Celebrating Speech and Hearing Month at Lansdowne Children's Centre

From expressing our needs to sharing our experiences, communication is an essential part of life.

May is Speech and Hearing Month, a time to celebrate the life-changing difference speech-language pathologists and other professionals in the field can make by helping kids find the tools that will best help them communicate effectively.

“Communication is not just speech; it's also gestures and facial expressions and signs,”

said Fran Talarico, speech-language pathologist who was formerly with Lansdowne Children’s Centre.

It can also include AACs, or augmentative and alternative communication devices.

“AAC is everything other than speech; all the other ways we use to communicate,” Fran said.

These can vary widely, from low to high tech devices.

Two of the simplest forms AACs can take are core boards and flip books.

Fran explained that core boards are popping up more and more often in places where children may be found, such as playgrounds.

“It’s essentially a kind of grid with some pictures and words that you can point to while you’re talking to the kids, to communicate with them,” she said. These might include words like stop, go, play, eat, etc.

Flip books, meanwhile, can be as simple as a portable version of a core board, or a more complex and personalized book.

“These ones have an expanded vocabulary, with more categories. So, we might have a page with animals or a page with colours and shapes, and people like family members,” Fran said.

“Sometimes we’ll customize them for kids who are using the core board and we need to expand their vocabulary and their ability to communicate; we might bump them up to something a bit more complex.”

Tablets are a form of high tech AACs, with numerous apps available to choose from. These might include features such as audibly saying the word that’s been selected.

Whatever form AAC takes, it’s used “for kids where they need support with face-to-face communication and their speech is not meeting their need to communicate with others,” Fran said.

On top of that, there is a parent or caregiver coaching component, where the clinician will show the adults in a child’s life “how they can interact with their kids using the visuals, how to model on either their core board, or on the (tablet).”

Lansdowne has two flagship programs through which it supports children’s communication development: the Preschool Speech and Language Program, which is offered through one of Lansdowne’s four centres in Grand Erie (Brantford, Caledonia, Dunnville or Simcoe), and the School Based Rehabilitation Services, which is offered in partnership with the local school boards.

Both of these programs offer specialized supports that give children and their families the tools they need to fulfil their potential.