Category: blog

  Kindness is a skill that can be developed and nurtured, given a strong model. Here are steps for parents to follow when teaching their child about kindness and how to be a supportive friend. It may be beneficial to have this discussion with your child before the upcoming school year. 1. Modeling Kindness: Demonstrate respectful and kind behavior in your own interactions, as children often learn by example 2. Teaching Empathy: Help your child understand and recognize others’ feelings through discussions and role-playing scenarios 3. Encouraging Positive Interactions: Provide opportunities for children to practice kindness, such as helping others, sharing, and offering support 4.  Reinforcing Good Behavior: Praise and acknowledge acts of kindness to reinforce positive social behavior By integrating these practices into daily

  Summer is coming to an end and school is right around the corner! Here are some ideas to make the transition back to school smoother for your child: 1. Establishing Routines: Set consistent sleep schedules, morning routines, and homework times to ease the transition and reduce stress 2. Organizing Supplies: Ensure that school supplies, clothes, and backpacks are ready well before the first day to avoid last-minute scrambling 3. Open Communication: Encourage open dialogue about any concerns or anxieties regarding the new school year, fostering a supportive environment 4. Gradual Adjustment: Ease into the school routine by gradually adjusting bedtime and wake-up times a week or two before school starts 5. Positive Attitude: Model and maintain a positive attitude

Food chaining is a therapeutic approach designed to help children with feeding difficulties by gradually expanding their food preferences. It involves introducing new foods in a systematic way that is related to the child’s existing likes and dislikes. For example, if a child likes chicken nuggets, the approach might start by introducing other types of nuggets or different textures and flavors of chicken, slowly moving towards more varied foods. This technique aims to reduce food neophobia (fear of new foods) and increase dietary variety through gradual and manageable steps. I highly recommend reading the book: “Food Chaining: The Proven 6 Step Plan to Stop Picky Eating, Solve Feeding Problems, and Expand Your Child’s Diet” by Cheri Fraker RD LD CLC,

Have you noticed that your child has trouble saying the /r/ sound? The /r/ sound is one of the most used sounds in English. Therefore, when it is not produced correctly, speech can sound distorted. The /r/ sound is typically acquired later in development with it maturing completely around the age of 6. As this sound develops later, it can be wrongly decided to do nothing about it. Sometimes waiting is the right thing to do, but other times intervention and therapy are needed. As a child grows older and may not be able to produce the /r/ sound in their language, they become more aware of their problem and this can negatively affect their confidence. The right thing to do is to have

Development of  Play Play is engaging with an activity for enjoyment. Young children learn and explore their  environment through play. Play develops and becomes more complex as children age. It reveals multiple aspects of a child’s development such as ability to take turns, problem solving, gross and fine motor skills, sequencing, etc. The following describes each type of play and behaviors that are observed during each period of development: *Unoccupied play (birth-3 months): Babies engage in body movements with no clear purpose. *Solitary play (birth-2 years old) : Children engage with toys appropriately on their own such as rolling a ball, pushing a car, and hugging a doll. *Onlooker play (2-2.5 years old): Children will watch others play or ask questions about

  “Wait and see” was the standard advice for parents of preschoolers with emerging stuttering for many decades. Although we now understand so much more about stuttering and its complexity, echos of this (very much outdated) advice are still too common.  The truth is, fluency development plays out very differently from one child to the next. While one child may go through a brief period of disfluency and spontaneously recover, another child may not. Timing of intervention is important — the longer a child stutters, the more likely the stuttering is to persist. In an evaluation, speech-language pathologists examine a wide range of risk factors (based on the most current research) to determine an individual child’s likelihood to continue to stutter

Enhancing Your Child’s Speech and Language Skills During Summer Outings   Are you concerned that your child may lose his/her skills over the summer break? Fear no more – Summer break offers children endless opportunities to build memories with their family, experience new things, and engage in hands-on learning activities. Some activities that promote learning opportunities for children to develop their speech and language skills include: going to the pool or beach, museums, and parks, creating a checklist for vacation, reading books about animals at the zoo, etc. Wherever you plan to bring your child this summer, make sure you are engaging in conversations with your child about their surroundings. Asking your child open-ended questions about what they are seeing

  Favorite Family Road Trip Games (Activities That Will Elicit Language) Are you looking to keep your children occupied on a long road trip without relying on screen time to entertain them? Here is a list of simple and engaging games for all ages that are sure to liven up that long car ride: ISpy: Take turns choosing an object to describe. The player can fill-in-the-blank with any word that describes the object (I spy something blue and round). Players will guess the object based on the description provided 20 Questions: Take turns choosing a mystery item. Players will take turns asking yes and no questions to guess the mystery object (Is it something that is living?) The Alphabet Game:

    Vocal hygiene is developing healthy habits to keep your voice healthy. Like the rest of our body, our vocal folds are made up of muscles and tissues. Whenever you exercise or overuse your muscles, you might feel sore. Similarly, our vocal folds can experience strain when the muscles are overused. The goal of vocal hygiene is to lessen the impact of negative vocal behaviors on a daily basis. Examples of negative vocal behaviors include shouting, excessive talking, constant clearing throat/coughing, excessive caffeine, and whispering. When developing healthy vocal hygiene habits think of including the following:   Drinking 6-8 glasses of water Reduce excess taking (if you are taking for 3o minutes take a 10 minute break) Reduce shouting 

When considering extracurricular activities for children with special needs, it’s essential to focus on their interests, abilities, and comfort levels. Here are some suggestions to look into: Adaptive Sports: Many communities offer adaptive sports programs tailored to children with disabilities. These can include wheelchair basketball, adaptive swimming, or sensory-friendly sports activities. Here is a link to Chicago’s Adaptive Sports page: https://www.chicagoadaptivesports.com/ Art Classes: Art allows for self-expression and creativity. Look for art classes or workshops that accommodate various abilities and sensory needs. Here is a link to a specific program in Chicago: https://artsoflife.org/ Music Therapy: Music therapy can be highly beneficial for children with special needs. It can help improve communication skills, sensory integration, and emotional expression. Here is a link to