Category: Home Activities

Do Pediatricians Always Know Best?

7/1/2020

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When it comes to your child's speech and language development, they may not always know best. At The Speech Space, we are lucky to collaborate with some great pediatricians and developmental pediatricians. However, this is not always the case. It's not uncommon for us to hear that someone's pediatrician recommended a "wait and see" approach. Unfortunately this is not always the best approach-- especially if some red flags for speech and/or language issues are present already. For instance, if your child is 15 months old and has not yet started talking, this is a major red flag and a "wait and see" approach may not be beneficial for your child. Beginning therapy as early as possible is aways recommended to help more easily build up a child's skills and to close the gap with their same-aged peers.

As a caregiver, you are your child's biggest and best advocate. If your gut is telling you something is not right, you should go with it! We always want our families to feel empowered to know what they can and should do for their child.

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If you are having concerns or questions about your child’s speech, language and/or communication development reach out to us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

iPad Games to Develop Language Skills

6/16/2020

Learn how we use the iPad to build language skills. We go over three games we really like and how we use them!

If you have questions or concerns about your child's s development, contact us at The Speech Space. We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Language Activities Using Household Items

5/19/2020

A few suggestions of activities that encourage language, using items you probably have around your house!

If you are having concerns or questions about your child’s speech, language and/or communication development reach out to us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Indoor activities to encourage communication development

5/5/2020

Try out these fun indoor activities to continue encouraging your child's communication development. Check out our Instagram page (@thespeechspacedc) for the full list of ideas!

If you are having concerns or questions about your child’s speech, language and/or communication development reach out to us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

What can I do to encourage my child's communication development?

4/17/2018

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Parents often ask us for activities they can do in their daily lives to help encourage their child's development. Recently, we came across Vroom, a website and app, which can do just that! To get started you simply make a profile and then Vroom will send you a daily tip or idea to help encourage your child's development. The service is free and you can get it sent directly to your phone, so you can do these activities on-the-go and anywhere!

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Vroom is tailored to your child's age, so the activities grow with you as your child continues to develop.

Apps and websites like Vroom make it easier to incorporate ways to encourage your child's development. But, if you are worried about your child's communication development, contact us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Why Organizing Your Child's Toys is Beneficial to Their Communication Development

1/2/2018

Have you ever walked into an area of your home and thought, "We are being overrun by all of these toys!"

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While having toys take over an area of your home can be overwhelming (physically and visually) to you, it can be worse for your child.

Children benefit from organization and routine. Having too many toys or options at one time can actually make your child's development (of play, communication and attention) scattered and disorganized. There really can be too much of a good thing when it comes to toys.

So how do you combat the clutter? We recommend putting toys in clear storage bins with lids. You can also put these bins on shelves. Clear bins are best because this way your child can still see the toys and be able to request which ones they want (making them use their communication skills!).

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Having a set place for where toys go helps your child learn routines and responsibility. It will also keep you from stepping on toys in the middle of the night or early morning-- the worst! Keeping your child's world organized is beneficial to their overall development. It can also help with your sanity!

If you have questions or concerns about your child's development, contact us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Why Reading the Same Book Multiple Times is Beneficial for Your Child

11/28/2017

If you read books with your child you have probably noticed they like to read the same ones again and again (...and again and again). Repetition is beneficial to helping children learn; however, it can get boring for the adults in their life. There are many activities you can do that are related to your child's favorite books. Not only will these activities further develop your child's language skills, critical thinking abilities and concept knowledge, it can also help maintain your sanity and put a new spin on things. This post is specifically for the book Harry the Dirty Dog (don't worry, we'll have other books coming up in future posts).

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Questions you can ask as you read with your child:
Asking your child questions during or after a book is important to help build and strengthen comprehension skills, as well as, work on responding to different types of questions. Depending on the type of questions you ask your child, you can also work on their critical thinking skills as well.

WHAT questions (e.g., "What did Harry hide?"; "What did Harry do to try and get his family to recognize him?")

WHO questions (e.g., "Who doesn't want to take a bath?"; "Who will give Harry a bath?")

WHERE questions (e.g., "Where did Harry bury his brush?"; "Where did Harry go when he ran away?")

WHY questions (e.g., "Why doesn't Harry's family recognize him?"; "Why did Harry run away?")

HOW questions (e.g., "How did Harry get so dirty?"; "How did Harry get his family to recognize him again?")

PREDICTION questions (e.g., "Will his family recognize him?"; "What might happen because Harry looks so different?", "Harry's feeling hungry now. What might he do?")

