On May 2nd, I attended a TalkTools training! This course was taught by Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson, M.S., CCC-SLP and presented by the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte. I left this course with renewed enthusiasm about the field of Speech Language Pathology.
This course focuses on the fact that there is often a physical reason for articulation issues. Sara teaches the importance of using touch to teach as well as on the importance of using resistance and repetitions to improve muscle skills (speech/feeding) through Oral Placement Therapy (OPT).
I came back to to my work at Child and Family Development with new ideas, resources, and a desire to learn MORE! I look foward to attending more TalkTools courses, using my new strategies with my current clients, and educating other professionals and parents about this approach!
To learn more about this approach check out their website at http://www.talktools.com
"I Spy" is one of my favorite games to play during Speech and Language Therapy at Child and Family Development! This game is great for children with Expressive and Receptive Language Delays.
Try this game around the house and to have even more fun, make an "I Spy" collage out of old magazine pictures, laminate it (if possible) and play each morning during breakfast or before bedtime.
How to play:
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Player 1 says "I spy...." and describes an object or picture (i.e. something big).
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Player 2 guesses or asks for another clue. (Remember to use good question forms "May I have another clue please")
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Player 1 provides another clue and this continues until player 2 is able to guess.
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Next, switch roles!
Here are some more games to play at home to encourage communication skills:
Stay tuned for more game suggestions from Child and Family Development!
As a pediatric speech therapist at Child and Family Development in Charlotte, I am always looking for new ways to motivate and encourage speech and language development. I use the IPAD during speech therapy and often recommend apps to IPAD owning families.
Don't let Speech and Language practice stop over the holidays! There are so many apps out there that make learning fun over the holidays! Here are some of my favorites:
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Toca Hair Salon Christmas Gift-FREE
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Christmas House Decoration-FREE
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Peekaboo Presents-$1.99
These apps are great as motivators, but also can be used to improve listening skills, vocabulary, and imaginative play!
Happy Holidays!
As a speech therapist at Child and Family Development in Charlotte, North Carolina, I am always looking for new ways to motivate and encourage speech and language development. I use the IPAD during speech therapy and often recommend apps to IPAD owning families.
My Favorite App of the Month is...Articulation Station
Description: This app was created to give parents, teachers, and Speech-Language Pathologists a fun and useful tool to teach children how to speak more clearly. With this app, kids learn how to pronounce and practice the sounds in the English language with 6 fantastic and engaging articulation activities. Activities include matching games, stories, and rotating sentences.
Why I like this app: This app is great for kids of all ages! It is simple to use, and makes articulation practice FUN! This app is already being used by several families that I work with, and they RAVE about it!
Cost: for all sounds the app is $49.99, but this app can also be purchased for individual sounds (i.e. /s/ practice is $3.99).
Child and Family Development will be at the 2012 Charlotte Buddy Walk to show our support for the more than 400,000 individuals with Down syndrome in the United States. We want to do our part to make sure that each individual is given every opportunity to reach their full potential.
We, along with the Down Association of Charlotte, invite you to join us in the Buddy Walk -- by walking with us, we will make steps for a brighter tomorrow for all individuals with Down syndrome
Visit
dsac.kintera.org/buddywalk and search for our Team to register. Our team name is Child and Family Development. Look for the C&FD table and come visit us.
Hope to see you there!
Location: Freedom Park, Charlotte NC
Schedule of Events:
10:00am registration begins
10:00am – 2:00pm: Entertainment, DJ, Activities
12:00pm: Walk Begins
12:30pm: Hot dogs with drinks and snack table
1:30pm: Announcements, Prize level drawings, raffle drawings
2:00pm: Day Concludes
As a speech therapist at Child and Family Development in Charlotte, North Carolina, I am always looking for new ways to motivate and encourage speech and language development. I use the IPAD during speech therapy and often recommend apps to IPAD owning families.
My Favorite App of the Month is...Toca Hair Salon
Description: Toca Boca is a game studio that makes digital toys for kids. There are several different Toca apps including Toca Hair Salon, Toca Tea Party, Toca Doctor, and many more! With these apps, children get to play and learn about the world. These apps help stimulate the imagination, and are fun for kids and parents to play together.
