Child Talk

Babbles and Bubbles: How Bubbles Help Your Child Learn Language

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Hands down, bubbles are my favorite speech therapy toy. There's just something magical about their ability to entice a little one to communicate. They shimmer and shine, appear and disappear, float away and pop at random, tempting even the most grumpy child into smiles and laughter. And since engaging children in activities they love is the first step to working on communication, bubbles can be a beautiful bridge to language.

Before I explain how the bubble magic unfolds, though, I'll share my favorite bubble recipe. It's one I found back when I was eleven years old and spent hours upon hours perfecting HUGE bubbles, made with a spectacular bubble wand. To this day, I use the recipe I found back then, because I still haven't found one that works better. Plus, it's easy!

One cup Dawn dish soap
Ten cups water
2-3 tablespoons glycerin (found at a local pharmacy)

That's it. Makes the perfect bubble every time.

So then, what's all this about bubble magic?

Bubbles are a great activity for getting some first words going, because you can use lots of "b" and "p" sounds, These speech sounds are easy for children to imitate because they can see exactly what your lips do when you make the sounds. Obviously, the word "bubble" is full of "b" sounds; "pop" is another great word to model as you play, so is "up" as the bubbles go up up up into the air, and "bye" as the bubbles float away in the wind.
Because bubbles are hard for young children to blow themselves, they are a perfect communication temptation. To use bubbles as a communication temptation, blow them for a while, and have some fun. Then put the cap on the bubble jar and wait, looking expectantly at your child. Or, catch the bubble on the wand, hold it up high, and wait. Or look like you are about to blow a bubble and wait. It is during the wait that your little one is most likely to communicate, either through a sound, a gesture, or a word. When she does, build on her communication by modeling back something a bit more complex than what she did, and then give her what she wants.
You can also use my favorite three magic words: Say "Ready, Set, Go!" right before blowing the bubbles. Do this repeatedly, without any expectation of a response. Then, one time, say "Ready, Set...." and wait; the word "go" will often fall right out of your little one's mouth.
You can be silly with bubbles! Children love silly, and you can pair your silly actions with words to increase the chances that your child will imitate. When I am blowing bubbles, they often pop right into my face (sometimes by accident, sometimes by design) and I have to wipe them off with an exaggerated "uck!" I also squash bubbles with my hands and stomp on bubbles with great delight, saying "pop" as I go, wave "bye bye," as the bubbles float off into the distance, and diiiiiiiip the wand into the bubbles.
Playing with bubbles is a great time to model action and description words to increase your child's language. Action words are easily woven into the activity as you open the bubbles, blow the bubbles, and pop the bubbles; simple and early developing concepts are present too, as you blow big and little bubbles, as the bubbles go up and down, the wand goes in and out of the bubble jar, and as things get wet when the bubbles pop (or spill!), so you have to get a towel to dry them off again. These verbs and concepts can be worked on at the single world level at first, and then integrated into two word phrases as your little one's language develops.
Best of all, it's hard not to smile while watching your little one enjoy the beauty of bubbles. And smiling is good for everyone. :)

Better Therapy Sessions For Kids

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:40:00 +0000

Ellen over at Love That Max has a great post up, full of tips from pediatric therapists about how to get the maximum benefit from therapist sessions. The tips came from Pediastaff bloggers, each of whom have their own blog, too: My Munchbug, Starfish Therapies, All 4 My Child, and, yes, Child Talk. :) Check it out here.

The ABCs of ABA in the SLP world

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:26:00 +0000

We speech-language therapists have a lot of acronyms in our little speechy world. We are SLPs (speech-language pathologists) who have our CCCs (Certificates of Clinical Competence) from ASHA (the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association). When I graduated with my M.S. (okay, you all know that one) in speech-language pathology, I was pretty sure I'd mastered the alphabet soup of our profession.

Until I fell in love with kids with autism, that is. That's when I was introduced to the world of ABA. If you've loved a child with autism, you've no doubt run smack into this term, too, and probably very early along the journey you took. Despite the fact that this word swirls around the autism world with great furiosity, it is often misused and a bit misunderstood. Some people love it with a passion; others hate it with the same intensity. Me? I think it both extremely valuable and sometimes overused.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. My goal today is to begin to define the term for those who don't know it well. Later, when I've laid the groundwork just a bit, we'll delve into the true complexities that exist with what appears, at first glance, to be a very simple concept.

ABA stands for Applied Behavioral Analysis. It's based on the work of B.F. Skinner, a psychologist who focused on operant conditioning, or the study of observable behaviors and the events that cause and reinforce those behaviors. The applied part of ABA means that we take this system of looking at the way behaviors are shaped and apply it to everyday life; we use it to shape behaviors that are important to the lives we lead. When we peer at the world through the eyes of ABA, we find ourselves looking at three main things.

The Antecedent: What happened in the environment before the behavior occurred?

The Behavior: This part involves describing the overt behavior that you see or want to see. Not the motives, not the intent, not the feelings behind the behavior. Simply the behavior as you can observe it in front of you. Those who study and use the principles of ABA believe in describing the behavior as clearly and objectively as possible. For example, instead of saying "Sally got mad," a behavior analyst would say "Sally screamed and hit the door with her fist."

Consequence: What happens after the behavior? Does this thing that occurs after the behavior (the consequence) increase the chances the behavior will occur again, making it a reinforcement? Or does it decrease the chances the behavior will occur again, making it a punishment?

To help explain, let me share a couple examples.

Say you are teaching a child to say "cookie." The steps behind teaching the word might go a little something like this:

Antecedent: You hold up a cookie and say, "cookie"
Behavior: The child imitates "cookie"
Consequence: You give the child the cookie. (This would be positive reinforcement, assuming that giving the child the cookie increases the chances he will say the word again in the presence of the the cookie. Or, in plain English, assuming the child actually wants the cookie--although behavior analysts would probably shy away from describing it this way, as it reflects the child's internal state, rather than his behavior).

Or, perhaps you are teaching your child to walk.

Antecedent: You hold out your hands and say "come here!"
Behavior: Your child takes his first step toward you.
Consequence: You cheer and throw your child in the air as he giggles. (Again, this is only reinforcement if it actually increases the chances your child will take a step toward you the next time you hold out your hands and say, "come here!" It wouldn't be a reinforcement if he hated being thrown in the air- in this case, it might decrease the chances that he'd come to you and would, then, become a punishment*. Consequences are different for different people- the exact same action that is a reinforcement for one person can be a punishment for another).

These three things- the antecedent, behavior and consequence (Or ABCs of ABA, if you will...yes, another acronym), make up the core of ABA. Those who live in the world of ABA focus very carefully on the ABCs behind any and all behaviors. They graph and chart and study these elements of life and plan interactions around them.

ABA is much more complex than this, of course; I took four full graduate level classes about ABA when I completed my graduate certificate in Behavioral Intervention in Autism. There are those that study ABA all their life and still don't have all the answers, and there are entire, complex, and well-graphed treatments for autism that are based the concepts behind ABA. It is not nearly as simple as I am making it at the moment. And yet, if you understand the ABCs behind ABA, you can begin to understand the world through the eyes of an applied behavior analyst.

How, then, does ABA fit into the world of SLP? As an experienced applied behavior analyst once told me, we all (parents, teachers, speech-therapists, all of us) use ABA in one form or another. SLPs are no exception. We use the principles of ABA to teach children first words (Antecedent: "Say, Ball!" Child's Behavior: "Ball!" Consequence: Child is rolled the ball). We use ABA methods to teach children how to behave and understand language (Antecedent: "Sit down please." Child's behavior: sits down. Consequence: "Here's your snack."). We call on ABA to help us figure why children behave in certain ways, so that we might help them find a better response and eliminate challenging behavior. For example, we might look at what comes just before a child hits another child (the antecedent), discover that it happens whenever another child obstructs the way, and then give the child a new behavior (saying, "move please") by teaching and reinforcing this new behavior.

So yes, we all use the concepts behind ABA, intuitively and frequently, to teach, motivate, and shape our children's behaviors. And yet, controversy behind these methods exists. Why so? Because there are significant differences in how and when we apply these methods, in how stringently we define the behaviors we expect, in how we select and apply consequences, and in how strongly we believe that the ABA lens is the only one through which we can view the world.

That's a post for a different day though. For now, we'll just be happy that we've learned our ABCs.

Every Day Language Learning: Dishwashers and Socks

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:03:00 +0000

As a working mom, life is a perpetual balance of domestic duties, professional tasks, and child-related entertainment. When my son was young, I often attempted to maintain this balance by entertaining him with toys, books, and activities while he was awake and then feverishly trying to get all of the household chores done while he napped or after he went to bed each night. This worked well...except for the fact that the chores were rarely completed, I got way too little sleep, and I tended to be a bit, um, cranky due to both of these things.

With my daughter, I'm doing things differently. We still play and read books for sure. But I've also realized how much more fun chores can be when she is a part of them. And how much learning occurs inside those household tasks if I just slow them down a bit. Recently, we've been having a blast unloading the dishwasher and sorting the laundry. (No, really. Stop laughing).

Luckily, learning is easily woven into both these activities. The biggest thing we do right now is sort things. Sorting is a cognitive skill that really begins to emerge in the toddler years. As we unload the dishwasher, I let her sort the utensils into the right baskets; when we do the laundry, she sorts the clean clothes into piles of shirts, pants, socks and undies. (Yes, it helps that she's an agreeable little girl who wants to do these things with me. I think her propensity for sorting suggests that she may have inherited her organizational gene from me. Poor thing).

I didn't expect her to sort all on her own right away, of course. Laundry, for example, started out with just finding the socks and putting them in a sock pile. Then we moved to separating the socks from the shirts. Now-a-days, she sorts all the clothes out of the whole basket, but I still have to start the piles for her. Lest you think that I am just using some form of child labor, let me assure you that I sit right on the floor next to her (almost) the whole time. We go slowly, and there is lots of praise and excitement when she puts things in the right piles. Sometimes we even sing to a simple tune like Where is Thumpkin.

