Category: blog

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

The New Year is a great time to teach kids the value of goal setting. It’s a chance to practice and build skills such as planning, persistence, and self-reflection while boosting their confidence. Tips for Goal-Setting with Kids: Explain Goals Simply Discuss what goals are and why they’re important. Keep Goals Age-Appropriate Tailor goals to your child’s age. Younger kids can aim for simple goals, like reading a new book, while older kids can tackle longer-term objectives. Write It Down Have kids write their goals, draw their goals, or create a vision board. Celebrate Progress Acknowledge milestones to keep them motivated, whether through words of encouragement or small rewards. Stay Flexible Help kids adapt their goals if needed. Flexibility is a valuable skill for overcoming challenges.

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

Valentine’s Day is an excellent opportunity to engage children in interactive language activities. These activities encourage kids to express themselves, expand their vocabulary, and strengthen their communication skills.  1. Valentine’s Vocabulary Hunt Create a word scavenger hunt with a Valentine’s Day twist! Write Valentine-themed words like “love,” “heart,” “friendship,” and “kindness” on small cards, and hide them around the room. Provide kids with a checklist and challenge them to find and talk about what each word means. 2. Love Letter Writing Encourage kids to write letters to someone they care about. It could be a family member, friend, teacher, or even a pet! Provide paper, stickers, and markers to make their letters extra special. For younger children, provide sentence starters

Dinner time is a special moment for children, adults, and especially families. It provides an opportunity to connect, share stories about the day, and enjoy each other’s company. While mealtime may look different for every family, there are universal ways to promote communication in the kitchen. This month, The ASHA Leader published an article showcasing how an SLP uses culinary instruction to help children build vocabulary, problem-solving abilities, and language skills. This post aims to provide families with practical strategies to promote expressive, receptive, and pragmatic language skills at home. Strategies to Enhance Communication in the Kitchen: Descriptive Language: Encourage children to engage all their senses when describing ingredients. Ask them to talk about the appearance, texture, smell, and taste

Do you yearn for your child to be more independent with everyday tasks of living? Teaching your child strategies to further develop their self-management skills will foster independence and help him/her build confidence and responsibility. Here are strategies that will teach your child the importance of managing their tasks, emotions, and time: Modeling Self-Management: Parents can model self-regulation by managing their own tasks, emotions, and time in a consistent manner Following Routines: Establishing routines and expectations helps children understand what is required of them and it creates structure for the child Teaching Problem-Solving: Encouraging children to make decisions and solve problems on their own helps them develop critical thinking skills and independence Practicing: Giving your kids age-appropriate tasks (making a

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used in new and exciting ways that are reaching the average person in a more personal way, now more than ever before. As such, it is not surprising that AI has begun to be used within the practice of speech and language pathology as well. Below are listed just some of the few ways that we will begin to see its use within our field. As practitioners it is our goal to use this technology for efficiency and to assist in accuracy. However, each therapist will have to be mindful that it is not a replacement for sound clinical judgement. Caregivers, clients, and therapists will have to partner together to make use of these new

  The Holiday Season offers our children a lot of wonderful opportunities to experience rich and meaningful language stimulation and even the possibilities of more time as a family to concentrate on spending quality time and engagement. However, for many families who have a child or children with communication challenges, there frequently can be unforeseen challenges as their routines can alter quite dramatically.  This is especially true for a large number of children who often struggle with coexisting executive functioning challenges.    Many children with communication disorders also have overlapping Autism Spectrum Disorder or ADHD, or may struggle with sensory overload. For these individuals, large crowds, loud sounds, and unfamiliar environments are difficult to manage and are overwhelming. These are

Winter Snowman Craft Materials: Construction paper in winter colors (blue, red, green, orange, black, etc.) Scissors Glue or tape Markers or crayons Cotton balls Small googly eyes Speech Therapy Targets: Articulation: Focus on speech sounds like “s,” “sh,” “ch,” “b,” “p,” and “m” that are common in winter vocabulary (snow, cold, snowman, mittens, boots, ice). Vocabulary: Seasonal vocabulary words (snow, cold, freeze, snowflake, mittens, scarf, hat, snowman, sleet). Sentence Structure: Create simple and complex sentences to describe the snowman (e.g., “The snowman has a red hat” or “The snowman is wearing a blue scarf”). Following Directions: Give step-by-step instructions to assemble the snowman (e.g., “Cut out two circles for the snowman’s body,” “Glue the buttons on the snowman”). How to:

  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