The speech-language pathologists who help the wants of sufferers at Meritus Bodily Remedy are obsessed with making certain these of their care have the instruments and talents they should talk with these round them.
“With the ability to talk just isn’t one thing to be taken without any consideration – and everybody deserves to have their voice heard. One thing to recollect, is that communication just isn’t a privilege, it’s a primary human proper,” says Bethany Dunahugh, speech-language pathologist at Meritus Bodily Remedy.
In an effort to help that primary proper, two years in the past, Meritus Bodily Remedy began a program to assist non-verbal sufferers acquire and learn to use communication gadgets. These gadgets, referred to as speech producing gadgets, or SGDs, are a type of Augmentative and Various Communication (AAC). SGDs permit sufferers to speak desires, wants and preferences by making choices by way of direct contact or different strategies akin to use of a change or eye monitoring. Utilized by sufferers with autism and quite a lot of different neurological situations, AAC is a superb software for constructing and enhancing a person’s means to speak.
These gadgets will be custom-made with many vocabulary choices, totally different languages and dialects. There are numerous choices for entry – direct choice with arms or toes, eye monitoring, head monitoring and extra. Dunahugh recommends caregivers interested by studying extra about this system ought to schedule an appointment with the affected person’s doctor to debate enhancing the affected person’s means to speak and request a referral to Meritus Bodily Remedy. “The method generally includes little bit of teamwork to get every thing collectively. Having the doctor on board helps makes issues go loads smoother!” Dunahugh states.
Since starting this system, 36 sufferers have acquired speech producing gadgets, and extra sufferers are awaiting insurance coverage approval. Nonetheless, these gadgets are simply certainly one of many instruments to help these people who’re non-verbal, together with these on the autism and neurodiversity spectrum,
Extra companies and help choices supplied by Meritus Bodily Remedy’s pediatrics crew embody:
- Direct companies and consultative companies (based mostly on individualized wants)
- Social expertise coaching
- Implementation of social narratives and visible helps
- Sensory integration methods
- Useful “actions of each day dwelling” ability improvement and coaching
- Household-focused coaching and mother or father teaching
To study extra about AACs or different companies associated to the therapy of autism or neurodiversity issues, contact the Meritus Bodily Remedy pediatrics crew at 301-790-8613.
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