Kitsap Children's Speech Therapy

26/06/2023

21/11/2022

Bear, Monkey and their forest friends are enjoying Thanksgiving dinner. Our thankful tree is covered with our grateful thoughts. We wish all of you a holiday of gratitude and feasting!

26/10/2022

Literacy is everywhere, not just in the classroom and certainly not just in books! We want to challenge you to read different media this week with your kids. You can read magazines, shopping lists, signs in the mall, letters, or greeting cards! 💌 📬 🗞

22/10/2022

At KCST we believe communication skills are best learned in relationships. We put a high priority on developing trust and shared joy with our young clients, and we love seeing their speech and language skills develop as we build those relationships from week to week. 💚

20/10/2022

Working on categories? Here’s a fun and easy activity that you can do with the items in your house today!

Get a group of three items that belong in the same category. For example:
🥄🍴a spoon, knife, and fork,
🦁🐯🐻 or a lion, tiger, and bear,
🧱or three legos.

Then add an item that doesn’t belong to the category. For example, a piece of fruit 🍓, a ball ⚽️, or tub of play-dough. Ask your child to find the one that doesn’t belong with others. Then ask, WHY? This activity builds category concepts and critical thinking skills.

18/10/2022

Woohoo!! Your victories are our victories! Nothing makes us happier than your kiddo achieving his goals. 🎉

17/10/2022

We are so proud of our staff's longevity at KCST! Between Sara, Deb, Linda, Katie, and Caitlyn, we have a combined total of more than FIFTY years serving children and families at our sweet little clinic! 🎉 💙

12/10/2022

Did you know that literacy starts way before a child actually learns to read? Here are 4 ways you can build early literacy skills, and help your child fall in love with books!
📖 Let your child turn the pages (this can start as early as they are able to reach out and grasp items!)
🗣 Let your child fill in the parts of the book he or she knows by heart! Does your child have a favorite book that he wants you to read over and over and over? As you are reading along, stop and ask them to fill in the blank!
📚 Let your child “read” the book to you! They will use the pictures and their memory to retell the story.
🧺 Let your child have easy access to books! Keep books in several different areas of the house, and on a low shelf or basket on the floor, so they can “help themselves” to books frequently.

10/10/2022

Today is World Mental Health Day, and we firmly believe that Mental Health is as important as physical health. 💚

And since we are speech therapists, we want to discuss teaching your children language around mental health. This looks like labeling their emotions, “I understand you’re feeling really frustrated right now”, and “You’re sad that we had to leave the park”.

It also looks like validating their feelings and giving them space to talk about their emotions openly. We do this by kneeling down and getting on their level.

Finally, kids learn by example. It’s important they see the adults in their life prioritizing and talking about their mental health! So check in with your kids today, and ask how they are feeling! 💚 🫂

09/10/2022

We often teach our families to WAIT. Waiting can be difficult. We often feel the need to fill the empty space with more words. But this can actually make it harder for your child to communicate! Young talkers need extra time to

1️⃣ comprehend the information you gave them

and

2️⃣ formulate the words they need to provide a response.

So next time you ask a question or request information from your child, just wait! ⏱

07/10/2022

Speech therapy doesn’t just happen at the table. As the leaves start to fall and the colors start to change, go outside for a walk and talk about what you see, feel, and hear.

🍁 What colors do you see?
🐿 What animals do you see? I spy a brown squirrel!
🍂 The leaves are crunchy! Crunch, crunch, crunch!
🪨This rock feels cold!
💦 Look at you splashing through the puddles! Splish splash splish splash.

Remember don’t just ask questions - but model language! ❤

28/09/2022

Boats, cars, doll houses, and even cardboard boxes 📦 are a great way to work on location concepts with your kids. All you need is a few favorite figurines to place ‘in’, ‘on’, or ‘next to’ the vehicle!

First, by asking your child a question:
⛵️“Who is IN the boat?”
🚌 “Who is UNDER the bus?”
✈️ And “who is ON TOP of the plane?”

Or, you can give a direction:
🦒“Put the giraffe IN the boat”
🐍 “Oh, the snake goes UNDER the bus.”
🕸“Let’s put Spider-Man ON TOP of the plane!”