Where's the shirts?

There they are!

You found the shirts,

Yes you did.

Yes you did!

(I'm not a cool mom, but she seems to love me anyway).

Why is sorting important? It helps children begin to understand the concept of groups of things. A shirt is still a shirt- whether it's red or blue or tattered or new. Forks are forks whether they are small or big. Sorting helps children see the similarities in objects, even when the objects are a bit different at the same time. As they learn this, they gain the ability classify things in their mind--to create groups of similar things; this skill is important for language and eventually math as well.

Beyond sorting, laundry and dishwashing provide lots of opportunities for language, too. My daughter and I discuss the utensils and clothing items as we go along. At first I used parallel talk and self talk to model the words for her; as she got older and started talking more, I started using choices and expansion to grow her phrases longer. We often weave in concepts, too: size concepts (big, small, long, short), color concepts (red shirt, blue shirt), possession (daddy's shirt, mommy's sock), descriptive concepts (soft socks, dirty pants), number concepts (one sock, two socks) and position concepts (fork in, fork out) are all emerging in the toddler years.

Who knew dishwashers and socks could be so useful for learning?

Like this? You might also enjoy...

Everyday Language Learning: Grocery Shopping With a Toddler

Everyday Language Learning: My Love Affair With Mr. Potato Head

All Kinds of Talk: Using Your Language To Change Your Child's

Top Ten Tips For Late Talkers

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:38:00 +0000

Worried about your late-talker? Here are my top ten tips for helping your little one grow.

Get his hearing checked. Some parents assume that if their child passes the newborn hearing test in the hospital, they no longer have to worry about hearing. This isn't true-- your child can pass the newborn hearing test and still have a hearing loss. If your child is a late-talker, talk to your pediatrician about having a formal audiological evaluation.
Take a peek at his use of gestures, his play, his eye contact, and his understanding of language. Find out more about what he should be doing in each of these areas here and here. If you notice that he is lagging behind his peers in any of these areas, talk to your pediatrician about a referral to your early intervention program. Late-talkers are more likely to need intervention if they have delays in gestures, play, eye contact, and/or receptive language.
Read repetitive books and sing repetitive songs with him. Hearing the same pattern over and over will help him anticipate what is coming next. Soon, you'll find that he starts filling words into those books and songs when you pause just a bit before the important words.
Help him learn the power of words by saying, "Ready, Set, Go!" before doing something fun. Do this over and over and watch as he starts to fill the word "go" into the phrase.
Talk, talk, talk to him. Use parallel talk, description, and self talk to describe what he is doing and seeing in short phrases.
Pair your words with actions. Children are more likely to imitate a word when the word goes along with a familiar, repeated action.
Think about using Baby Signs as a bridge to verbal communication. Parents sometimes worry that children will become dependent on signs, but research suggests the opposite: using signs and gestures with children can increase their language skills.
Use communication temptations--change your late-talker's environment to give him more opportunities to communicate. For example, put his favorite toys in a see-through box. Or put his snacks up in a cupboard so he has to ask for them. When he wants something, wait a bit to see what he does. He might say the word! If he doesn't, say the word for him and wait just a bit. If he doesn't imitate you, give him what he wants and repeat the whole process the next time. Over time, he'll start using the word before you do.
If he's not making progress, or if you just want some additional help, don't hesitate to talk to your pediatrician about a referral to an early intervention program. We don't bite. I promise. :)
Love him. More than anything else, children need to be in loving, responsive relationships with their parents. All of the above tips are important, but this is the most important one of all.

You might also be interested in...

Should Your Late-Talker Get Speech Therapy?

Everyday Language Activities: Grocery Shopping With a Toddler

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:41:00 +0000

As with any other profession, the field of early intervention goes through periods of evolution. These days, we are talking a lot about the importance of weaving child skill development into the context of everyday experiences and activities. It's something that Ellen over at Love That Max blogged about recently in her post Sneaking in therapy for kids with special needs.

In her post, Ellen explains that her son Max gets therapy sessions throughout his week but that "the sessions are only 45 minutes to an hour long and it's the ways we put those therapy techniques into practice that matter most." She goes on to describe how attempting to accomplish therapy carryover at home used to be overwhelming and somewhat guilt-provoking, especially when therapists would leave long lists of tasks to be accomplished. Then, Ellen reflects on how she has learned to do only what she can and let the rest go (yay!) and, most importantly, how she has learned to integrate the things Max needs into fun family activities that they were doing anyway. Yes, I thought when I read her post. Yes. That's exactly what we are trying to encourage families to do when we work with them and their children as early intervention professionals.

With that in mind, I took my two-year old daughter grocery shopping. I'm learning that much of life is to be found in the joy of daily activities, so I decided to slow the activity down-- to enjoy it and her along the way. As I did, I realized how much skill development was occurring right in the context of this simple and potentially mundane daily routine.

Two-year olds are developing and understanding of simple concepts, so we wove them into our trip. She put things "in" the cart and "under" it as well. The cat litter was heavy (I let her drag it to the cart so she could experience what heavy meant) and the chips were light (as she threw them up and over the edge of the cart). The bread was soft (and a bit squished after we were done) and the cans were hard. The apples were big and the grapes were small. I paired actions with words as we compared and contrasted all these things, and by the end of the trip, she was starting to use some of the words on her own to describe what she was doing or what she felt. Even better, she had a blast helping gather the food, throwing thing into the cart, and just generally being involved in the experience.
Toddlers this age are also just starting to use simple grammar elements such as: plural -s (cans), possessive -s (daddy's), and -ing (pushing) I used expansion and indirect correction to model her sentences back to her, a bit more correctly. If she said, "two apple," as we counted them and put them in the bag, I said "Yep, two apples!" When she commented that she was holding, "daddy plum" I responded with, "These are daddy's plums!" And when she said "I push!" while pushing the cart down the aisle (and almost into the pickles), I replied that "Yes, you're pushing!"
Two-year olds are also merging into the word of pretend play and we wove this into our trip as well. At one point, a jar of olives was a microphone and we were rock stars. People may have thought us a bit odd, but we were certainly having fun.

The beautiful part of all of this is that it made the activity joyful for both of us. She was learning and I was shopping, but most of all, we were just being mother and daughter, loving up life.

I must note, of course, that this won't work for everyone, in every activity. My daughter loves grocery shopping. My son? Hated it. With him, getting through grocery shopping was an exercise in survival; my sole focus was on keeping him contained long enough that we could get the groceries we needed. It wouldn't have worked to slow it down, even if I had tried to engage him more. It's just how he was as a toddler: full of boundless energy that was exceedingly hard to corral. When he was little, it was much easier to weave learning into football than into grocery shopping. The activity has to fit the child, not the other way around.

And, there is also the danger of believing that every single activity throughout the day has to be a learning experience. It doesn't. Sometimes grocery shopping just needs to be grocery shopping, and that needs to be okay. But when it doesn't, when time can slow down just a bit, when children can learn in the context of an activity that is truly a delight for everyone involved, that's the sweet spot for sure.

Give-away! Awesome Apps: Speech With Milo

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Scroll to the bottom of this post to find out how to enter the Speech With Milo App Give-away!

I am always on the look-out for fun activities, games and toys to help facilitate language in kids, and am always super excited when I find them. As I mentioned in a comment recently, I'm pretty sure I actually drooled the other day at a store when I happened upon wind-up toys that were priced 10 for $10.00. A speech-therapist's dream! (Yes, we are an odd breed at times).

One fun new discovery I've made recently is the Speech With Milo Apps Series developed by fellow speech-therapist Poorani Doonan. I love her apps, because they are designed to be used interactively with children to promote language growth. They are simple, yet well thought-out, fun, and motivating. The best part is that they can be used in a variety of ways with a variety of children, both typically developing and those with language delays or other diagnosis.

Speech With Milo: Verbs, for example, can be used a number of different ages or levels of language development.

If your child is just starting to use verbs, you can use Speech With Milo: Verbs to label the verb as you and your child watch Milo ("glue!").
Around two years old, children starting using the verb tense "-ing" to describe what is happening; at that point, you can emphasize this part of the verb while talking with your child about Milo ("Gluing! Milo is gluing").
Around 3 and 4 years old, children start using different types of verb tenses. At this point in language development, you can talk about what Milo is going to do ("He's going to glue!"), what Milo is doing as it is actually happening (He's gluing!") and what Milo did, after it is done (He glued!). Children with language delays often struggle with these subtle differences in verb tenses; this app is a simple and yet motivating way to work on these aspects of grammar repeatedly.

Speech With Milo: Sequencing can also be used a variety of ways.

Toddlers will enjoy sitting with you and simply narrating what Milo is doing in each picture ("Mixing!") and then watching as you turn it into an animated story.
As children grow into preschoolers, you can use Speech With Milo: Sequencing with them to work on their sequencing skills by putting the pictures in order. This helps them begin to develop an internal narrative structure, which will eventually help them to organize and understand stories during their academic years.
This app is also a fantastic way to work on time sequence words such as "first," "then" and "finally," which can be particularly hard concepts for children with language delays and autism.

Then, there's Speech With Milo: An Interactive Storybook, which, from my perspective, is the most versatile app of them all. As Poorani explains in her demo, this app can be used to address a wide variety of skills: storytelling, describing, making predictions, improving utterance length, and improving grammatical skills. One of the coolest parts of this app is that you can have your child record his own voice to tell the story...a great chance to get him talking!

Poorani has also created Speech With Milo: Prepositions, Speech With Milo:Verbs (in Spanish), and Speech With Milo: Prepositions (in Spanish). All awesome and all found at her Speech With Milo App Store.

And (here's the best part!) she's letting me give away two of her apps here on Child Talk! Yay!! :) I'll be giving away one Speech With Milo: Interactive Storybook App and one Speech With Milo: Sequencing App, each to one lucky reader. To enter the give-away, do one of the following by October 28th:

"Like" or share this post on Facebook and leave me a comment here to let me know you did this,
Retweet the tweet about this on Twitter and leave me a comment to let me know you did this,
Follow Child Talk on Twitter and leave me a comment to let me know you did this, or
Follow Child Talk via e-mail or a feed and leave me a comment to let me know!

