SLPC's Five Favorite Toys

Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to update your family’s toy closet, or you’re looking to use up gift cards left over from the holidays.  Whatever the reason, we always encourage parents to purchase games that are not only fun, but also encourage speech and language development! Below are our top five toys for speech and language development, many of which can often be found at local garage sales or consignment shops.

Melissa and Doug Reusable Sticker Sets

Image via yoyo.com

At five dollars each, these are quite a bargain!  Each set contains several picture scenes and stickers to use with each background.  These are great for encouraging vocabulary development, requesting, following directions, and understanding or using prepositions such as in, on, and under.  Our favorites are the Play House and Habitats sets.  Suitable for children ages 3 and older.

What’s in the Cat’s Hat? by I Can Do That Games

Image via amazon.com

If you’re looking for a game that is never predictable and will help promote higher-level language, this game is for you.  Players take turns choosing an item from the room to hide in the cat’s hat.  Then, other players ask questions (with help from picture cards) to try to figure out what’s inside the hat.  This game is great for working on answering and asking questions, using descriptive language, deductive reasoning, and memory.  Suitable for children ages 3 and older.

Baby dolls

Image via toys.about.com

Many children love to care for babies, and it’s also a great toy for expanding language and play skills.  At the SLP Center, our baby doll includes a tub and items for bathing and feeding the baby.  Baby dolls are versatile and can help work on many different skills, including:  vocabulary, following directions, labeling actions, understanding functions of items, and sequencing.  Suitable for children ages 1 and older.

Critter Clinic by B. Toys

Image via target.com

Another versatile game, the Critter Clinic is a favorite of many of our clients!  This veterinary set comes with a stuffed dog and cat, but you can hide any toys from your own collection in the various doors.  This is a great game for more simple language (e.g., requesting “open” or “help”), as well as more complex language.  Like the baby doll, the Critter Clinic provides ample opportunities for pretend play and the language that comes with it.  We also like to hide objects that contain the sounds our clients are working on!  Suitable for children ages 2 and older.

Play food

Image via creativeacademics.com

We enjoy using food sets from Melissa and Doug, such as their pizza set and cookie set, but our clients also love going “grocery shopping” with our other play food!  This is another toy that encourages sequencing skills (e.g., making a shopping list, choosing food, taking it to the cashier, and paying).  Playing with food can also support development of the following language skills:  requesting, vocabulary development, asking and answering questions, labeling actions, using descriptive language, and conversational skills.  We also target our clients‘ sounds with foods containing those sounds.  If they are working on the “s” sound, why not go shopping for soup, salad, sandwiches, and salmon?  For even more play ideas, try pairing the play food with a local grocery ad or a real cooking experience!  Suitable for ages 2 and older.

We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our favorite toys, and we’d love to hear about some of your favorites!  Happy playing!

Disclaimer:  No products or financial incentives were provided by the makers of these toys, and there is no relationship (financial or otherwise) between the SLP Center and the above toy companies.

Halloween Fun

Happy belated Halloween!  We hope everyone had a fun and safe time on Thursday!  We had a great time celebrating Halloween at the center.  Here's a peek at what we did:

First, we finished reading It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall.  For our pumpkin theme, we had started reading this story, which is about children who grow a pumpkin patch.  Last week, we finished the story and found out what they did with all those pumpkins.  We continued to practice new vocabulary words we had learned, such as vine, seed, andwheelbarrow.  We also learned some new words, including jack-o-lantern, costume, and trick-or-treating!  Everyone had fun predicting what would happen next in the book and talking about their own experiences with carving pumpkins and dressing up in costumes.

After we finished the story, we "carved" our very own pumpkins!  This is a great craft to teach actions, vocabulary, body parts, requesting help, and combining several words into a phrase.  We also worked on "p" sounds ("pumpkin", "pulp"), "s" sounds ("scoop", "seeds"), and "k" sounds ("cut"). 

Afterward, we worked on sequencing skills by putting pictures of the pumpkin-carving process in order and talking about each step in the sequence.  We glued the pictures onto notecards to make a book that each child could take home.

Interested in re-creating this activity at home?  Follow the instructions below!

