Play IS Therapy!

Early Intervention and Playing: It's Effective!

I spend a lot of my therapy days simply playing.. playing games with my younger students that are filled with language enriched concepts. There are so many missed opportunities to encourage expressive and receptive language skills when we do not play with our children.  Some of my student's favorites throughout the years have been the following:

Hedbanz is a game I can pull out with any age student, Kindergarten-Fifth grade. It is a game that enhances vocabulary skills, category skills, and how to ask questions appropriately. Kids always struggle with this concept at first, but to see their faces light up when they learn how to figure out their card is wonderful! It broadens their mind to stop thinking and processing so narrow mindedly.

For Example: A student has the card "bird" on their forehead.The student must ask deeper questions; such as, "Am I a water animal?" "Am I a zoo animal?", "Am I a farm animal?". Even those simple questions require a lot of knowledge to know what animals go in what category.

 Pengoloo is a simple color matching game that reinforces memory skills, same/different concepts, turn taking, and vocabulary. Kids love hiding the eggs under the penguins.

Diggity Dog- is another favorite for preschool and Kindergarteners. These precious dogs are on a mission to find their bones that match their color doghouse. The papa dog barks either one, two or three times and the kids love hearing that. The barks indicate how many spaces the dog moves around the board. The bones are magnetic and easy to retrieve. This game is great for learning colors, following directions, basic concepts (left/right) when moving around the board, turn taking and expanding vocabulary.

Take the time to PLAY with your child!

The more experiences they have, the more knowledge they store in their brains....

 

The Blooming Mind of a 4 Year Old

At age 4 years old... your child can do this:

*Point to colors red, blue, yellow, and green

*Identify triangles, circles, crosses and squares

* Follows commands even though objects are not present

(for example: "go get mommy the red striped shirt in your room")

*Can speak of imaginary conditions, such as;

"suppose that..." or "I hope...."

* Asks many questions but is more interested in how answers fit his or her own thoughts than in the explanation.

*Asks ? "Who" and "Why" questions?

*Begins to combine sentences with the word "and".

*Uses past tense correctly

(for example: "I saw a goat at the zoo yesterday")

*Copies or traces a line and a circle

*Can stay with one activity for 11 or 12 minutes

*Uses the following sounds correctly:

m, n, -ing, p, f, h, w, y, k, b, d, g, t

IF YOUR 4 YEAR OLD CHILD SEEMS BEHIND IN MANY OF THESE AREAS, PLEASE TALK WITH YOUR CHILD'S TEACHER OR CONTACT THE SPEECH-LANGUAGE THERAPIST AT YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL

EARLY INTERVENTION IS THE KEY TO ACADEMIC SUCCESS!!

Non-Speech Communication... We Do It All the Time!

How Do We use Non-Speech to Communicate?

It Looks Like This....

Notice the little signs that others give you!



We Gesture all the time......

• Eye contact or eye gaze- A toddler may gaze at an object of interest out of his reach that he would like to play with.

• Pointing at things to show interest- A child may use a point to indicate he is interested in something.


• Facial expressions-. We all use facial expressions to communicate our feelings to others. A child that is happy will have a different expression than a child who is angry, sad, scared, etc.


• Body Language/Movements- These are SO important! Children with speech delays often use body language or movements to try to communicate.


• Gestures- In addition to pointing, a child may use gestures to try to communicate with you, like gesturing towards the fridge when he is thirsty.


• Tone of voice, vocal volume, pitch and inflection- Even when a child is using little to no real words, often times we can use their tone, volume, pitch or inflection to help figure out what they are trying to say.


• Whining, grunting, and other non speech noises- Often times littles ones with speech delays will use a combination of these with other nonverbal communication to try to communicate. The tone of these grunts and noises (as mentioned above) could give us more information on what our child is trying to communicate.

Signs of Learning Disabilities in Children

What are the Red Flags of Learning Disabilities?

Preschoolers
* Problems pronouncing words

*Difficulty rhyming words

*Difficulty learning letters, numbers, shapes, and colors

Kindergarten to 4th Grade

*Difficulty connecting letters with sounds

*Confusing basic words (i.e. Run or Want)

*Making consistent reading and spelling errors

*Having trouble remembering facts

5th to 8th Grade

*Difficulty understanding/comprehending what he/she has read

*Difficulty following oral instructions

*Difficulty understanding spelling strategies

High School and Young Adult

*Spelling the same word differently in two documents

*Difficulty answering open-ended questions

*Difficulty understanding abstract concepts

*Misreading information

*Difficulty focusing on details


If you are concerned that your child demonstrates any of the following behaviors, please speak with your child's teacher!

Lets Play With Word!!

Phonological Awareness Skills

Phonological awareness skills are important in order to develop good reading skills.

Having good phonological awareness skills means that a child is able to manipulate sounds and words, or “play” with sounds and words. For example, a teacher or speech-language pathologist might ask a child to break the word “cat” into individual sounds: “c-a-t.”

Phonological awareness includes the following skills:

• Recognizing when words rhyme (e.g., “Do ‘cat’ and ‘shoe'

rhyme?”) and coming up with a word that rhymes (e.g., “What rhymes with ‘key’?”)

Segmentation of words in sentences (e.g., “Clap for each

word you hear in the sentence ‘The dog is furry.’”)

• Blending syllables (e.g., “I am going to say parts of a

word. Tell me what the word is. ‘Pan-da.’”)

• Segmentation of syllables (e.g., “Clap for each syllable

you hear in the word ‘refrigerator.’”)

• Deletion of syllables (e.g., “Say the word ‘strawberry.’

Now say it without saying ‘straw.’”)

• Identifying sounds in words (e.g., “What sound do you hear at the end of ‘tulip’?”)

• Blending sounds (e.g., “Put these sounds together to make a word. ‘D-oo-r.’”)

• Segmentation of sounds (e.g., “Tell me each sound you hear in the word ‘cat’?”)

• Deletion of sounds (e.g., “Say ‘chair.’ Now say it without the ‘ch.’”)

• Addition of sounds (e.g., “Say ‘cook.’ Now say it with an ‘e’ at the end.”)

• Manipulation of sounds (e.g., “Change the ‘s’ in ‘sad’ to a ‘d’ and say the new word.”)

Phonological awareness is important because it is a basis for reading.

Children begin to read by listening to others read aloud, then recognizing sounds in words, sounding words out for themselves, recognizing familiar words, and so on. By engaging in word play, children learn to recognize patterns among words and use this knowledge to read and build words.

Warning Signs! When To Get A Speech-Language Evaluation

Warning Signs Your Child May Need a Speech-Language Evaluation:

There is several warning signs that indicate that there may be a problem with your child’s development. You may need to get a hearing and speech evaluation if you notice any of the following signs:

• 12 months: no babbling or jargon
• 18 months: no single words
• 24 months: vocabulary of 10 words or fewer
• 30 months: vocabulary of fewer than 100 words or no two-word phrases
• 36 months: vocabulary of fewer than 200 words, no sentences, clarity less than 50 percent
• 48 months: vocabulary of fewer than 600 words, no complete sentences, clarity less than 80 percent of the time

Children who point at objects in the first year and who use symbolic gestures at 13 months are likely to have completely normal language, even if they are late bloomers.