A speech delay in toddlers can be quite worrisome. And with so much conflicting advice out there, what's a parent to do? Learn about 19 red flags and what to do
2 year old talking gibberish? Speech therapy works! When our son was 2, he had one word, "Dada". How we tackled our toddler's speech delay.
Toddlers speech delay is very common in children nowadays. Can wax cause toddler speech delay? What should you do about wax and how often. Answered by Dr Debmita Dutta
Early Intervention Notebook for toddler activities by speech and language at home. This early intervention notebook designed for home health SLP's and early intervention specialists includes information, worksheets and handouts for parents. Includes daily activity handouts, goal setting, data sheets
Your child does not say many words yet? What can you do to boost his language learning?
Is it Autism or Speech Delay? My son is 19 months. And he is yet to speak. Could this be a sign of autism? Or could it that he has delayed to speak? This was a question that was emailed to me by a friend. He has been interested about autism and so wanted to … 5 Signs that your kid has speech delay but not autism(Einstein Syndrome Signs) Read More »
Oral Motor Exercises for Children, skills refer to the appropriate functioning and use of the facial muscles lips, jaw, tongue, cheeks etc.
If you are just starting your career in Early Intervention or have been working with these itty b itties for a long time, you will LOVE...
Smarty Ears Technologies: Technology Solutions for Speech Therapy, Special Education Support and Services
Oral Motor Exercises for Children, skills refer to the appropriate functioning and use of the facial muscles lips, jaw, tongue, cheeks etc.
The Exclamatory Words series was written for children who are not quite ready to produce first words. Perfect for early intervention and complex communicators. This book has seven illustrations to target the word "Oops". Additional suggested word: Uh oh, Oh no, Yikes Children with developmental delays, apraxia, autism, Down syndrome and individuals using augmentative devices would benefit from these simplified illustrations and vocabulary. The book can be printed in color for repeated use or black and white to share with families. This download contains: A six page book that targets the exclamatory word "Oops". (4 color pages to print or 4 black and white pages to print) Directions for assembly. Parent letter describing target communication skills: attention joint attention listening pointing imitation commenting Rubric for parent feedback: sits through story points to pictures uses sign or gesture for "Oops" imitates "Oops" says "Whee" spontaneously Images for augmentative communication: round 2", 4" square 1", 2", 4" You may also like: Exclamatory Word Books MEGA Bundle Save big! Follow me to be notified when new products are uploaded. New products are 50% off for the first 24 hours they are posted. Leave feedback to earn points toward FREE TPT purchases. Feel free to contact me with any questions. Thank you so much, Lia Kurtin
Everything you need to know about speech delay in bilingual children. Includes infographics with milestones and red flags to look out for.
Speech therapy at home doesn't have to be hard. With easy access to websites, games, books, apps and toys, even the weary can do it!
One-Syllable Final T/K Minimal Pair Picture Cards (If you're looking for initial T/K Minimal Pairs click here .) To download click on th...
Use these 3 simple language games to improve your toddler's speech and help develop their articulation, language, and pre-reading skills. The following post 'Improve Your Toddler's Speech' was written in collaboration with my own mom, Jamie Bott, M.A., C.C.C. Licensed & Certified Speech & Language Pathologist / Reading Endorsed by the State of Florida. Every parent wants their child to grow up to become a
Teaching your child how to speak starts from day one when they are just a baby and many months of saying their first word. It’s never too early to get into good practices to help
Echolalia- Learn strategies for your Autism classroom. What echolalia is and how to reduce it with activities to decrease repetitive speech or non-authentic communication.
I have so so many R kids on my caseload right now. In that past, that statement would be followed with a mournful sigh, or possibly with me throwing my head back and shaking my fists in the air cursing, “why me!?” Let me tell you… I used to struggle with how to teach the R […]
Baby language development starts at birth. It is crucial to start your child off on the right foot in order to build strong language skills!
Would you be able to recognize the early signs of autism in toddlers? Though you may not think it, the earlier you receive a diagnosis, the better.
What is Echolalia? Echolalia refers to the repetition of certain words or phrases spoken by someone else, either after the words were said or later on. Echolalia in autism Echolalia is often associated as a function of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). With an autistic child, echolalia may appear with more frequency versus children with standard
A teacher's guide to Colourful Semantics: how can teachers use this instructional strategy to promote language development in the classroom?
