Lisa says therapists not responsible for future behavior

Lisa Sloan-Limmer, a speech therapist, reported this update:

"Today I had a phone call from a parent that makes all of the challenges in being a pediatric speech pathologist so WORTH IT! The parent called to tell me how pleased they were with their child's progress in my group and how much more their child is speaking. The family has reached a huge milestone: The child has begun to be able to communicate his/her wants and needs and the stress and frustration of trying to 'figure things out' several times a day has greatly decreased! Of course, as I personally experienced from my 17 year old being in speech therapy when he was 2; when my student reaches the wonderous 'preteen' age, they might not feel quite so grateful to me! I feel I must add this disclaimer: I am not responsible for future 'sassiness or backtalk.' Ha ha!"

Jennifer shares one last story

Jennifer Cortes has worked at BRSHF for many years. As an undergraduate worker, she has worn many hats, from group therapy aide to individual ABA therapist working with children on the autism spectrum, to coordinating our front office, scheduling and billing. Unfortunately for us, Jennifer's last day was yesterday, as she is moving to Valdosta, GA to begin a Masters in Social Work in the Fall! Before she left, she shared this note about her experience here:

"I have been privileged to work with many of the children and families we serve at the Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundatio, as both an ABA therapist and administrative assistant, and here is one of my stories:

One little boy whom I have worked with one-on-one for quite some time had been struggling to learn the skill "arms up." I kept trying to come up with ways to get him to learn this skill, such as holding candy above his head to get him to reach for it, or tickling the palms of his hand, which he loves, when he would even slightly lift his arms. One day when his mom came to pick him up, she mentioned that he likes to do twists off of the couch. I had never let him do flips in the room before, but I thought that maybe, just maybe, he would might go for it. Sure enough, it worked! During our ABA session the next day, I stood up, told him "arms up" and he stood up from his chair, took two steps towards me, and with the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face, he lifted his arms as high as he could for me to pick him up! So, what did I do? I picked him up, threw him in the air, tickled him, and let him twist! I think he knew he got it right, and I was so proud of him I had tears in my eyes!"

Sarah's client says thanks

Sarah Brunet is one of our speech therapists who provides group and individual speech therapy at our clinic, and also off-site through the Federal Early Steps program. She had this experience recently:

“I had an Early Steps patient who I’ve worked with since October, and my last session with him was a few days ago. When we started he was only using single words and gesturing a lot – now he asks questions appropriately and uses complete sentences. His mom has been warning him for a few weeks that his time with me was almost over. Well, at the end of the session, unprompted by me or his mom, he looked at me and said, ‘Thank you for playing with me.’ When a student comes up with a spontaneous sentence like that, I really know I’ve had an impact!”

Kristen is motivated by progress daily

Kristen Abbondate is a Ph.D. candidate in psychology who has worked within our autism program (based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA) for 2 years. At the end of the summer, she will conclude her assignment here at BRSHF, but not before she relates some of her favorite stories and memories with us!

"As the ABA supervisor, I have the opportunity to watch the children grow and overcome new obstacles each week. I live the struggle trying to come up with new and imaginative ways to help the students grow in our program. Although miracles happen everyday, some stories leave a little more of an imprint than others…


I was making my usual rounds viewing the children’s programs, giving advice to the therapist, and offering my help where needed. That day, I happened to walk into an ABA session with a particular student. This student had struggled in our program. He would tantrum for most of the session, did not speak any words, nor touch known items. When I walked in that day, I saw a very different scene. He was making eye contact with the therapist, laughing as they sang songs together, identifying objects in his environment, and requesting for wanted items. I had to hold back the tears in my eyes as I almost could not believe what I was seeing. I believe I almost did a back flip when I praised him for his hard work. I will never forget that day.

That child is still doing well and I continue to see miracles like this everyday. I get asked a lot why I do what I do. When I tell stories like the one above, and I have many, it is very easy to understand why I do what I do."

Slimy snails solidify speech

Trenae Webb, one of BRSHF's speech therapists, submitted this blogpost after an exchange with nature this morning:


" 'Look! I got a slimy, sticky snail! You wanna see? Are you scared?' is what I heard echoing through the halls of the clinic this morning, prepping for my 9 o'clock client. Praying that the cute little ones from Ms. Tanya's mornining language group would not navigate to my office with their new "slick" friend, I cheered them on in their precision in articulation show and tell, mastering their "S" sounds with little to no cues from their therapist. Nothing's off limits when it comes to reaching those speech and language targets at our clinic. Nothing! Not even nature's best creatures. I bet Mr. Snail had no idea he would be the hot topic as he traveled to speech therapy this morning. I noticed he was rather non-verbal. He had no complaints! If you haven't become suspicious of it already, it's a fact...we love what we do!"

