Mary-Ellen Thompson, Ph.D. Speech Language Pathology

03/02/2022

💫Words Matter Week💫
...is the first week in March! It coincides with National Grammar Day. The week is designated to stamp out verbal slop! Words are the basis for communication, no matter the language spoken. Babies make sounds, which eventually are formed into words.

NAIWE Executive Director April Michelle Davis said, “In every aspect of life, personal or professional, words form the basis of relationships with others. The written word preserves and transmits knowledge, evokes alternate worlds, and provides endless food for thought. Words Matter Week gives us the opportunity to celebrate words and focus on why they matter.”

⭐️ How to observe :

- Host a word party, and play word games such as Scrabble, Boggle, and Pick Two.

- Write a few words in a journal, story, or poem.

- Create categories and try to think of as many words as you can that fit in that category.

02/03/2022

I have just joined , an organization that connects families to pediatric professionals and organizations in health, mental health and education with the goal of saving time, money and stress. They want to make it easier for caregivers to connect to the professional services they are looking for and also the ones they didn’t know existed to facilitate earlier intervention for better outcomes in kids! EHK was founded by a team of professionals who are parents of children who have a variety of health or educational needs. To create a professional profile go to www.ehkidshealth.com

01/19/2022

Did you know that today is Good Memory Day?! 🧠🧐

Good Memory Day is observed on January 19th every year, to cherish good moments from our past and present while making new ones for the future.

📸 On this holiday, we love to scroll through old photo albums and share a good laugh over a funny memory.

🧠 As the name suggests, this day is also the perfect occasion to test how good your memory is. Come up with a memory game based on major childhood events and have a memorable day. Plan a fun day out with your family, or make that pending call to your best friend today.

OR

⭐️ Test your recall! Make a list — of grocery items, things to do, or anything else that comes to mind — and memorize it. An hour or so later, see how many items you can recall. Make items on the list as challenging as possible for the greatest mental stimulation.

01/04/2022

💫 WELCOME to 2022! 💫

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas holiday and had a Happy New Year!

To bring in the New Year, we are sharing a speech and language calendar created by Super Duper! Follow along with these weekly speech and language goals to ensure your child is continuing to build on all of their milestones.

This month, there is a focus on R articulation! If your child struggles with this sound, try out some of the activities in weeks 4 and 5. Good luck and enjoy!

We look forward to seeing all of you back in the clinic this week! 😃

12/14/2021

🎅 Christmas Break Alert! ❄️

🎄 Our office will be closed from Monday, December 20th- Sunday, January 2nd. We will miss you and look forward to seeing you in the new year!

☃️ Christmas holiday is right around the corner, and we want to remind you how important it is to keep your speech and language practice consistent through out the holidays!

🎁 Keeping your child motivated and focused on their goals over Christmas break may be a little tough, but here we have compiled a list of links of some fun and joyful activities you can try with your child over the Christmas holidays! Many of our clients have already enjoyed participating in some in clinic!

https://tlctalkslp.com/2019/12/10-winter-holiday-freebies-for-speech-and-language-therapy/.html

https://thedabblingspeechie.com/2015/12/holiday-speech-therapy-activities/

Planning themed holiday speech therapy activities are perfect for the month of December!

11/11/2021

🇨🇦 Remembrance Day 2021

Honouring the fallen heroes who sacrificed their lives to fight for our freedom, we are forever grateful.

🇨🇦 SLP Remembrance Day Activities: Vocabulary & Writing Task

What do soldiers do?

Unless your child has a close family member who is in the service, they might not know a lot about soldiers and what they do. For this activity, find a colouring sheet of a soldier (try searching “soldier colouring sheet” on Google Image Search) and have your child colour it in. While they are colouring, ask if they know what a soldier is. Ask what a soldier does. Find out first what they know. If they come up with some good things that soldiers do, you can write that on their colouring sheet. If not, try sharing some things with them and write them down. For older children, skip the colouring page and go straight to writing a paragraph about soldiers. Make sure the paragraph starts with an opening statement (something general about soldiers), includes 3-5 details about soldiers, and ends with a closing statement that wraps it all up. Here are some things that you can share with your child about what soldiers do:

- Save people from disasters like floods and hurricanes
- Fight bad guys when they try to hurt us (or “fights enemies to defend our country” for older children)
- Protect people in other countries who are being bullied
- Bring people food and help in countries that don’t have enough supplies

11/01/2021

Today we are shifting gears and will provide you with some exercises for Apraxia of Speech after a TBI. 🧠🧩

Many of our clients who are TBI survivors struggle with this language disorder every day.

People with apraxia have a difficult time pronouncing and sequencing words. The problem lies in miscommunication between the brain and facial muscles, making it difficult to coordinate movement.

To treat apraxia, Speech therapists often use articulation exercises that can range from easy to challenging, depending on the severity of the apraxia. The goal of these exercises is to retrain your brain to coordinate muscle movement correctly.

👄 Lip Articulation Exercises:

Look into a mirror so you can see how your lips move. Now say “ooo” while forming your lips into an O shape. Then say “eee” while forming your lips into a smile. Finally, combine the two and say “ooo-eee.” Repeat 10 times.

👅 Tongue Articulation Exercises:

Say “lalalala” without moving your jaw. Only move the tip of your tongue. Rest and repeat 10 times.

Place the tip of your tongue right behind your upper front teeth. Hold it there as long as you can. Slowly work up to three minutes.

🧩 Coordination Exercises:

Say “buttercup” 5 times in a row, then say “rocket ship” 5 times. These words work your lips, the tip of your tongue, and the back of your tongue.

Say “puh tuh kuh” three times. Start slow then gradually increase your speed.

10/18/2021

🍁 Fall Speech Therapy Activity # 2 coming your way....

