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When working with children with a speech sound disorder, it is important to use target words that are meaningful, functional, and motivating. This can include working on family member names that include the target sound, using favorite books, and incorporating preferred activities. Now, Apple Music partnered with Warner Music and Speech-Language Pathologists to create a new feature called the “saylists.”  The “saylists” use an algorithm to find song lyrics that repeat challenging sounds, such as /sh/, /ch/, /l/, /r/, /s/, for listeners to sing along.  This includes songs by famous artists, such as Ed Sheehan, Madonna, Beyonce, and Adele.  It is so exciting to hear about new ways we can use technology for speech sound practice. Saylists provide a fun,

Research shows that the capacity for regulating emotion is first established in early childhood. Research also shows that children who have challenges regulating emotions early in life are more likely to have challenges making and sustaining friendships with peers. Strong emotional regulation is reported to positively impact children by serving as a strong predictor of academic achievement, specifically with testing performance. Children with better managed emotions are reported to demonstrate better sustained attention, problem solving skills, and integral executive function skills such as inhibition control. Children who learn to regulate emotions from an early age are shown to demonstrate better resiliency given experiences with trauma and adversity. Emotional dysregulation is also reported to be closely linked to clinical disorders such

Speech and language disorders are among the most common disorders that young children experience. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 11% of children ages 3–6 have a speech, language, voice or swallowing disorder. Most speech and language disorders are highly treatable, but the earlier parents and caregivers seek help for their child, the better. Now there is a free and convenient resource for parents and caregivers who have concerns about their child’s speech and language development. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Identify the Signs campaign and Bright by Text , have joined forces to provide a free resource for families of children ages 2–6.   Bright by Text, a national nonprofit that sends parents and caregivers

Is your child trying to generalize their speech targets in their conversational speech? Try to incorporate movement activities to encourage your child to split their attention between the motor movement and their speech sounds simultaneously (e.g. playing catch while having a conversation using their sounds). Retelling their favorite show, video, or book can be another way to have your child practice their speech sounds in their spontaneous speech. Using music is another great way to encourage generalization of sounds! Have your child sing and record their favorite song while attempting to produce their targeted sounds correctly. See if they can hear or see a mistake that they made while singing!

With the warmer weather and melting snow, it is starting to feel and look like spring. Here are some ideas to help your child in building their speech and communication skills during a spring time activity. Introduce new vocabulary and describing words while planting a seed and taking care of a growing plant. New vocabulary may include: fertilizer, trowel, soil, etc. Be sure to utilize any new vocabulary words in sentences multiple times throughout the activity. Encourage your child to describe the texture of the soil and seeds, explain what they are doing, and discuss what they hope will happen as the plant grows. Describe the flow of the water as you water the seeds (e.g., slow, fast, dripping, etc.).

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

With siblings and busy schedules, it may feel difficult to find time to sit down with your child one-on-one to work on speech and language targets or homework. It is important to know that even if you are not spending as much one-on-one time with your child as you would like, they are still gaining crucial input and exposure during each conversation you have with them. Implementing therapy techniques and practice does not need to only be limited to individual practice. While one-on-one time is beneficial, it is also important for your child to learn how to use language in everyday routines and when interacting with family and friends. Speech and language development techniques can easily be implemented into daily

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