Below are short summaries of information related to various speech and language topics pertinent to children. The first few are available for free below:  Like these tidbits??  Click HERE to purchase all the additional tidbits for a small fee on the following topics: (note: the Tidbits purchased below might be slightly longer than the three shown)

 

 

• Ideas to decrease drooling

• Technigues for Articulation

• Ideas for Carryover

• Some ideas for food stuffing

• Working with Children with word finding difficulty

• Articulation- working on fronting  (k and g sounds)

• Working with Young children with Apraxia or suspected motor planning difficulty

• Some ideas for working with Early intervention

• Working with Preschoolers on Fluency

• Working with Children on Augmentative Communication

• Working with Behaviors and Attention and Sensory problems

• Working with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

 

 

For more information on any of these areas or to make a request for a tidbit of information written on a topic of interest please contact us.

 
 

What to expect in speech therapy

Speech therapists work on a variety of areas including sound production, language stimulation, oral motor/feeding skills, social use of language, voice, fluency, and more. Over the years the profession has expanded to include a variety of areas including, but not limited to, reading and phoneme awareness. If it is felt that a child needs speech therapy based on the child's speech/language evaluation, therapy will begin and will focus on the child's areas of need. First and foremost, the therapist needs to establish rapport with the child so that the child is comfortable and so that the therapist and child get to know each other better. The therapy sessions will focus on the areas of need. For younger children, therapy might be implemented more with a "play-based" approach, where toys and games are used to stimulate speech/language production. Note- this is different than just playing with the child. The interactions are aimed specifically at improving the child's goals. For older children therapy might include working on goals using play at times, but often with using more structured activities such as structured games and worksheets. Some children are seen for therapy individually, while other children are seen in groups, depending on the area of need. If the child is receiving speech therapy at school, the therapist often tries to incorporate academic focus and work with the teacher. Your child's speech therapist may also work with other professionals (such as occupational therapists, behavior specialists,etc) since other areas often influence progress. If your child is receiving speech therapy it is recommended to keep in contact with the therapist to both voice concerns and questions, and to be able to carryover at home things focused on in therapy. Parents, children, and therapists working together creates the greatest speech therapy experience!
 

Ideas to help the non-verbal child

Children that are non-verbal are sometimes highly frustrated due to their difficulty with communication.  Many children that don't yet speak need work on earlier skills such as joint attention and a sense of cause and effect.  Many children do well with using other systems to communicate while working on increasing their verbal language.  Using pictures and sign language can be helpful.  There are numerous ways to increase verbal language.  Using routines/phrases/books with repeated elements can be helpful (such as "ready, "set", and then the child could be given the opportunity to fill in the "go" part).  My book "All I Ever Wanted To Be" Is a great example of a book with repetitive lines. Imitating the child's own actions , words, and sounds can be helpful.  Children often learn to imitate what they have already said before they can imitate something novel.  Other ideas to help non-verbal children are to create a main vocabulary (words that are most functional for a child to say) and help the child practice those words.  These words can be anything that is of high interest to the child and a book can be made with pictures of these items.  Setting up the environment can also be highly helpful to create opportunities for children to communicate,  Examples of this might be keeping a favorite toy in a closed box for the child to see (an opportunity for the child to say "help", "open",etc), blowing bubbles and then stopping and waiting for the child to say "more",etc and doing unexpected or incorrect things such as putting the child's sock on their hand instead of their feet,etc (as an opportunity for your child to say "no", "feet',etc). Working on core words (words which are used most often across various settings) is extremely helpful. Examples of core words are "eat, "drink", "more", "all done", "help", "go".  In addition to working on core words, working on requesting and labeling using simple familiar items is helpful (ex- "car', "chair", "computer", "dog", etc.)  What words are taught may depend on what is most pertinent to a particular child. 

Improving social skills

Social interaction skills can be difficult for children with language challenges. It is especially difficult for children with Autism Spectrum disorders.If your child has difficulty with social skills and you want them to interact better let them engage in an activity of high interest and also one that is easy for the child. For example, asking a child who has difficulty engaging socially and difficulty with playing sports to interact with others while playing sports could be a "double whammy". The child would have to engage in two very difficult tasks. It will likely be easier for the child to focus on social skills without having to play sports, which is also a difficult task. Have your child interact with a peer who has a welcoming personality and one whom you feel comfortable with. Have your child pick an activity that he/she is good at or has particular interest in. Make sure, however that the interest is not so specific or out of the ordinary that another child might not be interested. For example, another child might not be interested in listening to an hr synopsis on the planets. Help your child chose something that might interest other children, but that your child also has enough comfort with (ex- for a younger child it might be taking turn blowing bubbles, or for an older child maybe playing a simple board game) Again keep in mind that having your child try to interact in an activity that is stressful for them and with other children, which is stressful is putting on double pressure.Also try to practice the game first with your child by demonstrating taking turns, etc so that your child is prepared to do it with another peer. Note- sometimes it is helpful (although not always feasible) to have double of an item that your child really enjoys so that your child can engage in a side by side activity with a preferred item without having to share the item if sharing is an area of difficulty.  Eventually your child should be encouraged to gradually engage in more cooperative play. The Social Thinking program is also a phenomenal program which I have used with many of my students to help build social skills, perspective taking, expression of emotions, and conversations.