Author: Wee Speech PC

Stuttering issues have a new spotlight, as President Joe Biden has openly discussed his experience with stuttering. This not only normalizes stuttering in the culture, but also provides hope to children and adults across the world who stutter. It’s a great time to revisit what we know about this disorder. What causes stuttering? There is no single cause of stuttering, but ASHA has detailed several correlating factors:  Family history – Many people who stutter have a family member who also stutters. Children with family members who continued to stutter into adulthood are more likely to continue stuttering. Brain differences – People who stutter may have slight differences in the way their brain functions while speaking. New research has highlighted important

            For my clients that work on speech sound goals, I’m always brainstorming ways to promote practice outside of therapy sessions. One way to do this is by giving ‘homework’ with target words; however, worksheets week after week may become boring. To switch things up, I may suggest to parents some of the activities listed below to encourage sound production and practice outside of the therapy room in a way that’s engaging and fun for the child as well! Scavenger hunt: Formulate a list of items containing your target speech sound that you’d find inside the house; to make this task more challenging for older children, you can even time them to see how long it would take to collect

When you hear play-based therapy, most of the time you think of younger children, however, that is not the case. Play-based therapy can be appropriate for older children as well. In the article “Using Play-based Approaches to Build Language in Older Students”, Claudia Doan discusses appropriate ways to utilize play-based therapy when working with older children. The use of dramatic, constructive, and exploratory play can all be easily adapted for older children and allow them to use their creativity and imagination throughout therapy sessions. Dramatic play can consist of mock interviews, role playing, or dramatic readings of shows, movies, or books. By using dramatic play it allows the children to work on their sentence formulation, comprehension, and pragmatic skills all

Over the past year, mask wearing has become an essential part of our daily lives in order to keep ourselves and the people we love safe from COVID-19. As adults, we have tried our best to learn how to interpret facial expressions by just seeing someone’s eyes and eyebrows. We have had years to fine-tune this skill, yet it can still be difficult. So, how can we help our youngest population be successful in our mask-wearing world? An article released this month discussed the potential developmental impact of mask wearing on infants and young children and provided suggestions to reduce the potential impact of mask wearing. Before jumping into mask-wearing recommendations, let’s talk about why exposure to the entire human

The use of technology and screen time has increased over the years and even more so during the pandemic. While it may be convenient and an easy way to entertain, sometimes it can be nice to unplug. In the article, “Non-Tech Holiday Gifts Build Kids’ Language and Learning”, written by Diane Paul, she discusses a variety of ways to use non-tech toys to help encourage language development, problem solving, and social skills. Some ideas she provides are as follows:  Vocabulary: Toys: Shape-sorters, ring-stackers, nesting cups, blocks, and balls. These toys can help teach vocabulary such as shapes, colors, and numbers. They also help develop concepts such as prepositions (i.e. in, on, under, above), action words, and adjectives (i.e. color, size, shapes).  Speech Sound

In a typical year, there would be many opportunities during the school and holiday season for children to separate from their parents to engage with other adults away from home (e.g. teachers, grandparents, aunts, uncles.) Research confirms that separation anxiety is common for children staring from early infancy up through 4 years of age. Beyond the age of 4, children may need increased support for successfully separating from their parents. There are several strategies parents can implement if separation anxiety is an area of challenge for their child. These strategies include: *Regularly and routinely practicing separation: giving children multiple opportunities to separate from a parent (e.g. going on play dates, going to the park, small groups, spending the night with

Toddlers are constantly exploring and learning about the world. A child typically watches others and tries to copy what they are doing, whether it is pretending to do chores like Dad or following the actions of other children on the playground. This game of “copycat” is called imitation and it is an important skill that develops before words emerge. When children imitate our sounds and words, those words eventually develop into language. If your child does not have many words yet, imitation skills may be the culprit! Below are some tips for increasing imitation skills at home. Sing songs: Songs are repetitive, fun, and a great way to encourage imitation. Songs with associated motor movements are great to build your