Spoken Harmony Therapy

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Did you know your infant learning multiple languages at the same time will NOT slow down their ability to learn words!! ...
11/27/2023

Did you know your infant learning multiple languages at the same time will NOT slow down their ability to learn words!! Woo hoo!!

In a study of 174 children, exposure to a second language was found to NOT be associated with an adverse impact on the communication and cognitive skills. NOTE, this study included both typically developing children and those diagnosed with Autism.

Another study found that in 4th to 6th graders in Canada (with diverse backgrounds) that children who were bilingual in early childhood were did much different from monolingual children when in came to sentence recall tasks. Interestingly though, the bilingual children recalled more content words than the small grammatical words also known as function words, whereas the monolingual children did not show this difference.

TLDR?
Please continue to use whatever languages you feel comfortable using at home with your children! Consistent language exposure is key, not how many languages. They will not be "confused" learning more than one language at the same time.

References:

Iarocci, G., Hutchison, S.M. & O’Toole, G.J. (2017). Second language exposure, functional communication, and executive function in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Advance online publication. https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3103-7

Friesen, D. C., Ward, O., & Archibald, L. M. D. (2022). Sentence repetition performance differences in bilingual and monolingual children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00596 [available to ASHA members]

Have you ever noticed how often you are asking questions to start or keep a conversation going? With another adult, some...
11/20/2023

Have you ever noticed how often you are asking questions to start or keep a conversation going?

With another adult, sometimes it can feel like you are conducting or going through a job interview instead of just catching up with a friend! The art of small talk is really difficult these days as we get more engrossed in social media and technology as a generation rather than actual people. It's getting harder and harder to model good social communication skills (let alone teach them ...) The next generation is going to have an even harder time if we don't make adjustments.

Now, with early language development, children are still processing what is being said around them, trying to understand what's going on and still learning how to coordinate their lips and lungs and tongue to make words let alone respond on topic upon request! Add on the pressure that they are constantly being "interviewed" or questioned... How do you think that's gonna impact their developing language skills??

Try this out. - see if you can change that question You had for your little one and make it a statement! The more you do it, the more you might notice you're getting comments unprompted from your little one! Or the more you try, the more you realize how hard it is to not ask a question when talking with another person for one minute! BONUS POINTS if you make your statements and NOT ADD that rising question intonation at the end...you know what I mean...or you know what I mean?

TLDR

Children, like adults! Don't like being interviewed or questioned or TESTED all the time. Switch up your question into your comments to support your child's ability to respond back to you!

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Did you know, that most cognitive/language assessments that look at children's development will have a focus on play ski...
11/16/2023

Did you know, that most cognitive/language assessments that look at children's development will have a focus on play skills? Do a quick search on the WISC!

Before words come, children are playing with their bodies and playing with objects all around them! They are exploring their environment through play and figuring out what they can do, and what everything around them does! Play and language are INTRICATELY linked in the early years. because of this. You cannot separate cognitive development from play, and therefore language development, before the age of 3 or 4.

Some key cognitive milestones children learn from playing, that will definitely tie into language development as well include:

Object Permanence,
Cause & Effect
Simple Problem Solving

TLDR?
Let your scientist explore all around them with the necessary tools and instruments you have, TOYS! Playing will support cognitive development and therefore language development. You might be thinking of things like balls, bubbles, string?! Toddlers can make toys out of anything though. My son decided the whisk was the best toy this morning and decided that it indeed made the best banging sound against the cupboards and he cannot stick the whisk through every hole he found.

11/13/2023

Here is a brief glance at what you can expect of a 3 year old.

This is NOT an exhaustive list. Learning multiple languages will NOT stop or DELAY your child learning how to speak! These are skills are expected with a child by 3 years of age to any language they have consistently learned since birth.

For more information regarding bilingual speakers or what language milestones you can expect of your child, please ask us down below in the comments or send us a message.

#3@aglance

A language delay means the communication milestone we are expecting of a child at a certain age, is just not YET achiev...
11/03/2023

A language delay means the communication milestone we are expecting of a child at a certain age, is just not YET achieved. Many toddlers that are late-talkers do catch up to their same-aged peers in preschool to kindergarten years. HOWEVER, there are kiddos that continue to be behind! There are kiddos who aren't just behind, but maybe the way they are picking up language is different, perhaps neurotypical? A great resource to tell the difference would be an SLP or another early intervention worker. Your pediatrician/family doctor! And guess what... perhaps your childcare operator or child's teacher! And of course, trust your gut!

Many families don't notice this unless they have experience with other children and compare/contrast easily.