Materials

Craft pumpkin (can be found at Michael's or Target)

Box cutter/sharp knife

Yellow yarn or strips of paper

Dried pumpkin seeds

Plastic spoon and knife

Battery-operated candle

Instructions

1. Have an adult use the box cutter to carve the craft pumpkin beforehand.
2. Add seeds and yellow yarn for pulp to the inside of the pumpkin, and then reassemble it.
3. Allow your child to use a plastic knife to "cut out" the top of the pumpkin.
4. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and "pulp".
5. Use the plastic knife to "cut out" the rest of the pumpkin parts.
6. Turn on the battery-operated candle and place inside, then put the top back on the pumpkin.

We hope you've enjoyed reading about our speech and language adventures!  Don't forget to share this post on Facebook and visit our website (www.slpcenter.com) for more information!

Fall Time Fun

We've been busy here at the SLP Center getting ready for fall!  Along with the crisp autumn air and the beautiful leaves, we've been enjoying fall-themed activities with our clients.  Take a look at what we have been up to:

Apples

Apples are a favorite fall topic - we had a fun time discussing how apples grow, going apple-picking, and what we can do with apples.  Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington and Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell are great books for younger children.  While reading them, we practiced answering wh-questions, making predictions and inferences, and sequencing events in the story.  Other children enjoyed finding words with their target sound in them and saying the word.

Our clients loved going "apple picking" a few weeks ago!  This versatile activity could be used as a turn-taking game or a competitive game used as a reward.  Our older kids loved rolling the dice and seeing how many apples they got to pick.  We also taped pictures of target words on each apple to help develop speech and language skills.

Everyone loved showing off their artistic skills by using a cut apple as a "stamp" to make fall artwork. With this activity, we targeted using 2-word phrases (e.g., "apple on", "red apple", "want paint"), as well as speech sounds.  This is also a great activity for practicing beginning s-blends:  have the child say "stamp" every time he or she places the apple on the paper.

Additional ideas for apples:  make applesauce or apple pie, go apple picking, or sort apples based on size, color, and shape.

Pumpkins

Last week, we talked all about pumpkin growing and pumpkin picking!  First we readIt's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall, which is a sweet story about two children and their dog who plant a pumpkin patch every Halloween.  We had fun learning new vocabulary words, sequencing pictures from the story, and learning about how pumpkins grow!

Even though we don't have our own pumpkin patch, that didn't stop us from making our own "pumpkins"!  We used an orange paper bag, real pumpkin seeds, and yarn for the pumpkin pulp to assemble a pumpkin.  This activity targeted requesting items needed, answering wh-questions, and using new vocabulary words like seeds, pulp, and stem.

Additional ideas for pumpkins:  go pumpkin picking, plant a seed and watch it grow, or make "dirt" pudding cups with candy corn pumpkins inside.

We hope you've enjoyed a peek into our past few weeks!  Stay tuned to find out what we've been up to for Halloween.  Don't forget to share this post on Facebook and visit our website (www.slpcenter.com) for more information!

Pediatric Choking Information

As SLPs who work with many children who have feeding difficulties, we are very interested in information offered by the American Academy of Pediatrics on the subject.  Recently, they updated their policy statement on choking and introduced some new information about choking.  Here are some highlights from the American Academy of Pediatric's newest information and guidelines:

Statistics
 

Image from volginimage.com

• From 2001 - 2009, approximately 112,000 children were seen in emergency rooms across the country as a result of food-related choking incidents.  The main culprit was hard candy (15% of cases).
• Although hot dogs are traditionally thought to be a high choking hazard, they did not appear on the list of choking incidents requiring medical attention.  However, other types of meats were causes of choking.
• The type of food choked on was directly related to the age of the child; infants are more likely to choke on formula, fruits and vegetables, and baby biscuits, while toddlers are more likely to choke on fruits, nuts, and candy.
• In the year 2000, 160 children under the age of 14 died from choking causes.  41% of these cases were related to choking on food items, while 59% were caused by non-food related items.

