We are the premier private practice in Howard County! HMS specializes in working with children with autism, apraxia, and/or eating challenges. We utilize training in: PROMPT, Talk Tools OPT, Visualizing & Verbalizing, and our Help Me Eat programs to improve our clients’ skills.

We offer:
A state of the art clinical setting
Freedom to work your own hours
A wide variety of clients
Excellent earnings potential
Attractive benefits
Creativity in your therapy sessions
Continuing education opportunities
An owner who is a practicing SLP
Advancement possibilities

Work 2 or more days per week. Days and evenings are available.

Contact Barbara or Deborah at 410-442-9791 or info@helpmespeak.com to schedule an interview.

When introducing gum, it’s important to teach the child HOW to chew it. Depending on the age & skill of the child, he/she may not know how to chew gum in an organized manner.  If a child is not organized in his/her chewing, then it’s not going to provide optimum input. Talk Tools has a great gum hierarchy that I use to teach this skill. Many kids have difficulty with one or many of the components of gum chewing: tongue lateralization, bolus control, saliva control, graded & coordinated jaw movements & lip closure. Work on jaw skills via structured oral placement exercises (OPE) should always precede lip, & then tongue exercises. These other structured OPE may need to be taught first or in conjunction with gum chewing. Also, Beckman stretches are important as well.

Once a child is ready for gum, taste & texture are important considerations. Texture: sugar vs sugarless– I recommend gum w/ sugar when a child can chew for only a brief time (<5min). Sugarless gum–because it gets harder over time–is appropriate when a child is able to chew for an extended period of time. So sugarless gum is appropriate for children who are seeking proprioceptive input for sensory organization.

If a child has hypotonia, usually, high taste/flavor like cinnamon, lemon, mint, etc. is recommended. If a child is has eating challenges and is picky about flavors, then tastes close to preferred ones should be selected–sweet, sour, or plain.

It’s important to start with one half of a piece of gum & increase to a full piece once a child is chewing independently. Rarely would I use more than 1 piece at a time. This may be indicated for older kids who are independent, for purely sensory input. 

So ask your SLP or call Help Me Speak to find out if your child has all of the skills needed for gum chewing. It’s harder than it looks! 

Kristin (Reumont) Wurie received her Masters in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Maryland.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in Human Studies from St. Mary’s College.  She taught 5th grade in elementary school for several years.  She is a candidate for Board Certified Behavior Analyst Certification in late 2012.

She is trained in Verbal Behavior-based therapy (VB), Talk Tools’ oral placement exercises, PROMPT, Beckman stretches, the Kaufman speech hierarchy, American Sign Language, natural environment teaching, Help Me Eat program, Food Chaining, PECS, Visualizing & Verbalizing, & PhonoGraphix.  She has worked in settings such as: an adult acute care, a pediatric rehab hospital, outpatient clinics, and in-home therapy.  She combines her love of speech-language pathology with her passion for VB into her energetic therapy sessions.  She joined HMS at the beginning of August.

In her spare time, she enoys spending time with her husband and playing with her dog.  Congratulations on the upcoming birth of her daughter in mid-November.

Christine Lawn received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in Speech-Language Pathology from Loyola University in Maryland.

She is trained in Talk Tools’ oral placement exercises, Beckman stretches, Kaufman speech hierarchy, the Help Me Eat program, American Sign Language, Visualizing & Verbalizing, & Talkies.  She has worked in elementary & middle schools, rehabilitation centers, local hospitals, and long term care facilities.  She stayed home with her 2 sons for several years.  Within the past few years, she has returned to Speech-Language Pathology.

In her spare time, she enjoys walks, reading, and playing games with her sons.

Please stop in to Help Me Speak, LLC and say hi to our new team!

What is a Selective/Restrictive Eater?

