Communication Craze

08/20/2025

I love this example of pausing and waiting! ⏰ A lot of times I tell parents to ask and pause about 10-30 seconds (depending on the kid and age). It may feel awkward because we live in a society where responses are expected to be immediate. In many cases, our kids need time to process. 🧠 If we keep asking the same question, or ask a bunch of different questions kids may have a hard time answering and will just shut down. Notice how long they pause for before an answer is given 💙♾️

01/28/2025

Love these alternatives 😊💛

Love this ❤️

Credit: We Are Teachers

08/30/2024

🗣️📚Building a Robust Vocabulary📚🗣️
Developing a rich vocabulary is crucial for children's language development and overall communication skills.
Introducing new words in context using SEER can help teach new vocabulary effectively.
✨ Remember SEER when teaching new words:
S: Say the Word (egl, "We are driving in a vehicle:)
E: Explain the word (e.g., "A vehicle is something that takes you from one place to another.")
E: Example/Experience (e.g., "Cars, bikes, boats, and trains are all vehicles.")
R: Repeat the word (e.g., "Say 'vehicle'.")

🔍Strategies for Expanding Vocabulary:
1. Using Rich and Varied Language: Encourage the use of descriptive words in everyday conversations.
2. Reading Books: Read a variety of books to your child and discuss new words.

Using SEER can help make vocabulary relatable and easier to understand.

Which strategy do you find most helpful for building your child's vocabulary? Using rich language🗯️ or Reading books 📖 . Share your thoughts in the comments below! 👇🏼

08/07/2024

🗣️💬📱What Are Expressive Language Skills?📱💬🗣️

Expressive language skills are essential for effective communication. These skills allow children to convey their thoughts, feelings, and ideas through words, sentences, gestures, and writing. But why are they so important?

🔍 Why Expressive Language Skills Matter:

👥 Crucial for effective communication and social interaction.
👧🏽 Helps children express their needs and desires.
📚 Foundation for academic success and literacy skills.

Understanding and supporting the development of expressive language skills can make a big difference in a child’s life. Learn more about how to support and develop these crucial skills with more tips and strategies to come!

07/25/2024

🌮🔤 Phonological Awareness Taco 🔤🌮
Just like building the perfect taco, developing phonological awareness involves combining several key ingredients! Each “ingredient” represents an essential component of phonological awareness, all wrapped up in the taco shell of literacy. Let’s take a closer look:
🌮 Phonological Awareness Shell: The foundation of early literacy skills, helping children understand and manipulate the sound structures in spoken words.
🍤 Shrimp (Rhyming): Recognizing and generating rhyming words. Rhyming helps children notice the similarities in sounds and is a fun way to engage with language.
🍅 Tomato (Identifying): Identifying individual sounds in words. Just as you pick out the tomato slices, identifying sounds helps children understand the structure of words.
🧅 Onion (Segmenting): Breaking words down into individual sounds or syllables. Like separating onion layers, segmenting helps children with spelling and decoding new words.
🥑 Guacamole (Blending): Combining individual sounds to form whole words. Just like mixing ingredients to make guacamole, blending sounds together is crucial for reading fluency.
🧀 Cheese (Manipulating): Changing and playing with sounds within words. Think of it like sprinkling cheese on top—manipulating sounds helps with both reading and spelling skills.

Each of these components is essential for developing strong phonological awareness skills. By integrating these activities into daily practice, you can help your child build a solid foundation for reading and literacy.📚

07/24/2024

🧠🔤 What is Phonological Awareness? 🔤🧠

Phonological awareness is a critical skill for early literacy development❗️ It refers to the ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structures in spoken words. This foundational skill includes understanding that words are made up of smaller sound units like syllables, onsets, and rimes, and phonemes (the smallest units of sound).

Soo… WHY is phonological awareness important❔
•It lays the groundwork for reading and spelling.
•Helps children decode new words and improve their reading fluency.
•Strong phonological awareness skills are linked to better reading outcomes later on.

📚 Stay tuned this week for further ways to support your child’s phonological awareness at home and in therapy! Have questions? Drop them in the comments below! 👇

07/10/2024

It’s shark week! 🦈 So I brought out the shark jar. We practiced sounds and words while feeding the shark. Poor fish 🐟 look traumatized because they know what’s going to happen 😳😂 lots of opportunities and fun practicing our speech sounds.

06/27/2024

Learning to read starts with your ears, not your eyes. 📚👂🏼
When children hear and recognize the sounds of spoken language, they develop phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in words. This auditory skill is crucial for decoding words and is a foundational step in the reading process. By engaging in activities like rhyming, singing, and listening to stories, parents can help their children build a strong auditory foundation that will make the transition to reading much smoother! 😊 Remember, a child’s journey to literacy begins with the sounds they hear 👂🏼long before they see 👁️ the words on a page.

06/19/2024

Parents often think speech therapy should start with talking, but there are many skills to develop first. Listening, attending, playing, interacting, and understanding all come before even speaking. These foundational skills are crucial for building strong communication. Think of it like stacking Legos – each piece supports the next, with articulation being the final step to fine-tune communication. 🧩💬👂🏼👀🧠

06/11/2024

Over the weekend, I had some help and after lots of hard work my office transitioned from crazy to “amazey” 🤩 Check out this before and after photo! 🙌🏽 There’s still some things left to organize (the piles on the ground), but progress is progress! ☺️

05/21/2024

5️⃣ things you can do in your daily routine starting RIGHT NOW ⬇️ to support your child’s language skills. 🤩 All five tips can be used for any and all kids during at any time of your day 🙌🏽

1️⃣ Talk often
2️⃣ Read Together
3️⃣ Sing songs
4️⃣ Expand conversations
5️⃣ Active listening

Which one is your favorite? Do you already use any of these?!

05/18/2024

Happy National Speech-Language Pathologist Day to all the therapists who are 🤹‍♀️ materials, as well as their caseloads 😅😂