Asperger's and speech-related issues

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Asperger's and speech-related issues

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Well, Asperger's syndrome is actually a social communication disorder. So right there, it's imperative that you work on pragmatics. Pragmatics are eye contact, joint attention, greetings, topic maintenance, nonverbal communication. Those are skills that do not come naturally to this population. The same is true for the autistic population. They actually think in pictures. So it's imperative to work on receptive and expressive language and social communication. Sometimes they need scripts to be successful with social communication. Sometimes with this population, this particular population, things crop up when they reach school age; everything seems okay until they enter school. And during that first conference, the teacher may say to the parent, "You know, your child has difficulty processing what I'm saying. Or your child doesn't get the main idea or is unable to predict outcomes, or is unable to read between the lines or inferences." So we need to work on those skills as well. My office is filled with that particular population of children that have difficulty in that area. So I'm always working on those particular skills. And those children are not toddlers; they're 7, 8, 9, 10 to 16-years old.

Watch Barbara Schacter, LCSW's video on Asperger's and speech-related issues...

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Barbara Schacter, LCSW

Speech-Language Pathologist

Barbara was raised in New England, then attended The George Washington University for both undergraduate and graduate school.  She began as a dance major, but soon realized that she might have had a colorful, but short career and she was looking for a profession that would inspire and challenge her for many years.  As luck would have it, G.W.U. had an excellent speech pathology and audiology department. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree, the university offered her a fellowship for graduate school with an internship associated with not only their speech and hearing clinic, but with the George Washington University Hospital, as well. 

After graduate school, she secured a position in a private school for children with language and learning disabilities.  She followed that with a 10-year stint at a residential children's psychiatric center.  Longing to work with a more varied population, she then worked in a public school in New Jersey.  There, she developed and taught a language enrichment program for all kindergartners in the district and provided speech and language therapy for the two special education classes, as well as serving those students from kindergarten to sixth grade having articulation, fluency, voice, cleft palate, hearing impairment and language delays.  In 1992, she moved to Los Angeles and was hired by Saint John's Health Center to participate as a member on their cleft palate team as well as providing pediatric and geriatric out-patient speech and language services.  Several years later, she opened a private practice in Pacific Palisades, CA, which continues to this day.  She is delighted to say that she still gets a thrill out of the work she does...and that is such a gift!

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