Make sure you leave me a comment here on Child Talk to know which of these you've done if you want to enter the give-away. I'll use the comments to pick two winners via random.org and announce the winners in a post on October 28th. Also, make sure you either leave your e-mail address in your comment or check back on October 28th to find out if you've won! Good luck!

Advertising Disclaimer: I accept cash and product compensation for some of the posts on this blog, and if you click on an advertising link or purchase an advertised product I have placed on my blog, this will sometimes result in a monetary compensation for me, which I use as a means of supporting Child Talk. (Trust me, it's much less than you imagine it to be!). However, my opinions about the products I blog about are my own.

If At First You Don't Succeed: The Importance of Failure in Child Development

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:35:00 +0000

I love watching children develop. So much so that I'm pretty sure one of the main reasons I entered this profession is this: it gives me the chance to watch children discover the world, over and over and over again. Since I am a mom, I get to see this process unfold in front of me at home, too. And honestly, it is a beautiful thing to behold.

The other day, my baby (um, toddler) girl was playing with blocks. I started to try to help her and then I stopped. Instead of interfering, I simply sat back and watched. Her patience astounded me (it's a trait that I can only wish to acquire) and her inquisitiveness delighted me (I am a mama, after all!).

After observing for a bit, my speech-therapist brain kicked in and I began to realize what I was watching. At 24 months, children are natural explorers- they are trying hard to figure out the world around them and find out how they fit in. They are starting to develop mental models, which means they are starting to hold representations of objects (and eventually ideas) in their head. And yet, their mental models aren't quite fully established, and, as a result, they end up doing a lot of trial and error to see how things fit together. As they try things out, they begin to develop more accurate mental models. Eventually, they develop an understanding of how things go together without having to try those things out first.

Back to the blocks. My daughter was clearly working on developing a mental model of the blocks. She knew what she wanted (a fully stacked tower) and she knew when her tower wasn't quite working out as she wanted. She also seemed to know that when the tower wasn't working out, she had to remove a block or two. And yet, at just 26 months, she doesn't yet have the cognitive powers to analyze the situation fully in her head-- instead, she must rely on the trial and error process of removing and adding blocks as she goes. In doing so she's creating a series of mini-experiments. Over time, the results of her experimenting will add up to a new understanding of how things fit together, and, eventually, she'll be able to figure tasks like these out in her head, without ever touching a block.

So how does this relate to language? (This is, after all Child Talk). Here's how: we know that cognition--the scientific term for the mental processes in our head--and language go hand-in-hand. Problem-solving, remembering, and decision-making are all mental processes that both require language and inspire language. Spurring cognition spurs language, and vice versa.

All of this to say: Don't underestimate the importance of letting your child fail sometimes. It's such an essential part of learning. If you are like me, you may have to fight your instinct to help, to step in, to teach your child exactly what to do, to save her from the frustration and agony that come from not having things work out like they should on the first try. And yet, it's worth the fight. Step back, watch, and let your little one explore on her own...and in doing so, know that you are handing her the keys to understanding the world around her.

Every Day Language Learning: My Love Affair With Mr. Potato Head

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:39:00 +0000

Today's guest post is written by fellow speech-language therapist Brie Schindel, who blogs over at Toddler Talk. I follow up her post with a few thoughts of my own about the different types of strategies you can use while playing potato head with your little one. Enjoy!

I'm expecting a baby in 3 short weeks and in an attempt to be VERY organized before my second child arrives, I began my Christmas shopping a few weeks ago! While shopping at Costco for my 22 month old nephew Tyler, I was overjoyed to discover a jumbo Mr. Potato Head multi-pak. This kit has at least 3 different sizes of Mr. Potato Head and all the accompanying body parts.Mr. Potato Head is such a universally popular toy for young children that I shared my purchase with Tyler's mom, in order to be sure she didn't pick one up for him before Christmas.

As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I may love Mr. Potato Head for slightly different reasons than the average parent. Vocabulary sizeat age 2 is a critical predictor of future language and literacy development in elementary school. Mr. Potato Head is a fantastic tool for teaching one of the core vocabulary groups for young children - body parts. Along with providing one more way to teach your child about body parts, Mr. Potato Head provides the opportunity to model some great position words like 'in', 'out' and 'on'. Now throw my Costco purchase into the mix and you've got the opportunity to talk to your young child about 'big' and 'small' Mr. Potato Head and the different sizes of accompanying pieces, which may be 'too big' or 'too small' for the Potato Head your child is playing with.

When I'm working as a Speech-Language Pathologist, these are the things I'm thinking about, but when I'm playing with my own daughter I use the words and concepts very naturally and we just have fun with a classic, favorite toy.

Read more of Brie's thoughts on speech and language by heading over to Toddler Talk!

Becca's note: I love Brie's post because it underscores how easily we can use every day play time to work on language. And there are lots of ways to do so:

As Brie noted, it's super easy to use parallel talk, self talk, and description to model (say) the name of the different body parts as you play with them. It seems so simple, but it's a step that parents often forget. Say eye as you pick up an eye, nose as you hand her a nose, and teeth as she puts the teeth on. Do this many, many times (yes, you will sound like a broken record!) and pretty soon your child will start doing the same.
You can also pair actions with words during this activity. Say "on" every time you put a piece on, and "off" each time you take a piece off. These concepts of "on" and "off" are very early developing ones; toddlers will naturally repeat the words as they do the actions. Potato Head can also "walk walk walk" across the floor, go "boom" as he falls on the ground, and "jump" off the couch onto the floor (creating great excitement when all the pieces fall off along the way!). Say the word each time the action happens.
Give your child choices. Hold an ear in one hand, and a nose in the other, saying "ear? (hold up ear) or nose?" When your child reaches or points at one, give it to him while labeling it again ("Ear! You want ear."). Eventually, he'll start making the choice by saying what he wants.
Give him a chance to find the body part that matches the potato head part you have. Hold an ear up to your ear, saying ear and then give him the nose....see if he'll hold it up to his. Work on receptive language (understanding) by making a game of finding the part that you name.
Use expansion when he uses a single word. This is a great chance to work on early developing two-word phrases. When he says, eye when putting the eyes on, you say eye on; when he says shoe while talking a shoe off, you say, shoe off; when he picks up a big nose and says nose you say (anyone?) big nose; and when you clean the pieces up, you can model eyes done, nose done, shoes done one at a time while putting the pieces back in the box (pairing your words with your actions yet again!)
Because it has pieces, Potato Head also lends itself to being a communication temptation. If your child lets you, you can hold the pieces in your lap and hand him a piece one at a time. Then wait. See if he communicates that he wants more. Depending on his language level, you can ask him to say or sign "more," ask for a specific piece (nose or eyes?), or use a two word phrase to clarify which piece he wants (Blue shoes or red shoes? Big nose or small nose?). It's also an easy way to work on carrier phrases such as "I want a...." or "I have a...."
Finally, my potato head loves to eat food, dance around, go to sleep, and play hide and seek. All beautiful ways to work on pretend play, which begins emerging around one year and takes off in earnest by 18-24 months.

Looking for more every day language learning tips?

Snow Sprinkles and Speech

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

Photo Books

FAQs About Using Pictures to Help With Beginning Language

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:33:00 +0000

In Part One and Part Two of this three-part series on picture use, I explained how to go about teaching your child to communicate with you using pictures. Many parents, though, have reservations about using pictures with their child. In the third and final post of this series, I answer some of the most common questions I hear from parents. Here we go!

Won’t using pictures keep my child from talking?

Won’t he just use pictures and never learn to talk?

Not in my experience, and not in the experience of many others. Quite the opposite, in fact: there are many reports in the literature of children whose verbal language increased as they were taught the use of pictures to communicate. On a logical and a practical level, this makes sense to me. If we teach our children that they can communicate with us through pictures, this will increase the likelihood that they will learn that verbal language can be used as a form of communication, too. Then, as children learn to communicate verbally, pictures can be dropped out. Children who learn to access the power of verbal speech will choose this route over the more work-intensive route of going to find pictures, selecting the picture and taking it to a person. Speaking is easier and much more efficient and children will learn that quickly once they start talking. I have seen this happen more times than I can count.

However, this has not been proven without a doubt through empirical research. To my knowledge, there are still no large, well-controlled studies that prove that pictures help increase verbal language. BUT, there are also no studies that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they inhibit verbal language. So. Can I tell you definitively and absolutely that pictures won’t inhibit language? Nope, I can’t. But I sure don’t think they do.

Aren’t pictures only for children who we know will never talk?

We used to think this way. In the past, picture use was reserved for the most severe cases, when all other options were exhausted. Now we tend to move much more quickly into picture use, especially when we know that there is a gap between what the child wants to express and what he is able to express verbally. A child in this situation is often terribly frustrated, and picture use gives him a quick way to communicate his basic of needs—until he is able to do so verbally. In my opinion, I see no need to exhaust other options. Instead, I often use pictures along with other language development strategies.

Does my child actually have to hand me a picture?

Can’t he just point to a picture in a book, on a page, or on an I-pad app?

He can. This is certainly one way to use pictures. However, the value in having your child physically exchange a picture is that he learns that he *needs* to use a communication partner to communicate. Requiring a child to exchange a picture makes it very obvious that a communication partner is involved in the exchange in a way that simply pointing to a picture in a book does not. Teaching a child to actually exchange a picture with a person prevents him from standing in an empty room, pointing to a picture and expecting something to happen. When he knows he has to give the picture to a person, he will go seek out that person. When we teach children to exchange a picture, we hope that the child will then learn that he needs to exchange verbal words with a partner as well; all of this highlights the idea that an attentive partner must be actively involved in the communication process.

