Category: Language Development

Make any toy into a language-development toy!

Language Development

This time of year, SLPs are often asked about which toys are the best for language development. The magic secret (or the ultimate disappointment?) is that no such toy actually exists. In fact, the language development doesn’t even come from the toy. It comes from the interaction the child has with their playmates! As a result, any toy can become one that can be used to enrich speaking skills when certain strategies are used. While this list is not comprehensive by any means, here are a few ideas you can use during play to give your kiddos a language boost.

In defense of play therapy for late talkers (and for everyone, really)

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When it comes to our younger kiddos (and often older ones, too), sitting at a table and skill-drilling them isn’t perhaps the best or most realistic idea. For our late talkers, speech-language therapy is almost always play-based. From the outside, play-based therapy literally looks like the speech-language pathologist just playing with the child. This often times shocks parents- how can you be making any therapeutic gains with a late talker if you’re not “doing” therapy!? 

Rest easy, friends. Play lends itself extremely well to therapy for our littlest clients, and is the much-preferred model of therapy for this age for a number of reasons. 

SLP favorite books round-up

Language Development

There are a lot of things on Earth that make me happy, but books are in the top 10! As a speech-language pathologist, I’m always looking for ways to incorporate books into practice as well as pointing parents to good books that they can read with their kiddos. I have my own personal favorites, but I thought I’d get the opinion of some other speech experts to see what they have to say. So, friends, I present to you our first SLP Favorite Books Round-Up!

Kindergarten readiness – Early warning signs

Language DevelopmentOne Comment

Do you remember kindergarten? I do! I went for a half of a day. My classroom had a paraprofessional and a teacher. I can vividly remember learning how to make my letters, participating in calendar activities, and playing outside. Milk came in a bag! What a world!

Kindergarten of today is NOT kindergarten of the late 80s and early 90s. Scholastic published this great article describing how kindergarten has evolved since the turn of the century.

Screen time and the bambinos

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There is a lot of debate about what is appropriate and what is not when it comes to how much exposure children have to technology. I thought I’d break down the current findings and medical recommendations for you so, when deciding screen time boundaries for your child, you have good information. I’m going to focus primarily on children 2 and under for this post (hence the “bambinos” in the title).

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