• A Selective (picky) eater is a child who eats 20-30 foods in 3 areas (proteins, fruits/vegetables, carbohydrates)
• A Restricitve (problem) eater is a child who eats
• We prefer the term, Eating Challenges, to describe the difficulties our clients face
• Other terms include: Food Neophobia, Infantile Anorexia, Picky/Problem/Selective/Restrictive Eater
• Our experience shows that most children with eating challenges have a combination of difficulties: medical history (reflux, food allergies, illness, a significant food “event”), ORAL MOTOR difficulties (stability, control, coordination, and dissociation of the jaw, lips, tongue), sensory challenges (the look, touch/texture, smell, taste of foods), & resultant behavioral challenges including anxiety concerning foods

Services Available:

• In-depth Eating & Oral Motor Evaluations for Eating or Swallowing Challenges
• Therapy for Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Elementary-aged and Older Children
• Therapy for Adults
• Training/Coaching for Parents or Care Givers
• Help Me Eat classes/groups for any age
• Help Me Eat summer camp

Therapy Techniques including:

• Our Help Me Eat program—a combination of—
• Our skilled approach based on our 20 years of experience and knowledge
• Kay Toomey’s SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) approach to feeding
• Food Chaining
• Suzanne Evans Morris’ Mealtime strategies
• Structured oral placement exercises (Talk Tools hierarchies)
• Beckman stretches
• Training for parents in how to conduct therapy meals at home

Therapy for the Following Needs:

• Expanding the variety of foods accepted by a person with eating challenges
• Normalize sensory skills that support eating
• Parent/ family training in carryover techniques for home
• Support/teach techniques for difficult breastfeeding
• Assist with bottle drinking
• Teach general feeding skills
• Overcome swallowing difficulties
• Learn to eat textured foods
• Transition from the bottle to the cup
• Drink from a straw
• Eliminate pacifier and thumb sucking dependency
• Transition from feeding tubes to oral feeding
• Swallowing safety

Helping Children of All Ages to Communicate Using Signs

Mindy Basara, of Ch 11 WBAL-TV interviews Barbara Taylor, SLP/CEO of Help Me Speak about our Help Me Sign classes for Parents and children of all ages.

Barbara Taylor, SLP, CEO was interviewed and our Help Me Sign class was videotaped on June 19th, 2006. Did you see it? It aired on Wed 8/2/06 during the 5pm newscast of Ch 11 WBAL-TVnews.

Services Available:

• Parent & Child format classes teaching American Sign Language (ASL)
• Based on the award-winning Sign with your Baby program by Dr. Joseph Garcia
• Introductory Classes (90 min)- one session only
• Help Me Sign I– 45 min/week for 8 wks
• Help Me Sign II– 45 min/week for 8 wks
• Saturday workshops available– 3hours each for 2 Saturdays
• Help Me Sign @ Preschool classes available; 30 min/wk; 6-12+ wks
• Help Me Sign & Play classes available– 45 min/week for 4 weeks
• Help Me Sign @ School classes available for Teachers & other school personnel

Download flyer: Help Me Sign info

Registration form: Help Me Sign registration

Parents and Infants/Children will learn:

• The basics of ASL
• How YOU can teach signs to your child
• 10+ thematic signs per week
• How to sign with songs
• How to sign with books
• Parental signing and language strategies
• Developmental speech and language information
• Play ideas using signs
• Resources, and much more!

Benefits of Signing

• Enhances communication and learning by allowing your child (infant, toddler, preschooler, elementary-aged, etc.) to tell you exactly what he/she wants
• Reduces frustration for your child and you!
• Improves rate of IQ development in infants and young children
• Leads to higher levels of language skills
• Enhances bonding and improves self-esteem
• Accelerates speech development
• Research shows that babies who sign start to talk sooner and develop larger vocabularies than their nonsigning peers
• Teaching ASL is beneficial even if your child is already talking and/or is 18months of age or older
• Benefits of signing continue even after a child no longer chooses to sign to communicate
• Allows you to communicate across the room without speaking (great for giving directions to kids!)
• Permits you to communicate without speaking in quiet places, such as churches, synagogues, libraries, movies, etc.
• Provides a way for a child to eat and sign at the same time (no more talking with the mouth open/full) or to cry and sign at the same time (so the child can tell you what hurts)
• It is FUN!

Click here to watch our featured interview!

Help Me Sign @ Preschool:

• Classes have been offered at Peter Pan Learning Center (2006-2008) and at The Young School (fall 06)
• Classes available for 14 months-2yrs, 2 yrs, 3 yrs, 4yrs, 5yrs, elementary, teens, & adults
• Parents are always welcome to participate/ drop in any time
• Learn how YOUR preschooler can sing, read, and play games in SIGN!
• Classes are 30 min of singing, playing, & reading–all in SIGN!
• Classes may be customized for specific ages and/or special themes!
• Contact us for more information

Do you or your child have difficulty with any of the following?

