Community Activities

February/March 2019

LEAP: Language Empowers All People and GLSA were invited to Utah twice during early 2019. Their presentations to the Utah Association for the Education of Young Children and then to the Utah State Home Visitors group focused on parents' contributions to their children in the home, by the multiple learning opportunities that happen during daily activities. During their talks (Language and School Readiness) they illustrated how children's developing brains directly benefit from parent and teacher input and conversations. John Lybolt and Nina Smith used multiple engaging activities to illustrate how science, attention, preliteracy and math awareness can be developed by parents. The audience felt the materials were great; Ms. Smith was a terrific presenter.

February 2019

During the Illinois Speech/Language and Hearing Association Convention in early February, Dr. Lybolt and Nina Smith presented techniques how Speech/Language Pathologists can collaborate with High School classroom teachers to a very receptive audience. Their talk: Building a Collaboration Team: Assembling Content, Technique and Administrative Support generated supportive comments and follow-up questions.

November 2018

Dr. Lybolt was part of an invited presentation with other speakers (Nina Smith, M.A., Catherine Gottfred, Ph.D., Tommie Robinson, Ph.D., Elizabeth Norton, Ph.D., and Julie Hornbeck, M.A.) to a packed short course titled Beginning with Babble: Technology Maximizes Impact of SLP Skills with Parents, Professional Collaborators, and Communities. This short course focused on LEAP:Language Empowers All People's language app called Beginning with Babble. This free app (which is available for Apple and Samsung devices) has more than 1000 language tips sorted by time of day (meals, bath, playground....) and children's age. It is particularly useful for parents because the tips are doable, require little-to-no preparation, and generate immediate feedback for parents by the child's positive responses. While Beginning with Babble was designed for parents needing support for their children, all parents appreciate the clarity, timeliness, ease, and hands-on approach of the Language Tips.

2018

Dr. Lybolt was awarded the 2016 Outstanding Clinical Educator Award from Rush University Department of Communication Disorders for providing more than a thousand hours of clinical supervision over the past three years, with exemplary reviews from the graduate students he supervised.

2017

GLSpeech and Leap Empowers All People (a not for profit based in Chicago) continued their close association during a co presentation at the Illinois Speech/Language Hearing Association Annual Convention that covered our Language for Scholars program. This program, presented to small groups over a 3 to 5 day schedule, brings 8th graders through High School seniors Communication Skills alive and enables Scholars to participate effectively in the classroom, during interviews, debates, and competitions.

2017

Nina Smith, M.A. CCC-SLP, Catherine Gottfred, Ph.D. CCC-SLP and John Lybolt, Ph.D. CCC-SLP presented to the American Speech/Language/Hearing Association Convention in Ls Angeles a seminar entitled Not-for-Profit and for Profit: Lessons Learned – Services, Marketing, & Business Operations .Our information was well received with several participants requesting further information.

August 2016

Dr. Lybolt received the Outstanding Clinical Educator Award from the Department of Communication Sciences from Rush University in Chicago. He has enjoyed providing direct supervision and clinical training for the last 5 years for graduate students in Speech/Language Pathology. Dr. Lybolt's contribution of more than 1400 hours of training and teaching provides great satisfaction to him and to the graduate students who remark "We have learned so much from you and your clients!" He continues to share his experience with graduate students from Rush, Northwestern, Texan Christian, Elmhurst, and Vanderbilt Universities as they come through placements and practicums with GLSpeech in Northbrook and LEAP Empowers All People Chicago.

September 2016

Dr. Lybolt is part of a team at Leap Empowers All People, a Chicago not-for-profit, who have worked successfully to develop and shepherd a new language APP for mothers as part of a Health Services and Research Administration (HRSA) competition. Moms and caretakers who don't have the time nor feel comfortable in their expertise can receive Tips for talking with their Zero to Five year child scheduled to their available time, accessibility, and needs. The Tips, vetted by Specialists in Language and Child Development, are written in plain language for direct use in the home and daily travels with no need for expensive materials. This App, for use on cell phones, is part of LEAP's effort to reduce the Language Gap of 30 million or more words faced by many children entering Kindergarten who will face learning difficulties.

November 2016

A presentation to the American Speech/Language/Hearing Association Convention, with more than 13,000 Speech Pathologists in attendance! Dr. Lybolt and his colleagues presented a two-hour presentation on Beginning with Babble_© (BWB_©): A Mobile App That Stimulates Parents’ Language Engagement With Babies And Toddlers. Our audience was enthusiastic, asked great questions, offered positive feedback, and signed up for them App themselves!

This App, for use on Android and Apple cell phones, provides Tips for parents to support and reinforce their speech interactions with their infant and preschool child. The newest research shows that parents' speech actually helps build brain connections in all their child's learning areas. We are very happy to be developing a tool that helps parents make their babies brains grow, just by talking! Anyone who would like more information, please feel free to contact us at GLSpeech.com