Medical University of S.C. Auditory Verbal Therapy Training Workshop
Training to work with the pediatric population that have hearing impairments and cochlear implants.

“Childhood Apraxia of Speech”
Workshop which provided great tools for specifically working with this pediatric population.

“It Takes Two to Talk”
Seminar by the Hanen Program which provided training for working with children ages birth to 6 years of age, as well as their families.

“The 3 A’s – Management of Autism, ADHD, and Apraxia Cases”
Conference that provided information and training for treatment and evaluation of these specific pediatric populations.

“The DIR/Floortime Model”
The Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based /Floortime Model is training to help conduct a comprehensive assessment and develop treatment tailored to unique challenges and strengths of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental challenges.
* Received a mastery certificate in this course.

“Integrated Treatment of Feeding, Speech, and Mouth Function in Pediatrics”
Workshop that provided training in these areas of feeding, oral sensory concerns and challenges, eating and drinking difficulties, orofacial myofunctional, functional speech, and motor planning concerns for children with different areas of difficulty (e.g. Autism spectrum disorder, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and other developmental delays).

“Picky Eaters vs. Problem Feeders: The SOS Approach to Feeding”
This was a 3-day training conference on the SOS Approach to Feeding. This is a feeding program that is a non-invasive developmental approach to feeding. It is designed to assess and address all the factors involved in feeding difficulties. This approach allows a child to interact with food in a playful, non-stressful way. It focuses on increasing a child’s comfort level through exploring and learning about the different properties of foods, including texture, smell, taste, and consistency. The SOS approach follows a hierarchy to feeding from tolerating foods in the room, interacting with the food, smelling, touching, tasting, and eventually, eating the food.

PROMPT – “Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular, Phonetic Targets”
Intensive training that focused on teaching technique of PROMPT that is the hands on tactile-kinesthetic input while emphasizing the need to integrate this into a holistic therapy approach. It addressed the motor speech hierarchy of what is functional in motor speech system, to determine where motor speech systems begin to break down, to learn which motor behaviors result in sound productions and their development and decide where to begin treatment.
According to research, PROMPT has been used successfully with people that have: phonological disorders, hearing impairments, dysfluency, aphasia, dysarthria, apraxia, Autism spectrum disorders, and head injuries. The philosophy of PROMPT stresses a way of conceptualizing, assessing, and integrating all aspects of the individual towards functional communicative interactions.

Medical University of S.C. Craniofacial & Cleft Anomalies Conference
A course for practitioners of all disciplines involved with the care of patients with cleft lip and palate regarding knowledge pertaining to the diagnosis, management, and treatment of these patients. This course provided current knowledge in this field to enable professionals to employ the best current practices when working with this population.

Children Who Struggle to Speak: The Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol
Speaker: Nancy Kaufman
This clinical seminar focused on evaluation and treatment. It involved discussions of differential diagnosis of apraxia, flaccid dysarthria, and phonological disorders. Practical and functional treatment techniques were discussed including phonemic simplification, successive word approximations, and pivot syllables. The seminars purpose is to provide therapists with necessary tools to help children with apraxia of speech to progress from simple core vocabulary to eventually conversational speech.

Medical University of S.C. Current Perspectives in Cochlear Implantation Conference
This conference covered several key and current topics in the management of children with cochlear implants. The objective was to provide up-to-date knowledge in the field to enable providers to employ the best current practices when treating these children.

Lindamood Bell Seeing Stars Workshop
This workshop consisted of 14 hours of training in the theory and techniques for developing symbol imagery, which involves symbol imagery for phonemic awareness, sight words, and spelling. There were techniques introduced to stimulate the ability to create mental representations for sounds and letters within words. The techniques develop symbol imagery for consonants and vowels and extend through single and multisyllabic words. The approach targets sensory processing that provides a base for both phonological and orthographic competency in reading and spelling so that phonetic processing, sight words, spelling accuracy, and contextual reading fluency can be developed.

Screening Tool For Autism (STAT) Training- Certificate of Completion
Trained on how to use The STAT™ (Screening Tool for Autism in Toddlers & Young Children) which is an empirically derived, interactive measure that has been developed to screen for autism in children between 24 and 36 months of age. It is designed for use by community service providers who work with young children in assessment or intervention settings and who have experience with autism. The STAT™ consists of 12 items and takes about 20 minutes to administer. Activities assess key social and communicative behaviors including imitation, play, requesting, and directing attention.

Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing® Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech (LiPS®)- Letter of Attendance
The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing® (LiPS®) program develops phoneme awareness. Students learn to recognize how their mouths produce the sounds of language. This kinesthetic feedback enables them to verify sounds within words and to become self-correcting in reading, spelling, and speech.