The Mindful SLP: Foundations of R - Ep 017

Has R therapy got you stumped and wondering where to go for the solution? It’s time to demystify R and take your therapy to the next level. This week, in part one of a two part podcast, we begin discussing the foundations of R therapy, using Denise’s ground breaking techniques for treating R.

*** Show Notes ***

The Mindful SLP: The Impossible R Made Possible - Episode 3

Impossible R Made Possible course

Music: Simple Gifts performed by Ted Yoder, used with permission

Transcript

Dan: Welcome back to The Mindful SLP, the show that explores simple but powerful therapy techniques for optimal outcomes. I'm Dan Stratton here with Denise. Today, we're going to talk more about Impossible R Made Possible. Now this is a book that Denise wrote several years ago, where she describes how she does her R therapy and how you can do it too and make this into a repeatable process so that you have an answer for every single R case that walks through your door. Now before we start, I want to encourage you to listen all the way to the end, because we have a very special offer that's going to be able to help you in your therapy. Denise has attended several conferences where she's been a vendor selling the book.

I've had the pleasure of sitting back and watching as people have come up to her and ask her questions about the book. And so I want to just kind of start off today, just asking some of those questions. One of them I always see is people come up and say, Denise, I have all these R kids. Can you really make it so I can help every kid with their R?

Denise: Yes, I can.

Dan: That's pretty bold.

Denise: It's a repeatable process. So here's the thing. There are three foundational principles to R therapy. And when you understand how to put these in place, you'll have success with R that you've never experienced before. So today I'm going to give you a little glimpse about how I developed my techniques, the story behind it. And I'm going to describe the first principle of R. Now I call them foundational principles, and I know that's a mouthful.

It wouldn't be a speech therapy thing. If it wasn't a mouthful.

But, the idea is you need to build a foundation for R to rest on. And the way to build that foundation is to understand these principles.

Dan: All right, well, let's start with the backstory. How did this all come about?

Denise: Okay. Several years ago, I had two fourth graders on my caseload who couldn't say R to save their life. And I had tried everything I knew, both of them had been in my caseload for more than a year. And if anything, they seem to be getting worse instead of better, um, and I was one discouraged speech therapist. I, you know, I tried everything. I read books, I went to conferences, but everything that I heard or read was just a repeat of what I've already tried without success. So I was just missing something and I thought if I could just get one good, clear R sound from them in any shape or form, I could be on my way.

Dan: Well, that must've made you feel real good to go into IEP meetings. You probably felt like I'm the speech therapist and I can't get a single R.

Denise: Yeah. I certainly had what we call the imposter syndrome. I felt very inadequate and that feeling transferred to the students too. It was like, we both knew that our session that day wasn't going to change things, but we had to pretend it would. And it made me feel like a fraud. You know, you're sitting there with the parents and when they had made no progress, I really couldn't say well, I'm stuck. I don't know what to do to help your child.

Dan: That really is a tough thing to sit in front of them and say something like that. What happened?

Denise: One day, I discovered how to look at the way their jaw, lips, and tongue were interacting. I saw this little crack of light of understanding and I pursued it for all I was worth.

Dan: What did you find?

Denise: Well, one of the fourth graders was saying pre-vocalic R perfectly in words within two weeks. It was so amazing. And the other student, she took a little bit longer to find her R, but when she did, boy, did she zoom! She had every R within two months. And then she graduated from speech therapy that spring actually.

Dan: How did that feel?

Denise: It felt so good. I wanted to tell the whole world, the whole SLP world anyway, and I wanted to chase down every previous client that had moved on from my caseload without a correct R and say, I know what to do now. Can you come back?

Dan: And that's why you wrote the book and eventually made the course is to try and get this information out to other speech therapists and give them the knowledge to be able to have that same confidence, that same success that you had. Let's dive into the first principle. What is it?

Denise: Okay, so more big words here. The first principle is what I call stability and mobility. So let me explain that clients need to have good control of their jaw, their lips and their tongue before they could even begin to attempt R oh, now that's not groundbreaking news, but what is new is I show you what to look for, so you know, what kind of control they're missing, you know, how to break it down and what level to start on, and what you need to teach them. I show you what jaw stability looks like and how that supports the mobility of the lips and tongue to move, where they need to, for R.

Dan: So let's jump into an analogy that I've heard you use before, and that analogy is doing sit-ups. Now I've been working with a personal trainer, and I know that there's more to just a sit-up than just doing a sit-up. There's there's certain techniques and things that you need to do. Talk a little bit more about this analogy of a sit-up.

