What is TALK School?

Talk School is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the development of clinical and educational programs for children with autism and severe speech and language disorders.

We offer intensive, integrated academic instruction and therapeutic interventions that are crucial for children managing these challenges.

Located in Newtown Square, PA Talk School serves children from the greater Philadelphia area.

Who does TALK serve?

Currently, we are concentrating our efforts on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), and other severe communication disorders caused by neurological conditions. This includes children with receptive and expressive language disorders as well as processing issues. Our long-term goal at Talk School is to support the wider community, addressing the needs of all individuals with speech and language challenges.

How large is the population

of children with speech and language deficits?

The numbers are concerning and growing at epidemic rates. Accurate tallies are hard to reach because many of the individuals fit more than one reporting category and would therefore be counted more than once. However, according to the CDC’s 2023 report, 1 in 36 children in the United States has an Autism Diagnosis. Therefore, if we add to these figures all those children who have CAS without autism, or the many thousands who have other neurological problems leading to speech and language deficits, we are clearly talking about staggering figures.

In our region, how many

speech schools currently serve this population?

Talk School was founded in 2002 by parents seeking better support for their children with autism and language disorders, who were frustrated by the lack of suitable programs. Initial funding came from a grassroots campaign, bolstered by the generosity of individuals and corporate donors. The school's name accurately reflects its mission and activities. Today, Talk School stands as the only full-time program in the Northeast dedicated to serving school-age children with severe communication disorders.

What is childhood apraxia of speech?

In simple terms, Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a condition where kids have trouble planning and coordinating the movements needed to speak. This means they can’t say words clearly and consistently, even though their muscles are working fine. It might be due to known or unknown brain issues or just happen on its own. The main problem is that their brain struggles to organize how to move their mouth and tongue in the right way to make sounds and words.

Why is autism

included in a discussion of speech disorders?

Communication disorders, such as absent or impaired speech and language, are commonly associated with autism. Currently available tools, resources, and delivery systems suggest that fewer than half of autistic children will achieve speech. Additionally, many children with language disorders, regardless of their medical diagnoses, exhibit characteristics similar to those of autistic individuals. These common features include delays in social and relational development, sensory system disturbances, motor planning difficulties, and behavioral challenges.

Why aren't

these children receiving the services they require?

Federal and state law mandates that all children receive a "free and appropriate" education, also known as FERPA. For more information click the learn more button.

Learn more

There are many answers to this question and most are complicated. However, Talk School believes that the exponential rise in the occurrence of autism and other language disorders in the pre- and school-age population, has overwhelmed local school districts and caught them unprepared. Many have insufficient experience with these types of problems and are just now learning how to address them. Cost is also undeniably an important factor. Because appropriate remediation and education for these kids is both time and labor intensive, the cost is high. In addition, the inefficiency of current delivery systems adds significantly to the expense. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Autism Task Force states, "In the last 15 years, the number of individuals in PA diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder increased 2000%." It goes on to state, "The current education system (in PA) does not meet the needs of people living with autism. Schools must focus on the communication, language and social skills needs of children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder”). Extensive language training should be provided. The Task Force found that required related services (such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, education audiologist, etc.) are often not provided on a timely basis, if at all.

In many cases, educational agencies have struggled to provide a timely and adequate response. Consequently, there is often intense debate over what "appropriate" means in the context of each individual child's needs.

Children are frequently placed in existing programs that only partially address their needs. Some curricula limit a child's potential by assuming low expectations and focusing solely on achieving those. Most children receive just one to two hours of speech therapy per week, which is clearly insufficient for those with severe impairments. As a result, parents who can afford it often pay out-of-pocket for additional, expensive hours of therapy. Additionally, many of these children have other issues that require services like occupational therapy, which is crucial for their development.

At Talk School, we believe, and clinicians strongly agree, that the only truly appropriate program is one that offers full-time immersion in a language-based, fully integrated therapeutic and educational environment.

Why does TALK School promote The

Association Method?

To date, we have seen no other program that compares for teaching oral and written language.

What is The Association Method?

The Association Method is a phonics-based, multi-sensory and multilevel curriculum designed to teach oral and written communication to people with severe communication disorders. It was developed by the late Mildred McGinnis at the Central Institute for the Deaf in St Louis over fifty years ago.

The curriculum matches the strengths and needs of each individual child and works on the core deficits of speech and language, social interaction and behavior. Instruction progresses from the teaching of individual sounds to syllables, words of gradually increasing length, basic sentences and questions, more advanced sentence structures and the corresponding questions. Ultimately, when sufficient language skills have been achieved, a transition is made to traditional textbook formats for instruction.

The teaching procedures are specifically designed to reduce or alleviate the language-disordered child's difficulties in decoding, organizing, associating, storing and retrieving information pertinent to the production of clear, articulate speech.

The Association Method is available in a number of areas throughout North America and has a long history of bringing speech, reading and writing to children previously rendered nonverbal and illiterate by severe speech impairments. It has been used successfully to teach children with severe apraxia to speak. It is also effective with all degrees of aphasia (language-disorders), autism, dyslexia, hearing impairment, attention deficit disorders, teaching English as a second language, stroke, head trauma and the regular education of elementary students and adult non-readers.

If the Association Method has

been around for so long, why isn't better known?

The method was passed down from Ms. McGinnis to her students, who established their own schools and mentored a few colleagues. Dedicated to their schools and the children, most were unable to devote much time to promotion.* And because there is nothing to buy or sell, no one has ever had an interest in marketing the method. In fact, in all but the most advanced levels of the Method -- when students are transitioned to traditional texts -- the teachers, themselves, make nearly all of the materials. It is also worth noting that an effective Association Method program is not that easy to replicate. While the basics of the technique are relatively easy to acquire, truly effective application requires significant skill, experience and diligence.

*It must be acknowledged that Maureen Martin, Director of the Dubard School for Language Disorders in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and her predecessor, Etoile Dubard, have made it their mission to provide professional development in the Method. Thanks to their efforts the Method is more readily available in the South.

Is pro

grammi

g at the school limited to the Association Method?

Hardly. Talk School's model is Multi-pronged. The Magnolia Speech School Demonstration Program also encompasses full-time occupational therapy with a sensory integration focus as well as a relationship-based approach to social and emotional development drawn from the internationally recognized principles of DIR/FloortimeTM. All these techniques are used in conjunction with and to support learning through the Association Method. A more complete description of our program model can be found in the document, "The Talk School Model".

Used in concert, all the methods employed at Talk School addresses the specific physical, social, emotional and academic needs of the children it serves. It is, in fact, the full-time, language-based fully integrated therapeutic and academic environment of which our founding parents could once only dream.

Does the TALK School provide academic instruction?

Yes, our program is specifically designed to teach language and communication within an academic context. Our academic curriculum for Pre-K through 12th grade students runs for 11 months each year. We are confident in our students' ability to achieve academically. One of our core beliefs is that each of our students is intellectually intact.