INFERENCING questions (e.g., "How does the Harry feel?"; "How would you feel if someone you know didn't recognize you?")

When your child works on answering questions about a story, it means they are building vocabulary and connections, as well as, critical thinking skills!

Fun activities to do after the book:
Doing activities related to a book you have read with your child is a great way to continue strengthening language skills. Incorporating activities related to a story help further build your child's ability to make connections and associations, increase their vocabulary skills, and can also help with their ability to recall and sequence information they have learned or been exposed to. You do not need to do all of these activities in one day. Feel free to spread them out over many days or weeks and even repeat them.

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Bake Cookies: Bake your favorite cookies (or just some that are simple) together and make them into different shapes from the story-- dogs, brushes, dog bones. You can even decorate the dog shapes to make some look dirty and some clean! This activity is good for recalling details of the story, using vocabulary and focusing on similarities and differences when decorating the cookies

Play Hide-and-Seek with a Brush: Hide a brush or scrubbing brush in your house and give your child clues to help them find where you hid the brush. You can take turns and have your child hide the brush and give you clues to find it as well. This activity is good for working on building vocabulary and concepts because of the need to use descriptions and preposition (location) vocabulary (under, above, in between, next to, etc)

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As we've talked about before, at The Speech Space we are huge fans of books! Not only are books a wonderful way to engage and spend time with your child, but they are also a great means for building language skills like vocabulary, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Adding or incorporating fun activities related to books you read with your child can double the impact (and fun!). If you missed our other recent book posts, you can read them here and here.

Check back on the blog for more ideas and activities you can do with your child to help encourage their communication development. If you have questions or concerns about your child's s development, contact us at The Speech Space. We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

iPad Apps That Can Encourage Language Development in Young Children

9/5/2017

As we talked about in this post, the iPad can be a useful tool with the right boundaries. Along with being mindful about how you use technology with your child, it's important to find apps that you can actually use for your child's language development. Here are a few of The Speech Space's favorite apps and some ways to work language skills into the technology.

Toca Boca Hair Salon: This app let's you pick a character and then cut and style their hair. Kids love changing the length, style, and color of hair and seeing all the fun creations they can come up with. This app has so many opportunities to incorporate a ton of adjectives in order to expand your child's utterances-- short, long, curly, wavy, straight, brown, blonde, red, wet, damp, dry...the list could go on and on. This is a slow paced app, which gives you a lot of time to make sure that your child is able to describe their creations.

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Pepi Doctor: Your child gets to be the doctor in the this app! They choose what part of the patient they want to help and then they take care of all their ailments. This app is great for working on real-life vocabulary. In addition to vocabulary building there are also opportunities to help your child understand the functions of items; such as, a thermometer is used to take your temperature or the dentist uses the drill to clean your teeth. The Pepi Doctor app gives your child a way to play with instruments in an environment where you can explain more about them. You can also have your child explain to you what they did to help the patient in the game and why the patient needed help. Additionally, this app is good for inferencing and describing.

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Peek-a-boo Barn: In this app different farm animals alternate appearing behind the barn doors. They each make their own animal noises (presumably saying "hi!" or "let me out of this barn!") behind the closed barn door. Before you or your child touch the barn door to let them out, have your child guess which animal they hear (early inferencing skills). Once the door is open you can talk about or ask questions about the animal (e.g., "What did the donkey say?", "What does an owl do?", "What does a cow make?", "What color is the pig?"). This app is great for younger kids working on early inferencing skills, naming animals, answering simple questions, working on putting together 2-4 word phrases (e.g., "Hi Cow.", "Goodnight Chicken." , "Open door for Goat.").

Using apps can be a fun and innovative way to work on building your child's language skills. However, it is important to remember that children do learn best through real-life engagements and interactions. If you are choosing to use apps with your child make sure you are truly using the apps with them. We'll add some more of our favorite apps in future blog posts, so come back to check them out!

If you have questions or concerns about your child's development, contact us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Summer Play Ideas for Young Children

7/25/2017

Play is so important for your child's development. Did you know that good play skills can help your child later on in their academic career? Play is the foundation of your child’s critical thinking, problem solving and social skills. Children learn best through play and being engaged with others. When your child is playing, whether with their shape sorter as a baby or board games as a kindergartner, they are developing critical thinking, problem solving and social skills. Your child’s ability to play as a baby, toddler and as a young elementary school student will impact their ability to navigate through their academic career. Play is the basis of everything and so very important!

