Category: blog

Using Household Items to Play with Your Kids As families continue to spend more time at home, and outside activities are more limited, many parents think they need the newest toys and games to entertain their kids and support their development.  Don’t overlook the wealth of materials you already have in your home!  Many common, everyday household objects can be used to develop play skills, encourage your child’s imagination, and expand speech and language skills. Here are a few items you can use: Paper towel and toilet paper rolls can be used as “tunnels” for pushing cars or other toys through, or as a telescope for playing “I spy”. Try taping a few to a wall with painter’s tape to

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

“Fake News” isn’t a new phenomena, but the ease with which people can copy, paste, click and share content online, allows it to spread so pervasively that it has become a major issue.  With young people- especially teenagers- constantly exposed to a flood of information found online, knowing how to sift out the truth from falsehoods, is a critical skill.  When teens receive information that is deceptive, disturbing, or inflammatory, it can promote feelings of anxiety, fear and anger.  Although social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter have made some attempts to flag or remove troublesome articles and videos, there simply aren’t enough resources to check each one.  Here are some tips for parents to help their children

Happy New Year! The New Year is an excellent time of the year to set goals and resolutions for the coming year. What goals do you have for your child’s speech and language for 2021 Here are some ideas for New Years resolutions related to speech and language to help kick of 2021. Practice speech sounds for five minutes at least five days a week. Life can get busy for everyone, but research shows daily practice even for just five minutes can make a huge difference in a child’s progress. Ask your child’s therapist for speech targets.Go to the library and read each day. Going to the library is a fun activity which leads to bringing home new, exciting, and

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

What is Speech Intelligibility?  Intelligibility refers to the clarity of speech, or how much of someone’s speech a listener can understand. Parents often worry when their child is not understood by others.  It is common for young children to make mistakes as they learn to say words. There is also a lot of variability in speech development between children.  However, as your child learns to talk, their ability to be understood by others should steadily increase.  So, how can you tell if your child’s speech intelligibility is on track or falling behind? Dr. Peter Flipsen, Jr.  has developed a simple formula to use as a guide to evaluate a child’s speech clarity in conversational speech with unfamiliar listeners (Flipsen, 2006).