Q: I am a school SLP in Iowa and I have some questions about your oral-motor program and its use for students with severe articulation and/or phonological speech errors. I know that many SLPs who come to your workshops use the info for feeding issues but what progress, if any, have you seen with speech improvement? A: Thank you for your question. As a speech therapist in the schools, I found I did not have a quantified Oral Peripheral Exam that would work well for any age and any cognitive level of students. The Beckman Oral Motor Protocol will assist the therapist in ruling in or ruling out any underlying motor speech concerns that may be present for the child with articulation disorders, especially for those children who have not responded to traditional speech interventions. The Beckman Protocol takes 7 minutes to complete, and gives the therapist a quantified score for response to pressure, range, strength, variety and control of movement for the lips, cheeks, jaw, tongue and soft palate. The Beckman Protocol is criteria referenced, which aids in consistency of results between therapists, if the child should have a different therapist the next term. The Beckman Protocol provides a consistent approach to determining minimal competences for oral motor control, no matter what level of skill the child may be staring with. Also keep in mind that to provide the Beckman Protocol, the therapist does not have to buy a test kit or buy score forms. The materials needed to complete the protocol are inexpensive and readily available. This makes the Beckman Protocol very budget friendly in these times of reduced budgets for therapists. Another use for the Beckman Protocol is at the District level for the therapists doing evaluations for the school district. Because the results are quantified, sharing results with the therapists at each school is much easier. One can quickly identify which students have need for follow up for oral motor concerns, and which do not. I hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any additional concerns, please contact me. We are currently scheduling conferences for 2014. We would love to train the therapists in your district.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 00:03:05 +0000
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