Category: COVID-19

At the time I wrote this post Bernalillo County and Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) were seeing an extreme surge in COVID-19 cases. I was especially concerned since the largest spike in cases in 2020 wasn’t reflected in APS’s numbers. This meant that we were seeing more cases of COVID-19 in Albuquerque children than ever; likely …

With continued recommendations to maintain social distancing and patients whose parents are concerned about the vaccine I’m continuing to brainstorm games that actually include social distancing that I can use during speech and language treatment. All of these games can be used as rewards or breaks while using common speech and language techniques. Some of …

With the CDC’s changed recommendations based on community risk levels we’ve canaged some of our safety protocols. You can see our county’s risk level and sign up for updates here. Here are our continued, new, and permanent protocols.

The more I check with parents about their thoughts and feelings about the upcoming approval of the COVID-19 vaccine for children the more I’m reminded of this. We each have different circumstances, experiences, and priorities and we’re each doing the best we can during this “storm.” My goal is to stay compassionate as I adapt …

Before COVID-19 I kept a sensory tub.  I would change the filling every month and my patients would use it to help their regulation as we worked. Now that I’m more concerned about the kids sharing germs I’ve switched to individual containers of sensory supports.  I keep each child’s sensory support in their own box …

One of the hardest parts of the pandemic has been the lack of consistency and clarity around PPE for us outpatient providers who can’t always complete treatment via telehealth or with social distance and masks. Here’s the protocol I’ve come up with for which PPE. In anticipation of vaccines for children at or over 5 …

I’m using Cavicide to disinfect my toys these days and I’m disinfecting them between each child who uses them. Before the pandemic I used Lysol concentrate and I disinfected each toy monthly (I had a schedule I used). I took this course in early 2021 and learned that Cavicide needs to sit on a surface …

My office & treatment room has changed completely since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a quick “virtual tour” of the changes I made.

I’ve been seeing patients in-person since I got vaccinated in January of 2021. Since then I’ve devised and revised my COVID-19 safety procedures more times than I can count. Here’s how they look right now: I’m still seeing 60% of my patients online. That means I only have the germs of 10 patients (plus their …