Year: 2020

Is your child working on sequencing and narrative language? Take advantage of the Halloween season to work on sequencing events! Use pumpkin carving, Halloween costume creation, and Halloween decorating to talk about the steps required to complete the task. Break each activity into small steps and try writing or drawing each step so your child can visually see the sequence! Have your child practice re-telling all of the steps to a sibling or stuffed animal. If they are comfortable, try recording their story telling so they can help decide if they included all of the steps!

Reading is one of the most important things you can do with your preschool-aged child to increase pre-literacy skills and facilitate language development. In the ASHA Leader, Corie Viscomi, MS, CCC-SLP discusses the idea of interactive reading and how to use it as a tool to facilitate early reading skills. In interactive reading, parents and teachers can use a variety of techniques to engage the child in the text. The great thing is many of the strategies are intuitive and likely things parents are already incorporating during shared reading experiences with their children; however, it’s always helpful to have a reminder and to have the reasoning behind different reading approaches.   Here are some of the interactive reading strategies: Don’t be

Text Messages for Parent Education The American Speech and Hearing Association is offering free support for parents!  Parents have the opportunity to receive education regarding typical and atypical communication development, milestones, and tips to build communication skills at a young age. This is an easy way to gain access to helpful information! Text the word BRIGHT to 274448 to receive information regarding warning signs of speech, language, and hearing disorders from Identify the Signs. Research has shown that early detection and intervention of communications disorders leads to more communication gains. Make sure to utilize this free opportunity to learn more about communication delays and disorders.

During your speech therapy sessions, your speech-language pathologist may suggest working on increasing joint attention. Joint attention is the ability to share focus on the same object with another person. This is a skill we use all the time with toddlers without even thinking about it. We need joint attention to read a book together, play peek-a-boo, and participate in songs and fingerplays. Without these foundational skills, early talkers have a difficult time creating meaningful communication opportunities with others. So, how can parents work on increasing joint attention at home? Below are some ideas and tricks to use during play and daily routines. Row Your Boat: Incorporating familiar songs into a fun, interactive activity is always an easy way to

While sheltering in place due to COVID-19, many families (and SLPs) had no choice but to go forth into the world of speech and language teletherapy. Although it was an adjustment to switch from in-person therapy, there is a growing base of evidence to support the efficacy of teletherapy for speech and language outcomes.  One study by Wales, Danielle et al. in 2017 examined whether telehealth-delivered speech-language pathology interventions are as effective as traditional in-person delivery for school-age children with speech/language difficulties. Based on a systematic review of 7 articles, results revealed both telehealth and in-person participants made significant and similar improvements when treatment effects were measured through five of the six outcome measures. The outcome measures included: Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation –

            If your child is receiving speech and language services, you as a parent may often hear the term “core vocabulary.”  Core vocabulary refers to words or phrases that are frequently used by a variety of individuals.  There are 250-400 core vocabulary words that make up 75-85% of the words we produce, and provide the framework for functional communication and novel phrases.             For my clients who are still emerging language users, I like to focus on utilizing and eliciting core vocabulary. Examples of vocabulary words include, “go, more/again, all done, up, down, turn, want, in, open.” By utilizing these words, children are able to manipulate their environment and socially interact with other individuals. A large variety of concepts can

Many parents go to great lengths to find the perfect books to share with their children. Parents often select traditional books with text embedded. At times, picture books with an abundance of text can become difficult for children to process and for parents as they try to simplify and narrate stories. Many parents rely heavily on reading books verbatim to their children and for children who struggle with decoding, traditional children’s books can appear daunting to work through. Research shows that wordless picture books can be advantageous for developing both reading and language skills in children. Wordless picture books which rely primarily on pictures to tell their story are said to promote narrative language skills, vocabulary development, creativity, and higher-level

Most parents experience some sort of stress as a normal part of the parenting experience.  For parents of children with special needs, the intensity of stress can be amplified. The impact of chronic stress related to caring for children with more intense needs has been documented.  Studies show that parents of children with developmental, psychiatric or learning disorders are more likely than others to experience anxiety, depression and insomnia.  Being under chronic stress also puts these parents at higher risk for a variety of medical issues. You can read an article from the Child Mind Institute on ways to avoid parenting burnout and take care of your own physical, emotional and social health here.  It’s important that, as parents of

As adults struggle to cope with and understand the COVID-19 climate, parents are increasingly looking for support on how to help their children cope with and understand life during a pandemic. Research shows there are a number of different strategies that can be implemented within the home to assist families in managing the stressors and uncertainty COVID-19 brings. Recognize how stress can manifest in children at home; During COVID-19, children are reportedly demonstrating stress in a variety of ways including having trouble eating/sleeping, seeking out added physical contact/touch, or demonstrating attention-seeking patterns. Regularly talking about emotions with children and maintaining outlets for relaxation and stress management is shown to largely assist children during challenges. Reassure their safety; Regularly emphasize that

A BIG part of communication revolves around sharing ideas, making comments, and enjoyment! Requesting is only a small part of communication, but many AAC users get stuck at this stage. Conversational turn-taking should be worked on at the same time as requesting. Here are four tips for encouraging conversational turn-taking with an AAC user:  •      Wait time: get comfortable with waiting. AAC is not as fast as speech and requires the communication partner practice patience. •      Understand the AAC user’s pre-communication signals. Every AAC user’s pre-communication signals are different. It is essential for parents, teachers, SLPS, and other frequent communication partners to know the user’s signals. Common pre-communication signals are gesturing toward the device, glancing at the device, and picking