Welcome to my website!

Greetings!

The purpose of this website is to make it easy for people to access the assessment tool I designed called Hearing Them Into Voice.  Hearing Them Into Voice measures current communication proficiency in children who do not speak.

I designed this assessment to help parents, teachers, speech pathologists, and aides together develop instructional plans for non-verbal children--especially those with autism, cerebral palsy, Rett Syndrome, traumatic brain injury and other disorders.

By clicking on the posts below, you will find information on how best to use this exciting new tool as well as copies of the assessment itself in both English and Spanish.

Developed as part of a Ph.D. dissertation in 1999, the assessment has been field tested in a range of diverse cultural and linguistic settings.  It is now being used by parents and educators in schools in both the U.S. and Canada.  It has also been used with non-verbal adults who have suffered strokes.

I've always believed that "not being able to talk doesn't mean you have nothing to say." Now we have a tool to map the rich communication patterns of non-verbal children.

Before you start--a word about process.  Hearing Them Into Voice is not a "test."  It is not designed to be one more way for kids to be labeled and ranked. Rather it is a tool.  The questions are designed to point you to a wide array of communication patterns that might have been missed in the past. It is designed to be used collaboratively--by parents, teachers, and speech pathologists so that together you can share information and observations that any one person alone might have overlooked.  More than anything it is designed to give non-verbal children a chance to be heard.

I hope you find the information on this website helpful. If you need more info or want to schedule a training in your area please contact me.

Best wishes,

Dr. Sharon M. Rogers, CCC-SLP