speech-language therapy

A productive September

With the opening of occupational therapy and the sudden increase in inquiries and clients (we’re actually considering hiring another speech therapist), September so far has been a blur and we have just realized that the month’s almost at an end. But a full schedule and the existence of a waiting list aren’t the only ways we measure productivity. September is also an eventful month for people who work with children. This is the month developmental pediatricians assembled in one teachable event, a world-renowned speech therapist came to the country to talk about her increasingly popular therapy framework, and people from different provinces and countries went to Manila’s five-day book fair. Seeing those events as opportunities to enrich our practice and our center and to better help our clients realize their potentials, we took the time to attend all three. And because sharing is caring, we will impart a few takeaways from each event.

QUINDECIM: The 8th Biennial Developmental and Behavioral Pediatricians’ Convention

On September 1 and 2, we attended the every-other-year convention held by the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatricians Society of the Philippines (DBPSP). Entitled Quindecim (meaning fifteen in Latin), the society celebrates its decade and a half of existence, having its inception in 1999 and foundation in 2000. “Reminiscing, experiencing and hoping” which was also meant “past, present and future” was a recurring theme during the discussions and lectures facilitated not only by developmental and behavioral pediatricians, but also other professionals who work with individuals with special needs.

Being at this convention helped us promote our therapy center to developmental pediatricians who, in the ideal setting refers students to us for occupational and/or speech therapy. But more importantly, we learned and relearned plenty of things from the lectures and discussions. Here are some of them:

1. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” This is a quote by Frederick Douglass, as mentioned in Dr. Joel Lazaro’s lecture “CATCH THEM BEFORE THEY FALL: Framework for Linking Brain Plasticity and Early Intervention”. This is first on the list and aptly so because we cannot stress enough how important EARLY INTERVENTION is to a child’s overall development. It is crucial to start early as far as child development is concerned because the brain is highly plastic (moldable, open to change) the younger the child is. This plasticity peaks around ages 5 to 7 before it starts to become less and less adaptable due to the structures of the brain becoming fully formed at age seven.

2. Minimum screen time for children. Since we started practicing in 2010, we have been telling parents to avoid or at least limit exposing their children to television and gadgets. Some of them follow this recommendation while others say they will. As parents, or at least people who know how tiresome it is to take care of children, we know how giving our kids their much wanted iPad or leaving them in the couch watching Dora the Explorer for hours on end in turn gives us the peace and quiet we so need. But as therapists, we know doing this would be counterproductive to developing good work behaviors and learning language among other developmental skills. We tell parents to limit doing something that’s easy and pleasurable to both them and their kids but when they ask how much screen time is just right, we would give varying answers. We are so unsure of the figures at times that our clients do not find us confident and so they end up not following our advice. Now, thanks to the info from the same lecture by Dr. Lazaro, we now have these numbers to back up this no-screen prescription (from Aaron Ramos’ Facebook page):


3. Transition and self-advocacy

The convention also had a panel discussion about transition, and how it isn’t only about helping adolescents and adults get jobs. Transition happens anytime change in context happens. It can happen as early as toddlerhood. And it can be as simple as moving on from high school to college, which was exactly what the panelists discussed. One of them, a college student from the College of St. Benilde and an individual with ADD, talked of doing self-advocacy, how it isn’t easy, and how we can train ourselves to be self-advocates.


There were other topics at the convention and many of them were a mouthful. But we did not get to engage in continuing education in a long time, so after two weeks, we set out to a much nearer Alabang and attended…

Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking Seminar


This September 17-18 event was MGW’s (let’s call her that for the rest of this post) second seminar on social thinking in the Philippines (the first one happened in 2011). For a second-time stint, she had plenty of different but not necessarily new things to teach – some of them newer ways of teaching social thinking. The basic thoughts and principles however, stayed the same. Some of them being:

1. Social thinking happens all the time. Even when we’re not talking or being around others.

2. We must think with our eyes (though she did not expound on full body listening this time around).

3. Language and communication are highly nuanced.


We then capped our September in terms of acquiring new things by visiting the…

36th Manila International Book Fair


Held on September 16-20, this annual book fair is frequented not only by people who like to read, but also by those who work with children, as they have booths that sell educational books and toys with discounts. There are also booths of popular bookstores like National…


…and Fully Booked, which lived up to its name on the fair’s last day.


By the end of my visit, my bags were full with toys and books…


…and magazines for our center’s waiting area.


May October be as awesome as our September has been. Happy end of the month!

The Autism Diagnosis

You notice that your child is lagging behind in terms of speech. Come to think of it, she also has delayed motor skills. His teachers in school find it difficult to make him sit down and focus in class, as he is also prone to hand-flapping, humming, teeth grinding, and the occasional tantrums that seem to occur when the janitor passes by the corridors with his vacuum cleaner on. You notice that your child prefers to play alone, and that when he does, he turns over that monster truck toy you bought him and stares intently at the wheels as he makes them spin continuously with his fingers. She is small and thin for his age as she would only eat soft food items like eggs and pancit canton. He refuses to have his teeth brushed most of the time and this is ruining his pearly whites. You’ve heard, seen, or read about these symptoms before but you’ll have to find out for sure, so you seek medical help. After falling in line to get an appointment and then falling in line and waiting again to have your child seen by a developmental pediatrician, you were finally given an answer. “Autism spectrum disorder” as the DevPed wrote on her prescription pad, along with a referral for occupational and speech therapy. The doctor may also have written a recommendation for a school set up and a few behavior management strategies but you were too devastated to process it all. Too numb and hurt at the same time from all the shards that was your dreams and aspirations for your child as they come crashing down your feet after the diagnosis, like a baseball bat, shattered them into painful nothingness.

