Category: blog

When a child plays, either by themselves or with others, it promotes executive function, including the ability to self-regulate their emotions, develop patience and impulse control. Independent play also helps develop their attention skills and encourages problem-solving.. The link between play and positive cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development is so strong that in 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a recommendation for their providers to ‘prescribe’ play for their patients. The ability to play independently is something that happens gradually. At around six months of age, babies might be able to play for a couple of minutes at a time, up to 5 minutes. By around 12 months of age, this time increases to around 10 minutes of independent

  With the outbreak of COVID-19 more than two years ago, schools and clinics resorted to using virtual platforms in order to continue providing educational and therapeutic services to students and clients. Nowadays, it appears Zoom is here to stay as an effective and convenient means of conducting therapy if in-person services are not an option, or simply if a family chooses to elect telehealth for their child. If your child is participating in virtual services, here are some key tips for making sure their therapy sessions are successful:   1. Make sure your child has a designated area to work in. Your child should have a specific area at home that they are able to use their iPad, computer, or

  Do you stutter? Or is your speech considered difficult to understand? If so and you are at least 18-years-old, Project Euphonia needs you! Please consider recording a set of phrases for Google to help it recognize different types of speech. Thanks to The Stuttering Foundation for calling attention to this project. To learn more, visit: https://sites.research.google/euphonia/about/ —

Engaging in play based tasks with toddlers and young children is a great way to target language.  Language targets can be “disguised” into play, making it fun for both adults and kids to work on their skills.  Sometimes when we place demands on children during structured tasks they might back off and elope from the activity.  Here are a few activities/games/toys that I have used to work on receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language skills during play. Cars/Car Ramp: Think of some key words/concepts that go along with this activity (i.e. “go” “stop” ), environmental sounds (i.e. “beep beep” “weee ohhh”), size concepts (“big” “small”), locative concepts (up/down, in/on top/under), quality concepts (colors), quantity concepts (1, 2, 3)  to incorporate throughout

Stuttering is a fluency disorder that causes disruptions or disfluencies in one’s speech. Stuttering can also cause an individual who stutters to have negative feelings about how they talk, to avoid situations to prevent a possible stutter, to escape a stuttering moment such as eye blinking, or to have physical tension when speaking. With stuttering encompassing a wide range of difficulties, there are a variety of false statements that surround this fluency disorder. Education about the falsehoods of stuttering can ensure a better understanding of the disorder and reduce biases towards people who stutter. Here is a list of the most common myths about stuttering: -People stutter because they are nervous. -Stuttering effects one’s intelligence. -Stress causes stuttering. -People who

Broadway in Chicago is offering a sensory friendly performance of The Lion King on January 7th, 2023. Traditional rules of a theater will no longer apply allowing audience members to stand, move around as needed, and make noise during the performance. Additionally, the theater will be leaving some lights turned on within the theater and lowering the sound levels during the show. Specific quiet areas will be established and volunteers and professionals will be in attendance. For further information please see https://www.broadwayinchicago.com/sensoryfriendly/.

Parental involvement in a child’s speech and language development is essential. Numerous studies have shown that when parents and speech-language pathologists work together to help practice skills in as many environments as possible, children make significantly more progress towards their therapy goals. It’s hard to learn any new skill if it’s only practiced for 45 minutes, once or twice per week. Think about learning to play a musical instrument; your weekly lessons with a music teacher will help you learn scales, chords and other techniques, but if you don’t practice at home, outside of your lessons with your instructor, it will take a lot longer to master those skills. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) only have a limited time with your child

  The Stuttering Foundation is a great resource for parents, caregivers, and educators who are looking for assistance with their child’s fluency. This page highlights some key strategies to implement when engaging in conversation with your child: Reduce your pace Demonstrate “full body listening” Avoid asking questions consecutively Take turns during conversation Help build confidence by using specific language Implement “special time” into your daily schedule Discipline per usual, no special treatment https://www.stutteringhelp.org/7-tips-talking-your-child-0?gclid=Cj0KCQjw852XBhC6ARIsAJsFPN1CFGMaXKBxLKGu83yqsaMz-jePL4TZ_X_j_WwvCNBuUlmI02BGKP0aAi5CEALw_wcB

Open mouth breathing can effect your child’s health, clarity of speech, and oral-structural development. Oral-Structural Development For closed-mouth breathers, our tongue rests up against our hard palate, which helps to maintain its flat shape. Open-mouth breathers’ tongues rest in the lower jaw. When the tongue does not rest on the hard palate, the palate tends to grow high and narrow, which could impinge on the nasal cavity. Health When we breathe through our mouths,  we do not have as strong of natural air filters as we do in our nostrils. The main function of our tonsils is to trap bacteria and viruses; however, after a prolonged period of open-mouth breathing, our tonsils tend to get enlarged and swollen from being