal position. When she says “Da”, we repeat it and show her by our enthusiasm that what she said was a good thing. And we do that over and over as she does it over and over.

I’m not asking her to say “Da” 100 times counting on a tally counter like I do with my students (more typically BEETSEET or EERGA) but it is kind of the same idea!

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

I’m doing less private workshops recently and more professional development presentations to school districts. If your district is interested, contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

However, I will be doing an advanced SATPAC workshop in Phoenix Feb. 6 (https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/advanced-workshop/) and a regular workshop there Feb. 7 ( https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/).

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

I had an experience last year that I’m not proud of but turned out to be a good lesson for me. I was working with a preschooler that the mom brought in after school. One day she did not have her babysitter, so she brought his younger 3-year-old brother. If you’ve ever seen the movie based on the life of Helen Keller (The Miracle Worker), his behavior reminded me of her before she understood about communication. The mom had to hold him restrained and he grunted and cried the whole time.

The following week, I talked to the mom about getting him into a program at the county for kids with severe issues. She agreed and I made the referral. In the meantime, it turned out he had an IEP for autism, a cognitive deficit and other issues and was supposed to receive speech/language services and attend the regular preschool on our campus which did not seem appropriate. I waited for him to get into the county program because I wanted no part of this kid and I thought it would happen quickly. When it became apparent that there was no timetable for a kid to get into the county program, I started working with him thinking it was going to be a disaster.

In our first session, I found a couple of toys that he was interested in and did some behavior modification using the toys as a reward. Meanwhile, he had an excellent behavior specialist working with him at home and we collaborated with some speech/language activities. His language skills developed to the point where he could communicate and as a result was nothing like the kid I saw initially. After a short time, he was able to do a 20-25-minute session and stay on task!

He got into the county program and after a few months was reassessed. He did not have autism and his cognitive skills were much higher than previously thought so he was returned to my school.

Next week I start to work with him again and I have a new, improved attitude! The lesson for me was to keep an open mind and give kids a chance-particularly when they are preschoolers as testing and first impressions at that age might not be quite accurate to what their true potential is.

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

I’m doing less private workshops recently and more professional development presentations to school districts. If your district is interested, contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

However, I will be doing an advanced SATPAC workshop in Phoenix Feb. 6 (https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/advanced-workshop/) and a regular workshop there Feb. 7 (https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/).

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

The reason I haven’t written a newsletter in a while is that I haven’t had much to share.

Here are some recent happenings:

• • I’m back at my preschool – 8th grade school for my 40th year as an SLP. I completed a 2-year RtI study with articulation students seeing them all individually for 15 minutes once a week. The preliminary look at the results show excellent progress with almost all the kids. I hope to have this as a journal article sometime in the future.
  • I did my first podcast for the Speech Link with Char Boshart.
  • I did an Advanced SATPAC 6-hour webinar for SATPAC users that took place on 3 afternoon/evenings in July. It is now up on the SATPAC website as a recorded webinar: https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/advanced-webinar-2-2/

Pam Marshalla passed away in 2015 while working on her most important and biggest project. Her daughter Shanti has spent the last 4 years finishing it up and is soon to be released. It is The Marshalla Guide-A Topical Anthology of Speech Movement Techniques for Motor Speech Disorders & Articulation Deficits. I’ve been fortunate to get a pre-released version and have learned a lot. At almost 500 pages, it is a remarkable book.

Hope you are having a good year whatever your work setting is!

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

I’m doing less private workshops recently and more professional development presentations to school districts. If your district is interested, contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

As I finish my 39^th year as a school SLP, I wanted to share some thoughts. First, just like at the end of every school year, I always have mixed feelings. There were a lot of my students who made excellent progress. One preschooler went from being severely unintelligible to being dismissed with 100% intelligibility and ready for kindergarten. There were some kids that made minimal progress. I always wonder what I can do better for those kids that don’t progress much and sometimes I come up with some ideas.

