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Month: September 2020

How Can I Get My Child to Talk?

Learning to talk is a complex task!  It’s no wonder some kids take awhile to get started.  Most of us think of talking as just saying words but it involves much more than that. 

Would you like to help your child say their first words? 

Try out some of these tips.

Play with your child

A child must possess certain cognitive abilities before they are able to communicate. Laura Mize, SLP and author of Teach Me to Talk, suggests building blocks to a child’s first words include the ability to understand cause and effect and comprehend object permanence. Does your child understand that their actions can cause something to happen? Playing with toys such as Jack in the Box, Busy boxes, and musical instruments will help teach these skills. Try playing games such as peek a boo, and hide and seek to build object permanence. Through these activities your child will learn that they can use words or actions to cause an adult to do something for them. 

Engage your child

In order for a child to imitate your words or actions, you must be able to get their attention. You can gauge your child’s ability to attend by answering the following questions: Does your child attend to your face? Will your child try to play with you? Does your little one enjoy being with people?

It is necessary to get your child engaged before you begin to model gestures or words for them.

Look for things they are interested in and follow their lead. Get down on their level, use exaggerated facial expressions, try a sing -songy voice, and exaggerate your actions so you are impossible to miss! 

Imitation

Copying movements and sounds is one of the most important steps for developing words.  Start with getting your child to imitate movements (i.e. waving, clapping, banging on objects, throwing a ball).  Pair a sound with an action; such as “boom boom while hitting a drum, or “whee” when going down a slide. These types of copying should eventually  lead to imitation of real words and phrases. 

Baby signs

Signs have been shown to help reduce a child’s frustrations, build bonds between parent and child, and bridge the communication gap before your child is able to talk .  Signing will not deter language development.  Choose baby signs that are functional and versatile such as “milk”, “eat”, “mom”  and “dad”.  Keep in mind that just as kids’ first words don’t always sound perfect, neither will their signs be perfect.  Reward their efforts!

Model appropriate language for your child

Children typically learn the meaning of words before they say the word.  Talk to your toddler throughout the day using simplified language to label objects, and to describe what’s  going on around them. Imitate their attempts to “talk”,  to teach them the back and forth nature of communication.

Read to your child

Reading to your child will help build key language skills.  Choose books with large, colorful pictures and actions.  Label each word while pointing to each one. Help your child to begin pointing  to them as you read.  Choose books that have predictable text such as Brown Bear Brown Bear. or 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and omit predictable words, giving your child an opportunity to “fill in the blank”. 

If you continue to have concerns about whether your child’s language is progressing appropriately, BDI Playhouse Children’s Therapy,  offers free screenings by certified Speech-Language Pathologists.  Check out our website for Parent and Child Classes, which  provide a fun learning environment for you and your child to practice new language strategies.

 

Written by: Sheila Trout M.A.; CCC-Speech-Language Pathologist

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Child in a speech therapy session with therapist

Language Development in Children

Language development is a key component of childhood.  We are teaching our children the rules of language from the moment they are born.  But what should you do if your child is not crushing their language milestones?  When families come to Talk and Groove or for a free screening at BDI Playhouse, our speech language pathologists often send them home with a few tweaks to their home environment before recommending an evaluation.  None of our recommendations require purchasing of toys or materials because we want it to be a natural part of your routine!  Here are the top 3 recommendations we make!

Withhold

Withholding highly motivating items is a common strategy used to encourage language development through requesting.  There are many ways children can use body language to request an item.  Children can communicate a request through simple eye gaze, pointing, and dragging you to the item they want.   However, what happens when a child cannot get past pointing for something they want?  We withhold.  Withholding the desired object sets you up to model and have your child request the item, through verbalization or sign.  However, the key is to read your child for the best opportunity to do so.  If your child is already “edgy” or “on the brink of a meltdown”, now is not the time to withhold in order to teach your child to use a sign or verbalization.  We have the rule of 3 tries.  Let your child try to imitate 3 times before moving back to an easier attempt to avoid frustration.  For example, if you child has progressed to sign cookie and you are trying to get her to say “cookie”, after 3 tries, accept the sign and try again later!

Sabotage

This is a pretty harsh word for a fabulous technique but the word gets a lot of giggles out of our parents.  Sabotaging your child for language development means taking an everyday activity and letting your child problem solve using language.  An example of sabotaging your child would be to only give them a few cheerios in order to create the opportunity to ask for “more cheerios”.  Another example would be to put their favorite toys inside a clear box or bag that requires assistance in “opening”.  The beauty of sabotaging is that you can start with simply signing open all the way to creating phrases and sentences “Mama, open the box please”.   

Take a trip

As much as we wish that this tip means you should get on an airplane and fly to Europe, it truly is as simple as taking a trip outside of your “normal day”.  Think about your day-to-day life and all that your child is exposed to.  Now, think about a “trip” that could be new.  It could be as simple as walking to a different neighborhood and watching for dogs.  Take a trip to a pond and see if there are any ducks.  Drive around looking for buses and trucks!  

Language Development is such an amazing experience to witness and be a part of.  We are eager to see if these 3 techniques were successful for you and your child!  If you would like some more personalized ideas or need additional help with putting these techniques to use, please reach out and schedule a free screening with one of our skilled Speech Language Pathologists.  We’d love to be a little part of your journey! 

