Road Trip! We’re all doing a road trip of some sort this summer! For some, it may be an hour upstate to visit grandparents, and for others, a trip across the country. For many parents, the thought of hours and hours in the car with pre-school kids creates anxiety. Are you envisioning whining, complaining and tantrums? Well, we have some good news! With a little planning ahead, these activities can make your family road trips pain-free, meltdown free, a tad bit educational and a whole lot of fun! Continue reading →
School’s Out! Summer is here … ready or not! For many families with school-aged children, summer’s easy schedule is a welcome break from those early school mornings: alarm clocks, lunch-making, carpools, homework. But, for families who still crave a bit of a schedule and structure, summer can be somewhat anxiety-producing. Fear not. During the next few months, we’ll be keeping our blog chock-full of ideas for activities you can do with your children to keep them entertained (and continue that positive speech and language therapy momentum your child has made this year).
Here are some suggestions for online games for speech therapy!
Wait a minute, speech therapy camping activities? This summer, while planning your camping trip, why not use this quality family time as an opportunity to work on speech therapy skills. Board games are an excellent way to reinforce good speech and language habits and are easy to pack along, but you may also want to take advantage of the outdoor game board! The sights, sounds and smells of good ol’ fashioned camping! A recent article in Parents Magazine touted the many benefits of camping, including helping children become more environmentally conscious, and reducing symptoms of boredom and ADHD.
“Kids today are spending more time indoors and plugged into a screen, so camping is a great activity because it gets them outdoors, whether they’re hiking or telling ghost stories by the fire,”
Middle School Speech Building Ideas. Image source: Eagleharborva.com
Does your 12 year old son or daughter struggle with speech and communication skills? If so, it’s not too late to get your child on the path to improved communication — and have some fun doing it. It can be tricky keeping a middle school student interested in anything educational for very long , so we’re always on the lookout for good speech therapy ideas for middle school students. The key to keeping this age group interested and motivated is providing them with games and activities that keep them engaged, while giving them the opportunity to see noticeable improvements within a fairly short period of time. Continue reading →
Online Speech Therapy Resources for Your Preschooler
Do you find that your preschool-aged child is lightning fast with those computer games and tablet apps? Amazing, huh? We sure didn’t know how to do that way back when… Why not take advantage of your little computer genius’ technology proficiency by offering educational apps and games for him to play? And he can improve his speech and communication skills at the same time. Parents and teachers both can utilize the educational games, activities, and videos that support learning goals for kids at all levels. There are many apps and online resources available for your preschooler and we’ve taken the guessing game out of which ones work well. Continue reading →
Easter is an excellent time of year to work on speech therapy at home with your kids. The colors of the trees, smell of fresh blooming flowers, chirping of the birds are all excellent ways to engage your child’s senses. But how about using an Easter Egg as an inexpensive speech therapy tool? Yes, both a real egg and a colorful, plastic Easter egg! These eggs can provide an opportunity for you to work on socialization, articulation and language skills with your child in a variety of ways, and have fun together as a family.
Did you know that some of our old favorite board games are also great speech therapy tools? Yes, that’s right! You can help improve articulation and speech skills while enjoying quality time with your child. As we finish up Spring Break, (or some of us are just beginning), we are sharing with you some of our favorite classic children’s games that can also be used to teach new speech skills. The games that we have listed provide good opportunities for meaningful language, speech and social learning.
Hint hint…also a great addition to the Easter Basket!
As we celebrate National Autism Awareness month, we’d like to share with you ideas for activities that help support children with autism. Autism is an increasingly more common neurological condition that affects brain development. As such, children diagnosed with autism have more difficulty socializing with others, effectively communicating and responding appropriately to the environment around them. Are there activities that you can do with your child to help encourage effective communication and engagement? Yes, read on!
If your child has autism, you know that it affects each child differently. Children with autism possess a wide variety of skills, strengths, and needs. In addition to individualized therapy, there are simple, everyday activities that parents, teachers and caregivers can do to help support children with autism. We’ve put together a list of materials and fun activities that encourage social skills, and enhance communication for children with autism.
What kinds of activities and games are best? An article in Science Daily, discussed the importance of play in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). “Children with ASD chose to engage in play that provided strong sensory feedback, cause-and-effect results, and repetitive motions,” said Kathy Ralabate Doody, Ph.D., assistant professor of exceptional education at SUNY Buffalo State. Any opportunity to explore colors, shapes, textures and sensory experiences can help stimulate attention and create a sense of fun!
Song, Music and Melodies are Excellent Speech Therapy Tools for Kids!
We finalize our in-depth look at tools for speech therapy with Music. Yes…music can truly be an effective tool for speech therapy! Think about it, rhymes, patterns, sounds and movement all help bring about speech language comprehension and articulation. According to “Use of Music in Speech-Language Therapy,” an article by Mary B. Zoller, “Using music is a multi-sensory experience that enhances a number of other skills that impact on speech and language development.” The use of music as a speech therapy tool serves to energize and engage a child, and encourages the child to actively participate. And the good news? You do not need to be a musician or a great singer to reap the benefits of music as therapy! Even using a silly voice and acting out the lyrics is helpful in engaging your child and a way to get them to listen attentively and unknowingly engage them in speech therapy exercises. As we have mentioned throughout this series, this does not serve to replace a proper evaluation or treatment from an SLP, rather music as a tool for speech therapy that you can do at home or in conjunction with your current speech therapy regime. Continue reading →
Many websites are designed to help your child with building language skills and improving communication.
Online games and resources are excellent tools to help children build language and vocabulary skills and prepare them for reading and speaking success for the future. Using the computer to access online resources, children of all speaking abilities can develop vocabulary skills, learn to distinguish certain sounds, begin to recognize letter shapes and their sounds, learn to follow directions and learn basic building blocks in sentence formation. Yes, the games and activities are so fun and you may not think they’re actually learning – but with our recommendations, rest assured these sites are teaching children skills for building language skills and future effective communication.