Along with new ideas, I also realized that kindness goes a long way. I have a pair of kindergarten twins who at the beginning of the year would say, “Me no wa do thi/I don’t want to do this. After months of work, they were both pretty much the same as when they walked in through the door for the first time. These kids were easy to dislike as they have severe attention issues and are pretty non-cooperative. Getting them to come to my speech room was about a 50/50 proposition and when they refused, my strategy was not to get mad. I had worked out an agreement with their mother so I would call her and then tell the students that they were going to lose some privilege when they got home which is no fun for anyone so let’s come to speech next time. I was determined to like them and showed them that. My new idea came one day after feeling frustrated by their lack of progress. I took photos of their heads with my iPhone (which intrigued them), and made multiple copies on the copier, cut them out and pasted them onto He/She picture cards (e.g. He is riding the bike. She is washing the dog.) They now became “I am riding the bike. I am washing the dog.” We also did lots of final consonant work again in sentences “The cap is nice. The cup is nice. The map is nice.” Or ” I want the cap. I want the cup. I want the map.” I praised them frequently, “Wow, you said “The cup is nice. That’s perfect! You used to say, “The cu i nie” and their faces would light up with pride. I have not had any resistance from them for the last couple of months.

Finding motivators really helps. For one autistic student, he gets to push a tally counter when he gives a correct answer and he really likes that. For another student working on /r/, using flavored tongue depressors has helped her attitude greatly. And for a third student with a significant speech sound disorder, listening to him tell me things after we finish our work is really important to him.

So I still like what I’m doing and will be going for 40 years beginning in August!

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

Upcoming presentations will be a couple of beginning of the year presentations for school districts and the week of October 7-11 will be a series of workshops in Florida (specific dates have not been determined yet.).

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

Looking for professional development for your school district or organization? Contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

One of the things I’ve noticed about my therapy this year is that I’m really enjoying it. I’m officially retired and only working two days a week with a small caseload. Why shouldn’t I be enjoying it?

But to get to the point, I’m having a good relationship with my students-showing interest in them, being patient, joking with them, praising them when they do something well and treating them with respect. And they are making progress. As a result, I have no discipline issues.

One of my 3rd grade students used to come into my room with that “deer in the headlights” look. It turns out he has severe apraxia and is difficult to understand. He’s worked hard and has become much more intelligible. I’ve given him lots of praise (which he eats up) and he works hard at home doing his exercises.

Another student, an 8th grader, could not read when he came in at the beginning of the year and was extremely belligerent when he came to therapy. We worked on his phonemic awareness skills which were around the kindergarten level when we started. After a couple of months, he’s like a different kid. He’s probably reading at a 3rd grade level now (also getting RSP services daily) and his attitude is great.

I know some of you reading this are saying that my caseload is enormous, and I don’t have time for anything. However, if you treat kids with dignity and respect, help them improve and enjoy your interactions with them, it can change everything!

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

Upcoming presentations are February 7 and 8 in Phoenix, AZ and April 26 in Elk Grove, CA. I’m also scheduling an advanced SATPAC workshop in Elk Grove either April 25 or 27 for people who are already SATPAC users. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

Looking for professional development for your school district or organization? Contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

I had a really busy month in October going to Amsterdam, then doing a 2-day presentation in Wiesbaden, Germany for OSACS. This is a group of American SLPs working in schools in Europe servicing the children of US military families. My wife and I did more touring in Germany. I came back, went back to work and made up the days I missed. Being huge Red Sox fans, my son and I had to go to a World Series game in Los Angeles driving there and back home the same day (4 hours each way).

The next day, I had a fever and this continued for 11 days until I went to the Urgent Care and found out I had pneumonia. Looking back, I realized that 1) I’m not as young as I used to be to get away with that kind of lifestyle; and 2) I need to be more thoughtful and intentional about what my limits are.

So because I tried to do everything, I’ve now missed 3 weeks at my school. Instead of helping my students with their speech and language issues, I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping and experiencing general lethargy.

The moral of this story is that I realize I need to take care of myself if I’m going to be any good for helping others! I hope this might help you as you contemplate your schedule in the future!

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

Upcoming presentations are February 7 or 8 in Phoenix, AZ. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

Looking for professional development for your school district or organization? Contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

I returned to school this past week starting in a new rural district in Central California. My school is a small pre-K to 8th grade school. When I met my students for the first time, I was dismayed to see some of the older kids who still had frontal lisps, lateral lisps and no /r/ sounds.

I had kind of a bad feeling beforehand seeing the materials of the previous therapist which included the articulation decks for each sound. I will explain later.

None of these kids had a clue what the correct placement should be for their various errors. This leads into some important points:
Students need to have correct placement and know what their correct placement is before they can say their sounds correctly;
They need to practice their correct placement in a coarticulatory context, so they will transfer quickly into conversational speech;
“Words” ideally should be non-words, so they can have minimal changes from word to word in order to develop the correct motor pattern for the error sound;
These non-words should be practiced thousands of times to make sure that the correct placement is solid.