Development

• Toddlers:  back teeth are not yet fully developed, and therefore, children age 1-2 have more difficulty completely grinding food to a consistency that is safe to swallow.  Children this age should not be fed foods that cannot be bitten into small pieces using the front teeth.
• Preschoolers:  children age 2-4 have the capability to grind food using back molars, but may not yet have the knowledge required to do so.  With this in mind, it is important to teach children how to grind up food using their back teeth.  Additionally, children this age should always be fed in an upright, seated position with adult supervision.  If gum is offered to children at this age, it should always be safely removed by an adult before the child is allowed to get up from the table.
• Older children:  children age 5 and older now have the anatomy and the knowledge required to safely consume most types of food.  However, it is still important to make sure the child is sitting at a table when eating, is not distracted during mealtimes, and is under close supervision when consuming foods that are more difficult to handle (e.g., peanut butter, tough meats, hard candy).

Eating should be a fun and social event!  We hope this information helps you share mealtimes with your child in a safe, enjoyable manner.

Thanks for reading!  For more information on feeding and how we can help, visit the "Resources" section of our website at www.slpcenter.com

Buggy for Speech and Language

With the final days of summer approaching, we've been using "bugs" as our theme for speech and language therapy!  We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and then made caterpillars of our own using egg cartons and craft supplies.  Here are some ideas for making this theme work for any speech, language, or feeding goal:

Language
 

• Labeling:  ask your child to identify the fruits and other food the caterpillar eats.
• Practice using prepositions:  in the egg/cocoon, out of the egg/cocoon,through the food. 
• Categorizing:  see how many ways you can group the different foods:  type of food (e.g., fruit, meat, dessert), color, shape, or taste.
• Cause/effect:  talk about why the caterpillar was hungry, why he felt sick after eating too much, and why he built a cocoon.
• Sequencing:  use a story strip like the one below to sequence the pictures, then re-tell the story together in your own words.
• Pronouns:  practice saying the repeating line in the story together ("he was still hungry...").
• Plurals:  practice adding -s to the end of fruit names when there is more than one.
• Requesting and descriptive language:  make your own very hungry caterpillar with an empty egg carton, a pipe cleaner, and some imagination!  Have your child ask for various things he/she needs to complete the project.  Offer a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes of materials to encourage your child to use descriptive language (e.g., "I want the big, blue cotton ball.").

Speech

• Look for words together that contain your child's speech sound, then practice "reading" the word together.
• Practice the "th" sound with repeating words like "Thursday" and "through".
• This is a great story for children learning to say multisyllabic words.  Some examples include:  caterpillar, chocolate, ice-cream, salami, lollipop, and watermelon.  Tap out the words together and see if you can find the one with the most syllables!

Feeding

• Talk about healthy foods vs. junk foods with your child.  Hypothesize together about why the caterpillar got sick when he ate too much.
• Introduce your child to new foods using the book.  Make a "shopping list" for the caterpillar, then use play foods or go to the store and find the foods he ate.
• Make a "Hungry Caterpillar" meal or snack together using foods he ate:  what about a salami and cheese sandwich or a fruit smoothie?

Thanks for reading!  Don't forget to share this post on Facebook and visit our website,www.slpcenter.com for more information!

Have You Heard?

Each year, Boston Parents Paper features the Family Favorites Awards, which includes readers' favorite family activities and services in the Boston area.

The vote is in, and the SLP Center has been named one of the top five in the category of Special Needs/ADHD Services for 2013!  Thank you to Boston Parents Paper and its readers for recognizing our work.  And thank you to our clients and their families for continually motivating us to strive to be the "best of the best."  We could not have achieved this award without you!

For more information on our services, visit our website.

To view the award listings, visit Boston Parents Paper online.

Treatment Tip Tuesday: Give Frequent Feedback

When children are trying to do something that they're having trouble with, they need feedback to see if they are getting it right, or at least getting closer!  Giving frequent praise also keeps them excited and involved.  Here are some ideas for providing encouragement and feedback: 

Image from grist.org

• Give high fives! 
• Give tickles! 
• Establish a "thumbs up" system.  One thumb is "Great trying!" and two thumbs is "Perfect! You did it!"
• Offer verbal praise: "You're trying so hard!", "That was so close!", "Great work!" 
• If they're struggling, give them specific feedback about how to try it next time: "That was a great try! Next time, stick your tongue out a little more!" 

