Nurture the Bond (2025)

04/11/2024

Show us your Shelfies: Election Edition 🗳️🗳️🗳️

Any one else’s anxiety ratcheting up this week? Cause, same. Where are all the spooky faces on oranges and string cheese to distract us? 👻

Want to know what calms my anxiety, like the true SLP (read: Type A daughter) that I am? BOOKS. 📚 Reading to my girls. Hoping that enough parents are reading to their children this week, and all the other weeks, about the importance of diversity, love, women’s rights, caring for our earth, kindness, and HOPE.

So run, don’t walk, to your nearest library or local bookstore to check some of our favs out. See any of your favs on the shelf? Any we NEED to add? 🤔

And don’t forget to tag us to

08/07/2024

Happy Birthday to this lil cookie and our amazing co-creator of all that is NTB!! Leah is someone that brings heart and compassion to all that she does, especially her work supporting little ones and their families. She isn’t afraid to get into the nitty gritty, messiness of life. She is there to celebrate the highs with you and feel all the feels in the lows with you (all with a matcha in hand of course). She is a strong support for so many and we count ourselves lucky that we get to be part of her goodness. Happy birthday Leah, we love you!!

19/05/2024

CALLING ALL PARENTS!

You are doing the most important, difficult, rewarding, all-consuming job possible. And that's on a good day!

And that's assuming that your littles are developing, growing, learning, eating, and sleeping typically (just kidding, that's a figment of our imagination. That child doesn't actually exist! There's ALWAYS something going on that we are wondering/worried about.)

Here's the great news: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Have concerns about your child's development? Do not hesitate to reach out. Unsure how to connect with your baby? Let us be your village.

Comment "NURTURE" to find the best place to get started. Or send us a DM with whatever's weighing heavy on your mind.

06/05/2024

🍎📚🍏 Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! 🍎📚🍏

To all the teachers who show up every day for our children, thank you. To the teachers who lead by example, give so much of themselves to their students, show patience and kindness, work to learn language-enhancing and positive-behavior strategies, thank you. You make such a difference in this world, and it is such a joy that we get to partner with you.

👩🏻‍🏫👨‍🏫🧑‍🏫 TEACHERS: What theme is your school doing to show you love? Anyone else doing 90’s?! 💖

06/05/2024

Mother’s Day is a few days away! And this book is one for ‘the books’. It beautifully depicts a toddler testing boundaries with her mama (half-joking, half-serious) on what she could do to make her mom stop loving her.

Isn’t this the question that we want to ask EVERYONE we’re in relationship with? What can I do to disappoint you so much that you won’t love me anymore? What can I do that will make us not friends? How can I toe the line and know EXACTLY where I stand?

And this mom. What a dreamboat. She volleys those passes right back to her toddler. Not ruffling her feathers one bit. She uses clear emotion words, does not threaten or get upset, but just clearly hands it back to her daughter. There’s nothing you can do that would make me not love you. I will feel all of these different emotions, but I will always love you.

Gah. I love everything about it. ❤️

Use this book to practice emotion words with your little while adding gesture or facial expression to go with it! These are great early words for your littles to practice to help them feel in control of those big emotions that threaten to take over their body.

This book makes me tear up every time I read it. What are those teary-eyed books for you?!

04/05/2024

Thank you for these words.

We are their eyes and ears as they're learning. We are their window into the world, shaping their thoughts and outlook.

And THEY.ARE.OBSERVANT.

Let's nurture the bond, increase the connection, and grow a better future together.

29/04/2024

Oh , how we love thee!

Her new book, Ready to Soar, is such a beautiful one with the reminder to be true to yourself, and rely on people who love and accept you just.as.you.are. 💖💖

And, as always, it is so beautifully written and illustrated that it’s perfect for targeting early language learners.

This one has big exclamatory words throughout the book that are perfect for getting our little ones to attempt to imitate. After you say the word, pause! Pair the word with a gesture for greater success. See if your little makes an attempt.

And just like Riley’s paper airplane, watch them soar! ✈️

25/04/2024

Teachers, we’ve got a little secret for you 🤫

The key to your classroom running smoothly (aside from no one hitting, biting, or otherwise having a meltdown 🤪 —we can dream right?!) is ROUTINE.

If your class knows what to do to line up, that’s a routine. If they know exactly where to go to wash their hands, routine. And if they know what to do to get ready for snack? Boom.💥 Routine.

