Speak Life Speech Therapy

08/16/2025

Long post but definitely worth a read to get a glimpse of how AAC can look for gestalt language processors that have special interests in particular shows. Always presume competence and know that children are constantly communicating even when we don’t quite understand the message yet.

07/22/2025

For any therapists or parents who love containers…couldn’t pass these up for $1.25!

07/02/2025

Hello everyone! Summer has been busy, but I will be sharing more content soon. For now, sharing this post that supports what my husband (DrLuckeydoo) and I have both learned through our professions. Children, no matter their age, must feel connection and develop a level of trust before you can move on to skills and learning.

If we want to meet their learning needs, we first have to meet their relational ones.

If we want them to be open to learning, they first have to open to the adult they are learning from - and they won’t be open if they don’t feel seen, safe, and cared for. It’s not always easy, it’s just how it is.♥️

05/12/2025

I can’t believe summer is almost here! I will be offering summer speech therapy for families that would like to prevent a summer slide of speech/language skills. Contact me for more information!

03/18/2025

A super simple activity I literally threw together within 5 minutes. Our old bubble blower (the “big” dog) is broken so why not feed him some rice? The little dog was hungry too! Within this super simple activity, we discussed the vocabulary big, little, empty, full, hungry, pour, measuring spoons, scoop, my turn, heart, blue, pink, yellow, red, brown, where, go, stop, dog, tail, eyes, mouth, nose, head, ears, cup, carrot, whisk, bowl, where, yes, no, clean, dirty…and SO much more. The best part is that this all happened on the front porch so minimal clean up and we got some fresh air!

02/21/2025

A little information and my thoughts regarding "first words" or "common prek/early vocabulary". In the SLP world, it is not uncommon to write goals targeting early vocabulary. However, the challenge lies in ensuring these goals are measurable and culturally sensitive. Pictured is a "first words" book I purchased for my own children this week. Although it contains some excellent vocabulary and is a cute book, it also includes words that may not be familiar to all children. Words such as "skates" and "snowman" may not be relevant to children living in the Deep South. As another example, children residing near a beach may be more familiar with words like "wave" or "ocean", whereas children from rural Appalachia may not have had exposure to these terms. When creating goals, it may be more effective to focus on a specific number of words based on the child's current vocabulary. For instance, if a child's vocabulary consists of only "mama", "dada", and "ball", a goal may be set to expand their vocabulary to 10 words. It is essential to consider the child's cultural background and environment and to consult with parents. I have also attached a handout from Scanlon Speech Therapy that I like to give parents. It can be accessed at https://www.mytoddlertalks.com/kims-blog/common-first-words-toddler-speech-therapy

02/15/2025

I once recall a professor saying that an exceptional speech therapist should be able to provide a productive therapy session with something as basic as a paperclip. Although I love all of my materials, I have found this to be true over the years. Here are a few fun and cost-free ways to expose your child to sounds. 

02/15/2025

Beautiful words by Rachel Vermeulen

02/05/2025

Such great info!

02/05/2025

Respect: admiration felt or shown for someone or something that you believe has good ideas or qualities

Neurodiversity affirming therapy builds mutual respect. When a child respects you, (and feels that in return), they are much more likely to accept when boundaries and limits are set.

01/31/2025

I accidentally deleted my previous post with rates, so I am posting again. As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions!

01/31/2025

Tell me you are a toddler parent without telling me you’re a toddler parent…

Some days I relate to this doll more than I would like to admit.

But…upon a closer look (and with a little background knowledge) you will see all the language modeling that went into this pretend play. As a small example, all of these things can be targeted with doll shoes:
- put on, take off (following directions,
concepts)
-pink shoes (color, environmental
vocab)
- 1 shoe, 2 shoes, 1 foot, 2 feet (works
on counting and modeling plurals)
- help me, I do it (functional phrases
and pronouns)

And of course we had to talk about each candy she ate. What color was it? What was it called? Did she like it or not? Did she want more or all done? (All of which ties back into functional language that can be used at the dinner table as well.)

Language modeling doesn’t have to be complicated at all…just talk and play!