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website, www.slpcenter.com, for more information! 

Tween Tribune

 The SLP Center uses Tween Tribune, the news website for kids, in therapy!

Image from jcannon.edublogs.org

This website has news articles that are geared towards kids.  You can browse the website by age/grade/topic.  The articles are easy to read and are not too long.  Once the client has finished reading, they can take a quiz with comprehension questions and can leave comments with their thoughts about the article. 

Here at the SLP Center we use this website to work with our upper elementary school/middle school clients.  We use it to address goals including: sequencing, comprehension, answering questions, retelling/recalling information, commenting and conversation skills.  

Keep an eye out for future posts about how we are using this website in therapy with examples of the comments some of our clients are making! 

Thanks for reading!  Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website,www.slpcenter.com, for more information!

Treatment Tip Tuesday: Use Books

Most of you are already spending at least a few minutes every day reading with your child.  Why not use this time to address some of his/her therapy goals?

Image from www.parentssource.com

• If your child is working on articulation goals, read books that target his/her errored speech sounds 
  • For the /k/ sound, try: Kiss the Cow by, Phyllis Root
  •  For the /f/ sound, try: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by, Dr. Seuss
• If your child is working on follow directions, incorporate some direction following into your reading time 
  • Example: While looking at a page of the book, give your child three things to point it: "point to the bird, the house and then the tree".  See if he/she can follow all parts of the direction without your help! 
• If your child is working on concepts, choose a book that incorporates these concepts.  
  • Example: Opposites by, Sandra Boynton

 Be creative and think about books that may allow you to model good speech and language skills for your child, while getting in some reading time too! 

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website,www.slpcenter.com, for more information!

Treatment Tip Tuesday: Finding Time For Homework

Today's treatment tip is for parents who struggle to find the time to work on the carryover assignments given by your child's speech-language pathologist.  We know that sometimes life is busy and it can be hard to find the time to help your child practice his/her skills.  However, we also know that home carryover and practice are essential to progress.  Here are some tips and tricks to making home practice a little bit easier! 

Image from kids.lovetoknow.com

• Set aside the same time every day to sit with your child and work on his/her speech homework.  It may be 5 minutes before bedtime, right after dinner or first thing in the morning.  Whatever time you choose, stick with it and make it a habit for you and your child! 

• Involve siblings!  Whether they are older or younger, siblings can be a great help at getting your child to work.  They can also provide great models for speech and language while practicing your child's target skills.  

• Use reinforcement.  Whether it is a sticker chart or a small treat, use motivating reinforcers to help  encourage your child to practice his/her speech skills at home.  

• Practice skills in the car.  Nowadays families are spending a lot of time in the car traveling between soccer practice, dance class and errands.  It's ok to utilize that time to squeeze in some therapy practice! If your child is working on expressive language, talk about what you see on your drive and ask your child questions about things in the environment.  If your child is working on articulation targets, take 5 minutes while you wait outside dance class to pick up the siblings to review your child's target words.  

It's not always easy to find the time to practice your child's speech and language skills, but it is important! 

Do you have any other tips/suggestions for busy families about finding time to practice?  Comment below with some of your strategies! 

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website, www.slpcenter.com, for more information! 

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website, www.slpcenter.com, for more information! 

App Review: Bitsboard

We have shared about this app before but we can't help but share it again!  Bitsboard is an awesome and FREE app that is great for speech-language pathologists, educators and parents! Bitsboard allows the user to create cards with words and/or pictures that can then be used as flashcards or to play a variety of games (memory, matching, photo touch, etc...).  You can pull pictures and sound from the Bitsboard library or customize the cards with your own pictures and sound.  Once your board is created you can easily share it so others can search for it by name and download it to their own iPad.  This is our favorite app for creating materials to be shared between therapy and home!  Download Bitsboard today and give it a try for yourself - we are sure you will love it too!   

Image from bitsboard.com

Click here to download Bitsboard from the iTunes store: 

Bitsboard

Thanks for reading!  Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website, www.slpcenter.com, for more information! 