As you'll recall, Sheridan was diagnosed over a year ago with Apraxia of Speech, and I wrote a post about the criteria for Apraxia back then, as well. Since then, I've seen many helpful videos on youtube... parents who video their children periodically to see the progress (or not) a child is making. I've been thinking for some time that I need to do that, so this is my first of what will be a series of posts over time. When I first posted Sheridan's diagnosis, many people sent me private questions about Apraxia or simply asked that I provide as much information as possible. So, for this post I'll include some information about what Sheridan's speech intervention looks like, show you some of the materials we're using, etc. Some Basics to Lay the Foundation Sheridan's SLP is allowing me to record and post portions of Sheridan's sessions. Although she uses a number of strategies with Sheridan (e.g., oral motor therapy, facilitating speech through play), the two things you'll see in the video below are Jane's use of PROMPT and Kaufman cards. Most speech sessions look like this: 1. Oral Motor (usually about 20 minutes) 2. Kaufmann cards using PROMPT 3. Play (during which Jane works to help Sheridan generalize the speech production beyond the cards, often using PROMPT when necessary) Here's an online description of the Kaufman cards: The Kaufman K-SLP Treatment Kit 1 (basic level) employs a systematic treatment approach that controls the level of motor-speech difficulty by simplifying word pronunciation patterns. Each card displays a series of “successive approximations” of the target word based on least physiological effort. This “word shell” approach is highly effective for quickly building motor-speech coordination and allows children to begin progressing immediately from a simple core vocabulary toward becoming effective vocal/verbal communicators. The 5x7 cards are organized from the "easiest" words (from a motor planning, speech production perspective) and then build on those sounds to form progressively more advanced/difficult words (I'll show you what I mean in a second). Bonus: Nancy Kaufman is a woman after my own heart... look at those color-coded dividers. *swoon* I was a little hesitant at first because all the cards use cartoon drawings. For example, the "daddy" does not, ah-hem, look like daddy. At. All. So I was worried about whether or not these would make sense for Sheridan, and his ability to generalize from the specific drawing to real objects/people. I didn't need to worry. He totally gets it - calls that card "daddy" every time he sees it, calls Gary "daddy," and doesn't call random up-tight white guys "daddy." So we're good. An example of an early card (from the CVCV group (by the way, C = consonant; V = vowel) would be dada, mama, moo moo. The next level is VC (e.g., on, out, in, eat, ouch, arm). Here's an example: Sheridan has difficulties with /r/ (as do many 3-year-old children), so he still approximates arm as "ahm." The image on the left is the front of the card (what Jane shows Sheridan); the image on the right is the back of the card showing the progression of the speech sounds. So, at first, a child might approximate arm by saying "ah," but then progress to "ahm" and eventually to "arm." The top is always the goal word. Next, CV includes words such as two, bay, tea, new, dough, tie. Here's a couple examples: Sheridan does well with this card and says pie (though he does drag out the /i/ and /e/ at times). Sheridan still struggles with /m/ versus /b/. Most often he says "be" or "m-be" here. VCV cards include words/phrases such as: oh no, okay, oboe. Here's an example: Notice that as words get more difficult, one might use a longer progression of approximations to get to the target word. Sheridan is doing really well with this particular word, and nearly always says "a-po" CV1CV2 are words where the syllable is repeated, but the vowel changes (such as: puppy, mommy, baby). Here's a couple examples: Sheridan currently says "tay-to," but sometimes needs prompting (meaning a physical PROMPT). Jane always notes which cards in a set Sheridan says spontaneously (on his own), and for which cards he needs a PROMPT. This helps us see with what sounds he might be struggling, and the progress he's making in a given set (e.g., today on set #3 he said 16 out of 17 cards - correctly - all by himself). One of Sheridan's favorite words... he immediately says "bubbos" when he sees this card. Sheridan says "pee-po" - but occasionally needs prompting to get the "pee" on the front (he has a tendency to say the last syllable of a word; this is somewhat common in people with apraxia). The "hardest" set he's working on now is a set of 30 C1V1C2V2 "simple bisyllabics" (such as: muddy, honey, panda, marble... notice the consonant and vowel change in the second syllable). Here's one example: Sheridan says "noo-do" with prompting (he doesn't know all the words in this set yet by sight). Notice that this word is a combination of the sounds he learned in earlier sets (new & dough). There's 12 more sets after these... and just because Sheridan is on set 6, doesn't mean his speech is perfect on sets 1-5. He still practices the other sets and is working on improving his speech on those words. And Now... The Video This video was taken this past Spring when Sheridan was 2 years, 8 months old. At that point he had been receiving two hours of speech therapy every week (two 1-hour sessions each week) for about six months. (Now he receives three 1-hour sessions each week). A few things to note about the video: Sheridan is working only on sets 1 (CVCV) and 2 (VC) at this point in time. You'll see Jane using PROMPT when she uses physical cues to help Sheridan remember/feel how to make specific sounds. You'll see Sheridan get really frustrated a couple times because some sounds were really hard for him (for example, /e/ as in eat). Many vowels were really difficult for him. But know this... Sheridan LOVES (seriously loves) these cards. So much so that we bought a set so he could practice whenever he wants (sometimes he asks every day, sometimes he asks once a week... we follow his lead). Notice that Sheridan often leans into Jane so he can be prompted. He often prompts himself, as well. I provide the sound he's working on, and the target word so you can get a feel for how this works. It's worth watching to the very end so you can see that, despite his frustration at times, he truly loves Jane (and he's a little obsessed and extra excited for some of the cards... we often have to hide the up card). Turn your volume up so you can hear Sheridan :)
Over 170+ WH questions for kids using the board game Guess Who - great for kids with autism or hyperlexia
Tips for eliciting /k/ and /g/ in speech therapy and activities for generalization.