Summer break is coming to a close in DC, so it’s a good time to get some extra play time in with your child! The Inspired Treehouse has a blog post dedicated to family play. You can see the list on their website. We picked some of our favorites from their list to share with you below.

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Explore the Magic of Your Backyard, Front Yard or Local Park
Play on the swing-set.
Play a game of tag.
Shoot some hoops
Play with sidewalk chalk.
Catch fireflies.
Play with hula hoops.
Set up a lemonade stand.
Play with bubbles.
Have a squirt gun or hose fight.
Try a round of backyard golf!

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Try Some Indoor Fun
Build a fort.
Play with your couch cushions!
Have a family game night.
Play I Spy.
Play with Play-Doh.
Visit a new museum.
Try out a new water park.

Work and Play as a Team
Make-up your own relay-race
Work together to create an art project.
Cook a meal together.
Learn a new skill –cartwheels, somersaults, monkey bars, swimming!

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Get Moving
Take a bike ride.
Fly a kite.
Go to the pool.
Find a new hiking trail.
Go for a scavenger hunt around your neighborhood or local park.
Head to the playground or local park.
Climb a tree.
Do animal walks
Go canoeing or kayaking.
Try yoga together as a family.
Play jump rope.

Use Your Imagination!
Play dress up.
Make your own movie or play.
Make your own musical instrument and start a band!
Bring out all of the stuffed animals in the house and play pet shop.
Line up all of the chairs in the house, get out a few suitcases and pretend you’re on a train or plane!
Learn how animals fall asleep and pretend to be each one.

We hope you and your child have fun trying out some of these ideas! Check back on The Speech Space blog for other fun ideas, toys and games you can do with your child to help increase their communication development.

If you have questions or concerns about your child's development, contact us at The Speech Space! We offer free screenings, which take approximately 30 minutes, and can help identify potential problems.

Is Screen Time Bad For My Child?

5/2/2017

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The use of technology with children is something a lot of parents debate over. We are here to help you figure out this conundrum!

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated their recommended guidelines on this very topic. You may be surprised that your child should not have ANY screen time before 18 months of age (with the exception of video chatting with family and friends). While there are times when 100% pure distraction is critical (like visiting grandparents a plane ride away), this should be a rare exception. Before your child turns 3, they are not really registering the content of the shows, just the highly addictive, constantly changing colors, noises, and shapes. Read below for the updated guidelines put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Children younger than 18 months:

Avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting

Children 18 to 24 months of age:

Parents who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing

For children ages 2 to 5 years:

Limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

For children ages 6 and older:

Place consistent limits on the time spent using media, and the types of media, and make sure media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity and other behaviors essential to health.
Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms.
Have ongoing communication about online citizenship and safety, including treating others with respect online and offline.

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The Georgetown Early Learning Project is another amazing source of information. Dr. Rachel Barr and her team have gathered extremely important and significant information about early child development and screen time. Below are some quick take-away points from their information:

Co-viewing with your child is vital for their engagement and language development

Screens should be shut off 1 hour before bedtime to help promote good sleeping habits (the lights from screens can contribute to sleep disruption--this goes for adults too!)

Set clear guidelines (and a timer if needed) to end screen time-- and be consistent.

Children 5 years and younger learn through interactions and joint engagement, not through watching and/or clicking on a screen.

Children 0-6 months of age are really into faces, so no need to even have a screen on for them!

At 6 months old children can recognize pictures, but can’t yet make the reference or association of them (meaning they can’t transfer what they see from a screen to real life).

Children from 9-12 months may seem super “focused” or “engaged” during screen time, but they are not truly getting the content of what they are seeing. Instead what is keeping their attention is the constant and frequent changes in features on the screen (e.g., noise, volume, light, pictures, etc). The people that produce these shows or games know exactly what they are doing to keep your child glued to the screen, but what they are seeing is not actually helping their development at all.

At 3 years old children are actually able to transfer what they see or watch on a screen to real life.

Shows with “real life things”, like Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street, are what children actually connect to

We hope you find this quick outline of guidelines and information helpful when making your plan of attack with screen time!

Additional Parent Resources:
American Academy of Pediatrics
Healthy Children (help with scheduling and your child’s needs)
Common Sense Media (what’s educational and what’s not, age ratings, etc)

*Special May Giveaway*

The Speech Space is giving away a free evaluation, in recognition of May being "better speech and hearing" month!

Enter via email at info@thespeechspacedc.com by Monday May 15th. The winner will be emailed on Tuesday May 16th. If you are having concerns about your child's development this is a perfect opportunity to get some answers and make a plan.