In my humble opinion, this is most essential for children with autism, as they have the most difficulty understanding social dynamics. If you’ve got a highly social child who simply cannot communicate verbally, allowing him to point at pictures to request and comment might be the easiest route for everyone involved.

What can I do to find out more?

Using Pictures To Help With Beginning Language: Part One

Using Pictures To Help With Beginning Language: Part Two

PECS Training

Using Pictures To Help With Beginning Language: Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:39:00 +0000

In part one of this three-part series, I discussed how to help your child learn to give you a picture as a way of requesting something that she wants. I talked about the first three steps I take to teach a child this skill:

1. Find a motivating object,

2. Take and print a picture of the object that represents that activity, and

3. Teach your child to use that picture to request the object.

So, what next?

This is where I often deviate from the PECS protocol set out by Frost and Bondy. At this point, they would recommend teaching a child to cross a distance to exchange a picture with you. They would also recommend teaching persistence; that is, teaching your child to continue attempting to give you the picture, even if you don’t acknowledge him the first time. I do understand why they include these steps, especially for children with autism, but I will admit that I often skip them and move on to picture discrimination instead. If I find that a child needs it, I will go back and teach crossing distances and persisting later. So, my step four is...

Step 4: Teach your little one to select the right picture. Up until now, you’ve only had one picture out at a time. The next step is to teach her to discriminate between two pictures and select the picture that actually represents what she wants to request. I usually do this in three smaller steps:

Put out a picture of a desired object (e.g., bubbles) and a blank picture; see what she does. If she starts reaching for the blank picture, guide her hand toward the correct picture and help her hand it to you. Do this repeatedly until she starts selecting the desired object picture on her own, consistently.

Put out a picture of a desired object (e.g., bubbles) and a picture of a undesired object (for example, a washcloth--assuming your little one doesn’t groove on washcloths). If she gives you the picture of the undesired object (the washcloth), hand that object (the actual washcloth) to her. This natural consequence may lead her to the understanding that she needs to hand you the picture of the desired object (bubbles). If not, physically guide her to choose the picture of the desired object and hand it to you. Repeat until she consistently hands you the picture of the desired object.

Put out pictures of two desired objects (bubbles and ball) and give her whichever one she requests via picture exchange. If she begins to get frustrated, move back to helping her select the correct one.

Step 5: Add in new pictures, one at a time, making sure your child can discriminate among them and pick the one she really wants. If she starts having difficulty, move back to fewer pictures.

Step 6: Find a place to keep the pictures. Many people keep them in a three ring binder, using Velcro to secure the pictures to pages that are kept inside the binder. This is nice, of course, because the binder is easily portable, and for some people, this is essential. Other people keep the pictures on their fridge, since this is a central location that works well at home, where the pictures are used most often. There’s no magic place—do what works best for you and your family.

And that's it! Bondy and Frost recommend many mores steps, and, if you are planning to use pictures on a long term basis, you'll want to check out their recommendations here. But in the short term, pictures can be a great way to build a bridge to communication, easing frustration for everyone involved. Good luck!

Looking for more information on using pictures with children? Stay tuned until next week,

when I post my answers to Frequently Asked Questions about pictures and language. If you have a question now, leave it in the comment section, and I'll do my best to answer it next week!

Using Pictures To Help With Beginning Language: Part One

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:31:00 +0000

As a pediatric speech-language therapist, I use pictures to help with language development all the time, in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons. I’ve already written about how I turn vacation pictures into photo books to increase vocabulary, grammar and narratives skills. I’ve also written about how I use pictures to help children learn to use creative two word phrases. Today, though, I’m writing about the use of pictures at a beginning level--to help children request the things they want, using one picture at a time. This type of picture use, formalized by Frost and Bondy in 1985, is often called the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). The idea is simple but powerful: teach children to exchange pictures with a communication partner to allow them to request the things they want.

Many children can benefit from this type of picture use, but the children for whom it is most applicable include children who aren’t yet talking at all or who have a very small vocabulary, children who are very visual learners, children who are (or could be) highly frustrated by their difficulty communicating, and/or children who have a very hard time producing speech sounds. This means that teaching a child to communicate using pictures is probably the most appropriate for:

Children with autism
Children who are transitioning to a new language due to international adoption
Children with a speech sound disorder, such as severe apraxia of speech or dysarthria
Late talkers who are not responding to other types of language facilitation strategies

There is a carefully defined, formal way to teach the actual Picture Exchange Communication System, and you can find it here. My process is similar, but I am a bit more lax in general, and I take certain liberties to modify the approach depending on the child. That being said, here’s the general method I use as I work to teach children to communicate using pictures:

Step 1: Find an activity your child loves. And I do mean *LOVES*-- so much that she’s willing go the extra mile to get more of it. It should also be an activity that is easily started and stopped. Check out my post on communication temptations for a detailed explanation of how to set up the activity to create lots of opportunities for practicing picture use.

Step 2: Take a picture of the object your child wants. Laminate it (sorry, Sean—in this case it just has to be done).

Step 3: Teach your child to exchange the picture to request the object. This is, often, the hardest step. To accomplish it:

Get your child engaged in the activity. Ensure she is interested and motivated. Then stop the activity.

Put the picture out next to the object that she wants.

As your little one reaches for the object, gently help her to grab the picture and hand it to you. Do this as quickly as possible, ignore tantrums, and give her the object she want the minute the picture touches your hands. The quickly part of this step is very, very important. At this point, I’m not looking for a child to look at the picture, recognize what it is, or even really understand what is happening. I just want her to tolerate me teaching her to exchange the picture.

Don’t say anything until the picture touches your hand. This can be very hard to do—our natural inclination is to verbally direct the child as we go—“get the picture!” “give it to me!” So why say nothing? There are two potential problems with using verbal speech to teach your child to exchange a picture with you. First, many children who are learning how to use pictures to communicate simply don’t yet have the receptive language to understand your directions; it will only confuse and frustrate them more. Second, if you tell your child what to do (“give me the picture!”), your child may become reliant on that verbal direction and will only exchange the picture when you tell them to do so. Instead, we want them to learn to independently go get a picture and bring it to you to request things they want. The physical prompt of helping a child exchange a picture is more easily faded out than the verbal prompt of telling him what to do. This is most often true for children with autism, so this part is the most important to remember when working with children with autism.

Do say the name of the picture the minute the picture touches your hand. This is a very important step, for all language learners. At first, children may only learn to exchange the picture with you. But, if you consistently pair the action of handing the picture to you with the verbal word that goes with the picture, your child will most likely start saying the name of the picture on her own (eventually making the picture unnecessary!). I have seen this happen more times than I can count….and it is why I do not believe that using pictures with young children prevents them from learning to talk. Instead of being a roadblock to verbal communication, pictures are a bridge.
Note: This step is most easily done with two people—one adult who holds the object of desire and receives the picture and one who physically guides the child to pick up the picture and hand it over. However, this can be done with one person- I have done it many times.

The key to this step is to do it quickly and repeatedly, until your child learns to hand over the picture on her own. At first, you'll need to help her do the whole thing. After a while, though, you can give her chances to give you the picture all on her own. To do this:
- Place the picture next to the object she wants and wait. She may reach for it on her own and hand it to you—hooray! Some children will reach this point very quickly.
- However, some children need extra help. You may need to touch her gently on the elbow to cue her to reach for the picture. Or, you may need to help her do the whole thing again. Do so...and then give her a chance to do it on her own again a bit later.
- Eventually, with practice and consistency, she will start doing it on her own. And that’s when you can move to step 4.
Looking for step 4?
Check out: Using Pictures To Help With Beginning Language: Part Two

A Tech Spin on A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words: Using Photo Books to Increase Vocabulary, Grammar, and Narrative Skills

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:21:00 +0000

I'm very excited to share this *awesome* guest post by Sean J. Sweeney. His tech spin on my photo book post is both inspiring and practical.

I recently read with great admiration Becca ’s post in which she described how to make and use photo books for language development . It is true that children love bright, colorful photos, and they love to talk about them even more when they are personally relevant! Becca’s specific descriptions (and video demonstration) of language strategies to use in the context of creating and reviewing photobooks are definitely going to be helpful to many parents and SLPs.

However, if you know my work at all , you know that I am always asking how technology might assist in any learning and language process. I am also one of the least craftsy and most printer-hating and store-averse people on the planet. Therefore ordering photos, picking them up at CVS, decorating with stickers and other flair, laminating (*shiver*) and binding the books...not a list of verbs I personally relish. Let’s not say it’s a guy thing, but maybe that’s just the elephant in the post. So, if you want to hear about a few digital options for implementing Becca’s terrific methods, read on!

I first have to point out that creating all-digital (or mostly digital) versions of these activities is facilitated by the way that families often do photography these days. Many families own and know how to use digital cameras (including the ones on their smartphones), and archive their photos in places such as Kodak Gallery, Picasa, iPhoto or even Facebook. So, whether photobooks as a language context are to be created by the families themselves, or a clinician is going to create the product while eliciting language from the child, the raw materials are often already digitized, easily downloadable and e-mailable! If actual prints are involved, it is no longer an arduous process to scan them, or it can often be easier to place them out of glare and just take a nice shot of the picture with a digital camera or smart phone. Once you have digital photos to work with, there are a few options you might consider.

One of these is Little Bird Tales, a free online picture book creator. Little Bird Tales has a simple, kid-and-family-friendly interface (and a great tutorial) and the added bonus of allowing you to add voice captions to each picture. When the book is complete, it can remain “private” and password-protected, but you can also share it with others via email. The book remains digital, however, and cannot be printed.

The text and “Add Your Voice” features of Little Bird Tales are a great opportunity to develop vocabulary and sentence structure!

Another great option is Glogster, the online digital poster creator, also free except for certain premium features. Glogster has an EDU version, and parents can also sign up at home through the regular portal. Glogster also has a very kid-friendly interface, and allows you to create a poster of your event’s images, along with supplementary graphics and audio clips.

