Learning and Language Challenges Blogs

Telepractice and Childhood Apraxia of Speech

In another article in this series, we looked at two types of speech sound disorders in children: articulation and phonology. Recall that “articulation” refers to issues with movement that may be caused by the child’s anatomy, weakness, or range of motion. “Phonology” refers to the complex patterns and rules we use for producing sounds. Some of the patterns we associate with speech sound disorders are actually part of the typical speech development process. However, when a child persists in these speech behaviors after a certain age, they may benefit from extra help by a SLP to acquire more adult speech patterns.

How Speech Therapy Can Help My Child’s Mumbling

If children have all the necessary and expected speech sounds, but are still not understood by others, it’s likely because they’re producing unintelligible speech. You may call it mumbling and it can be a barrier to your child’s independence. This is particularly an issue with younger children in preschool and elementary school. It can be frustrating for the child, as they never feel heard and are constantly asked to speak up or to repeat themselves. Improving their intelligibility can be a difficult challenge for parents and teachers, as well.
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Speech Therapy for Accent Modification

Learning English is challenging as a native speaker. The grammar rules and pronunciations are difficult enough to require lessons in every year of public education. For non-native speakers, who are accustomed to entirely different rules and pronunciations, it is far more difficult. To add to the difficulty of the language itself, foreign English speakers typically retain a noticeable accent that can make communication more difficult. It is also possible for people who have spoken English their entire lives to have a pronounced accent indicative of the region they were raised in. Read More

Online Resources for Teaching Your Kids at Home

As we all get used to this new normal, parents and teachers are faced with a question no one ever thought would need an answer. How do we keep our kids safe and practice social distancing while ensuring their education continues for the school year? So many parents are now juggling working from home and teaching their kids. And the reality is, those are the lucky ones because there are those who now find themselves looking for a job while trying to teach their kids. Whatever your situation, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! There are thousands of other parents in the same boat. To keep you from sinking, here are some resources we found online to help. 

Articulation and Phonological Disorders

Most young children go through a developmental phase in which they make phonetic errors in speech. You might remember your toddler or three-year-old substituting one sound for another, such as saying “weave” for “leave” or they leave out a consonant and restructure the word when two consonants are formed together at the beginning like, “boo” for “blue.”

While most articulation and phonology disorders are developmental, meaning that as they age they outgrow them, some articulation and phonology disorders are not. Read More

One-on-One Speech Therapy for Older Children

There are many resources available for preschool and elementary-age children who have developmental language disorder, a delay in mastering language skills in children who have no hearing loss or other developmental delays. But what about older children who still struggle with language mastery? Can one-on-one therapy still help those children? Read More

Activities to Improve Language Processing

Far too often we focus on the wrong things when treating Language Processing. We focus on the pronouns, the letter combination sounds, and sentence structure. Of course, these are important but before we jump into these skills first, we tend to lose sight of the need to treat language processing (LP) first. Nearly all of our activities are done through language. When processing skills are an issue, it’s hard for us to communicate what to do if we don’t understand what it is we’re doing or the tools we’re using. For instance, asking a student to paint a picture will result in frustration if they don’t know what a paintbrush is. Read More

Summer Travel with an SL Impaired Child

Nothing beats summer vacation and the chance to get out and travel. As a speech-language pathologist, you may have concerns regarding summer travel and the families you work with. Planning summer travel with a speech-impaired child can be difficult and the families you aid may have questions involving how to make traveling during the summer fun for everyone involved. With these tips, you can help ensure your students and their families have safe and fun summer trips. Read More

Communication Techniques for a Non-Verbal Child

Everyone needs to communicate. The ability to communicate our needs and wants is essential to living a fulfilled life. It’s estimated that nearly 25% of people on the autism spectrum are non-verbal. Despite all the advances there have been in treating people on the autism spectrum, there is still much to be learned, especially with children. An important thing to remember that not all communication is verbal, even when that’s what our area of focus generally is. Read More

Technology Overuse and its Effect on Kids

Technology has become a significant part of our day to day routine. We wake up, check our phones, ask Alexa to put milk on the grocery list, search recipes on Pinterest, and lose time playing games or binging movies and television. It’s no wonder that we have turned into a society addicted to our phones and tablets.

But it’s not just adults who are joined at the hip to technology. Kids of all ages are spending more time hooked up to tablets and smartphones than they are interacting with others; a habit that’s beginning to hurt them socially and cognitively. Read More