 

Written by Jessica Keenan, MA, CCC-SLP/L, CLC

 

Busting Behavior Challenges: Behavior Management Strategies

Behavior.  Something sets off your child, and the screaming, throwing, crying, or hitting behavior begins. We have all been there. Your panic rises. Somehow, you make it through the moment and on to the next, but there may be chaos left in the wake of the meltdown as a result of negative behaviors. Occasionally, negative behaviors become more than occasional. When your child is displaying persistent negative behaviors, there are a few strategies you can take to get back on track.

Sensory Strategies:

Addressing the sensory system is a powerful tool in behavior management and redirection. Engaging in these strategies throughout the day can be a preventative means of managing behaviors, where as bringing these strategies into the moment can assist in calming down an escalated child.

    1. Wiggle Jiggles:

      Have your child lay on the floor on their back.  Take hold of the child’s feet and push the feet towards their head/pull towards you. This shifting will cause the head to bounce slightly up and down in an organizing bobbing movement. This also allows pressure to be applied to the spinal column and joints in the legs in a rhythmic manner

    2. Squeeze something:

      Playing in putty, play dough, slime, stress balls (store bought or homemade!) allows for compression of joints and tension release. 

    3. Turn down the lights:

      Bright light wakes our system each morning. Dimmed lights/darkness calms us each night. You can dim lights or move your child to a darker space to reduce stimulation. 

    4. Declutter the environment:

      Having too many things around can be distracting or overwhelming for children.

    5. Stomp your feet:

      Get quick input by a simple movement such as stomping your feet or performing animal walks (bear crawl and crab walk).  

    6. Play quiet/wordless background music:

      Keeping an environment calm with music is a simple way to facilitate play and organization throughout the day. These can include classical music, tones/white noise, or piano versions of favorite songs.

    7. Lotion/Scents:

      Putting scented lotion on yourself or the child, or spritzing scented sprays/lotion can be a preferred way to calm the sensory system and maintain mental clarity.

    8. Chew something:

      Gum, crunchy or chewy snacks such as apples, carrots, celery sticks, thick rod pretzels, trail mix, or thick smoothies/milkshakes through a straw allows for the management of our taste buds and behavior.

    9. Provide a safe/quiet place:

       A safe place or quiet space can be found in a back seat of the car, a tent, a closet, a corner with bean bags, or anywhere that is enclosed. When overwhelmed, a child benefits greatly from having space to themselves to decompress.

    10. Join a class: Movement and engagement throughout a child’s day is extremely valuable.  Sign your child up for a community class such as gymnastics, swimming, karate, or soccer will get the muscles moving and the body calm!

Behavior Strategies:

 

Managing behavior through reinforcement and consequence strategies can be very effective for young children that are prone to outbursts or misbehavior:

    1. ABC Charts:

      Charts help document and remain objective about what behaviors we observe.  ABC charts help us determine the cause of negative behaviors. Write down the antecedent (A) what happened before the behavior, the behavior (B) in detail, and the consequence (C) that followed the behavior. Having this data allows us to develop the most effective intervention for behavioral challenges.

    2. Schedules:

      Visual (Picture) schedules or verbal schedules given throughout a day help provide guidelines for the day’s events or task expectations. This allows the child to understand what the day or activity will entail. It also allows the child to process what the day/week/month will hold so they can prepare themselves, their bodies, and their abilities.

    3. Countdowns/Timers:

      Using a timer allows the child to understand with warning that an end to a task is coming. The preparation a child can do mentally when forewarned about a transition will increase ease of moving on to the next thing!

    4. Behavior charts:

      A child benefits from a clear goal.  This can be achieved by giving a child direct and concrete feedback about their performance through a “behavior chart”. 

    5. Having a job:

      Give a child something special to do (teacher helper, passing out papers, retrieving a special item, making something specific). This gives children ownership in their actions and helps keep behavior on track! 

    6. Working for….:

      When we find that “Just-right” motivation for a child, we can allow them to work and behave accurately to achieve the motivating item/action! 

    7. First/Then:

       “First this activity, Then that activity” strategy tells a child clearly and completely what the expectation of behavior is and doesn’t allow for questions or confusion. 

    8. Rewarding positive behavior:

      Providing your most engaged, thrilled, and enthusiastic praise to your child for the behavior you expect and appreciate, with clapping, cheering, smiling, hugging, etc. will encourage your child to perform at their best again and again!

    9. Clear expectations of desired behavior:

      When telling a child “STOP behavior!”, they may only hear or process the behavior you have highlighted, and/or may not completely understand what you are asking of them. Rephrasing corrective statements to “Do” instead of “Don’t” actions can be helpful. For example, instead of saying “Don’t dump the cars out of the bucket!”, tell them “Keep the cars in the bucket”. Or, instead of staying “Stop running!”, tell them “Use your walking feet!”.

    10. Remain calm (Yourself!):

      Finally, the most important thing you can do when you encounter negative behaviors is to keep yourself in a calm state. As our level of excitement/frustration increases, so does our children’s. This causes us to lose our ability to correct with a clear and sound mind. Taking a deep breath, finding our center, and taking a moment to calm ourselves is often the most important step in the path to managing negative behaviors.

Managing challenging behaviors can be extremely difficult, but achieving success in this area can be life changing. If these strategies are not proving to be effective enough to get your days back on track, please contact BDI Playhouse Children’s Therapy for a free consultation to get your child out of the behavior blues!

Written By: Margaret Lord, MS, OTR/L