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
According to the ASHA Wire (May 2020), a study from Princeton University suggests that babies and parents experience similar brain activity during play. According to the article which was published in Psychological Science, “the study found that during live, natural interactions of play, measurable connections occurred in the neural activity of adults and babies. Participants included 18 children (ages 9–15 months) and their parents. During the first part of the experiment, the child sat on their parent’s lap and interacted face-to-face with an adult researcher directly—playing with toys, singing nursery rhymes, or reading. In the second part, the adult researcher interacted with another adult, leaving the child to play with their parent off to the side.” They found that during one-on-one play,
According to EatPlaySay (Instagram November, 2022), the following list of 13 words and expressions are considered to be some of the best vocabulary to support and model early speech-language in infant level play. Research supports that modeling functional nouns, verbs, sound effects, animal noises, and location concepts such as the ones listed helps to provide the best foundation for 2/3 word combinations expected of children later on. 1. Open 2. Up 3. On Top 4. Bang Bang 5. Quack Quack 6. Push 7. Turn 8. Out 9. Shake Shake 10 Close 11 Off 12 Banana (or another familiar food/drink) 13 Go
Internalized Anxiety is believed to be one of the largest hurdles to learning for all people. As stress is experienced in the body, adrenaline levels increase, forcing us into a flight or fight response. According to an article taken from the Washington Post (June 2011), studies show that anxiety for children in a home or classroom environment can be predictive of learning and social-emotional challenges. According to Primary Times Cornwall (Instagram April 2019), childhood anxiety can take on many forms and can manifest as ‘something else’, suggesting children externalize anxiety in varied ways. Recognizing these indicators provides parents with helpful insights into supporting children who demonstrate signs of anxiety at an early age. 1. Anger~Research shows that anger is often a major
I had the opportunity to take a course regarding working through parents’ reactions to a diagnosis of a child with special needs. Just like every child is different from one another, so too is the process parents may have in response to their child’s diagnosis. Some may grieve the diagnosis – whether that be immediately following it or delayed in the weeks and months after. Some may be familiar with the Kübler-Ross model which describes the grieving process through five different stages including: denial & isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Parents and caregivers may be going through some of these stages. A thing to keep in mind is that their experience with these is not always linear and
‘Technoference’ refers to the interruption of social interactions by personal technology. An example of this might be if you’ve ever been out with friends at dinner and someone repeatedly checks their phone. This can happen when interacting with children as well. Correlational research suggests that technoference is associated with increases in challenging behaviors for children, relational difficulties for couples and co-parents, and aspects of parent- child attachment. It’s easy to just suggest to parents to “get off your phones” but consider a more compassionate and empathetic viewpoint: in a survey of mothers of children under six (self- reported,) mothers with higher levels of stress engaged in more problematic smartphone use, such as checking notifications. This use was then associated with
