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I know this is a touchy subject, but I feel like I have to address it  because so many parents ask about it…. What television shows are good for your child? Are any of them educational?

I have to agree with the American Academy of Pediatrics in response to this question…  NO SCREEN TIME for children under 2 is beneficial.. “Screen time” includes television, computers, i-pads, i-phones… I know it’s hard, but the truth is that television provides no opportunities for interactive play… Yes, your child may learn to recite “Hola!” because she watched lots of Dora, but TV time is stripping a child of opportunities for language development.  I know it’s fun to watch your child navigate and learn the television, computer and I-pad, but if they’re under 2, it’s not beneficial.. It would benefit them much more if you sit down and use that time for concentrated play time with them

Blah, blah, blah – this is how I feel and how the American Academy of Pediatric feels BUT I am also realistic… Although I don’t yet have children of my own (hoping my hubby gives me the “clear” to start trying soon), I work with 0-3 year olds all day and have been a full-time nanny… There are so many instances in which one child is screaming and the other one is puking and, for goodness sake, you need to go to the bathroom…. for your sanity, I understand if you need to TURN ON THE TV!  Just be sure to limit the time and don’t let it replace real, rich learning opportunities throughout the day….

Stay tuned for the next blog post on ways to provide a language-rich play environment for your sweet child.

Any tips from moms out there as to how they stay away from relying on the television, computer or i-pad throughout the day?

Happy Babbling!

PROMPT is an intensive tactile cueing therapy that focuses on restructuring (or reorganizing) oral motor movements to stimulate language development and sound production. (Tactile therapy = touch therapy. PROMPT involves the clinician using his/her hands on the child’s mouth to place their mouth muscles into the right spot to produce sounds and words.) It’s research based and shows results.. especially for children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, children who are non-verbal or children with articulation/phonological disorders. For example, if your child has age-appropriate receptive language (or language comprehension) but only has a few sounds and struggles to imitate, this therapy technique would be perfect for your child!

There are very few PROMPT trained therapists in the metro-detroit area but almost all school districts in NYC are requiring their speech language pathologists to be PROMPT trained…. It’s about to blow up here in the midwest, too

If you’re interested in learning more about PROMPT therapy, please don’t hesitate to email me! I have already started to implement PROMPT therapy into my treatment room.

Happy babbling!

First of all, let me define “dysfluent speech” (stuttering is a type of dysfluency) Dysfluent simply means “non-fluent” or when there are unnatural pauses, repetitions or prolongations of sounds and words in a person’s speech.  A person may have a hard time “starting” a sound or word, repeat a sound at the beginning of a word (ie., th-th-th-THE), repeat an entire word (“the the the the”) or stretch out a sound (ie., llllllllllllove.)

Stuttering is a scary idea of many parents… Society has done a sufficient job bringing negative light to stuttering and other dysfluent speech. So frequently we see children and adults mocked in movies and television shows because they are an individual who stutters.

As Speech Pathologists, we generally are not concerned if there is no family history of stuttering and a child exhibits some mild dysfluencies between 15 months and 24 months.  Why? Because typically developing children have a vocabulary spurt at this time… often times their little mouth can’t keep up with all of the words their brain is trying to get out! If a child has some dysfluencies, this is what I recommend:

1. Model slow speech.. not uncomfortably slow speech, just slower than you may speak to another adult (I sometimes call it “turtle speech”..moving slow like a turtle)

2. Don’t speak for your child. Be patient with them. Make them comfortable. Let them get it out. Trust me, kids don’t need extra pressure

3. Don’t overtly correct your child. If she/he says, “Can can can I have apple?” Simply respond, “yes! you can have an apple!” to reinforce their good talking Children (and adults!) who stutter develop a lot of negative feelings towards stuttering which can make stuttering more severe – as a parent (or teacher) you want to combat these negative feelings with a safe environment.

It’s actually not common practice to “treat” stuttering in a child until preschool or kindegarten.. and even then, therapy is consultative (teaching parents strategies to provide safe and comfortable speaking environments at home and school..) Direct therapy for stuttering or other dysfluencies doesn’t usually happen until a child is in middle school or high school.

Happy Babbling!

stop using long phrases and questions with your 0-3 year old children. small, 2-3 word phrases are more manageable for them to digest, understand and (hopefully) imitate.  if you say to your child, “hey johnny, do you want to sit down and eat your delicious chicken dinner?” I’m 99% sure that sweet little johnny didn’t understand anything you just asked him… try something like this, “johnny eat? yum!”

short, simple and easy to digest.

(was this better, babe? )

WHY?!