The following activity focuses on a receptive language skills important for every day tasks!

Following Directions: Preschool to Early Elementary
Following directions is a crucial language skill needed for academic and social success. However, this skill requires a person to know vocabulary, have good working memory skills, and have adequate attention.

Below are practice ideas for following directions while making a tree.

⭐️ Sequential: This direction is multi-step and something has to be done first, second, etc..

- First, find a red leaf and then a yellow leaf
- First, glue on the green leaf. Second, glue on the red leaf
- Cut out a leaf and then hand it to me

⭐️ Before/After: This is a temporal direction. Your child has to do something before or after he/she does something else. This is TRICKY!

- Before you glue on a red leaf, give me a green leaf
- After you cut out a yellow leaf, cut out a green one
- Glue on a leaf before you cut out another one

⭐️ Spatial: Give a direction with a spatial aspect (under, over, above).

- Glue the leaf on the bottom of the page
- Glue a leaf on top of the tree
- Put a yellow leaf under the green leaf

⭐️ Basic: Basic means one-step, simple directions. If your child is having trouble, start here!

- Cut out one leaf
- Give me the glue please
- Glue one leaf on the page

10/13/2021

Today is National Train Your Brain Day! 🧠

National Train Your Brain Day is observed annually on October 13.
This day was created to encourage everyone to expand and “exercise” their brain and use more of it’s potential capacity.

⭐️ There are many different ways to “exercise” your mind and improve your cognitive skills such as reading, word puzzles, number games, brain teasers, trivia games, riddles and word games. Learning something new is another “exercise” that is a benefit to everyone’s brain on National Train Your Brain Day (as well as any other day).

10/06/2021

A trip to the pumpkin patch is a perfect way start to the Fall season 🎃🍎 ... and to improve your child's vocabulary along the way!

There are so many new words and sounds for your child to explore around the pumpkin patch!

⭐️ As Halloween nears, many families and preschools will go on outings to the pumpkin patch! For some children, this will be a new experience. Talking about the trip ahead of time or reading a book about the pumpkin patch can help children become familiar with the language and vocabulary surrounding this event. There are many children’s books that pertain to Halloween such as “Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin” by Tad Hills.
🍎 There are many words that teach early vocabulary concepts that caregivers and educators can model for young children while visiting the pumpkin patch. These include “big” and “little” (“Oh look! You picked a little pumpkin!”). Your child can also practice making choices (“Do you want the big pumpkin or the little pumpkin?). If your child is not talking yet, make sure to pair the words with gestures by using your hands to show big and little. Your child can then have the option to give an answer using gestures if they are not yet ready to use words.

🎃 Other great vocabulary words that can be modeled include orange (The pumpkin is orange! Do you like orange? What is your favorite color?), help (That pumpkin is heavy! Do you need help picking it up?), all done (You look tired. Are you all done?).

🍁 As you walk throughout the pumpkin patch you will encounter many other fall and Halloween related vocabulary. You can have your child point to items that they see (e.g. I see a skeleton? Do you see it too? Show me!) If your child is already talking then try a vocabulary guessing game! (e.g. I see something tall with leaves. Do you know what it is? Yes, it’s a tree!).
https://www.telipa.org/parents/child-learning-activities/language-speech-activities/pumpkin-patch-speech-therapy/

Learn this early intervention speech therapy tip on how A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch can improve your child’s vocabulary! teli can help 412-922-8322

10/05/2021

Today we are celebrating ! This day is observed to recognize the rights and responsibilities of teachers and to focus on appreciating, accessing and improving the educators of the world 🌎. SLP and classroom teacher collaboration is key to your child's development. When SLPs and students work together, great things can happen. And when classroom teachers become part of this equation, the greatness only multiplies.

Today we come to you with ideas on how you can help educate your child about the importance of this day!

⭐️ The following is a critical thinking activity geared towards children grades 3-5:

👩‍🏫 Explain that today is World Teachers’ Day. Ask your child why they think that this day was created and is celebrated all over the world.

Print the word “Teacher” in the centre of a piece of chart paper. Brainstorm with your child all the words and images that come to mind when they think of teachers.

Remind your child that teachers have decided to go to school for many years to learn how to teach kids important things that will help them to be the best they can be. They work very hard to keep students safe, appreciated, and excited about learning.

Display the following open-ended statement on a chart or whiteboard and ask your child to think about how they would complete the sentence: “The thing I like most about teachers is…” Share answers.

Close by suggesting that when they see teachers in the halls today, they stop and say “thank you for being a teacher!”



For more information on World Teacher's Day please refer to this link:https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/wtd-2021-concept-note-en.pdf

10/05/2021

I don't know about you, but Fall is one of my favourite seasons! 🍃 🍁 🍎 🎃 Not only for the beautiful colours of the leaves, but also the delicious apple and pumpkin spice everything!

The Fall season is the perfect opportunity to engage your children in fun and exciting speech and language activities. Here is our first fun fall themed activity. We will continue to post ideas for you and your family through out this wonderful season. Make sure to check back tomorrow to see some more awesome ideas!

⭐️ Falling Leaves Pretend Play ⭐️ – Use the fake leaves from the Dollar store or go for a walk to the park and collect some real ones. Grab a basket or a plastic bag and a plastic rake and have your child rake up the leaves. Work on the noun function and describing a rake and leaves by attributes. Then, you can work on basic concepts IN/OUT as your child puts the leaves in the basket or plastic bag. After your child practices raking up the leaves, you can have them sequence the steps for raking leaves using a FIRST, NEXT, LAST sequence. First, you get your basket and rake. Next, you rake up the leaves into a pile. Last, you pick up the leaves and put them in the basket.

ENJOY 🍂