So, I spent our first sessions developing correct placement using various techniques and infant tongue depressors for placement and stabilization. When some of the kids got it, we used non-words like BEETSEET for a frontal or lateral lisp which facilitate correct placement and is a coarticulatory context. We then practiced making minimal changes from word to word (BEETSEET, MITSEET, WEITSEET, etc.) to develop this correct motor pattern. Using an articulation deck and pulling words out at random without any rhyme or reason, is not going to develop the correct motor pattern. And finally, over the coming weeks, my students will be practicing these non-words over and over until their placement pattern is solid and then move into real phrases, sentences and conversation.

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

Upcoming presentations are September 24 in Fremont, CA and September 25 in Elk Grove, CA. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/

I am also planning to do a live 6 hr. webinar (two 3 hr. evenings for CEUs in December. Keep watching the website: https://satpac.com/ and details will be in upcoming newsletters.

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

Looking for professional development for your school district or organization? Contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

I hope you are having a relaxing and/or productive (take your pick) summer. I’m having a little of both with some family trips, hanging around the house as well as preparing for fall workshops and updating my presentations.

Coming up, I’m doing an ASHA event on Remediating the /r/ and /s/ Sounds (https://www.asha.org/events/live/08-08-2018-remediating-r-and-s/).It is August 8 at 4:00 Pacific Time and lasts 2 hours. You will have the opportunity to win 2 SATPACs and if you participate, you will be able to purchase SATPAC for $100 instead of the normal $199.

I also have two California workshops coming up–September 24 in Fremont and September 25 in Elk Grove. The following month I’m doing a two-day workshop in Germany and more upcoming but not scheduled yet. I’m considering workshops in February in Florida which I’ve never done before. If your area or school district might be interested, please let me know.

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

Looking for professional development for your school district or organization? Contact me steve@satpac.com for details.

I asked for RTI comments from you and got a variety. Here they are:

I use Rti for articulation when a student is referred with a single sound error and is responsive to placement during screening. I usually treat for 8 weeks one time a week, adding them into an existing group or starting a new slot when available. I have had success with this model (sometime an extension on 8 weeks to 12 or 16 weeks), where the student remediates the articulation without entering special education. …

In my district we are not allowed to see kids at the elementary level unless that are on an IEP…

I have been doing RtI with articulation and phonology kids for the past 15 years. Up until 2 years ago, I used real words, but after taking the SATPAC training, I switched to your method. I typically put kindergarteners and first graders into RtI and see them for 5 minutes up to 4 times a week with the help of my speech assistant. I’ve had great results for k,g, l and s blends (errors are corrected within a semester, some in one quarter…

I reluctantly started providing RtI last year for students with artic errors who did not or would not qualify, but clearly needed help. I actually see the kids before school even starts. Parents and teachers agreed that they would walk in the door and come straight to my room for literally 5 minutes, 1-2 times per week. I have been truly amazed with the results! It has been especially effective for the younger students and I can’t believe how quickly change began to occur. I know I am keeping them out of special education and supporting reading development in the process…

What happened to the need for an evaluation prior to starting speech therapy with a background history, standardized test, oral motor exam, hearing screening? Why are children qualified for RTI speech therapy with only a screening, and then calling it “informal” speech therapy? Aren’t we taking away the professionalism of our field when we do this? …
I believe that RTI was developed to cut down on special education expenses, which were deemed to be too high. Now speech therapist have 8-10 children added to their caseloads, which they do not get credit for, on top of already high numbers. So this is the norm we have come to accept, basically increased work to cut down on costs at the federal and state levels. If one is writing goals and keeping data, it takes up just as much time as if they were on caseload…For me, RTI for speech therapy denigrates our profession.

Stephen Sacks
SATPAC Speech

Upcoming workshops: April 13 in Elk Grove, CA and April 27-28 in So. Cal. Details at https://satpac.com/sacks-workshops/

I will be doing a 2-day workshop in Germany in October and there are some other tentative workshops set up in the next several months.

Because I want SLPs from all over to use and understand my program, I have a .6 CEU ASHA webinar that is basically the same as my live presentations. Go to the SATPAC website for details. Here is the link: https://satpac.com/workshops/webinar

Looking for professional development for your school district or organization? Contact me steve@satpac.com for details.