DALLAS TWP. — The director of professional development and speech services for the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA) is presenting at the 2018 Gabriel Bernabeo Distinguished Speaker Series from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, May 11 in Sandy and Marlene Insalaco Hall on the campus of Misericordia University.
Dave Hammer, M.A., C.C.C.-S.L.P., joined CASANA in 2014. He has more than 35 years of pediatric clinical experience at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, with expertise in childhood apraxia of speech and speech sound disorders. He has provided in-depth consultation, evaluation and successful treatment for hundreds of children with the challenging speech disorder.
A sought-after workshop speaker, Hammer has presented more than 150 workshops on childhood apraxia and speech sound disorders throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. In addition, he has worked as a consultant for other speech therapy practices and clinics that wanted to boost their expertise and treatment success with children who have childhood apraxia of speech.
Childhood apraxia of speech is a neurological childhood, speech-sound disorder in which a child has a difficulty with the motor programming necessary for the production of speech sounds. Regular, intensive speech therapy services treat the communication disorder.
In his multimedia workshop, “Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Multi-Sensory Approach to Achieving Speech Outcomes Therapy-Rich and Video-Enhanced,’’ Hammer will deliver a hands-on, practical and therapy-rich presentation that will focus on strategies for therapists that facilitate verbal communication for children with apraxia of speech. The program at Misericordia University will provide an overview about evaluations and decision-making for therapy. The majority of the program will be intervention based, with numerous therapy ideas.
In addition, a wide range of videos featuring children in therapy will highlight and illustrate strategies and suggestions that parents and caregivers can use outside the therapy setting. The program will close with a question-and-answer session.
Hammer earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in speech and hearing science, and psychology, and his Master of Arts in speech-language pathology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Co-sponsored by the Misericordia University Department of Speech-Language Pathology and the Hazleton Area School District’s Early Intervention Department, the annual workshop is for speech-language pathologists, special education teachers, general education teachers, occupational therapists, social workers, students and parents. The program offers CEUs and Act 48 credits. Occupational therapists will receive a certificate of attendance.
For more information, please contact the Misericordia University Center for Adult and Continuing Education at 570-674-1225 or email Jeff Demko at jdemko@misericordia.edu. To register and pay for the workshop online, visit Misericordia.edu/dss. Deadline for registration is May 4.