Generalizing new language skills is an essential part of speech therapy success that we can’t achieve without the support of parents and loved ones. In this blog, we are going to walk through five simple after school speech and language development activities for kids and families to help your child apply their new speech skills…
As a parent, you may be wondering if there are things you can do to help your infant or toddler with their speech development. You might be surprised to hear this, but you’re probably already doing a lot to help your child. In this blog, we’ll talk about some simple ways you can help your…
Let’s be honest, even children who do not have Autism spectrum disorder can benefit from social skills lessons. Thanksgiving is a time when you get together with a lot of people that you may not see frequently. Many of the people may be elderly too. Kids are expected to get dressed up, be on their…
“ooo-ahh” “wawa” “mama” “ball” “woof” – Your mouth moves differently to say all of these sounds and words. Start paying attention to the way your mouth moves to make certain sounds. Then, try working on words with your little one, during play or daily routines, while exaggerating how your mouth moves to make the sounds…
1. Read Slowly Children learn more from books when they are read slowly. It will sound very weird to you to read so slowly, but trust me: it will help! You can also add longer pauses at the end of each sentence. 2. Point While Naming Pictures Talk about pictures. Point to them as…
Offering choices is an alternative to yes-no questions. Offering choices allows your child to answer with a wider range of responses, gives your child some control, and offers more opportunities for communication. Offering choices can let child know that language is a powerful tool that can be used to control their environment. Giving your child…
The way we talk to kids is important, as moms and as speech therapists. If we want our children to act a certain way or complete a task the words we use matter. Tell and Don’t Ask: In high school and college, I worked as a pediatric dental assistant. Dr. Joe taught me, never…
Hi there! I’m Katie Dimond, mom of 2 boys, speech pathologist, and founder/director of Crossroads Speech Therapy. I am a huge advocate of reading. My mom and dad always read to me as I was growing up and it instilled a love for reading. Reading sparks the imagination and it inspires creativity, increases vocabulary, and…
As a Speech Pathologist, I teach parents to try and incorporate at least 45-minutes of play-time into their daily routine with their child to facilitate language learning. While this can happen in chunks of time throughout the day, there has been a recent study showing that feedings/meal times are a great time to use language…
“How much TV is OK?”… “What shows do you recommend?” I get these questions from parents ALL the time. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the recommendation is to prioritize creative, unplugged playtime for infants and toddlers. I think if you can do this: Great! But, let’s be real. Sometimes parents need a break…