• Pronouncing his/ her sounds clearly
• Producing speech that is easily intelligible to you and/ or to others
• Processing abilities—Attention, Motor-planning, Sequencing
• Not yet speaking (nonverbal)
• Exhibiting a tongue thrust (tongue comes forward when he/she swallows)
• Verbally asking for food and/or toys he/she wants
• Following 2-3 step directions
• Pointing to objects/pictures of everyday items
• Understanding information
• Having a limited vocabulary
• Asking you to repeat often or saying “huh” or “what” a lot
• Having difficulty in school
• Getting stuck on a word
• Becoming easily frustrated with speech or language skills

Therapy Techniques including:

• PROMPT
• Interactive Metronome
• REI (Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention)
• Talk Tools hierarchies (Sara R Johnson)
• Beckman stretches
• Kaufman’s techniques & cards
• ABLC (Affect Based Language Curriculum)
• SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) Approach to feeding
• Fast ForWord
• T.E.A.C.C.H.
• PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)
• Sign Language
• Traditional speech-language methods

Services Available:

• Speech, Oral Motor, & Eating Evaluation
• Language Evaluation
• Comprehensive Evaluation (Speech, O-M, Feeding, & Language)
• Individual Therapy sessions
• Interactive Metronome
• Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention (REI)
• Group treatment sessions (articulation or language)
• Friends in Play – weekly 1hr weekly pragmatic groups for 5-7yrs, 8-11yrs, & 12-18yrs
• Help Me Play classes for parents of infants/toddlers
• Fast ForWord services

Speech, Language, Oral Motor, & Learning Therapy Services for the following diagnoses:

• Apraxia / Dyspraxia
• Dysarthria
• Oral Motor Delays
• Autism Spectrum disorders
• Down syndrome
• Tongue thrust
• Developmental delays
• Expressive / Receptive Language delays
• Auditory / Language Processing disorders
• Stuttering
• Cerebral Palsy
• Stroke
• Traumatic Brain Injury

The first step in changing your lifestyle is choosing healthier foods to eat.  Once you choose healthy foods in moderation, you will lose weight.  Right? Right! Next, you need to drink sufficient water, exercise, and sleep 7+ hours/night.  

In order to choose healthy foods & a healthy lifestyle, try NutriiVeda (NV)! NutriiVeda was created by Dr. Deepak Chopra & Dr. David Simon.  It is a powder made of a very high grade whey isolate protein, brown rice powder, and an Ayurvedic blend of botanicals, including Amalaki (Indian gooseberry), Harataki, Tumeric, Guggul, Green Tea, and more.  www.helpmespeak.com/nutriiveda  NV is gluten free, casein free, nut/tree nut free, and is tested free of heavy metals and pesticides.  

The therapeutic dose of NV is 2 servings/day (2 scoops + 8 oz milk/water= 1serving).  Start with 1-2 scoops/day for a week and work your way up to 4 scoops/day.  It is recommended that you omit processed foods, sugar, & bad fat from your diet.  Instead, add to your diet: green leafy veggies, colorful veggies, low sugar fruits, and lean proteins.  

Drinking sufficient water is another important component of getting NutriiVeda to flush out your system.   One of the first changes that you will notice with NV is that your body begins to flush out toxins (ama).  You will be more regular than perhaps you were prior to NV.  This is a good thing! Getting the sludge out of your system allows for weight loss.  

I started back on NutriiVeda again in Nov 2010.  I started with one scoop per day for 1 week, then 2 scoops/day for 1 weeks, then 4 scoops/day for the rest of the time.  The therapeutic dose is 4 scoops/day.  I've only been at that dose since midNov.  I usually mix my NV with either water or unsweetened Almond Milk.  To date, I have lost 12 pounds and am still going! 

Of course, exercise, water, and sleep are important too.  I have been running/walking 30 minutes/day 3-5x per week.  I'm trying to incorporate more weights into my workouts. Water, water, everywhere!  To drink enough, multiply your body weight by .4  That is the number of ounces that you need to drink per day.  

A great side benefit for me has been a significant decrease in the number of migraines that I get per month.  I used to get ~5/month and now it's 0-1/month.  

To see great before & after pics, go to www.zrii.com/products/nutriiveda/testimonials.xhtml  

To order, call or email me:

barbara.taylor@helpmespeak.com  410-442-9791

www.hms.myzrii.com

Benefits CHERAB Foundation for Apraxia
more info to come…