Grove Speech Therapy

19/10/2022

Is this all you do all day, play? This is a question I’ve been asked more times than I can count!😅😊

Think about it, as a parent have you ever thought to yourself, oh lord I’m turning into my mother/father! If the answer is yes it is because, that is how we learn! We learn by seeing what others are doing & imitating their actions! This starts early, through play.

Developing a child’s ability to partake in lots of play is so important as it builds lots of areas of development for them.. it builds their:
- Attention & listening skills 👂
- Turn taking abilities 👦👧
- Language & communication skills💭
- Social & emotional development 👷🏼‍♂️👨🏼‍🍳👩🏼‍🌾👨🏻‍⚕️
- Problem solving skills🆘
- Motor skills 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️
Through play children learn about the world & also about themselves

All of these skills developed through play, support children for learning in later life! This is why play is one of the foundations of language development. Children’s physical, emotional, cognitive & social development depends on play.

There are many different types of play - to name a few:
- Exploratory play: when children explore to see what happens when you manipulate materials eg when a baby moves from mouthing blocks to stacking them
- Functional play: playing with a toy in the way that was intended
- Symbolic play: when children use an object, action or idea to represent something eg using a box to symbolise a racing car
- Pretend play: make believe play where children are seen acting out ideas & using objects to carry out roles

Cognitive play helps to build intellectual ability including concepts, concentration, creativity, thinking skills, knowledge, language, communication, problem solving, listening & memory skills
- Emotional play supports the development & understanding of emotions & feelings
- Social play: supports the development of social norms, social language skills, empathy, sympathy, rules & participation.

The importance of play is endless, so bring out that inner child again & get playing with those little ones 🤗

18/10/2022

Communication develops in a very specific pattern. Think of it as a pyramid, you need each level to be solid, developed and stable or you will never get to the top.

Communication development starts from the bottom up.

I provided a lengthy post at the start of the month discussing how to develop the bottom tier of this pyramid, preverbal/early communication skills.

I will be providing more tips and tricks over the coming weeks on how to support & develop all of these other aspects of communication development with your little ones so stay tuned 🤗



*floor time concept*

17/10/2022

How do you develop overall attention skills - well here is a few hints and tips on everyday fun activities you could use with your child to develop their overall attention skills.

Finding activities that are of interest to your child is important! Start off small, it may be keeping your child’s overall attention for a number of minutes, find a baseline & work on this e.g. if your child is attending for 2 minutes, work towards maintaining attention for 3 minutes, or if your child will attend for the stacking of 3 cups, work towards attention maintenance for 4 stacking cups & keep working from there.

When you know a baseline, it makes it easier to develop attention from there! Be consistent - you could use a timer for the extra minute & advise your child once it beeps the time is up.

16/10/2022

*GAMES*

Many toys we will just have lying around the house. When targeting speech and language skills parents don’t need to pay a fortune for new items that we can use to target specific areas to develop. The thing us SLTs try to do is recommend using things we/you probably already have lying around the house! Communication is everywhere, it’s knowing how to use what we have to target what we want to develop is the important thing! Here are some ways you can use toy vehicles to encourage speech and language development with your little ones🤗

03/10/2022

Specific speech sounds come at different stages

I’ve had a number of queries from families regarding age of acquisition of specific sounds.

Here is a guideline of specific speech sounds you would expect a child to have at certain ages. This is specific to the ability for children to say specific sounds in isolation

If your child can produce specific speech sounds but has some difficulties in production at word, phrase or sentence level this may be appropriate for their age, but other times it is not! Any questions or queries or concerns regarding speech sound production be sure to reach out to us to discuss further & I can advise whether this is typical for the child’s age or if further specific speech sounds intervention may be necessary to support the development of the speech sound system 😊

02/10/2022

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗰𝗵 & 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 “𝗽𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀” - 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀?

Children require certain skills to acquire language & bring on word development. As shown below each of these skills are paramount prior to a child speaking - want to know why then keep reading:
Preverbal communication skills are important because they are how a baby/little one in your life communicates with you before they can use real words. These are necessary as they teach a child the intention behind communication.

Here are some essential skills your baby requires when developing their overall communication skills -
1️⃣ 𝗚𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀: pointing, waving, raising arms for going up, shaking their heads for no - gestures is giving a message without a verbal response
2️⃣ 𝗜𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: copying a sound, action, movement or expression you as the parent make e.g. parent stating “woof” when you see a dog
3️⃣. 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: being able to take a turn with others through either initiating or responding e.g. child places one block, parent places the 2nd etc.
4️⃣ 𝗜𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: smiling, cooing, babbling, using gestures, calling the person etc.
5️⃣ 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: shared focus on an action or object eg when you and your child are both focused on the same thing & interacting about it this is called joint attention
6️⃣ 𝗘𝘆𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁: using eye contact to get your attention and to communicate a message
7️⃣ 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: ensuring the child is regulated (from a sensory perspective) to support attention maintenance to develop their speech and language skills

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀:

🤍 Face to face - get down to your child’s level, get face to face with them & copy! Copy sounds they make, actions they complete, things they do! Then WAIT! Waiting is an important skill for speech and language development! Always think of giving your child 10 seconds to respond before you say something again!
🤍When your child makes a vocalisation - respond! When they make a gesture or an expression - respond! The more you respond, the more they learn!
🤍Sing songs or rhymes that use sounds, repetitions, gestures and silly sounds
🤍Play people games eg peek a boo, horsey horsey, hide & seek
🤍Use anticipation games eg bubble play & add language to it “pop”, “more”, “again” - wait to see what your child will do to convey the message to you - remember there are so many ways to communicate other than words (as shown on this post - see does your child give you eye contact, a social smile, a gesture or some attention)
🤍 Read books & look at pictures - observe what your child is looking at and point to it, name it, make the sound it makes eg cow moo
🤍An important one - when children aren’t talking we have a tendency to ask many many questions! Instead of testing their knowledge think of one hand 5 fingers rule✋ give them 4 pieces of information about something prior to asking 1 question - it’s better to build their knowledge than constantly question it!
🤍Remember: repeat, repeat, repeat!

21/09/2022

*GAMES*

Another classic that you will see in so many clinic rooms you go into - car ramp racers! Here are some of the benefits of using a car ramp racer with your little ones🤗

12/09/2022

*GAMES*

There are so many ways to incorporate speech and language development into everyday games you play with your little ones!

I am going to go through the benefits of some of the everyday toys we all have lying around & how we can use them to support the development of speech & language skills in our little ones🤩

Starting off with one of the classics that you will see in almost any clinic room you go into - pop up pirate! Here are some of the benefits of using pop up pirate with your little ones🤗

09/09/2022

Hello all,

Thank you all for your continued patience & again thank you for all of the inquiries received thus far.

I am finally delighted to advise my website is up and running - please click on the below link to access it & find out more information about the service. You will see an area on the website that you can contact me with any concerns you do have.

The mobile number will be up and running in the coming days also. As always, any questions please just shout! Kate 😊

Grove Speech & Language Therapy private practice based in Co. Meath.