Winter Retreat Recap

January 28, 2016 BY Gina Ossanna, CCC-SLP

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Hello group photo from the cabin!

Hello clinicians gathered last Saturday for our annual winter retreat up on Mt Hood, our beloved mountain about an hour from Portland.  This is a low-key day of professional development for clinicians to gather, collaborate, and share expertise. We had a record number of attendees, and it might have been our best annual retreat yet.

Bob Buckendorf, PhD, CCC-SLP discusses best practice in working with children in autism

Bob Buckendorf, PhD, CCC-SLP discusses best practices for working with children in autism

Bob Buckendorf from the Hello Clinic shared current research on working with children with autism.  In the afternoon, facilitators led discussions on a variety of topics including teletherapy, favorite apps for evaluation and treatment, and collaboration and problem solving.

 

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Getting your CEU’s while sipping coffee in your slippers is my kind of professional development!  My 3 takeaways for the day:

  1. It’s okay for your therapy not to work the first time, as every child is different.
  2. Apps such as You’re the Story Teller, Drillaby, and My Play Home are all great to target a variety of speech/language skills.
  3. It is important for clinicians to use a workload model, not just caseload numbers, when advocating for individual and district-wide FTE.

It was a fun day, and I can’t wait to see everyone at our next PD event this spring!