Tough Bet

Missy Devillier, BRSHF's Occupational Therapist, overheard this quick exchange yesterday during therapy:

"Parts of my therapy involve a big bucket full of beans. At pick-up time, Dad says to one of my little guys, 'If you guess how many beans are in the bucket, you can win a million dollars.' Little guy stops and thinks and says, 'a lot.' Dad and I smile and say, 'that's a good answer!' Little guys says, 'where's my money?!'"

Even non-therapy staff inspired by kids at the Foundation

Here is an update from me, Lauren Michaud, administrator of the BRSHF staff blog.

"As Development and Marketing Coordinator, I created this blog in order to be able to post stories from the therapy and audiology staff, as a glimpse into the day-to-day experiences they encouter with our students and clients. I had no intention of posting myself; my role was simply going to be collecting the content and creating the posts. However, even as a layman with no medical background, it's impossible to work in this building without being impressed (and entertained) by our children on a daily basis, and this is a snapshot of the clinic I had to share.

I was on the playground this morning during play time, mapping out the layout for our 50th Anniversary party in September. While I was out there, I had a few observations about the students playing. One young student started our autism/preschool language therapy program this spring with gross motor impairments (meaning she held her arms up at face-level at all times and walked in big stomping-steps). Today on the playground, I noticed she was walking with her arms down in a much more natural stride, navigating steps on and off the pavement that would have likely tripped her a few months ago. Even though our focus is on correcting communication delays, the occupational therapy this child receives in conjuntion with her speech and ABA therapy is clearly having an impact on her overall development. Her progress was abundantly apparent, even to me!

Another child, always good for fascinating narrative, was running around the playground with a zucchini. When I asked him about it, I learned he brought that and an ear of corn from his garden to play with today. Another student asked him to play with a ball he was also holding, and he bargained with her, saying "no, but you can have this zucchini!" It just goes to show, dear readers, that there's always something exciting going on at BRSHF!"

Ms. Bonita inspired by kids' resilience

Ms. Bonita, our front office manager, told me this story from an encounter this morning:

"One of the students here broke his arm over the weekend. He came in this morning & greeted me 'Hi, Ms. Bonita!' like always, and when I saw his cast, I said, 'Oh no! What happened??' He wasn't bothered at all, he just said 'I broke it, jumping on the trampoline on Sunday. Had to go to the hospital & get a cast.' I just couldn't believe that, he was so calm! If I were in that position I'd probably be moping, but he just told me, matter-of-factly, what happened and ran off down the hallway to go to group! I love observing the kids when they come and go everyday. I get to see how they progress through their therapy, and so many of them greet me by name or run up and give me a hug. It really is a great perk of this job!" 

BRSHF's Autism Program Growing

Dr. Brian Esteve, coordinator of BRSHF's program for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, shared this quick update about the program:

"Last week as we kicked off the summer session, the Autism program welcomed twenty new and returning students into therapy. We started the program in conjunction with LSU six years ago with four children. Two of the undergraduate therapy aides from that first group in 2004 still work with us today - Sarah Brunet is a licensed speech pathologist leading group and individual speech therapy, and Carolyn Barahona is a Ph.D. candidate in Psychology helping to oversee the individual ABA therapy. We're so proud to be able to offer the only clinic-based, scientifically-proven therapy for autistic children here in Baton Rouge, and look forward to growing the program to meet the community's needs in coming years."

Trenae's client goes from jargon to full sentence

Trenae Webb, one of our speech therapists, has this update from parent conferences a few weeks ago:


"It was that time of the year for parent conference... a time to report all the progress that my client has made over the course of our quaterly sessions.  A precious little two year old in my group began with me not yet producing multiword combinations like her typically developing peers and primarily producing jargon-like speech, her own "personal" language.   Well, we've been working diligently on the production of true words through imitation and really manipulating the enviroment for spontaneous productions as well.  She had been progressing well, imitating 2-3 word phrases. A few days prior to the conference, she began imitating 3-4 word utterances.  It was during the parent conference that my little client burst into speech with her own, spontenous request for a ball:  "I want the ball!"   Mom was practically in tears, overwhelmed and exclaimed:  "Wow, I'm amazed!  She's talking sentences!"  Shortly after our confererence, Mom had a great report of how her little girl is suddenly a social butterfly and her use of words is increasing daily.  Ha! What a moment!  Simply priceless and a reminder of why I do what I do!"