Play Teach Talk

Season 5, Episode 6 Children need to hear lots of language in the first 2-3 years of their life. I talk about ways that you can purposefully choose how you use language so that it has the most benefit for your child. https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Million-Words-Building-Childs/dp/0525954872

This is an expansion on the past episode I did as a general play skill review; I delve deeper into the stages of pretend play and why a child may not be engaging in skills as would be expected. The 5 Stages of Pretend Play in Early Childhood - Empowered Parents 'Pretend play' is important to kids’ development - Sanford Health News This was an interesting newer article about behaviors withi...

Just a little reminder for you about the end goal, the skill, the celebration not reflecting the process that got a person to that skill.

Ms Rachel has become every child's favorite YouTube star! Her videos are educational and animated and fun for our kids. However, watching Ms Rachel or any other educational video may not give you the "results" you are looking for in building language. I talk about why in this episode.

You ask your child to do something. You get a resounding "no"! You push. they push back. Now you're in a power struggle. What can you do? I offer 5 ways to interrupt the dreaded power struggle. How to End Power Struggles with Toddlers - Kars4Kids Parenting How to Avoid Power Struggles with Children (verywellfamily.com)

Cooking with your Toddler (meal prep, food assembly, putting a plate together) teaches many different language concepts, independence, and can also help a picky eater with their sensitivity to new foods.

In this episode, I describe targeting skills in a child's "Zone of Proximal Development" to ensure that a child is being challenged, but just enough. Have a great August-see you after Labor Day! How Vygotsky Defined the Zone of Proximal Development (verywellmind.com)

I've worked mostly with kiddos under 3 throughout my career, but in recent years I've seen kids up 6 and 7 years old- and I have great news! Even if your child is not using words at 3, that does not mean in all cases that they won't use words.

Just like kiddos who get stuck using the sign for "more" to ask for anything, I have kiddos who get stuck using "help me" for all of their needs. I discuss how to move past using a single phrase as a catch-all.

I love talking about helping our visual learners with speech! Language is primarily an auditory channel skill for most learners, but visual learners may need you to break down language in a way that supports their learning style. I cover ways to support this learning style and give a boost to your visual learner's understanding.

I offer ways to "mix up" language teaching to help get a child out of a single-word rut.

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great holiday. This episode talks about one of my favorite types of books- those with busy backgrounds that can help children use more complex vocabulary as they read! I talk about one brand of books in particular, but there are lots of books out there with complex backgrounds. You and your child can spend a long time together noticing the different characters in the...

This is a topic that I teased out from an earlier episode, and something I bring up with parents when their child is tantruming because they've been asked to use a word and do not want to. "Why do you want me to use a word, when pointing and grunting has worked pretty well for me so far?".

I'm passing on the newest research about language development in infants! How many books per day do you think you need to read to your child to help them develop their expressive and receptive language skills? bit.ly/daily-book

This is a short one! I cover a recent research study that looks at whether children's cognitive skills are affected by playing video games. https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/10.1027/1864-1105/a000364

Ah, Time Out. It's supposed to be a great technique for helping kids understand rules without having to resort to more strict forms of punishment- but how do we do it? How long should it be, how to we make it helpful, and how do we keep those kids in their spot? I combed the internet for the experts on this technique, ways to carry them out, and what to do if the techniques don't seem to w...

I'm no behavior expert, but I've seen kids and parents who struggle with hitting and biting behaviors throughout my years as an in-home speech therapist. I did a lot of research to find out the main reasons why children hit and bite, and what the experts suggest you do- as well as one big thing a parent or caregiver should NOT do- in helping reduce or eliminate these behaviors. Toddler Bit...

When children seem to "lash out" or have more tantrums than expected, I typically try to look at the rules that are being set and if there are differences in how parents and caregivers are implementing and reinforcing the rules in the home. Looking at how rules and boundaries are being communicated and follow through in goals occurs in a child's different environments can sometimes e...

I recently completed the most basic PROMPT training to learn a touch-based system to help children access speech sounds more easily and across words. I explain reasons why this might be helpful to use and also touch on another system that has been used as well to help with speech sounds (DTTC). What Is the PROMPT Method? (therapyworks.com) Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) – Child Apraxia...

Everything old is new again! Back in the 70s/80s, there was a debate about which was the best way to teach reading to young children. Is it better to teach sight words, or is it better to teach decoding skills through phonics drills? That debate has been picked up anew in the last decade. I go over the types of learning each entail, and what is the "best way" to help kids learn better re...

It is very important to build a child's repertoire of names of their favorite objects, but how do we move them on to longer phrases and sentences when they are ready to combine words? "Core" vocabulary is a list of the most commonly used words in child language, and they have the power to boost use of phrases significantly. 100highfrequencycorewords21.pdf (aaclanguagelab.com) Visit m...

In this episode, I talk about developmental milestones and variability in children's development. Because every child has their own path, a chart or a video of your friend's child showing a skill gives little information about when your child will have that skill.

I mentioned this briefly in S4 Ep 12- but we want to make sure that we are looking a few steps ahead in situations with our young kiddos so that we can problem-solve for any issues that can be avoided in play and in routines. Making a few small changes to how you approach an activity with your child, or how you work with them to learn a new skill, can be the difference between having a great exper...

Consider learning styles when you are looking for ways to help your child learn any new concept. The "Verbal" channel might not be their strongest way to access information. I describe the styles and how you can teach common concepts in each style. Visit my website at ⁠PlayTeachTalk⁠ for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills i...

As an EI therapist, I tend to work along with the discipline styles my parents use. There are alternatives to time out or other discipline when you can see that a behavior or situation could become dangerous but has not yet, during "power struggles", if your child gets upset during transitions, or when they are stuck emotionally and you are unable to help them calm easily. Consider using...