Mark Ittleman, M.S., CCC/SLP, Guest Blogger
A stroke or brain injury can turn a family’s world upside
down in seconds. You find yourself in
the battle of your life, being guided by whomever you met at the hospital,
hoping they have the answers. As time
goes on and speech does not return, you begin to wonder: “What now?” “Will I (or my loved one) ever be
able to speak again?”
Are you tired of gimmicks, worksheets, software, or boring
one-hour sessions reciting lists of words? In my clinical practice as an expert
speech-language pathologist for the past 40 years, I have seen hundreds of
frustrated patients and family members who have said those very words to
me.
I, too, was tired of programs that didn’t bring success to
my patients. I knew there had to be a
better way, so I began treating my patients differently. I put the gimmicks and worksheets and
software away, and I began talking
with my clients about things they
were interested in. Imagine that! I learned that people learn much faster when
they talk with another human instead of a computer!
The Teaching of
Talking our book which is in the process of being published, is a totally
new concept in speech therapy. Within
its pages you will find a refreshing, revolutionary speech therapy method that
will rock the world of someone you love.
You see, we believe that speech therapy is best done in the home, by
family and caregivers, under the supervision of a licensed speech-language pathologist
familiar with the methods in The Teaching
of Talking.
If you have ever taught a toddler to speak, you will quickly
see why our method works when others fail. We begin slowly, with simple “yes” and “no”
questions and one-word answers, and we talk with the person who is learning to
speak again all day long, through all of the activities of daily living. Sound
familiar? If you offer a toddler some milk, you ask him to “say ‘milk.’” Well, our method is very similar. As one-word answers begin to come easily, we
expand to two-word phrases, and so on.
The fact is that in today’s system, most people with
moderate to severe speaking difficulties will be discharged by an insurance
company long before the need for therapy has ended. You no longer have to be
bound to a speech-language pathologist or insurance company or management
system that is going to discharge you soon anyway.
Take a proactive role in the speech and language stimulation
of your loved one. Become a pivotal, active participant in your loved one’s
recovery, not a passive observer, wondering if they will ever get better. So
when the day comes that your loved one’s therapy is terminated or if they have
been discharged, for whatever reason, you feel confident in going forward with
speech-language stimulation at home for as long as it takes to hear them speaking
with clarity once again!
If you would like to know more about this revolutionary new
method, please visit my website, http://www.teachingoftalking.com/. My name is Mark Ittleman, M.S., CCC/SLP, The speech pathologist who can make rocks
talk!