Glogster’s Magnet tool is all you need to upload your images, add text, and record sound! As children choose “Frames” for pictures, additional descriptive language can be elicited.

Glogster creations can be printed for offline use, and can also be marked private and shared via email. Glogster is a little more complicated to use than Little Bird Tales (but not much!), so you might want to check out the tutorials I posted on YouTube. Additionally, both Glogster and Little Bird Tales are Flash-based (and therefore will not work on iPad, until their apps are available?) so if you run into trouble, you may want to make sure you have the latest version of Flash and update your browser, steps that are important for keeping your Web workin’!

When I mentioned iPad, did that make your ears perk up? One of my favorite recent discoveries is Skrappy ($4.99), a robust iPad app that you can use to create a decorated and annotated scrapbook of your photos! Like many iPad creation tools, Skrappy has a built-in-tutorial (in the “Getting Started” Scrapbook, so you and the kiddos can be creating in no time!

Skrappy’s simple tap-based interface lets you add whatever you’d like to your photobook: images, video, audio captions, text, decorative shapes and graphics to associate with the pictures, even music!

For another iPad take on photobooking, check out Mobile Education Store ’s new app , Speech Journal (3.99), “a customizable voice recorder that you pair recorded messages with your own imported images and image sequences.” Speech Journal is super-simple to use, contains its own video tutorial, and allows you to pair voice recordings with single images or continue recording across multiple images, resulting in a slideshow (and sequenced narrative)! When complete, the journal can be emailed and played on a home computer in QuickTime player, a free download.

Finally, if you’d like a simple and quick (but perhaps a little more expensive) digital take on the photobook, iPhoto on Mac features a tool for you to create and order books to be delivered to you (for example , you can buy a 3-pack of one 20-page softcover book from Apple for about $11.00). Alternately, go to the Create menu on Picasa (on either platform) to create and email/print a photo collage (expensive in a toner cartridge sense, but easy to do)!

Hope you enjoyed this digital spin on photobooking; if you have any other tech tools you’d like to suggest for use with personally relevant photos in order to build language, please let us know in the comments!

Sean J. Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public school and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He consults on the topic of technology integration in speech and language and is the author of the blog SpeechTechie: Looking at Technology Through a Language Lens.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Through a Mother's Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:55:00 +0000

Today, I'm privileged to share this guest post from Leslie- devoted mom of two, one of whom happens to have a diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Leslie has a book on Childhood Apraxia of Speech coming out in early 2012...and after reading this post, I can't wait to read her book! Enjoy.

Many thanks to Becca for allowing me to be a guest blogger on her site today. It’s ironic how this world of apraxia works…there’s not much “out there” until you start looking. I “found” Becca because she was a guest a blogger on PediaStaff. Her article on “waiting to see” intrigued me. I contacted her, and well…the rest is history. But the point I am trying to make is: you just never know what stone you will upturn when you start picking them up.

Everyone Has a (apraxia) Story…Here’s Ours

At two years old, Kate was a beautiful, energetic and happy toddler. Amidst the hustle and bustle of a new sibling and a pending move, there were concerns. With the exception of one word—hi—Kate was as quiet as a box of crayons. It made us wonder if something was wrong. Even as a baby, Kate rarely babbled and cried. She was, in a word, “perfect.” So why were we worried? After all, she could understand everything we said, even the big words. “Play classical music. Dance with her. Babies need that so their brains can develop,” I was told by others. And so we did. We talked to her like she was a little adult, making conversations even though we didn’t expect answers. The books I read about late-talking children, didn’t seem to really apply to our little Kate. “She’ll talk when she’s ready,” I was told by my mom-friends. Only they bragged that their toddlers were saying words like “elephant” and when we met at the park. I cringed and rolled my lips into a tight line, sucking in a deep breath. Was she stressed because there were changes going on her world? No, that isn’t it. I shook my head, confused and frustrated. We provided a loving, stable environment. So, what was it?

As first-time parents, we didn’t want to appear “delinquent,” so when Kate was 15 months old, exactly, we headed to the doctor (the same one who delivered her) for her scheduled well-child check-up. I say “we,” because both doting parents were off work for the occasion. It was as though it were a pre-kid business meeting marked well in advance in our planners. This time we came armed with our wiggly daughter; along with thoughts, questions and toddler antics to relate to our doctor.

After Dr. Baumgartner whirled into the exam room, plopped down and smiled at us, she asked a series of questions . . . was Kate doing this, doing that? Yes, yes, and yes, we nodded and smiled proudly. “Is she saying ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and a few other words?” Nope. We held our breath, awaiting her response.

As a first-timer, I didn’t want to jump the gun. Kate was only 15 months old after all. She still wore diapers, took a pacifier when distressed, and was rocked to sleep. In many ways she was still a baby, and babies don’t talk, do they? Plus, I knew kids—through my teen years as baby-sitter and as a child psych nurse.

We told our doctor that all Kate was saying was “hi,” and that she started saying that around 13 months. Wasn’t that good enough? Our caring doctor probed a little further and eventually she referred us to a local speech-language pathologist (SLP). “You can do it now, if you want to be aggressive, or wait until she is 18 months if you want to take a conservative approach,” she instructed us.

We took the conservative approach, finally making the call when Kate was 18 months. The impetus was easy: Kate still wasn’t saying “momma” and I wanted to hear my little girl call for me by name, instead of grunting.

I’ll admit I was totally skeptical of the capabilities of a speech-language pathologist at first. What could she possibly do to get my kid to talk that I couldn’t? And this SLP didn’t even have kids—what was I thinking? But we stayed the course—and learned that Kate has severe Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). She was diagnosed at 30 months (2.6 years)

As bright, beautiful little girl preparing for her first day of first grade this week, we are pleased to share that Kate is no longer grunting and pointing to get our attention. Was it magic? No. Was it something she needed to “grow out of?” No, again. It was the hard work and patience of a skilled pediatric speech-language pathologist (SLP); the determination and motivation of a child, and the tenacity of her parents. It was the environment and nurturing curriculum of a hands-on, language-based preschool. It was a village that helped our little girl speak at a level that was developmentally appropriate.

If you suspect your child of having a speech disorder like Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), it is important that you make an appointment with a qualified SLP for a thorough assessment. CAS, though fairly rare—about 1% of the pediatric population—is a serious speech disorder that requires intense and frequent intervention to overcome. But it can be done! If you are looking for more information on CAS, poke around on this site, ChildTalk www.talkingkids.org for related topics, my blog can be reached at www.leslie4kids.wordpress.com (I devote Mondays to apraxia), and also the CASANA/Apraxia-KIDS website, www.apraxia-kids.org.

Hi, I’m Leslie. I am mostly a full-time mom, former R.N. and part-time writer. My family and I live in the Chicagoland area and do all of the things regular families do. With one exception: we cope with our daughter’s Childhood Apraxia of Speech on a daily basis. When I was first learning about Kate’s diagnosis, I was stumped: we never learned about this in nursing school! I was on a quest to help my daughter. In early 2012, my book, Speaking of Apraxia: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding & Coping with Childhood Apraxia of Speech will be available from Woodbine House.

More Information on Apraxia of Speech

Childhood Apraxia of Speech: What It Is and What To Do

Carrier Phrases: What They Are and How to Use Them

Repetitive Books For Language Learning

Bilingual Children, Asperger's Syndrome, The Power of Stories, Boogers, Books, and Babies: It's the Fabulous Friday Round Up

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:22:00 +0000

A few posts I think are great...

The Huffington Post reports on a study published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. The study suggests that children who are raised in bilingual homes may have better cognitive skills, at least in some select areas of cognition-and that this shows up as early as two years of age. The authors of the article theorize that growing up with two languages requires children to develop flexible attention skills so that they can shift rapidly back and forth between two languages. This leads to better development of "executive functioning" skills-- the higher level thinking skills we all use to manage our attention, prioritize, hypothesize, and plan.

PsychCentral shares this thought-provoking post on The Power of Stories in Personality Psychology. As SpeechTechie wisely pointed out on Twitter earlier this week, this post is a great reminder of why it is so important to help our children develop good narrative skills. (Looking for ideas on how to do this? Check out this post on using photo books for narrative development).

In a turn toward the highly practical, ArticBrain posts on the use of boogers and dog food for helping your child improve his articulation and language skills. Once I got past my initial repulsion, I greatly enjoyed the creativity of the idea. (And yes, ArticBrain is written by a guy.)

In her post on The Surprising Things Babies Might Do (If Given The Chance), Janet Lansbury at Elevating Childcare reminds us that babies and toddlers often hold much more potential to be independent then we might think--if we only give them the chance to show us what they've got.

The Sixty Second Parent has some awesome suggestions for their top ten books that 2-year-olds will love (you'll find many of the same ones on my list of Repetitive Books for Language Learning!).

Finally, Be Real PDD/NOS directs us over to this video where Arthur ( from the PBS show) explains Asperger's Syndrome. I think I like it.... what are your thoughts?

Happy Friday!

Social-Emotional Awareness: What Is It and How Do I Help My Child Get It?

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:23:00 +0000

About this time last year, I was getting my son ready for his first day of kindergarten. Truth be told, I was also getting myself ready, and for good reason. I'll never forget embracing him one last time and then watching as he bravely walked into the classroom, calm and courageous despite the tears running slowly down his face. It was a huge step toward independence. It was also a step that put his social-emotional skills to the test--he had to trust that he could feel his emotions, manage them, and take on the new experience that had been placed in front of him.

Indeed, successful navigation of the kindergarten world requires solid social-emotional awareness-- child's ability "to experience, regulate and express emotions, to form close and secure interpersonal relationships, and to explore his or her environment, and learn, all in the context of family, community, and culture" (SEFEL) Or, in the words of Robert Fulgham, All [you] really need to know, [you] learned in kindergarten:

"Share everything, play fair, don't hit people...don't take things that aren't yours...clean up your own mess...say you're sorry when you hurt somebody...live a balanced life--learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some everyday...(and) when you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together."