Well, there could be a variety of factors that lead to a child’s tantrums.  A large contributor is frustration.  Children who are language impaired frequently become frustrated with their difficulty in communicating their basic wants and needs to their parent/caregiver.

So, yes.. children who tantrum are often frustrated – but how can we help decrease the amount and severity of tantrums? Two suggestions that I often provide parents:

1. Ignore the bad behavior, reinforce the good behavior

• Do not give your child a cookie, or any desireable object, in the midst of a tantrum. If you give them what they want, they start to legitimately think, “Oh, if I cry and scream, I get what I want! This is easy!” As opposed to reinforcing their bad behavior, praise them for their good behavior.  Throughout the day, as your child does things appropriately, bring positive attention to that behavior. For example, if your child picked up a piece of trash that fell on the floor, “Wow, [Gracie], I love it when you clean up after yourself! You make momma proud!” Consistent, positive reinforcement for desireable behavior will increase the amount of the desireable behavior.
• In the same light, if your child is kicking, screaming and crying for a cookie, DO NOT GIVE THEM A COOKIE! You may turn your head and let them “cry it out”or you may suggest for them to do something communicative.  Which brings me to my second suggestion…

2. Reinforce all modes of communication to decrease frustration

• As you ignore their “tantrum”, you may say to your child, “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. Do you want more cookie?” Whether they say “cookie”, “more”, “more cookie” REINFORCE their communication by immediately giving them the object they desire. If your child cannot verbally talk, you can use the “more” sign. Initially, you will have to take their sweet little hands and do the “more” sign with them. As time progresses, your child will quickly learn that bringing their hands together for the “more” sign gets them what they want – without a tantrum!

Hopefully these tips help decrease the amoutn and severity of your baby’s tantrums!

Happy Babbling!

I’ve been providing speech therapy for this child for approximately 2 months. He’s about 2 1/2 and his parents are dedicated to his language development.  This little guy did not initially have any sounds or true words when we started therapy. He rarely made eye contact or used any communicative gestures (ie., pointing, using a sign) to request (some of the things that are essential to language development.)  With the implementation of some good strategies at home, this little guy is starting to babble, use the “more” sign, point and consistently looks at his momma and daddy in the eyes.

During this particular session, we were rolling a ball back and forth with each other (a good turn-taking activity) and I was using simple language to narrate what we were doing.  It went something like this:

Me: Ball. Roll the ball. Ball.

[roll the ball to little guy.]

Little Guy: dasidamapodi (babbling)

[rolled the ball back to me.]

Me: Ball. Gimme ball?

[held the ball up towards my eyes and waited for little guy to make eye contact.]

Little Guy: BA!

I almost peed my pants with excitement. Little guy said /ba/ for “ball” three times during the session-his first true word. It took everything in me restrain myself from hugging his dad and crying.

…it was a good day

-baby.babbler

My dear friend, David, was sharing with me about how his 11-month-old daughter, Elliana, is starting to intentionally imitate his sounds (which obviously brings him so much joy.) Here are a few things I told him and his wife, Sarah, to watch out for:

• Does the child imitate sounds and sound combinations?
• At about 9-12 months, a baby should start to attempt to imitate sounds (ie., short words, environmental noises, and vocal play like blowing raspberries.)
• After they imitate single sounds, they will soon imitate short, simple words
• Does the child engage in vocal turn taking or turn-taking play activities?
• When a child is babbling and making noises, does he/she take turns with you if you imitate his/her babbling? For example:
• Baby: “dadadada”
• (pause)
• Momma: “bodadida”
• (pause)
• Baby: “dadadada”
• Does your child attempt to engage in turn-taking activities (like rolling a ball back and forth with his/her parent or caregiver?)
• Turn taking is an imperative skill in social communication that begins in a child’s play activities… it is a big red flag if he/she does not engage in turn-taking play

Soon after a child begins to imitate sounds, they begin to imitate simple words (like “ba” for “bottle”.) After they imitate simple words, they’re on the right road to spontaneously using single words!

So, to summarize how I respond to a parent’s question, “When will my child talk?”, these are the key characteristics I pay close attention to in their child:

1. Communicative Intent
2. Babbling structure
3. Imitation and turn-taking

All of these skills must develop prior to a child’s intentional use of words independently.

Please let me know if you have any more questions about pre-linguistic skills by leaving a comment!

Happy babbling!