These routines will be the key to boosting language opportunities in the classroom. Routines = smoother classrooms = more learning opportunities = happier kids = fewer parent emails to respond to 😜📧

Want more information on how to get these routines going in your classroom?
Comment “NURTURE” and we’ll get your started.
OR, better yet, bring us in to do an in-service. We’d love to connect with your school.

11/04/2024

We are have been working with an AWESOME group of teachers lately, doing an in-service presentation/discussion and weekly coaching sessions in the classroom, and we.are.loving.it.

One of the biggest questions that has come up with our teachers is what to do when a kiddo is upset and you want to know what happened. "I typically say 'use your words and tell me what happened/why you're upset'".

This is so common!! While there's nothing inherently wrong with this..."there's got to be a better way!" a la Joey in Friends.

And there is!
-try to focus on the emotion in the moment and how that specific child best regulates their nervous system (hugs, distraction, singing, quiet solo space)
-model checking in with the child(ren) that are feeling sad/mad (e.g., I see you are sad, would you like a hug?).
-You might even say to the children around you "I see your friend is sad, are you okay Sammy?" [You are modeling this without expectation, to help build empathy for the other kids in the classroom]
-kids may not yet be able to use their words to tell us what happened (even if they can when they are calm and not upset), and that's okay. Once the kids are supported through their emotion, they are often able to move on to the next part of their day

02/04/2024

If you are someone that wants to help your little one use more gestures and first words but doesn’t know where to start, interactive picture books are for you.

These books give a road map of exactly what to do (hallelujah for 0.001% of your life having an instruction manual). The trick is to make sure that you are modeling the gesture while you are reading. It can be tempting to read the words on the page and then wait for your child to do what the book says, but don’t fall into that trap!

You are teaching not testing, and that means you are getting into the book and showing your sweet little cherub (that you wrangled in and out of the bath before bedtime with 5,000 reminders and deep breaths) exactly how to playfully follow along and enjoy the book.

The book says “swipe the sky”, you are right there swiping like there’s no tomorrow (and adding in some play sounds while you do it). The book says “knock on the tree trunk”, you knock like you’ve never knocked before. You get the picture.

As adults we often take the role as director and tell our kids what to do, which is needed so much of the time, but when it comes to language development, it serves you much better to join in your child’s play to help teach by doing and showing instead of telling.

Also, if you are wondering why we are focused on teaching your kids gestures, here are a few reasons why:
-Gestures are a precursor to verbal language (gesture use of a 1 year old can predict vocabulary at age 2 Bavin, E. L., Prior, M., Reilly, S., Bretherton, L., Williams, J., Eadie, P., ... & Ukoumunne, O. C. (2008). The early language in Victoria study: Predicting vocabulary at age one and two years from gesture and object use. Journal of Child Language.)
-gesturing is a way to show communicative intent before a child is able to verbally communicate
-Gestures help build to first words

Let us know how it goes friends!

26/03/2024

I have to give this book report a shout out to the littlest love in my life, my almost (in less than 2 weeks, sniff sniff) 2 year old son who is all of a sudden OBSESSED with this book. It’s known as the “dafuh book” in our house, and I have currently read it only 42,607 times and counting.

This book is set up perfectly for modeling different action words for your child. Each page has an action that is joyful and all you have to do is say the action word or put it in a simple sentence: They are ____ing, or He is ____ing. No need to even read the words on the page.

More importantly, if you are wanting to help your child learn more action words, you can do this with MANY different books on your bookshelf. All you have to do is flip to the pages of the book that have clear pictures of a character performing an action, say the word in a playful way, and voila! you’re modeling action words for your toddler and helping them to put phrases together.

We know that late talkers are more likely to have fewer verbs in their vocabulary and verbs are crucial to getting our kids to go from single words to combining words (go car, mama help, drink milk) so let’s get this verb train going, choo choo!
Comment bookrecs for our SLP approved book list!

12/03/2024

"Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere, clean up, clean up, everybody do our share"

What's your favorite clean up routine/song to use? And what new verb can you add to it?

We've really been liking "slam dunking" toys back into the toy basket. Not only does it add novelty, but it adds a motor component AND fun new language to learn.

Nurture the Bond

04/11/2024

08/07/2024

19/05/2024

06/05/2024

06/05/2024

04/05/2024

29/04/2024

25/04/2024

11/04/2024

02/04/2024

26/03/2024

12/03/2024

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