These lessons, learned in the early childhood and elementary years, are important parts of development. Knowing how to regulate emotions and interact well with others is a cornerstone of learning. Good social-emotional awareness is also one of the predictors of success in this great big world of ours.

How to work on social-emotional awareness?

Provide your child with a safe, loving, responsive environment in which he can grow and learn and play. It is through caring relationships with parents that children begin to develop social emotional wellness.
Get your child together to play with other peers. Allow him to practice skills such as turn-taking, resolving conflict, and sharing; support him as needed during the play-dates to help him be successful.
Help your child talk about his feelings. Work with him so that he learns to recognize them, name them, and manage them. One way to do this is to use books to help introduce and expand the topic of feelings. For example, check out this post on using "I Was So Mad" to discuss feeling angry. Remind your child that feelings are always okay--acknowledge your child's feelings without trying to fix them. Then teach him what to do with those feelings.
Discuss your own feelings. Use yourself and situations that come up in your life to model the choices you make when you are angry/sad/frustrated/happy. Show your child how you pause and take breaths before reacting, or how you write in a journal when you are sad; how you list out options when you are frustrated by a problem, and how you hug and kiss those you love when you are happy to see them.
Practice dealing with intense emotions before the situation comes up. Teach your child, for example, to how to recognize when anger first starts and use strategies to stop before responding. Practice, practice, practice. You are your child's coach-- run drills over and over so that when game day arrives, he'll know exactly what to do.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of social-emotional awareness- there is much to learn and many resources available to help you do so. A great starting point is by going to the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning website run by Vanderbilt University. I was recently introduced to this website by an early childhood teacher in our Birth-to-Three program and I am stunned at what an amazing resource it truly is:

The Family Tools link has free PDF booklets with very practical advice on topics such as how to teach your child to recognize and express emotions and how to teach your child to become independent in his/her daily routines.

The practical strategies section has a wide variety of strategies for parents and teachers on promoting social-emotional awareness. There are free, printable scripted stories such as the one about Tucker Turtle and how he learns to control his feelings and calm down by "thinking like a turtle" (tuck inside your shell and take three breaths before responding--something we all need reminders to do every now and then!). The scripted stories are to be used with young children--they each explicity teach important strategies for different social-emotional skills.

And then there's the Book Nook section, at the bottom of the page of practical strategies. It's chock full of books into which lessons of social-emotional can be woven. Each book that is listed in this section has a PDF of accompanying lesson plans full of suggestions for expanding the social-emotional lessons of the book. My favorite? The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn: a beautiful story about a young raccoon who is afraid to leave his mother and go off into the world of school...until his mother teaches him that, by gently placing a kiss in the palm of his hand, she is sending her love out into the world with him. And that story, my dear readers, is what got me through my son's first day of kindergarten.

Word-finding, Stress Management, Awesome Authors, and School Tips: A Fabulous Friday Round-up

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:33:00 +0000

A few posts that I think are great....

Ever have that "tip of the tongue" feeling, when you know you know a word but can't quite find it? Caroline Bowen posts on word-retrieval (word-finding) difficulties. She explains a bit about the problem, talks about how to assess it, and provides tons of practical tips and suggestions for helping children work on it. She also directs readers over to two other super duper websites: Word Finding Difficulties and The Word Finding Lab. Awesome stuff.

Moving Smart Now discusses how stress can impact a child's ability to learn and how a parent's stress can impact a child's-- a powerful reminder that, in taking care of ourselves, we are taking care of our children. She also gives some important suggestions for helping your little one deal with stress, which leads to better learning, growing, and loving for everyone involved.

No Time For Flashcards share Five Great Children's Book Authors. I love their choices! (And, for what it's worth, I adore the book I Love You Forever. Still can't read it without crying.)

Ellen, over at Love That Max, posts on how to know your child's school is a great one. (She also, BTW, posted this post a week or so ago, with beautiful insights about what 'normal' really is).

Happy Friday!

What Are Carrier Phrases and How Do I Use Them?

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:24:00 +0000

If you don’t live in the world of speech-therapy, you probably aren’t familiar with the term “carrier phrase.” Luckily, it’s very simple one to understand. When we speechies talk about carrier phrases, we are referring to phrases in which the first few words stay the same and only the last word changes. Some of my favorite carrier phrases are:

I want a…

I found a…

I have a….

I see a….

Do you have a….?

Where is the….?

Carrier phrases can be a great way to help children learn to use longer sentences. And, as a bonus, they can be used to help with lots of other speech and language skills as well. Carrier phrases work well because they can be used repetitively in an activity, giving children multiple opportunities to learn the phrase.

For example, if I am looking at books with a child, I might model the phrases, “I see a ball!” “I see a fish!” “I see a plane!” and then wait. Often, the child will come back with, “I see a (new noun here).” This teaches the child that exchanging one word in a sentence changes the meaning of the sentence, but because the first few words of the sentence are the same, it’s easier for children to memorize and say the whole thing. This can, however, be a good and bad thing. It’s good because using carrier phrases can lead to children using longer sentences quickly. Many children with autism, for example, are taught to use “I want (+ noun)” to request things and are able to learn this pretty fast. The downfall, though, is that sometimes children become over reliant on using these carrier phrases and don’t learn to make up all kinds of new and creative sentences. Carrier phrases can be good as a first step for learning to create sentences, but I always make sure children are using lots of different types of 2-word phrases as well.

Carrier phrases are also great for other language skills. For example:

• Carrier phrase can be used with children who are working on producing new speech sounds (i.e., articulation). Often, children can produce a sound well when producing it in one word at a time, but they have difficulty producing it in sentences or conversation. Carrier phrases are a great in-between step, because they increase the sentence length, but "reduce the linguistic load’ (in other words, they don’t require kids to think as much about what they are going to say before they say it). This can be especially helpful for children with developmental apraxia of speech.

• Carrier phrases are also great when working with children who are stuttering. In my post on preschool stuttering, I gave lots of beginning suggestions for working with a preschooler who stutters. One of those steps is to use slow and simple speech (again with the idea of “reducing the linguistic and cognitive load”—or helping children speak in activities that are predictable and thus require a bit less complex language and a bit less thought about what they are going to say). Doing this helps increase fluency. Using carrier phrases can be a great way to sloooow an activity down, take turns, and use simple, repetitive speech to increase fluency.

How to use carrier phrases?

• Use expansion to model the phrase for your child in an appropriate activity. Say, for example, you were having snack and your child kept asking for “cookie” by just using that one word. Each time he did this, you might say, “I want a cookie,” before you give him the cookie and wait just a bit to see if he imitates you.

• Read books that have carrier phrases embedded in them. One of my favorites is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?by Eric Carle.

• Play games like Memory and Go Fish, modeling simple phrase like, “Do you have a (noun)?” and “I found a (noun) ” or “I see a (noun)”

• Take turns pointing out interesting things in a book, modeling “I see (noun)” as you go.

Looking for More Strategies for Language Development?

Repetitive Books

Communication Temptations

All Kinds of Talk

Strategies for Language Development: "Reading" Wordless Picture Books and Describing Funny Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:12:00 +0000

Today's guest-post is written by Stephanie Sigal, M.A. CCC-SLP. She not only provides us with some really nice tips for reading wordless picture books and describing silly pictures with kids, she also provides an extensive list of wordless picture books and silly pictures. (My personal favorites are the Frog Series Wordless Picture books. I also *love* Ezra Jack Keats books.) Enjoy!

Wordless picture books and funny pictures are excellent tools to address vocabulary, word finding, grammar, articulation, attention and pre-reading skills. Goals to improve each of these naturally fall into place when “reading” wordless picture books and describing funny pictures. Even better, the variety of wordless picture books and funny pictures available allows for activities to remain fun and fresh. You can use wordless picture books and funny pictures for…

Articulation

Sometimes a child can say a sound (e.g., /s/) in sentences, but needs extra practice in conversation. Wordless books and funny pictures can bridge the gap between sentence level and conversation.

Language

Take turns with your child describing the pictures you see. If your child leaves out important information when describing scenes in books or pictures, you can ask an open ended question (e.g., "Hmmm - What's happening over here?"). If he can't describe what's happening, describe it for him. Perhaps your description will improve his awareness to be more specific next time.

Pre-Reading
With Wordless Picture Books

When appropriate, before turning the page, excitedly ask “What’s going to happen next?” When given the opportunity to make a prediction (a pre-reading skill), children combine verbal and critical thinking skills.

With Funny Pictures

Describing funny pictures is entertaining! An instant smile appears when a child is shown a picture of the Statue of Liberty holding an ice cream sundae. This task allows your child to link visual and cognitive skills, which is crucial for pre-reading. Funny pictures need to be carefully examined, just as words need to be looked at closely to notice blends. What’s more, when a child focuses and attends to a funny picture and can explain why it is crazy a polar bear is on the beach, he is using attention and reasoning skills and making inferences.

Social-Emotional Awareness

A child may better appreciate the feelings of others if he can interpret and describe feelings. When the opportunity presents itself, ask your child how a main character feels. You may need to be more specific: “How does Jack the dog feel after his family left him without breakfast?” Provide explanations as necessary.

Looking for some wordless picture books and funny pictures?

Wordless Books and Caldecott Winners

“Jack” Books

The "Jack" books by Pat Schories are a great introduction to wordless picture books. While the Jack books do not need to be read in any particular order, the following order works nicely:

Breakfast for Jack

Jack Wants a Snack
Jack and the Missing Piece
Jack and the Night Visitors
When Jack Goes Out

Children are interested in the characters in Jack's life. Searching the detailed pictures for surprises is motivating, facilitates attention and assists in developing visual scanning skills.

Frog Series

The Frog Series by Mercer Mayer (and sometimes Marianna Mayer as well) is an appropriate series to try next. Again, the books don’t need to be read in any particular order, but given the language skills required within each book, this order may be preferable:

Frog, Where Are You?

