Jan Heath Schwanke received her BA in Speech and Hearing Science, and her MA in Speech Pathology from the University of Iowa. She is certified by the American Speech-Language –Hearing Association and licensed in the state of Illinois.
Jan recently retired from many years in the public schools in Chicago’s northern suburbs. She is also an adjunct instructor in Special Education (language development classes, of course!) at National-Louis University in Chicago, Illinois.
She developed a particular interest in child word finding (or word retrieval) when she attended a workshop presented by Diane German. Several years later, she took Dr. German’s word finding course at National-Louis University and got hooked. She collaborated with Dr. German on research which supported the efficacy of phonological mnemonic cuing to reinforce the retrieval of words. (See reference below.) Several ISHA (Illinois) and ASHA presentations later, she was convinced that SLPs needed practical and easily-implemented ideas to use with the children on their caseloads.
Wordfindingforkids.com is the result of that conviction. Please share your questions and your ideas. This blog is for all of us – SLPs, parents, and the kids we care about.
German, D. J., Schwanke, J. K., & Ravid, R. (2012). Word Finding: Differentiated vocabulary instruction in the speech and language room. Communications Disorders Quarterly, 33(3), 146-156.