More Than Words

04/11/2025

🎙️✨ Did you know? One of the most classic tools used in speech therapy is something called "The Grandfather Passage" — a short, public domain story that's packed with a wide variety of sounds! 💬

We use it to gather speech samples and get a closer look at articulation and fluency. It’s like a little diagnostic treasure for SLPs 👩‍⚕️🔍👨‍⚕️

Curious what it sounds like? Try reading it out loud—you might be surprised how tricky it can be!

04/10/2025

🧠💬 In my speech and language therapy sessions, I love incorporating the Yale RULER Approach—a powerful tool that connects emotional intelligence with communication skills.

RULER stands for:
Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions.

By helping students recognize and name their own emotions (and those of others), we’re not just supporting their social-emotional development—we’re also strengthening their ability to communicate clearly, confidently, and appropriately in real-life situations. 🗣️❤️

When students can better understand how they feel, they’re more equipped to express themselves with intention, empathy, and purpose—skills that go hand-in-hand with speech and language goals.

It’s amazing to see how building emotional awareness can unlock progress in communication! 🌟

Here is a great resource for using RULER at home!

What is RULER and How Can We Use it at Home? What is RULER? Why do we use it at school? The Four Anchor Tools of RULER and how to use them at home How to Use the Blueprint at Home: Feeling Words Curriculum Questions? Feel free to contact Meghan Kaloper, Thurgood Marshall School Counselor […]

04/10/2025

Autism Acceptance Month is here! This is a great resource from the Neurodivergent Teacher. Enjoy!

Theme Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Introducing Neurodiversity Day 1: What is Autism? Day 2: Why Acceptance? Day 3: The Paradigm Shift Day 4:What is Neurodiversity? Day 5: Identity-First Language The Autistic Experience Day 6: Just the Facts Day 7: Sensory Overload ...

11/18/2023

Actually, masking an accent can engender feelings of shame. The differences in the way that we pronounce words can be tied to our cultural identify and a very beautiful part of who we are as individuals. While this is a silly meme, it reinforces the idea that there is a “mainstream” accent and “mainstream English”. Let’s celebrate our language differences and affirm the identities of others!

11/17/2023

We are here for our clients and their families. The language demands are heavy across the subject areas and throughout the curriculum. Where, once, math was a way for our kiddos to shine, it is filled with challenging word problems that demand strong comprehension and inferencing skills. Please contact us today!

11/17/2023

We are starting to support clients as they prepare for the NYS ELA exam. Parents are seeing difficulties with stamina for reading more challenging texts and we are working on building stamina, while also providing strategies to support our clients abilities to respond to challenging text based questions. Many of these questions call upon higher level language skills, such as the ability to infer. This is a lifelong skill that is crucial to develop at an early age. Please reach out if your child would benefit from support with these skills!

11/15/2023

Actual books are ideal, but you can pause this video and turn the volume down. A wordless picture book allows you to work on descriptive language and narrative language. This particular books is wonderful for identifying problems and solutions. This books has beautiful illustrations, which allow you to talk about different biomes and who/what lives there. Who is the main character? Where is the setting? What would you do with a magical umbrella? Can you extend this to a pretend play activity? Can your child retell the story? I’m sure you will love wordless picture books as much as we do at More Than Words! Contact us for support with any or all of these skills. We would love to work with you!

Alex the Moose presents Ingrid & Dieter Schubert's timeless children's picture book.The song used in the video is from copyright free public sources.

11/14/2023

Especially with our younger children, talking about the pictures within a book can be just as important, if not more important than reading the words on a page. This picture is contains an abundance of vocabulary and opportunities to learn! You can target prepositions - Can you find the cars that are under the sink? What is hanging above the older child? Who is between the baby and the mother? What vegetables do you see on the cutting board? What do you see behind the baby? Wordless picture books are some of the best! Stay tuned for an extensive list!
Painting by: Lore Pemberton

11/14/2023

Talking to your children is so important - Hoda and Jenna interviewed Dr. Harold Koplewicz, psychiatrist and founder of the Child Mind Institute. He offered some helpful tips! Please reach out if you need assistance in supporting your child in the development of conversation skills or with how to respond to wh-questions! Thanks you Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb for highlighting this important topic!

Instead of "how was your day," this Child Mind Institute psychiatrist has better conversation-starters with kids.

11/14/2023

Articulation refers to speech sounds. If you notice a difference in the way that your child pronounces sounds or words, take a deeper dive into their production using the tool from mommyspeechtherapy.com. It will help you identify the errors your child might be producing and when those sounds are expected to have developed based upon normative data. We are here to help and answer any questions you may have regarding errors and treatment. Give us a call!

11/13/2023

Call today to schedule your FREE consult.

11/13/2023

Is your child struggling with reading comprehension? Are they have difficulty organizing their ideas and language into cohesive responses for questions or essays?

Please reach out!

We can support your child in developing the skills necessary for success. We use graphic organizers, scaffolding and other tools to help break down information. We will happily work with your child, so that they can develop the skills necessary to be successful in school.