• Babbling (or “cooing”) with vowels in typically developing kids usually occurs between 4-8 months… The baby does not initially use consonants (ie., “dadadadada” or “bababa”) but primarily uses vowels (ie., “uuhoohha”.)
• Babbling with consonants occurs between 6-8 months in typically developing children… This may include “babababa” (babbling with one consonant and one vowel) and will eventually turn into some complex babbling (babbling with a variety of consonants and vowels in a string like “badagigodadi.”)
• “Jargon” is a fancy word for “babbling with adult-like intonation.”  It usually occurs between 8-14 months. When the baby is babbling, is his/her pitch going up and down as if he/she is having a conversation with you?
• Using true words, or word approximations, amidst babbling occurs next (between 12-14 months-ish.) This may sound like, “Juice badadigo.” Juice is a real word while “badadigo” is simply babbling.

Baby talk isn’t as simple as one would think, eh?  If I’m evaluating a child and they are silent or only producing vowels, yet have communicative intent, this is where I start.  I imitate their vocalizations, babbling and jargon. Since therapy with 0-3 year olds is primary play-based, I sometimes imitate their babbling OR expand on their babbling in play, while using simple signs to request and label.

So, as I continue to answer a parent’s question of, “When will my child talk?”, I initially look at communicative intent and whether they are babbling…how complex is their babbling structure? Is the child solely using vowels? Or are they using a variety of consonants and consonant-vowel combinations with adult-like intonation?

Your child will intentionally start using words after he/she develops these pivotal prelinguistic skills of communicative intent and babbling….

Happy babbling!

Prelinguistic skills are early developmental markers that occur prior to the use of true words.  When studying in graduate school, I remembered “prelinguistic” as “pre-language.”

Parents frequently come into speech therapy asking, “When will my child talk?” Essentially, they’re asking, “When will my child use adult words and sentences to communicate wants and needs?”

This is a great question… if only I could wave my magical wand and make all children talk!  The truth is, children have to develop these “pre-language” skills before we start to notice true words (or word approximations that closely resemble the adult-version of a word.) What are these pre-language skills that speech language pathologists attempt to stimulate, engage and build upon? Why, I’m glad you asked… For the next few days, I will be blogging about some of the things I look for when evaluating a young child…

Today, I will discuss communicative intent.. This is where I usually start in the evaluation of a young child’s communication abilities…

• Is the child intentionally communicating his/her wants and needs?!
• A big surprise to most parents is the fact that babies don’t actually become intentional in their communication until they are about 10 months old.  Sorry mom and dad, but when your child started saying, “dadada” at 6 months, they weren’t calling for dad… Just babbling
• Does the child have an intentional point to request/label things?
• This occurs at about 10 months, too. Is a baby pointing or reaching for a desirable object? This is another sign of communicative intent.
• Does a child bring a parent to a desired object?
• Pulling, grunting and pushing a parent to a desired object is showing communicative intent… That baby is communicating that he/she wants something – and wants it NOW!

If a child is not showing communicative intent (ie., pointing, babbling and pointing, pulling a parents to a desired object, etc.), this is a great place to start treatment. I will go into more specific treatment strategies in a later post, but I generally start with:

• The use of a simple “more” sign to request
• Forming a child’s hand into an intentional point prior to giving him/her a desired object
• Using simple, short words to label all things the child wants or needs

So, to initially address a parent’s question of, “When will my child talk?”, I first look at their child’s communicative intent and how I can provide that specific child and his/her family with strategies to enable their little blessing to communicate in their daily living environment.

Happy communicating,

-the.baby.babbler.

Babybabbler.com is a website dedicated to the emergence, development and stimulation of children’s speech and language.  As a Speech-Language Pathologist who focuses primarily on the speech and language of 0-5 year olds, it is evident that many parents are curious and paranoid about  their child’s language development.  The intention of babybabbler.com is to:

• Provide parents and caregivers with developmentally-appropriate speech and language milestones
• Provide parents and caregivers with activities and toys to stimulate language development
• Provide parents and caregivers with local and national resources that are readily (or not-so-readily) available to them
• Provide parents and caregivers with the names of local programs and therapists that they can contact if they do have concerns in regards to their child’s development
• Provide parents and caregivers with case history examples, new information and questions/answers through blogposts

If you have any questions, concerns or comments about your child’s language development, please email Laura at: lwcslp@gmail.com.  Laura is an ASHA certified and New York State licensed Speech Language Pathologist who is passionate about serving and educating children and families on the importance of early language development.  Laura will read and respond to every email send (and possibly feature questions in her blogposts!)

Disclaimer: Although Laura is a licensed and certified therapist, it is highly recommended that you seek a speech language pathologist’s professional opinion in person for an accurate diagnosis.  No information provided on this site replaces the importance of visiting a therapist. Laura also operates under the theory that “no two children are the same.” Some treatment activities, toys or strategies may work really well for one child but not for another. If you need help finding a speech language pathologist in your area, please ask Laura!