Denise: Oh, you must have core strength to do a sit-up. If you don't have those core muscles, you can't do a sit-up at all, or you might be able to pull hard on your neck and get yourself into a sit-up, which is not how that's supposed to happen.

Dan: It actually does more damage.

Denise: It hurts your neck. Um, so with clients who don't even have the capability for R, it's like you're telling to do sit ups when they have no core strength and they just can't do it. And they fail week after week. And you feel like you fail week after week. What they have to do is they have to spend some time building capability to even approach the R sound.

Dan: So using the muscles is even a foundational part of R, there's muscles involved.

Denise: There's muscles involved in all of our speech and it just so happens that R has some tricky interactions between the jaw, the lips and the tongue. And it's kind of a hard sound, but it's totally doable once you understand these principles. And also a huge benefit to building capability is how it just changes the dynamics of your therapy sessions. When you take the focus off saying R, and put it on simply completing some movements with their jaw or their lips or their tongue, things that they can do with a little bit of effort, it lifts that burden off of them. Like, I'll tell them, we're not going to say R today. Don't even worry about it. And some of them been in therapy for years and they come and go R, R, R.. But we're trying to say it, and I'm like, forget it, forget it. We're not doing R, we are building your ability to say R, and we doing these things first.

Dan: So really, it's important to start with something they can do rather than focusing on what they can't.

Denise: Absolutely. And you know, that's not so new to SLPs either, but knowing how to build the capability is what is new.

Dan: So why is this groundbreaking? Why can't I just go to my nearest SLP textbook and, and have this all laid out for me?

Denise: Oh, if I had learned it in college, it would have saved me so much frustration, but I didn't and talking to so many other SLPs, they don't, they didn't learn it either. Um, there are many, many R books and R programs out there, but none of them have put the three principles together. The way Impossible R Made Possible does. There are bits and pieces here and there, but I've put them together in a cohesive, sequential, repeatable whole that I haven't seen anywhere else.

Now I do have to say, I really appreciate SLPs like Pam Marchello, Char Boshart, and Deborah Hayden who have written extensively about the importance of building capability. And they really helped me understand some things that helped me put the R puzzle together. So Impossible R Made Possible is a groundbreaking, because of the way it explains the principles of R therapy and because of specific activities I have created to support you in therapy, but I didn't build it from a vacuum. And I don't think anyone really does who built something to value. They are always building on something.

Hey speech therapist, this is Denise. You know, that feeling you have when your R clients are not progressing? I've had it. Had a client who just can't elicit R, no matter what? I've been there, but I'm not there anymore. And I want you to get there too. Join me for a free masterclass and I'll teach you one technique that can quickly elicit an R in about 30% of your clients. It's my favorite go-to with new R clients. Go to SLP proadvisor.com/masterclass to reserve your spot. Now spend a little time with me and we will get your clients moving. Visit SLP proadvisor.com/masterclass to sign up today. That's SLP proadvisor.com/masterclass. Now back to the show.

Dan: One of the advantages that I've seen is that you can take some of this academic research and then be able to synthesize it down to actual tasks that you can do in a therapy session. To me, that's what is the real big value of Impossible R Made Possible, is being able to take that into the therapy room.

Denise: Yes, that is so right. So I was reading a research study about MRIs and R therapy a few years ago, I took the information incorporated it into my our program, but the researcher, although, I mean, information was still valuable, had a couple of suggestions for eliciting R that, were just kind of like what I'd read before. What I did is I built a bridge between the research and the activities. This is what you can do. So I read that research study, bingo light went on in my head. Oh yeah, I get how this connects and now I can explain it to other speech therapists and I can do this specific exercise or I can have them move their tongue this specific way, and that client will understand what I'm trying to get at.

So, um, that's the value. It just bridges that gap between this academic research and actually knowing what to do with the therapy, when that client is sitting in, across from you and like, okay, well, I know R, the tongue makes a certain shape, but I don't know how to get the client there. I tell you how to get the client there.

That's going

Dan: to wrap us up for today and we will cover the next two principles in our next podcast.

Denise: In the meantime, you can go to SLP proadvisor.com, click on training. That will take you to my page that describes the R course and all the modules that I have. I have it broken down what I teach in each module. I think you'll find it really interesting.

Dan: Thanks for listening.

Denise: See you next time.

Dan: Thank you for listening to The Mindful SLP. We hope you found some simple tools that will have optimal outcomes in your practice. This podcast is sponsored by SLP ProAdvisor. Visit SLP pro-advisor dot com for more tools, including Impossible R Made Possible, Denise's highly effective course for treating those troublesome Rs. A link is in the show notes. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five-star rating and tell your fellow SLPs. And please let us know what you think. Join the conversation at SLP pro-advisor dot com.