Why I like this app: I like this app for many reasons! During speech- language therapy, I use it to encourage creative play, communication/initiation of basic wants, vocabulary development, story telling, and sequencing skills.
Cost: $1.99 for each Toca app. Check out Toca Boca apps at www.tocaboca.com. There are a few trials of Toca Boca apps for free including Toca Hair Salon Christmas gift, and Toca Doctor Lite. ENJOY!
Are you tired of having to ask your child, "What did you say?" or having other people tell you they don't understand your child? Maybe your child has an articulation disorder. WHAT'S THAT?!
An articulation disorder involves difficulty making sounds. Sounds may be distorted, substituted, omitted, or added. These errors make it difficult for others to understand your child.
Children often make speech errors, as children acquire each sound at different ages. An articulation disorder exists when these errors persist past the age they are expected to acquire them.
If your child is difficult to understand, please schedule a free intake with a speech therapist at Child and Family Development. An speech-language evaluation can identify articulation problems and treatment often results in quick improvement for many kids.
This past weekend, I attended a conference named Tools for Treating the Feeding in the Medically Challenging Child.
This was a very hands-on course, which honed in on the key fact that "Anatomy is the Foundation" when working with children with feeding and swallowing disorders. I enjoyed making my 3-D model and am looking foward to using these principles when working with some of my pediatric therapy clients at Child and Family Development. The speaker also discussed topics including Tracheotomy, G-tube, and Pulmonary Auscultation.
I am so excited to expand my training in this area and love that there is always something new to learn in the field of Speech-Language Pathology!
As a Speech Therapist, I am always looking for new ways to motivate and encourage Speech and Language development. I use the IPAD during Speech Therapy, and often recommend apps to IPAD owning families.
My Favorite App to improve Speech and Language Development of the Month is...(drum roll please!)
I Like Books
Description: This app contains 37 "I like" picture books that contain engaging stories written by Miranda Paul paired with real pictures. The words are highlighted as they are being read. All the stories are customizable; you can add your own voice, your own photos and even your own ideas!
Why I like this app: I like this app for many reasons! During speech language therapy, I use this app to improve question generation/answering skills, story comprehension/literacy skills, and to increase vocabulary development! I love that "I like books..." uses "real" pictures, helping children learn and explore "their" world. This app makes story time fun! Try it and see!
Cost: FREE!!!
As a Speech Therapist, I am always looking for new ways to motivate and and encourage Speech and Language development. I use the IPAD during Speech Therapy, and often recommend apps to IPAD owning families.
This blog will share my favorite IPAD application each month and ways you can use it at home.
App of the Month: Story Builder by the Mobile Education Store
Description: Story Builder is designed to help children improve paragraph formation, improve integration of ideas, and improve higher level abstractions by inference.
Why I like Story Builder: Story builder is great for a variety of language levels and ages. One of my favorite feature is the "record" buttong. Students can use the prompts they provide to create stories and record themselves for motivation and auditory feedback. Story builder can help in the exact ways listed in the description above, but can also be used to improve speech intelligibility, improve story sequencing, and narrative development, as well as inferencing, prediction, and reasoning skills.
Cost: Story builder can be purchased for use on IPAD and IPOD on the App Store. It is $5.99 and in my opinion well work the money!
Greetings!
I am so excited to be a part of the Child and Family Development pediatric therapy team! I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself.
I moved to Charlotte from Ohio in 2006, after completing my undergraduate and graduate work at Ohio University in Athens, OH. Since moving here, I have worked with children ages birth to 15 years in a variety of settings including public schools, private schools, home, daycare, and preschool settings. I have experience working with children with hearing loss, language disorders/delays, learning disabilitites, Autism, developmental delays, articulation/phonological disorders, apraxia, augmentative communication, and other difficulties.
Since starting at C&FD, I have been extremely impressed with the quality of services and level of knowledge the therapists display, as well as the love, support and motivation of the families and children that come here. I am so glad to be a part of this TEAM.
To learn more about me, read my biography on the C&FD website.
Are you tired of having to ask your child, "What did you say?" or having other people tell you they don't understand your child? Maybe your child has an articulation disorder. WHAT'S THAT?!
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