A Boy, A Dog and A Frog

One Frog Too Many

A Boy, A Dog, A Frog and A Friend

Frog on His Own

Frog Goes To Dinner

I was first introduced to The Frog Series in my graduate school clinic. School-age children described scenes in a Frog book chosen for them during an evaluation so we could obtain a narrative sample.

More Favorite Wordless Picture Books

Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola

Carl Goes Shopping by Alexandra Day

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann

Hug by Jez Alborough

Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins

Chalk by Bill Thomson

Window by Jeannie Baker

(best for older children, purchase a used copy)

No, David! by David Shannon

(My favorite, essentially wordless book, also a Caldecott*)

You can also use picture books with text, as long as the pictures are detailed. This is generally more difficult than using wordless picture books, but if you try, it will work best with *Caldecott Medal / Honor Books. One of the criteria for the Caldecott Award is that a child can interpret the story directly from the pictures. A child doesn’t need to know how to read the text, in fact, cover text if your child can read, so he can freely choose his own words.

Caldecott Favorites

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

Flotsam (This is also a wordless picture book) by David Wiesner (Tuesday and Sector 7 are good for school age children)

The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster, Illustrated by Chris Raschka

When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang

The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey

Rumpelstiltskin by Paul Zelinsky

King Bidgood's In the Bathtub by Don and Audrey Wood

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams

One Fine Day by Nonny Hogrogian

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Umbrella by Taro Yashima

A Tree Is Nice by Marc Simont

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

The pictures in books by Leo Lionni and Ezra Jack Keats also allow for great descriptions.

Funny Pictures

I often provide What’s Wrong coloring books to children I work with so they can discuss one page a day with a parent as part of their homework. I often leave the wordless picture book that we read together in therapy for homework as well.

What's Wrong? by Anna Pomaska is good to start with. Then try What's Wrong with this Picture? also by Pomaska.

Try this incredible set of silly photographs. Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss is fun to read together. Practicing describing a worksheet or two each day from Super Duper's 150 "What's Wrong With This Picture?" Scenes can also help carryover speech and language skills.

What’s your favorite wordless picture book or funny picture game?

Stephanie Sigal, M.A. CCC-SLP is a speech language therapist practicing on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, NYC. She works with babies, toddlers and school age children with expressive language delay and articulation disorders in their homes. To learn more about Stephanie, please visit her website www.sayandplayfamily.com and blog www.blog.sayandplayfamily.com.

Strategies for Language Development: Using Songs to Improve Receptive Language and Behavior

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:29:00 +0000

I’ve posted before about the power of using songs to help a child start talking. That’s not all songs are good for, though. They can also be used to help children learn to understand and follow directions. I sing often during both the therapy sessions I run and my days at home with my toddler.

(I pause here to note that a good singing voice is not required to make this strategy work. My voice is, um, not the best. As a dad of one of the kids I see for therapy recently remarked after hearing me sing, I need to “keep my day job.” My lack of musicality matters not—singing almost always helps children understand what I want and improves the chances that they will actually do it.)

Why songs?

1.. Singing is fun! Children respond to adults who are engaging and silly, so an adult singing songs often shifts the mood of a stubborn toddler. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been fighting a typical two year old battle with my little girl about getting dressed and then started singing “Where’s your (body part)” to the tune of “Where’s Thumpkin?” as I pulled her arm through a sleeve.

Where’s Your Arm?

There it is!

We found your arm

We found your am

There it is.

Almost magically, her face will transform from frustration to rapt attention. It doesn’t always work…but it often does. This particular song is also a great way to work on understanding of body parts.

2. Songs are repetitive. Toddlers and preschoolers thrive on repetition- it helps them learn and brings order to a world that is often rapidly changing. Singing during transitions helps children understand what is expected . When they hear the clean up song, for example, children often join in both the singing and cleaning up. I use songs often during routine transitions such as cleaning up, washing hands, and walking out to the car. To keep things simple (for my nonmusical mind), I sing a lot of songs to the “Where is Thumpkin” tune. I just change out the verbs and the nouns:

Washing, Washing,

On Your Hands

Washing Washing Washing,

Washing Washing, Washing

On Your Hands
On Your Hands

Walking, Walking

To The Car

Walking Walking Walking

To The Car

3. Music is (we think) processed in a different part of the brain. There is some debate about this-- debate which I am not nearly smart enough to truly understand--but the idea is one that makes sense to me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a child with autism respond completely differently to directions that are sung as compared to directions that are spoken. It’s like a switch has been flipped.

No matter how you cut it, singing with children can be a great way to work on language. Sing away!

Looking For Other Strategies for Language Development?

Using Imitation To Get Language

Improving Behavior and Language Through The Power of Choice

Communication Temptations

Should your late-talker get speech therapy? Depends on who you talk to.

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:46:00 +0000

There's a debate a brewin' in the world of early intervention. Seeing as how we work with young children, we're generally pretty easy-going folks. But that doesn't mean we don't have our professional disagreements. And this is one of them.

It all started with this study, which was published in the journal of Pediatrics and released into the press in July. The Australian study followed 142 late-talkers as they aged; the researchers measured problem behavior at the ages of 2,5,8,10,14, and 17. They found that, despite having poorer behavior at age 2, the late-talkers exhibited no significant behavioral concerns at any of the follow up ages. Articles about the study were written up in the press and ran with headlines such as "Late Talkers Do Fine As They Grow Up." Many of the articles also suggested that the "wait and see" approach for late-talkers might be the best option after all.

That wasn't the end of it though. The Hanen Centre, a non-profit organization that focuses on helping parents learn to teach their children to communicate, responded. They put out this press release, cautioning parents to be wary of these overly simplistic headlines. As it turns out, the study had looked at the emotional and behavioral outcomes of the late-talkers only. The Hanen press release noted that, while it was reassuring that late-talkers appeared to have no long lasting emotional or behavioral difficulties, the study simply did not measure whether or not the late-talkers had persistent language delays or other academic difficulties. The Hanen Centre press release urged parents to seek help for their late-talkers early.

So what do I think of all this? I can see both perspectives. I do think that, in some cases, we over-serve children with expressive language delays. Many late-talkers really will be just fine, even without formal speech-language therapy. Have you seen the film Babies?

A colleague of mine wisely pointed out that, despite their varied backgrounds, all of these babies--those who were quizzed with flashcards in their kitchens, and those who spent their babyhood dancing in fields next to goats-- probably still somehow grew up, developed the necessary skills they needed to function in their world, and flourished. Sometimes--sometimes--I think that we in the Western world do families more harm than good by focusing so much on what the child is not doing instead of letting the family just love the child for who she is. I know we do much good in our field, but I worry that sometimes, against our very best intentions, we steal moments from families that could be spent dancing through life with their children.

BUT (and this is a big but), there is sound rational behind our tendency to push back against the "wait and see" philosophy. First, talking late is a risk factor for other, more significant diagnoses, such as autism and apraxia of speech. There are ways to tell if a late-talker is at risk for a larger delay, but it is often hard for parents, and even physicians, to differentiate between those children who have an expressive language delay only (and are therefore, just "late-talkers"), and those who may have a bigger diagnosis that warrants early intervention. The "wait and see" approach, when applied too broadly and blindly, can lead to children being missed, to parents who are blind-sided by a diagnosis later in their child's life and are frustrated that they didn't get a chance to act on behalf of their child at a younger age, and to problems that could have potentially been mitigated through early intervention.

Further, as the Hanen press release points out, most late-talkers will catch up. 70-80% of those who are truly just late-talkers will outgrow their language delay. But not all will. And therein lies the rub: we just don't know yet how to tell which late-talkers will catch up on their own. We do know, however, that the children who don't catch up on their own are at significant risk for later language-based academic difficulty. And we know that the strategies we have to help late-talkers can work, especially when they are used at young ages.

So what would I do if I were the parent of a late-talker?

First, I'd make sure that the child was "just" a late-talker. This can be more complicated than in sounds (Take a peek at this post, which describes the things that I would look at as a pediatric speech-therapist to help me determine of a toddler was a late talker). If I were not well versed in the world of young children, I'd probably ask my pediatrician for an evaluation through my local early intervention program, if for nothing else than to confirm that my child was, indeed, just a "late-talker."

If I did get an evaluation from my early intervention program, I would ask them to teach me the strategies for working with my child and help me learn to integrate them into my day.

I would read about and try out the different strategies for working with late talkers here, on Child Talk! (You had to know I'd plug this blog, right?).

I would check out books such these, two of my very favorite books on working with children who have communication delays:
Finally, I'd make sure to balance any and all of the above with lots of love, laughter, and dancing.

Learn more about....

Strategies for Late-Talkers
Autism
Apraxia of Speech
Early Intervention

Whitehouse, A., Robinson, M., & Zubrick, S. (2011)." Late Talking and The Risk for Psychological Problems During Childhood and Adolescence." Pediatrics: 128 (2): e1-e10.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-late-talkers-idUSTRE7630OZ20110704

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/closer-look-late-talker-study-why-parents-should-beware-wait-see-approach-the-hanen-1538680.htm

Please note: If you purchase a product I have linked on my blog, this will sometimes result in monetary compensation for me, which I use as a means of supporting Child Talk. However, I *never* write posts simply to sell products, and my opinions about the products I blog about are my own.

Books For Language Development: If You Give A....

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:40:00 +0000

Today, I'm happy to share a guest post written by Meghan Gallahan Graham M.S. CCC-SLP, one of the authors over at All4mychild. I love all her ideas! Enjoy!

“If You Give A…”

As a speech pathologist, reading books with children is a huge part of what I do (and LOVE to do). It is a way for me to connect with the children I work with as well as help them reach any number of speech and language goals. As Becca mentioned in her post on reading books with toddlers, reading with your children is a wonderful way to model, expand, and build your child’s language.

The “If You Give a…”book series (e.g., If You Give A Mouse A Cookie; If You Give a Pig A Pancake) is wonderful series of stories by Laura Numeroff that offers many opportunities for language modeling for your child. The stories demonstrate a simple, repetitive “cause-effect” language frame which offers the opportunity to let your child make guesses as to what will happen next (i.e. What do you think the mouse will do next?) as well as the ability to answer/model “why/because" sentence structures (i.e. Why did the mouse need a napkin... because he had a milk mustache!).

