January 13, 2010
- 10 Tips to Promote Speech and Language Skills in Your Child
Research in Speech and Hearing Sciences recognizes the communication skills of newborns and even the developing fetus during the last trimester of pregnancy. The following are ten ways you can nurture the five different areas of speech and language development in typically developing infants and toddlers.
October 21, 2009
- Help Your Child Understand and Learn to Ask Questions
Being able to understand question forms and being able to ask questions is an essential part of language development. It's the way we give and get information about our world. Questions lay the foundation for children to participate in conversations, demonstrate their knowledge and gather information.
September 5, 2009
- Exploring Language Through Song and Play
I want to introduce a wonderful CD and activity book set designed to listen to and engage your child in orde to help enhance speech and language skills in a very indirect way. This CD and activity book set was created by Karin Howard, MA, CCC-SLP, a fellow speech/language pathologist, along with Alan Riva (Captain Al).
June 15, 2009
- Late Talker or Receptive Language Delay?
A receptive language delay/disorder may be an underlying factor in why your child is not picking up words as easily as other children around him. There might be more going on than just "he's not picking up words" or "he's just a late talker."
January 20, 2009
- Support Groups - This May Be For You
Getting support from other parents who are going through a similar situation with their children can be extremely beneficial. Here is a place online for wonderful support from other parents.
June 8, 2008
- Will Using A Pacifier Interfere With My Toddler's Speech Development?
As a speech therapist who works with kids, I've been asked this question on more than one occasion so I thought I would address this issue here on this blog. From my own experience, I think this is not true and maybe just one of those things that you heard from your mother and she heard from her mother and so on.
May 25, 2008
- Preschool Age Dysfluency - Normal or Not?
When your child is in the midst of a great jump in his language skills (between ages 30 months and 5 years) it's natural that putting sentences together in a fluent way might be difficult. Her brain is like a computer, working to pull up the right words in the right order and at the right time.
May 12, 2008
- Can Childhood Ear Infections Impact Speech & Language?
When a child has a middle-ear infection, fluid accumulates in the middle ear. The middle ear space behind the eardrum is typically filled with air - not fluid. This fluid can actually remain even after the infection has cleared. The presence of this fluid can cause a temporary hearing loss or reduction in hearing. And of course children with repeated infections or fluid build up have a higher likelihood of speech and language delays.
April 5, 2008
- Using Everyday Activities To Enhance Language Development
What is important to understand is that even if you have a toddler with a language delay, you don't have to make extra time throughout your day to enhance and work on language development and language learning. This should be incorporated into everyday activities such as meal time, bath time, getting dressed and even play time.
March 28, 2008
- Learning Language Through Play
Language learning is an ongoing process that occurs all day long during everyday activities and especially during play. (…)
March 12, 2008
- Amazing Story of Baby Learning to Read With Signing Time!
This is an incredible story of a 17 month old that can read! This story first aired on March 10th on the Today Show. Signing Time family Katy & Michael Barrett shared their experience with their daughter, Elizabeth, learning to read when she was just 13-months old. They contribute a large part of this to introducing her at a very young age to Signing Time. Both parents are speech/language pathologists
March 9, 2008
- Tips To Help Your Child Learn New Words
Many of these tips to encourage language development and help your child learn new words are are things that we all do everyday without really thinking about it. So use this list to re-assure yourself that you are stimulating your child's language development already and perhaps you will find some tips on this list that you are not doing but that you can incorporate in your daily routine with your child.
February 16, 2008
- Give Your Child Motivation to Communicate
If you have a 2 or 3 year old that is barely saying any words, it's time to think about increasing his or her need to communicate. There are many ways to do this, but first and foremost, as a parent you need to try real hard not to anticipate your child's needs. You need to think of ways to create opportunities for your child to absolutely need to communicate. If your child's wants and needs are always anticipated by you or if your child as an older sibling that talks for him, then he won't ever have the need to communicate for himself.
February 3, 2008
- Imitation Is Vital For Speech and Language Development
Imitation begins early in infancy and continues throughout childhood. (…)
January 10, 2008
- The Autistic Child's Need to Communicate
I was recently asked a question about a specific autistic child and speech therapy and I'm posting it here because I thought the answer might be helpful to others.
The person who asked me this question was not a speech therapist, but someone who was/is working with this family and their autistic 2 1/2 year old son
January 8, 2008
- Sign Language & Speech Therapy
Help Your Child Communicate by Teaching Him Simple Signs at an Early Age
To provide a program of total communication for young children, sign language is often used in conjunction with traditional speech therapy. (…)
December 31, 2007
- Language Development: Typical Guidelines
Through my years as a speech/language pathologist and mom, I've been asked the same question many times: "Is my child's language development on track for his age?" Needleless to say, there is a wide range of "normal" in any area of development - even, and maybe especially in language development. That is why in this post I'm going to just highlight some typical guidelines for you. (…)