One struggling parent recently described her son’s speech to me as sounding “like nothing more than a robot.” This description spoke volumes about what it must be like as a parent…
Children with hearing loss that have recently received cochlear implants or hearing aids benefit from robust language and listening experiences throughout their day. Therefore, professionals working with this population should provide language and listening opportunities that are integrated into age appropriate toys and routines. Once a child is able to consistently detect the sounds in their environment, children learn that sounds are different and have different meanings. A key aspect of inter
As many of you know, my family and I are expecting baby number three in just a few short weeks. As I take some time off from work and blogging to spend time with my family both before and after my new son’s birth, I am thrilled to share with you some amazing posts written […]
Do you remember “How does language develop?“? In a nutshell, here is an overview of how language develops. By the way, children who are…
Looking for a cheap, easy to use therapy material? How about paper bags? I love using paper bags for a variety of activities. Here are some simple ways I have incorporated paper bags into my therapy sessions. 1. Puppets My students love to use puppets to "eat" their articulation cards or other target cards. They also love to use them to tell stories. Making puppets from paper bags is a great, inexpensive way to engage your students in a variety of activities! You can easily make a puppet to match any book or story that you are using. Be creative- your kids will love it! I made these monster puppets with my son this week. They were so easy to make! We used a little paint, glue, and card stock with our paper bags. I found the idea for these cute monsters from this pin: Paper Bag Monster Puppets 2. Describe It To Me This activity is also super easy. I throw a bunch of items into a bag. My students reach in and grab something (no peeking!) to describe. The students remove the object and then describe it using a variety of descriptors. This is a great way to incorporate your Expanding Expression Tool (EET) with describing real objects. Sometimes I will even get really small, cheap objects that the students can keep if they give me a description using all of the beads on the EET. 3. What is in the bag? This is a great activity to work on a student's deductive reasoning skills. I put an object into the bag (students do not see- again, no peeking). Students need to ask questions about my object. This is similar to the game Headbanz. 4. Categories Place pictures of categories on the bag and collect items or pictures to place in each category. I used pictures from my Category Sorting activity. I like to put a piece of Velcro on each bag so that I can interchange the categories without having to get a new bag each time. 5. Collect in a bag Put any kind of card into the bag. My students love to decorate a bag and then collect their cards. 6. Paper bag books You can use two paper bags to make a book that will have two pockets. Simply fold two bags in half and then put the two openings touching each other to make two pockets for a book. Staple together, and done! You have a paper bag book that you can use to target a variety of goals. I used this one to put some of my new sequencing cards in for a student to take home. I have also made these Articulation Paper Bag Books. These are so fun to make with students and send home! Here is a link to a freebie that contains blank frames to use on your paper bags, as well as labels for What is in the bag? and Describe It To Me. Have fun using your paper bags!
I do not like using the term nonverbal when referring to autistic kids who do not speak. I would rather use the term ‘preverbal’ because I believe that with behavioral, educational and play therapy, the child will eventually speak and have a communicative pattern with their peers, parents and teachers. They could also be displaying … 5 Ways to help a nonverbal autistic kid speak Read More »
Are you curious about the types of echolalia? This informative guide breaks down the different forms of echolalia and their characteristics.
