Author: Wee Speech PC

The Power of Mindset in Speech Therapy   There are two types of mindsets we often encounter in therapy; the first is a fixed mindset and the second is a growth mindset. A fixed mindset occurs when you experience challenges and you have a negative attitude towards yourself. A fixed mindset can often delay therapeutic gains as a portion of sessions may be spent focusing on factors that are out of your control, such as focusing on what went “wrong” in the first place. A growth mindset refers to identifying that there is a challenge and coming up with a plan to overcome the challenge. A person with a growth mindset often looks at the larger picture and recognizes that

    Joint attention is the action of two people sharing a common focus on an object or task. Joint attention tasks can be, for example, rolling a ball back and forth, looking at a book together, or blowing and popping bubbles. The ability to establish joint attention is important for developing social-communication  and cognitive skills. By age three children are able to maintain joint attention with a peer or adult.  One way to promote joint attention is by playing a game that requires turn taking such as holding a book and having the child turn the page. Additionally, if the child is playing with a puzzle or block, you can take turns stacking or adding pieces to the puzzle.

    There are many benefits of reading aloud to your children. Frequent read-aloud habits help build attention skills. Additionally, children’s vocabulary continues to grow when exposed to new vocabulary. While reading, stop and ask your child to retell part of the story or explain what a word means in the context of the story. Increased exposure to books will help your child not only learn about new words, but also increase their understanding of the sequence of events as well as their comprehension and inferencing skills. While reading, ask your child Wh-questions or have them make predictions based on the events of the story using the text to support their ideas This allows the child to engage with the

  How do children know that they are an important part of a conversation? How can we encourage a child to initiate a conversation? We can Observe, Wait, and Listen (OWL). Observe, Wait, and Listen are important strategies that parents, caregivers, and other communication partners can use to increase engagement, feedback, and allow for a child-lead communication environment.  Observe: During the Observe phase, parents, caregivers, or other communication partners are observing what the child is interested in (e.g., trucks, dinosaurs, slime) and looking for opportunities where the child may communicate. The child might initiate communication independently either through gestures, words, sounds or actions. However, the child might start an activity without stating what they are doing. Through the use of

Check out this great info from ASHA for Better Hearing and Speech Month. Parents often ask about the use of screens with babies and toddlers. Here is some info to help with that decision. Be Tech Wise With Baby

The Mattel Company, famous for the Barbie Doll line, has added more diversity to its doll designs by creating a Barbie representative of the Down Syndrome population, with support from the National Down Syndrome Society. The doll was created to promote acceptance of this population and to celebrate people in the Down Syndrome community. The doll is designed to portray the facial characteristics associated with the genetic disorder in addition to their orthotic needs. The doll’s yellow and blue outfit was purposefully designed to represent the colors associated with Down Syndrome awareness groups and the Barbie’s necklace, with three chevron shapes attached l, is intended to symbolize the three copies of the 21st chromosome  which leads to a Down Syndrome diagnosis.

  According to the ASHA WIRE (April, 2023), the rate and prevalence of Autism in the last two years has increased from 1 in 44 kids (2021) to 1 in 36 (2023). These estimates were obtained from surveillance data distributed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) This change in distribution within the population is said to be due to better screening measures, improved awareness and understanding of Autism Spectrum disorders and greater access to supportive services. In addition to this higher overall prevalence of Autism, new information on Autism in girls was obtained, showing that for the first time in history, the rate of Autism in 8-year old girls has exceeded 1%. Research on Autism shows that

According to the ASHA Wire (March, 2023) In a society where being health conscious and mindful is prioritized, more evidence is available supporting having a strong “language diet” in childhood is equally as important for brain development as is our actual “diets.” According to the article, “Evidence shows us how early exposure to rich, abundant language, or “language nutrition,” nourishes a child neurologically, socially, and linguistically, and helps set them up for literacy and communication success. The following three suggestions were made in the article for parents to support the language “diets” in their children” Talk Directly to Kids~ Given that parents are the primary source of language exposure for their children, parents are encouraged to highly prioritize use of

  According to the ASHA Wire (November 2020) , research has been showing increasingly that children experiencing chronic, low-grade stress such as living in a home environment with instability or less parent involvement can be negatively impacted as much as from a single traumatic event. Signs of trauma in children can range from subtle to overt and can include: ~hyperactivity ~aggression ~unpredictable behaviors ~withdrawal To best support children with trauma experiences, it is recommended to: ~Avoid modeling strong emotions: It is reported that modeling strong emotions to kids who have experienced trauma can be triggering. Surprisingly, even showing extreme positive emotions like high levels of enthusiasm, excitement, and praise can also be triggering. ~Don’t force connections: For some kids with