Dower and Associates, Inc.

30/05/2026

Last Saturday, The New York Times published “Short Naps, Long Hours: How Autism Clinics Squeeze Medicaid Dollars Out of Preschoolers,” an article on applied behavior analysis (ABA) services for children with autism. It highlighted evidence of abuse by individual providers, as well as raised questions about organizations prioritizing profits over care. The article also presented a misleading picture of the evidence base supporting ABA’s efficacy.

Read CASP's statement: https://www.casproviders.org/news/casp-responds-to-new-york-times-articles

28/05/2026

Sometimes, you just have to do speech therapy upside down 🤣🤣

25/05/2026

Today, we remember and honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Memorial Day is more than the unofficial start of summer. It is a time to reflect on sacrifice, courage, and the freedoms secured by those who never made it home.

At Dower and Associates, we extend our gratitude to the military families carrying both pride and loss today. We remember those who served, those who sacrificed, and those whose legacies continue through the lives they touched.

Wishing everyone a safe and meaningful Memorial Day. 🇺🇸

18/05/2026

Happy National Speech-Language Pathologist Day! 💬🧠🎉

Today, let's celebrate the professionals who help children find their voices, build confidence, strengthen communication, and connect more meaningfully with the world around them. From first words and articulation practice to AAC, literacy, social communication, and language development, speech-language pathologists make a lasting impact every single day.

At Dower and Associates, I am especially proud to provide behaviorally oriented speech-language services grounded in evidence-based practice, compassion, collaboration, and individualized care. Pediatric speech therapy clinics are often filled with toys, books, games, visuals, laughter, and a whole lot of hard work behind the scenes — all designed to make communication meaningful and functional for the children and families we serve.

Thank you to the SLPs who teach, advocate, analyze data, celebrate tiny victories, and help children communicate in ways that matter most to them and their families. ❤️

18/05/2026

https://www.songsforkids.org/

THE SONGS FOR KIDS BAND! WENT ON TOUR! LEARN MORE THE SONGS FOR KIDS BAND! IS GOING ON TOUR! LEARN MORE Songs For Kids provides music mentorship and interactive programs for kids and young adults with illnesses, injuries, and disabilities. We focus on creative expression, encourage exploration in a....

16/05/2026

👏🏼👏🏼

Easy to understand and navigate is a simple and accurate way to describe the new website of the Communication Health Support Association, ASHA’s consumer affiliate.

A completely consumer-friendly resource, this new site launch is designed to provide the public with clear, accessible, and evidence-based content about communication and hearing disorders; the work of audiologists and speech-language pathologists; and how and where users can find help.

The CHSA site has been created to increase the public’s familiarity with the CSD professions and their professionals and strengthen, as well as expand their access to and use of services that can help them achieve effective communication.

Please take time to explore the new CHSA site and share its availability with those in your care, as well as family members, friends, and neighbors. Feedback about the site can be sent to helpingyoucommunicate@asha.org.

https://helpingyoucommunicate.org/

Note: The Communication Health Support Association was formerly known as the National Association for Hearing and Speech Action (NAHSA).

14/05/2026

This page, written by renowned speech-language pathologist Caroline Bowen, covers speech intelligibility milestones in children, essentially, how clearly kids should be speaking at various ages.

Here's a breakdown:

What is intelligibility?
Intelligibility refers to speech clarity, the proportion of a speaker's output that a listener can readily understand. In typical development, this increases as children learn to talk.

Early milestones (Lynch et al., 1980):
By 18 months, a child's speech is normally 25% intelligible; by 24 months, 50–75%; and by 36 months, 75–100%.

More recent research (Hustad et al., 2021):
For average children (50th percentile), single-word intelligibility is expected to reach 50% by 31 months, 75% by 49 months, and 90% by 83 months. Multi-word intelligibility develops slightly faster, reaching 90% by about 62 months. The researchers also found considerable variability among typical children, with intelligibility growth continuing through age 9 for some, and that children should be at least 50% intelligible by 48 months.

Intelligibility to strangers (Coplan & Gleason formula):
A simple guide: divide the child's age in years by 4, then multiply by 100 to get the expected percentage understood by strangers, so a 2-year-old should be about 50% intelligible to strangers, and a 4-year-old should be fully intelligible.

When to seek intervention:
Children over age 4 with intelligibility below 66% should be considered candidates for intervention, meaning unfamiliar listeners should be able to understand at least two-thirds of what a 4-year-old says.

Clinical rating scale:
A simple 5-point scale is used clinically, ranging from "completely intelligible" (1) to "completely unintelligible" (5), which is useful for tracking a child's progress over time.

Dr Bowen's page is a practical reference for parents and clinicians to gauge whether a child's speech clarity is on track for their age.

https://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29%3Atable1&catid=11%3Aadmin&Itemid=101&

12/05/2026

At Dower and Associates, Inc., we couldn’t agree more: measurement matters. 📊

As both a speech-language pathology and behavior-analytic practice, data collection is woven into nearly every aspect of our intervention process. From early language and AAC to articulation, literacy, and social communication, we rely on observable and measurable outcomes to guide clinical decision-making.

In the spirit of SPABA’s Week of May 11 challenge, here are examples of data systems that Dower and Associates, Inc. developed and adapted to help ensure our therapy is not only engaging but effective.

Some of the questions our data help answer:
✔ Is the learner acquiring the target skill?
✔ Is accuracy maintaining across people, settings, and materials?
✔ Is prompting being faded effectively?
✔ Is spontaneous/generalized use occurring?
✔ Are treatment procedures producing meaningful change?

Examples of skills we may track include:
🔹 Percent accuracy of speech sound production across levels
🔹 Independent AAC initiations
🔹 Phonological awareness responses
🔹 Reading fluency and decoding probes
🔹 Listener responding and verbal operants
🔹 Generalization in naturalistic contexts

Good therapy should not rely on “it feels better.”
It should rely on patterns of performance over time.

Data allow us to celebrate progress, identify barriers quickly, and make clinically responsible adjustments when needed. They also help families, educators, and interdisciplinary teams clearly see growth that might otherwise be missed.

Thanks to Speech Pathology Applied Behavior Analysis SIG of ABAI for continuing to spotlight the importance of accountable, evidence-based intervention.