I want to introduce a wonderful CD and activity book set designed to listen to and engage your child in order 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).

This is a 2 CD set with songs and play activities divided into 6 different areas or parts of speech and language development. As Karin puts it…"it takes all the parts working together to function well. For example, in order for a child to have good articulation (sound production), they need to have at least a core vocabulary. Likewise, children need to understand the information that they hear, see, feel, and smell (receptive language) in order to use expressive language proficiently". Therefore, this CD set was designed with that in mind and focuses on the six major parts or areas which are: articulation, vocabulary, expressive language, receptive language, voice, and social language.

These CD's are meant to be listened to with your child and they can be listened to with or without the accompanying activity books. Feel free to come up with your own activities too.

These CD's are:

• great for children ages 6 months to 5 years
• great for parents, grandparents, preschool classrooms and early childhood educators
• great to listen to in the car with your child/grandchild
• great opportunities for creative movement that promote quality time with children
• great for enhancing the 6 essential areas of speech and language development
• great for educating parents on how to facilitate emerging speech, language and cognitive development in their child
• great for preschool and kindergarten readiness skills
• great for inspiring your child to want to sing along!

To purchase your own CD and activity book set click on this Buy Now button and you will be taken to Paypal where you can pay just $23.95 using any major credit card.

Are you concerned that your child isn't talking as much as you think he should be by his age? Are other children in your playgroup talking a lot more and putting words together more easily and following directions better? There might be more going on than just "he's not picking up words" or "he's just a late talker." 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.

Late talkers often have a receptive language disorder that is overlooked. It makes sense that a chid can't use words that he doesn't understand. Words don't make sense to a child who is not understanding fully the meaning behind the words.

Children who have difficulty understanding language or processing language have difficulty following directions. This can easily be mis-diagnosed as a behavior problem both at home and at preschool or day care. You might think that your child understands just fine because he understands many words. The breakdown typically occurs, however, when it's all put together in longer utterances and when simple nouns that your child may know individually are combined with adjectives and verbs and prepositional phrases.

Some characteristics of children with comprehension or processing problems include the following:

• repeating the last couple words of a question instead of answering it
• ignoring questions
• not following more than a single step direction
• giving off target (unrelated) responses to questions
• shaking head  for yes or no instead of answering
• may understand the individual words and vocabulary, but not when it's all put together in a longer direction or question

If this sounds like your child, I strongly encourage you to have your child evaluated by a speech/language pathologist or early intervention specialist. Click here to learn more about this process. The earlier your child receives intervention for this, the better off he'll be and the chances of overcoming this specific delay with be greater.

Ways you as parents can help at home:

• teach your child how to use words and what they mean - instead of just teaching them to say words
• teach words in context and generalize across many contexts (if you're talking about the word "shoe", use the word when you are tying his shoes and when you are putting your shoes on and when you go to a shoe store and see shoes or when you look at a book with your child and come across shoes, etc.)
• exaggerate words and actions while teaching meaning
• exaggerate vowels instead of consonants (b-a-a-a-l instead of b-b-bal)
• when giving a direction, break it way down if necessary
• shorten your sentences when giving directions and asking questions
• model the answer to help them learn how to respond and what you're expecting
• tell your child to do something - if he doesn't do it or doesn't understand, show him and then if necessary physically assist him
• don't just teach your child nouns, also teach verbs (action words), adjectives (descriptive words) and prepositions (location words)

In a subsequent post, I will address asking and answering questions with your child and what types of questions should be mastered by what ages.

I hope this article has been helpful. Please fill in below with any comments or questions you may have on this topic.

Thank you

A while back I discovered a website that can be a great support for mom's in all types of situations. The site is http://www.cafemom.com. They have groups you can join on all sorts of topics. You can use forums to ask questions and get support that way or you can read questions and answers that have already been posted.

If you are reading this blog, here are some groups that you might find helpful: "Mother's of Toddlers with Speech Delays", "Mom's Helping Mom's with Special Needs Children", "babysign", "Making Sense of Sensory Processing Disorder", "Children with Speech Delays", "Raising Children with Down Syndrome", "Developmental Delays", "Children with Apraxia". There are of course many, many more groups and it's a great place to get support.

So check it out!!!