Ashley Small
M.S., CCC-SLP,
M.S. Ed
Speech-Language Pathologist
Based in NW London
Licensed In New York, New Jersey & UK
Offering remote therapy
LSVT Certified
Orton- Gillingham Academy Associate, A/AOG
Teacher of Students with Disabilities, TSSLD
Ashley is a career educator who has proudly practiced as a Speech-Language Pathologist in public, private, and independent learning institutions on three continents. After spending a decade in the Department of Education, she decided to focus her expertise through her private practice. She treasures her role as a therapist where she helps children reach academic success and educates parents about the laws regarding special education. She currently has her my own private practice where she provides in person and virtual evaluations and therapy with a variety of students with articulation disorders, Apraxia, Autism, language difficulties, and other health impairments. She provides individual therapy, family coaching, and professional development locally and abroad. She also truly enjoys combining her knowledge and practice as a Speech- Language Pathologist with her training in many multisensory reading programs to help struggling readers including Wilson and Orton- Gillingham. In addition, She has been an Adjunct Professor at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Woman and the Katz School of Science and Health where she taught graduate and undergraduate students majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders. As an Adjunct Professor, she has been able to bring her enthusiasm and passion about the field to inspire others.
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She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Disorders from New York University and her Masters of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from Brooklyn College. Subsequently, She received a Masters in Education from Hunter College focusing on educational leadership, administration, and supervision. She maintains a certificate of clinical competence in Speech-Language Pathology from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA).
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She believes in a collaborative approach to therapy in which parents, teachers, and other therapists work together to provide an optimal environment for success. She strives to create a fun and positive learning environment for her clients. Additionally, she believes in working on incorporating functional skills in therapy in order to promote carryover of speech therapy skills.
CERTIFICATIONS COMPLETED
PROMPT Bridging Trained
PROMPT Bridging Trained therapists have completed the second level of PROMPT training. The second level of training increases a therapist's effectiveness through intensive assessment and treatment planning training. These therapists have completed the Introduction level of PROMPT training prior to taking Bridging.
PROMPT is an acronym for Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets. The technique is a tactile-kinesthetic approach that uses touch cues to a patient’s articulators (jaw, tongue, lips) to manually guide them through a targeted word, phrase or sentence. The technique develops motor control and the development of proper oral muscular movements, while eliminating unnecessary muscle movements, such as jaw sliding and inadequate lip rounding.
Therapists begin by helping patients produce certain phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest increment of sound in speech. For example, the “d” sound in the word dog is one phoneme, the “o” is another and the “g” is yet another. Each phoneme requires different muscle contractions/retractions and placement/movement of the jaw, lips, tongue, neck and chest to produce. All of these things have to happen with the proper timing and sequence to produce one phoneme correctly. The therapist attempts to “teach” the patient’s muscles to produce a phoneme correctly by stimulating all of these through touch. With the timing and movement of more than 100 muscles involved, you can see why the training is so intense.
PROMPT therapy is appropriate for a wide range of patients with communication disorders. The most common patients have motor speech disorders, articulation problems or are non-verbal children. Many patients with aphasia, apraxia/dyspraxia, dysarthria, pervasive development disorders, cerebral palsy, acquired brain injuries and autism spectrum disorders have benefitted from PROMPT therapy. An evaluation by a PROMPT-trained speech therapist is the only way to find out if a patient is appropriate for the therapy.
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LSVT LOUD Certified
LSVT LOUD® is an effective speech treatment for individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) and other neurological conditions. LSVT LOUD, named for Mrs. Lee Silverman (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment – LSVT) was developed in 1987 and has been scientifically studied for nearly 20 years with funding support from the National Institute for Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health. Published research data support improvements in vocal loudness, intonation, and voice quality for individuals with PD who received LSVT LOUD, with improvements maintained up to two years after treatment. Recent research studies have also documented the effectiveness of this therapy in improving the common problems of disordered articulation, diminished facial expression and impaired swallowing. Additionally, two brain imaging studies have documented evidence of positive changes in the brain following administration of the therapy.
LSVT LOUD improves vocal loudness by stimulating the muscles of the voice box (larynx) and speech mechanism through a systematic hierarchy of exercises. Focused on a single goal “speak LOUD!” – the treatment improves respiratory, laryngeal and articulatory function to maximize speech intelligibility. The treatment does not train people for shouting or yelling; rather, LSVT LOUD uses loudness training to bring the voice to an improved, healthy vocal loudness with no strain.
Treatment is administered in 16 sessions over a single month (four individual 60 minute sessions per week). This intensive mode of administration is consistent with theories of motor leaning and skill acquisition, as well as with principles of neural plasticity (the capacity of the nervous system to change in response to signals), and is critical to attaining optimal results. The treatment not only simulates the motor system but also incorporates sensory awareness training to help individuals with PD recognize that their voice is too soft, convincing them that the louder voice is within normal limits, and making them comfortable with their new louder voice.
Patients are trained to self-generate the adequate amount of loudness to make their speech understood. While LSVT LOUD has been successfully administered to individuals in all stages of PD, the treatment has been most effective among those who are in early or middle stages of the condition. LSVT LOUD has also been applied to individuals with sub-types of PD (Shy-Drager syndrome, multi-system atrophy and progressive supranuclear palsy), however the largest dataset is for individuals with Idiopathic Parkinson disease (IPD). Recently, LSVT LOUD has been applied to select individuals with stroke, multiple sclerosis, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy with positive outcomes.
www.lsvtglobal.com/clinicians/ashley-small
Orton Gillingham Academy Associate
A/A0G
The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia. It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach, not a method, program, or system. In the hands of a well-trained and experienced instructor, it is a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.
The essential curricular content and instructional practices that characterize the Orton-Gillingham Approach are derived from two sources: first from a body of time-tested knowledge and practice that has been validated over the past 80 years, and second from scientific evidence about how individuals learn to read and write; why a significant number have difficulty in doing so; how having dyslexia makes achieving literacy skills more difficult; and which instructional practices are best suited for teaching such individuals to read and write.
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https://www.ortonacademy.org/resources/what-is-the-orton-gillingham-approach/
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Wilson Reading System Trained
The Wilson Reading System is designed for students who require more intensive instruction due to a language-based learning disability, as well as those who are not making sufficient progress in intervention. When implemented with fidelity, this comprehensive program provides multisensory, structured instruction in all five areas of reading (phonemic awareness, word structure/phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) plus spelling.
www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/wilson-reading-system/