Author: Margaret Morris MS CCC SLP

In January of 2024 the U.S. Department of Education issued a document and a “Dear Colleague” letter clarifying schools’ responsibilities in providing students with assistive technology and the supports needed to use it effectively. The guidelines include both school-age children and children in early intervention programs. Under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, the guidance indicates that every time an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team meets to develop, review, or revise a student’s IEP, it must consider the child’s need for assistive technology devices and services. Devices can be basic, such as visual schedules and picture communication boards or sophisticated electronic text- to-speech software, word-prediction devices, and speech generating augmentative and alternative (AAC) devices.

You can help your child in Pre-K or Kindergarten get ready to read by building their phonological awareness. Phonological Awareness is the ability to recognize and work with speech sounds, syllables and rhymes. You can help your child notice and play with sounds, words and rhymes they hear in everyday speech. 1. Read, Read, Read: Good phonological awareness starts with your child noticing sounds, syllables and rhymes in words. Help your child listen for these by reading to them often. Choose books that rhyme or repeat the same sounds and point those words out to your child. Use this link for books that can help teach phonological awareness: Use Picture Books to Teach Phonological Awareness 2. Listen for Initial Sounds.

Improving your toddler’s attention span will help prepare them for future learning. Children need to develop their attention spans, ability to concentrate, self-regulation and other executive functioning skills so that they can develop emotionally, socially and academically. Parents may wonder what an appropriate attention span is for young children? The amount of time your youngster is able to focus will be fairly short right now, but will grow as they practice and gain stamina. In general, an average period of time young children can maintain focus on a task is about 2-3 minutes per year of their age. When working on your child’s attention, try to minimize sensory inputs and distractions by turning off screens, reducing background noise, or moving

Top 3 Ways to Encourage Language Development in Babies and Young Children May is National Speech-Language-Hearing Month and here are the top 3 things you can do to support and develop your young child’s speech and language skills: TALK Narrate what you are doing and what your child is doing. Use short sentences and keep language simple, but don’t use “baby talk”. You can engage your child with infant directed speech (parentese): try different pitches and tones of voice and be animated. Call objects by their correct names and do not mispronounce words. For examples of parentese, see the video below: How to Talk to With Your Baby When your child starts to talk, expand what they say by adding

  As the weather is getting nicer, you can use nature and outdoor activities to help build your child’s language skills. Take a walk around your neighborhood and talk about what you and your child see, hear, smell and touch. This can help develop their vocabulary and ability to describe things. You can use NOUNS like grass, flower, sky, cloud, tree, branch, and trunk and ADJECTIVES like soft, sticky, rough, smooth, noisy, sweet and stinky. If you have a yard, include your child in some simple gardening activities. Get some shovels, a bucket or a watering can and talk about ACTIONS as you dig, dump, pull, plant, bury, pour, etc. You can reinforce BASIC CONCEPTS like full, empty, more and

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is warning parents to pay more attention to noise in their everyday activities. Not only can environmental noise, such as traffic noise, or a television playing in the background, affect learning, sleep, and quality of life, chronic noise exposure can harm hearing in infants, children and teens. Common sources of indoor noise include appliances, infant sleep (white noise) machines, video games, toys, and televisions. Personal listening devices are being used more frequently, even by young children. The concern is not only with the volume of the noise, but also how long and how often children are exposed to noise. Children are more susceptible to harm because their hearing system is still developing. Additionally, the

To help educate parents, caregivers, and related professionals about the development of speech, language, hearing, feeding and swallowing skills, the American Speech Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) has recently updated its developmental milestones for hearing, speech, and language (birth to 5) and added a new resource on feeding and swallowing milestones (birth to 3). The communication (hearing, speech, language) milestones show the ages by which at least 75% of American English–speaking children have developed communication skills. Each milestone is supported by research and includes a reference list. The feeding and swallowing milestones checklist (which is also available in Spanish) reports the ages by which at least 75% of children worldwide have mastered the skills. They are based on international research

Imitation is when someone mimics or copies actions, sounds, facial expressions or words. Before they start to really speak, babies will copy what they see and hear. Imitation is a stepping stone that leads to first words. When used appropriately, imitation will help children associate specific actions or tasks with words. To help your child learn imitation skills, try the following: -get face to face with your baby so you can direct their attention to your mouth/face -you can put an interesting toy by your face to help keep their attention -when you have your baby’s attention, make gestures or sounds and wait to see if they copy -be playful and animated, so your baby really pays attention to you

The benefits of reading to toddlers (over 12 months of age) is well known, but the benefits of reading to infants (birth to 12 months old) is less established. A recent research study conducted at Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine showed that infants in families that reported always reading at least seven books per week scored higher on language testing at 9 months of age than infants in families that reported reading less than seven books weekly. The researchers suggest that committing to reading one book each day is an achievable goal for new families to try. They stress the importance of finding ways to educate parents on the impact regular reading can have on their infant’s

Every May, organizations all over the country join the American Speech-Hearing Association (ASHA) to promote Better Hearing and Speech Month (BHSM). BHSM’s purpose is to help increase awareness of communication disorders and available treatment options. ● Nearly 1 in 12 (7.7 percent) U.S. children ages 3-17 has had a disorder related to voice, speech, language, or swallowing in the past 12 months. ● The prevalence of voice, speech, language, or swallowing disorders is highest among children ages 3-6 (11.0 percent), compared to children ages 7-10 (9.3 percent), and children ages 11-17 (4.9 percent).1 ● By the first grade, roughly 5% of children have noticeable speech disorders.2 ● More than 3 million Americans stutter.2 ● 6–8 million Americans have some form