Author: Wee Speech PC

Many parents go to great lengths to find the perfect books to share with their children. Parents often select traditional books with text embedded. At times, picture books with an abundance of text can become difficult for children to process and for parents as they try to simplify and narrate stories. Many parents rely heavily on reading books verbatim to their children and for children who struggle with decoding, traditional children’s books can appear daunting to work through. Research shows that wordless picture books can be advantageous for developing both reading and language skills in children. Wordless picture books which rely primarily on pictures to tell their story are said to promote narrative language skills, vocabulary development, creativity, and higher-level

As adults struggle to cope with and understand the COVID-19 climate, parents are increasingly looking for support on how to help their children cope with and understand life during a pandemic. Research shows there are a number of different strategies that can be implemented within the home to assist families in managing the stressors and uncertainty COVID-19 brings. Recognize how stress can manifest in children at home; During COVID-19, children are reportedly demonstrating stress in a variety of ways including having trouble eating/sleeping, seeking out added physical contact/touch, or demonstrating attention-seeking patterns. Regularly talking about emotions with children and maintaining outlets for relaxation and stress management is shown to largely assist children during challenges. Reassure their safety; Regularly emphasize that

A BIG part of communication revolves around sharing ideas, making comments, and enjoyment! Requesting is only a small part of communication, but many AAC users get stuck at this stage. Conversational turn-taking should be worked on at the same time as requesting. Here are four tips for encouraging conversational turn-taking with an AAC user:  •      Wait time: get comfortable with waiting. AAC is not as fast as speech and requires the communication partner practice patience. •      Understand the AAC user’s pre-communication signals. Every AAC user’s pre-communication signals are different. It is essential for parents, teachers, SLPS, and other frequent communication partners to know the user’s signals. Common pre-communication signals are gesturing toward the device, glancing at the device, and picking

Is your child heading back to school? Consider having your child practice wearing a mask for extended periods of time for the last few weeks of summer in order to make the transition easier. Start off by having your child wear a mask during highly preferred activities and increase the length of time in a mask per day. Once your child is comfortable wearing a mask during preferred tasks, incorporate mask wearing into non-preferred activities as well. This will allow your child to slowly ease in to the transition of wearing a mask for a significant portion of the day. Wear a mask with your child during practice time as well!  Wearing a mask can be tiring, especially for kids.

As face masks are required in most public spaces now, individuals with communication difficulties are challenged in new ways. Face masks alter speech loudness, block facial expressions, and reduce the overall quality of speech. Consider using gestures with your whole body instead of relying on facial expressions to ensure a clear message is conveyed. Also, try to use louder, clear speech whenever possible. Transparent face masks are becoming increasingly more available and are a great option as well. Individuals often rely on lip-reading to aid in their comprehension, so try to supplement this the best you can by using an alternative face mask, visual supports, and reducing background noise. Please visit asha.org for more support regarding face masks.

This summer is turning out a little differently than expected. Many families are finding they have more time at home, and fewer opportunities to socialize with others. For children who are really missing that social engagement and interaction, here are some game ideas to enrich conversational skills, perspective taking, and interpreting nonverbal cues from home! Conversation tokens: Each player contributes to the conversation by asking a question or making a comment and stacks their token on top of the other. You could play with any sort of token that is stackable (e.g., checkers, dominos, cookies). If one of the players says something off-topic or can’t think of something to say, the tower is knocked down. Conversation ball-toss: Each player contributes a comment

As adults, in any given day, we are expected to demonstrate the capacity for wait time (e.g. waiting in line at the grocery store, waiting in traffic, waiting for our food at restaurants, etc.) The ability to exercise self -control and self-regulation through wait time is an important life skill that is shown to first develop in childhood. The capacity for wait time is shown to be closely tied to attention span and memory capacity which evolve as the brain develops with age. Wait time is connected with turn-taking and conversational reciprocity that are relevant in our earliest social experiences with peers and adults. As parents, the importance of wait time in developing self-regulation can be modeled and reinforced for