What this book series can also do is provide a great avenue for social language skills as well. The illustrations are very vivid and detailed, which offers many opportunities to discuss body language, our all-important communication without words. Help your child “read the body clues:” the characters' facial expressions and what their bodies are telling us. Ask children to describe how characters are feeling and what they are thinking and point out observations such as, “I can tell the mouse is really thirsty-- look at his hands holding his neck and his tongue is hanging out!” This series offers many ideas and activities for children if you are reading individually, or together with other kids. See some ideas below, and enjoy!

Ideas for how to use:

Help your child “make a guess” as to what would happen next? If they are having a hard time, help them relate it to themselves. I.e. “What do you want after you drink a glass of milk?
Discuss the body language in each story. Ask your child how the mouse/moose/pig etc. feels? Why do you think that?
Act out a character on a page; see if your child can “guess” who you are trying to be. Take turns; see if they can make their bodies look like the character. Help them by pointing out their facial expression, where their eyes are looking, how their bodies are positioned, etc. This would be great with a few children too. A “charades like” game for all!
Have a couple kids in a group or on a play date? Try the Mouse and Cookie “beep” story. The first child acts as the mouse and does the first “action” (i.e. eat the cookie) then says “beep” and the next kiddo does the next action and gives the mouse a glass of milk and says “beep”, then the next kiddo (or first depending on how many children you have) does the next action, etc. You can have kids line up in a line to make the sequence easier and more obvious. Use the book pictures to help children remember by turning the pages for each turn.
Have your child make their own “If you” book. Start with a character that could be themselves and an animal. Help them understand the cause/effect sequence of the story. Maybe try “If you give a hamster a cupcake…” or “If you give an elephant a peanut…” etc. Have them make their own illustrations with crayons, markers, construction paper, etc.
If you have a couple kiddos have them collaborate and make an “If you” book together. Encourage listening to each other’s ideas, sharing materials, etc.
Have a pretend playhouse set and animals? Act out the story with pretend characters. Change up the story and see if your child can “react.” Maybe the boy gives the mouse an apple?

Click here for a link to the many “If you give a ….” Book titles and other books by Laura Numeroff.

For more information on other children’s books and how to use them please visit www.all4mychild.com under Books4all. Coming August 2011 an IOS app to support children’s social skills as well!

Meghan Gallahan Graham M.S. CCC-SLP

Speech Language Pathologist

Meghan@all4mychild.com

Books for Language Development: LLama Llama Holiday Drama

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Looking for books for language development? Have I got a treat for you! One of my favorite new discoveries in the speechy blog-o-sphere is the amazing resource over on All4MyChild's site entitled Books4all. It contains books that are excellent for language development, along with specific ideas and tips for using each book to help with speech and language. Cool beans.

Today, Books4all is featuring a review I wrote on one of my daughter's current favorite books: Llama Llama Holiday Drama (yes, I do know we are nowhere near the holiday season. Someone tell that to my daughter). Head on over to Books4All and find out why I think Llama Llama is great for working on /l/ sounds (well, that one's obvious, I guess), vocabulary, pre-literacy skills, inferences, and narrative skills.And while you are there, check out the awesome selection of other books that are perfect for speech and language as well. Happy reading (and talking!)

Looking for more books for language learning?

Repetitive Books for Language Learning

Looking for Llama Llama books? Here are a few of my favorites....

Please note: If you click on an advertising link or purchase an advertised product I have placed on my blog, this will sometimes result in a monetary compensation for me, which I use as a means of supporting Child Talk. (Trust me, it's much less than you imagine it to be!). However, I *never* write posts simply to sell products, and my opinions about the products I blog about are my own.

How Many Words Should My Child Be Saying? A Quick Guide To Vocabulary Development

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:09:00 +0000

Parents often wonder how many words their children should have at different ages. This seems like a simple question, but there's not always a simple answer. Vocabulary development can be relatively variable among children of the same ages. However, there are some general guidelines:

Children typically speak their first word somewhere around 12 months. Some children, however, take up to 16 months to utter that long-awaited first word and this is still considered to be within the range of typical.
At 18 months, children typically use between 50 and 100 words (but we don't worry too much unless they have fewer than 20).
At 24 months, children usually have an expressive vocabulary of 200-300 words (but we don't worry too much unless they have fewer than 50).
At 3 years, children can have anywhere from 500-1,100 words in their vocabulary.
By 5-7 years, children have an expressive vocabulary of 3000-5000 words.

It's important to note that when talking about vocabulary, we have to be careful to state what type of vocabulary we are looking at: expressive vocabulary (the number of words children use when they talk) or receptive vocabulary (which is the number of words children understand, and is almost always significantly higher than expressive vocabulary). The above numbers represent expressive vocabulary, or the number of words children typically use at these ages.

And it's even more important to note that at least one study (Hart and Risley, 2006) found that the significant variability in children's vocabulary at the age of three was strongly related to the amount of talking parents did with their children. Specifically, they found that parents who used 'conversational' speech with their children (talking about what they did, what they saw and what they thought about what they did and what they saw-- basically just making conversation with their children on a regular and on-going basis) had children with significantly higher vocabularies and IQs at age three than children whose parents used mainly directive speech (get this, do that, come over here). The differences in language and IQ remained at age nine as well.

Looking for ways to keep your child's vocabulary growing? Here are a few.

At the toddler age, use simple language to talk about what you and your child are seeing and doing. Narrate your day and engage your child in simple back and forth conversations about what is happening.
Think about taking pictures and using them to extend and repeat the conversation about events that have happened, even with children as young as 24 months. Talking about things that have already happened helps your child learn to talk about decontextualized events (things that are not right in front of him)-- a task that requires a more precise and higher-level vocabulary.
As your child develops language in the preschool and elementary years, continue to engage him in conversations about things that have happened in your lives. When you do so:

Use active listening to show your child you are listening; create opportunities for your child to comment and add to your thoughts. Create pockets of time in which you really talk with your child.
Restate what your child says, using slightly more advanced, new vocabulary. For example, if he says, "Did you see that house by the water? It was big!" respond by saying, "I did- the cabin next to the creek was gigantic!"
As your child talks, ask "how" and "why" questions to help him extend and analyze his thoughts. Wonder out loud, for example, how the cabin was build or why the family chose to build it on the creek. Doing so allows your child to use new vocabulary to talk about abstract thoughts, rather than simply talking about the concrete objects that are right in front of him (Ruston & Schwanenflugel, 2010).

Paul, Rhea. (2007). Language Disorders from Infancy Through Adolescence. Mosby, Inc: Canada.
Risley, T. R & Hart, B. (2006). Promoting early language development. In N. F. Watt, C. Ayoub, R. H. Bradley, J. E. Puma & W. A. LeBoeuf (Eds.), The crisis in youth mental health: Critical issues and effective programs, Volume 4, Early intervention programs and policies (pp. 83-88). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Ruston, H.,& Schwanenflugel, P. (2010). Effects of a Conversation Intervention on the Expressive Vocabulary Development of Prekindergarten Children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (41): 303-313.

Activities to Increase Language: Homemade Sidewalk Paint

noreply@blogger.com (ChildTalk) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:19:00 +0000

I'm always on the look-out for great activities to use for language development and after reading this post from Hands On: As We Grow and this post from Quirky Mama, I was inspired to try making my own sidewalk paint--a wonderful activity for enhancing language. The recipe for sidewalk paint is easy enough:

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 box baking soda
A squeeze of washable paint
A couple tablespoons of water (although I had to add quite a bit more than "a couple tablespoons" to make it into a good consistency paint! It thickens as you go, so don't be afraid to add more water. The author of Hands: On We Grow recommends making it soupier than you think you need it, and I agree).

Mix it all up in a bucket, head outside, and have fun painting the sidewalks! And, if you really want to jazz things up, you can let your kids spray the painted ground with bottles of vinegar and watch their paint fizz.

I love this activity for language development for a whole bunch of reasons:

It's flexible enough to use with a variety of ages. My toddler, for example, loved the painting part, and I used parallel talk, and description to model simple, new action words (paint, dip, wash) and expansion to extend her one word phrases into two-word phrases. This is a great way to increase vocabulary and sentence length in little ones.

Older children will enjoy helping make the paint, as my son did. While making the paint, I gave him different directions to follow. This is a fantastic way to work on receptive language by having children follow new one and two-step directions; it also allows for the introduction of new vocabulary such as "slowly" and "carefully" to describe how to execute directions.

As a speech therapist, I am always on the search for very simple recipes that lead to something fun. I use them to help children learn to sequence simple events and tell simple stories about what they did. I often take pictures of each step along the way, print the pictures out, and have children actually put the pictures in order before retelling the experience. This recipe is short and sweet, making it perfect for this type of language experience.

This is also an activity that easily lends itself to teaching descriptive concepts to older toddlers and preschoolers. It's easy to integrate simple conversation about colors, shapes, and sizes into the activity. You can paint big circles and small ones, purple houses and red ones, short snakes and long ones.

Using this activity with older children allows you to ask them to predict what is going to happen when you spray the paint with vinegar and then compare that to what really happened after it is all done. Doing this type of higher level thinking gives children a boost in the language they will need at school, where they will be called upon to compare and contrast, predict, analyze, and infer.

Paint, talk, and enjoy!

Looking for more activities for language development?

Using Photo Books to Increase Vocabulary, Grammar, and Narrative Skills
I Was So Mad: An Activity for Social-Emotional Development

How to Read Books With Toddlers to Help Them Start To Talk

Snow, Sprinkles, and Speech

Read the original posts that inspired this post at:
http://www.handsonaswegrow.com/2011/06/outdoor-play-homemade-sidewalk-paint.html
http://quirkymomma.com/2011/fizzing-sidewalk-paint/