You may have heard of a family or BE that family that one child reached all their milestones on time, and in comparison, the other sibling seemed months behind. Perhaps in your group of friends, you're noticing a difference in skills as well? It's a tricky business to tell parents *cough cough * not to compare their kids with others, or else it will drive you crazy! It's true... but! Listen to your gut, if you think there is a problem, reach out to a qualified professional. Pediatrician, SLP, etc!

If your child show signs of consistently being behind on their language milestones such as first words, number of words they consistently use, and when they are starting to combine words, early intervention is key. Families can implement strategies immediately to help their child's language skills flourish!

There's no risks in implementing play or routine based communication strategies in your daily routine, today!

Confused about what qualifies as a delay in milestones vs what the "average" child is expected to be doing at their age? Tune in for a next post :)

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Here's what you need to know about your toddler - it's there "job" to play! They're working hard by playing, because eve...
10/30/2023

Here's what you need to know about your toddler - it's there "job" to play! They're working hard by playing, because every play opportunity is a time to learn :)
Children build connections to new concepts faster and stronger when they play versus if you tell them or just drill into them. Take a step back and think about how to teach through play.

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Working with pre-school aged kiddos, I hear a lot of parents ask the teachers (to ask the SLPs!), when will they start t...
10/27/2023

Working with pre-school aged kiddos, I hear a lot of parents ask the teachers (to ask the SLPs!), when will they start talking or using words??

Well, late-talkers or children with language delays who are not speaking yet may be missing some early skills that build the foundation for using verbal words. We call these pre-linguistic or pre-language skills. We might even look at these skills if we find a child that isn't making progress as expected when implementing language strategies we may be using with a child with some, but not a lot of consistent words in they are able to express on a day to to day basis.

These skills can be divided up further into the following categories:

Social skills - is your child consistently

to people: Remember, it takes at least two people to communicate. Sometimes it's okay that they don't always respond back, but think about consistency. Kids that don’t respond, it’s a one-sided interaction.

- I don't mean this like sharing or taking turns when playing a board game! Communication is back and forth, that's turn taking! Look to see if there's an extended back and forth with your child and their social partner. We're looking for multiple exchanges. This is an early skill you can see even at 4 months when your baby smiles at you when you're talking with them!

interactions - developing communication skills isn't like bumble, you both have to initiate once in awhile! For babies/toddlers/etc, that means they are intentionally working to get your attention! Often that may be crying/yelling, hopefully that turns into a "hey!" or "mom" but we're talking about early communication. Does your child start an interaction by making sounds? Grabbing you? Look closely.

I am almost at my word limit! So please tune in for more!

TLDR? - check out out last 5th image for a table of prelinguistic skills we expect children to master before they are consistently using words/signs to communicate!

Please comment below if you learned anything new!

Here's what you need to know about Sue-Len Chow, R.SLP, of Spoken Harmony:⁠⁠Sue-Len is a registered speech language path...
10/25/2023

Here's what you need to know about Sue-Len Chow, R.SLP, of Spoken Harmony:⁠
⁠
Sue-Len is a registered speech language pathologist working in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She...
⁠
😁Specializes working with children, and has experience working in acute care with adults
🕰 Has 10+ years of experience working with children on the Autism spectrum and other developmental disabilities
👅 Has a special interest in oral motor skills development, myofunctional therapy, as well as feeding therapy, hoping to work her way to infant feeding
🤷‍♀️Will wash dishes over cooking any day of the week
👩‍👦‍👦 She has two babies, one fur and one regular, (check our their adventures together .mai.stickyrice
⁠🏐🏒🥏She doesn't love running, but loves sports that involve it

COMMENT below to tell me about your interests!

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📸 Flores Photography

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.
10/23/2023

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.

Book a free 15 minute phone consult, today!
10/20/2023

Book a free 15 minute phone consult, today!

There's a strong belief that doing work sheets or flash cards are some of the best ways to learn a new skill. For childr...
10/20/2023

There's a strong belief that doing work sheets or flash cards are some of the best ways to learn a new skill. For children, especially the early developing mind, that cannot be more WRONG! Time and time again, the research shows that play-based intervention is one of the best ways for kids to learn LANGUAGE! A meta-analysis of children 2 to 5 years old with disabilities by Barton et al., (2020) stated that "play is a critical interventional goal and should be intentionally taught using evidence-based practices," (pg 15). This study concluded that adults modeling play skills and language with these children with disabilities was effective for improving language skills.

TLDR?

PLAY is a necessary part of (language) learning/development in young children! Play-based intervention is an effective and research based treatment!

Do you know how to play with your baby/toddler/growing child???

Please like/follow, and even book an initial consult if you want more information on how to help your child develop their speech and language skills!

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Calgary, AB
T2N4H1

Telephone

+14039129218

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