Treatment Tip Tuesday

Whether you are an SLP working with clients in therapy or a parent helping your child work on his/her homework from therapy, board games are a great tool!

Here are some tips to help you use games while working on therapy targets:

1.  Choose games that allow you to take frequent turns.  Before each turn you must complete a therapy target (e.g. say a target word, answer a question, make up a sentence that contains a target word, etc...)

2.  Choose games with a lot of pieces!  For example, the game Bunny Hop, which is picture above.  Have the child help you "set up" the game by putting the bunnies in their holes.  Before you give the child a bunny have him/her complete a therapy task (e.g. have a list of therapy words for him/her to say, say a target sound in isolation for each bunny, etc...).

3.  Throw out the rules!  Play the game however you or your child likes without worrying about the rules.  The point is to work on therapy targets and have fun so as long as you are doing those two things, the rules don't matter!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website, www.slpcenter.com, for more info!

BHSM: Listen To Your Buds!

Hearing is a key part of communication.  Read below for important tips from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for protecting the hearing of yourself and your children!

Image from www.bhssinc.com

Protecting Your Children's Hearing

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) is caused by exposure to loud sounds and usually occurs painlessly over a period of time. However, it may occur from one exposure to an extremely loud noise. Research suggests that NIHL is occurring at younger ages and with more frequency. Noise from personal headphones, jet skis, concerts, lawn equipment, power tools, firecrackers, household appliances, toys and musical instruments all have the potential to cause hearing loss. NIHL can be prevented. Teach your children to know when loud is too loud.

It's too loud if...

• You must raise your voice to be heard.
• You have difficulty understanding someone who's an arm's length away.
• You have pain, ringing or buzzing in your ears after exposure to loud sounds.
• Speech sounds muffled or dull after noise exposure.

Here are some simple prevention steps:

• Avoid and limit periods of exposure to noise.
• Buy quiet! Don't buy noisy appliances, equipment or toys.
• Don't put objects in the ears such as cotton swabs.
• Monitor hearing when ototoxic drugs are prescribed.
• Wear hearing protectors

http://www.asha.org/Buds/Protecting-Your-Children-s-Hearing/

Angry Bird App Review

This App Review of Angry Birds was written in a therapy session by one of our teenage clients. This activity was done to address a variety of skills including sequencing, describing, organization and written language goals. 

"Angry Birds is an amazing game for ages 5 and up. The characters are birds and pigs. The birds are the ones that you control and the pigs are the ones that you try to destroy. There are a lot of game settings in Angry Birds. They are held in different places such as space, the desert, and in the mines. The point of Angry Birds the game is to knock all the pigs off the gigantic towers.

The first step to play Angry Birds is to put your finger on the bird on the screen. Then pull the bird back and next try to aim toward the pigs on the tall structures. Look to see what you knocked down. If all the pigs don’t fall down and if you don’t have any birds left then you lose. If you have birds left you keep trying to knock all the pigs down. You win the round by knocking all the pigs down before you run out of birds.

I rate this game 3 out of 5 stars because I would like it better if it was located somewhere different like movie scenes and backgrounds of popular television shows."

By J.C.

Visit our website for more information! www.slpcenter.com

Better Hearing and Speech Month

Image from www.asha.org

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month! This month is dedicated to raising awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing. 

Keep an eye on our blog and Facebook pages throughout the month for information about speech, language and hearing!

Feeding tip 1: Spread on the flavor.

Image from blog.bkcloset.com.br

Speech-Language Pathology Center is looking forward to the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" farmer's market tour with Suzannah Locketti on Sunday, October 17, 2010. Suzannah has a flair for creating family friendly meals that are health conscious. Combine these tips with therapeutic feeding therapy to facilitate pediatric dysphagia goals.

iPad Round Table: November 10, 2010

Image from blog.difflearn.com

Speech-Language Pathology Center is looking forward to attending an upcoming workshop that will address iPad usage for special education, particularly in the area autism spectrum disorders.  This will be a round table discussion, by invitation, at the Apple store in Chestnut Hill.  Some of the attendees include parents, educators, speech pathologists and other AAC professionals. I'll keep you posted for any new tips and tricks that I utilize to promote communication skills.