Except it doesn’t have to be like that.

So your child has been diagnosed with autism. The big A, as some people call it. It is big news, one that isn’t taken well by many. Some seek second opinion. Some undergo (or get stuck in one of) the stages of grief. Some, no matter how they feel about it, follow the doctor’s orders anyway and start looking for a speech therapist and an occupational therapist. If you are among the last example, consider your child lucky. Acting on the doctor’s (or teacher’s, or any qualified professional who noticed the problem) recommendations gives your child a head-start towards a more independent and meaningful life. Diagnosis or not, and as with most of life’s obstacles, actually doing something rather than moping is always better. We can tell you how we therapists see and treat a diagnosis given to our clients but before that, let us tell you where you, after finding out your child has autism, should focus instead:

1. Your child’s skills

Your child may have been diagnosed with autism but just where does he or she stand in the spectrum? How well can he or she communicate? Is he or she independent in terms of activities that are expected of him or her? How well does he or she do in terms of his or her developmental milestones?

2. Your child’s lifestyle as well as yours as a family

What kinds of activities does your child enjoy? What activities does he or she avoid? Do these avoided activities hinder his or her functioning and ability to communicate? Is he or she picky with food? Are there specific situations when a tantrum is almost sure to happen? How do all these affect the family’s lifestyle and vice versa? Are there certain things that happen or are done in the household that help or hinder the child’s performance? What lifestyle changes should be done to maximize the child’s abilities?

3. Discipline, activities and interactions with people across different contexts

How do you discipline the child? How does it differ from the way you discipline his or her siblings? How do these siblings interact with him or her? How do his or her classmates and teachers at school interact with him or her? How does the community in which he or she lives interact with him or her?

4. Your child’s strengths, preferences, and interests

You’ve noticed that your child actually has good visual skills. How can we make the most of this to teach him or her? To help him or her become independent? To get him or her to communicate more? So he or she also focuses a little too much on numbers, time and dates, but is this really so bad? How can we make it so that these interests benefit him or her?

5. Your usual child rearing, but more consistent

Going back to how your child is disciplined as compared to his or her other siblings, how different is raising this particular child from the others? Aside from the different skills, lifestyle demands and interests, how different or similar are the general principles of raising this child as compared to the others?

We all need to work hand in hand. :)

We all need to work hand in hand. 🙂

At the end of the day, we as therapists respect diagnoses given by doctors. They help and guide us with planning and making considerations in our therapeutic management. They provide us with a picture of the child so we will at least have an idea on what to do even before we meet them. But as much as diagnoses are acknowledged, they should not be dwelt on, especially if doing so leads to inaction. And in the case of child development, every action that we take or not has implications to our child’s future and well-being.

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.“

–Herbert Spencer

“What’s speech-language therapy?”

My turn!

Speech therapy, speech-language therapy, speech-language pathology, speech pathology… it’s the same banana.

Simply put, speech-language pathologists (as they are called in the Philippines) help improve a person’s communicative and swallowing abilities.

Now, I have had my fair share of being on the receiving end of perplexed looks from people who ask me, “What do you do for a living?” or “Saan ka nagtatrabaho?”. I daresay that I might have heard most, if not all, of the common, yet amusing, reactions to my response.

“Ano ho yung speech terapi? Gumagawa po ba kayo ng speech?” (“What is speech therapy? Do you make speeches?”)

NOPE. Through careful assessment, individualized goal-setting, and age-appropriate activities, we help teach people to produce sounds, words, phrases, and/or sentences (read: speech) to express their needs and wants. We don’t teach them how to accept an Oscar.

“Speech terapi? Para ho sa mga taong hindi nagsasalita yun, diba?” (“Speech therapy? That is for people who cannot talk, right?”)

YES and NO. Just because a person can repeat words or sentences (especially from cartoons or movies), does not necessarily mean that that person’s speech is functional. In addition, speech-language pathologists also help people who have little or no means to produce speech to be able to “express themselves” through alternative or augmentative modes of communication, such as the use of pictures, tablets, keyboards, pencil and paper, etc.

“Pwede ho ba magpa speech terapi para makapag English ako na parang Amerikano?” (“Can I undergo speech therapy so I can speak English like an American?”)

Er… I have not had the chance to do this, honestly, but I do not think it’s unheard of. Perhaps it is possible… Hmmm…

“Pambata lang po yun, diba?” (“It’s just for children, right?”)

I think anyone of any age who struggles with communication or swallowing to the extent that it may be hampering his or her quality of life may be referred for speech-language therapy services.

“Eh di parang English teacher po?” (“So is it like being an English teacher?”)

As in the previous post, we have tried to establish that although the output looks similar (we “teach” people how to say this particular sound or word, construct sentences, listen to stories, etc.), teachers disseminate new information or knowledge to a class or to a student while speech-language pathologists help prepare the child to be able to receive information as well as retell it when asked.

“Speech Pathology? Four year course ba yun?” (“Speech Pathology? Is it a four year course?”)

In some universities, yes. Other universities offer it as a 5 year course. Areas of study in this field are so varied and broad even after everything, there is still so much to learn. The following schools offer the course:

  • University of the Philippines – Manila (Manila)
  • University of Sto. Tomas (Manila)
  • De La Salle Health Sciences Institute (Dasmariñas, Cavite)
  • Cebu Doctors’ University (Cebu)

I will try to recall more amusing reactions and add them to this post once I do. 🙂

– D