Author: Natasha Gigliotti MA CCC SLP

Multilingual parents have a very special gift they can pass on to their children — another language, along with a myriad of benefits inherent to being multilingual. To name just a few, being multilingual, comes with the following advantages: – IMPROVED child-parent connection       – parents who speak a language other than the “majority” language may feel more comfortable speaking to their children in their first (non-majority) language, consequently increasing the parent-child engagement and connection – ENHANCED COGNITIVE ABILITIES, including:      – stronger executive functioning      – stronger problem-solving skills      – stronger memory and learning abilities –  PROTECTIVE MECHANISM:       – potentially delayed onset of cognitive decline (the latter is particularly important if the

Summer and sunshine are here and so is another opportunity to help your child’s language grow! Plant a seed — quite literally — and watch it grow! Start a garden (big or small! in the ground or in a pot! indoor or outdoor!) with your child and here are all the wonderful ways you can work on communication: – talking about sequences (steps to growing a plant) – make choices about which seeds to plant (did you know you can get four       different packets of seeds at the Dollar Tree for just $1.25?) – talk about different plants (describe what they look like, taste like, smell like, compare/contrast) – talk about what tools you need for gardening – read stories

Winter is finally here, which means beautiful snowy days, building snowmen, and — of course — warm cups of hot chocolate! This few-second self-regulation activity brings up the image of a warm cup of hot chocolate and is a quick way to send oxygen to the frontal lobe, helping us parents and our children create a sense of calm and focus. 1. Cup your hands together, as though you are holding a mug of delicious hot chocolate. 2. Bring the “cup” to your nose and breathe in deeply, as though you are smelling the “hot chocolate.” 3. Blow out through pursed lips, as though to cool off your hot chocolate to make it ready for sipping. Repeat this for 3-5

Parenting is one of the most challenging, even if rewarding, endeavors a person can undertake. Parenting a child with special needs brings its own unique demands. This is why practicing self-care is crucial to prevent burnout. And when I say “practicing,” that is exactly what it is — an intentional daily practice. Here is a few examples of ways parents can “care” for themselves so they can be the best and healthiest person (and parent): – Connect: connect with family, friends, or other support networks on a regular basis (even if it’s just a short phone call, text, or a quick coffee date or walk) – Take care of your body: eat healthy food, exercise, get as much rest/sleep as

  Does your child have a hard time planning and implementing a project? Sometimes even we, adults, have a hard time knowing how to plan, get started, and execute in an efficient way. From smaller projects, like completing a craft, a school essay, an oral presentation, or even cleaning one’s room — there is so much executive functioning that goes into being able to envision what you want the end result to look like, what the steps are to get there (and predicting how much time each step will take!), and what materials and resources you will need before you even get started! That is why Sarah Ward, a wonderful speech-language pathologist, based in New Jersey, created a great strategy for

In today’s fast-paced world, it is more important than ever to create a little space for mindful communication. Our ability to communicate the best way we can depends on how present we are at any given moment. We can bring more  groundedness, calm, and a sense of safety into our daily lives and routines  through a multitude of simple actions. These actions can help us parents, as well as our children be the best communicators we can be. Here is a few ideas for the whole family: – begin each family meal by taking 5 transition (or “bubble”) breaths (breathing in through your nose and slowly breathing out through pursed lips (as though blowing a big bubble) – during bed-time

  “Wait and see” was the standard advice for parents of preschoolers with emerging stuttering for many decades. Although we now understand so much more about stuttering and its complexity, echos of this (very much outdated) advice are still too common.  The truth is, fluency development plays out very differently from one child to the next. While one child may go through a brief period of disfluency and spontaneously recover, another child may not. Timing of intervention is important — the longer a child stutters, the more likely the stuttering is to persist. In an evaluation, speech-language pathologists examine a wide range of risk factors (based on the most current research) to determine an individual child’s likelihood to continue to stutter