Speech Therapy Fun

30/01/2021

❤When you have a neurotypical child, you feel reasonably assured that class participation and decent study habits will result in good grades. These kids have close friends. They get invited to participate in social things like dances and weekend gatherings. They make the teams, auditioned organisations and clubs.

💙But when you have a child with certain differences, this is often not the case. Learning may take longer, both academically and socially. Despite their tremendous efforts, results are often a fraction of their peers and social acceptance is fleeting, setting them up for painful comparisons and bitter frustration. Instead of a fun and fulfilling experience, school can become a breeding ground for depression and anxiety, and assignments a battle ground at home. It is exhausting for parent and child alike.

💚This is the week of SPED (Special Education), Autism, Dyslexia, and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) awareness.

💛For all the children who struggle every day to succeed in a world that does not recognize their gifts and talents, and for those who are walking beside them, please let this be a gentle reminder to be kind and accepting of ALL people.

💜Recognize that the "playing field" is not always a level surface.

🧡Children who learn differently are not weird. They are merely gifted in ways that our society does not value enough. Yet they want what everyone else wants: To be accepted!!

If you choose, please copy and paste this in honor of all children who are deemed "different". Our world would be far less beautiful without them.

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍

29/03/2020

We are so excited to announce to all our existing clients that we will start with teletherapy sessions tomorrow.

Wondering how it's even possible to receive speech therapy when you are not in the same room as your therapist? Check out the video below for an example of such a session.

Throughout the video, we will show you examples of how to utilize speech therapy activities using Google Meet. Disclaimer: This is a simulation of teletherap...

17/03/2020

04/02/2020

Early intervention is so important.

When well meaning people make comments that can be harmful to others.... I get it, their heart is in the right place. But we need to address these myths head on because SEEK AN ASSESSMENT/INTERVENTION is the new “wait and see”! So if someone says one of these things to you, please know that they are NOT language development experts- and yes that includes pediatricians. If you are concerned- go ahead and schedule an evaluation to see if your child can benefit from intervention!

Early interventionist, what would you add?

26/09/2019

I have gotten A LOT of comments and questions following my early intervention post saying that 50 words is average for an 18 month child- so I thought I’d share some thoughts.

1️⃣ 50 is the AVERAGE- which means lots of kids will have more and lots of kids will have less. However, if your child is well below this average, that’s when I think an evaluation is needed. For me, I would be concerned with less than 15 words at that age. Now, there are a LOT of things to consider- more than a simple number of words- when deciding if a child needs intervention or not, so me saying “I think you should get an evaluation” is NOT the same as “I think your child needs speech therapy”. But an evaluation can give you a TON of information about what your child’s strengths and weaknesses are as well as what you can do at home to help (or what you should monitor and re-refer if milestones are not met). The number 50 comes from the Owens 1996 study on language development.

2️⃣ Parents usually are often unsure of what all words their child is actually using on a regular basis, so be sure to make a list over several days. Also, it’s important to note that words do not have to be said clearly to count- it’s very common for kids at this age to leave off the ends of words or substitute sounds- we are not worried about the clarity at this age. I do usually say that words that are VERY different sounds (like “ap” for “cat”) need to be consistently produced this way in order to count. (And many SLPs have different opinions on this, just FYI!). And YES animal sounds count as words and yes words said in different languages each count as a word.

3️⃣ The child needs to spontaneously say the word on their own. So repeating a word will not count towards their total number.

Hopefully this clears up some confusion!

10/08/2019

Yes!

10/06/2019

Tannie Elayne se oulike program maak dit lekker om aan vlotheid van spraak te werk.

24/05/2019

Many children begin talking within the expected time frame but then struggle maintaining the expected rate of language acquisition. These kids often miss out on early intervention because they are talking, so it's not as clear that they are behind. This chart is just about vocabulary, so please know there is SO much more to language development!

It’s also important to know this is the average amount of words- not the minimum amount. There is a wide range of what is considered typical, but I think a major key here is the very quick increase in vocabulary words in a relatively short time frame.

14/05/2019

02/04/2019

https://www.ndtv.com/health/world-autism-day-2019-types-of-autism-you-must-be-aware-of-2016131?amp=1

World Autism Awareness Day 2019: Autism can be defined as a complex neurobehavioural condition which causes problems with language and communication skills. It also causes a person to have repetitive and rigid behaviour.