Play Teach Talk

This is just the basics! I go over the use of No-tech, Lite and Mid-Tech, and High-Tech supports for language comprehension and expression and why they can be helpful for children who are not yet using words as their primary communication. I also touch on use of apps for high tech AAC versus "dedicated devices" and why there is a difference.

I detail reasons why young children may be drooling, what age to look for it to stop, and resources you can access to help with drooling in your toddler.

I talk about the pros and cons of both screen-based play and play with toys without bells and whistles. 

Turn-taking is a social skill that needs to be built as a foundation for more purposeful interaction and language skills. I discuss ways to set up play to encourage turn-taking and how to do this with a few common "favorite" toys.

Do you have a kiddo who just can't sit down for more than a few seconds to play? Are you wondering how to help them pay attention to toys and activities to help them learn words and sounds? I give you several strategies to try, from the least to the most supportive, to help your child increase their attention span in play, which can assist in building language comprehension and encourage first wor...

An encouragement episode for parents: Even if it seems like you've tried everything to help build language skills and it's not working, you are not doing anything wrong. We are an individualistic society, but there are professionals and resources out there that can give you help and strategies to try with your child. You're not alone!  

I go over stages of play in which children engage over their development. Exploratory play is the most basic stage, and it is where many of the push-button sound and light toys are, even if they are marketed as "educational" toys. 

Use of gestures, baby signs, and Sign Language to support expressive language skills can be very helpful for enhancing language skills. I talk about benefits and how to use the signs. Look up some of the signs that work for your toddler's communication needs and try them the next time your child wants to communicate a need.  Signing Time - Teaching Sign Language to children of all abilities &...

A basic overview of hearing loss types and ways to optimize focus on sounds and words to build clearer language and speech in play. Related Articles: Does Otitis Media Affect Later Language Ability? A Prospective Birth Cohort Study | Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (asha.org) Ear Infections & Language Development (unc.edu)   OtitisMedia (nih.gov)

Food and mealtimes can be used to help prompt children to use more language, at any level your child communicates. I do not typically recommend work with food as a prompt for language when children get highly frustrated by holding food for the child's communication, or if the child is a picky eater/not motivated by food/tube fed and food is not a high-interest topic.

Another installment of an episode that goes further into depth with ideas to help model language concepts away from toys, within routines.

I go into more depth regarding ways to model different language concepts on a walk around the neighborhood, to a park, or to a playground.

Your toddler is now using words, and that's really exciting! But some of their sounds are not coming out as would be expected- or they are leaving off sounds, or they are shy to try to talk. Does your child have a speech sound disorder? What diagnosis should they have? I provide education regarding the types of sound disorders, and general strategies to help your toddler tune in to speech sounds w...

This is a short one! I go over the places that offer free toys and where you can find used or recycled toys both online and locally. Remember that non-electronic toys are always less expensive than those with bells and whistles!

We typically notice when children are not talking as they get older, but comprehending language is the basis for building expressive language skills, and delays in following directions and showing understanding of the meaning of words is crucial to overall language development. I talk about ways to support building better language comprehension skills in this bonus episode.

Nursery Rhymes and fingerplays (think 5 Little Monkeys) are a great way to help a child become a more active communicator and build skills needed to increase participation. I make a case for singing the songs yourself, rather than playing them on a screen, even if you are not an operatic singer!

I describe how children learn "book knowledge", how to foster literacy in the smallest "readers" before they ever read a word, and how to choose books to enhance their knowledge of pictures and text during reading.  Some of my favorite books:  The Napping House by Audrey Wood  (Rich text) The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Rich text, action words) First 100 Words by Bright Baby (comm...

The kids' toys market is full of toys with flashing lights and sounds. They play music, they talk about what they are, they seem to attract the attention of children who might not otherwise play with the toy- but are they helpful when you are trying to build language? This episode references a study about electronic toys that came out in 2015 and discusses the findings. Visit my website at PlayTea...

Building longer attention span for adult-led play and creating more instances in joint attention is crucial to establish prior to building language skills. I talk about attention for child-led and adult-led play, what joint attention is, how to set up your environment to encourage better attention, and a few activities to encourage joint attention.  Links to attention-based articles:  #2...

I talk about the reasons why toys brought into the home seem to "work magic" in encouraging children to use language, and how to do that yourself at home.

I talk about 3 different communication styles that parents may use, the pros and cons to each of these styles in language learning for children, and how to tweak your communication to help increase language learning.  I mentioned this book at the end of the podcast. It covers research related to how children learn language best and how parents can use their language to help with building bett...

The benefits of engaging in play with your child, especially those whom you suspect of having language delays.  Supporting Links Connecting With Your Child Through Play: The Surprising Benefits of Parent-Child Playtime — Exchange Family Center 10 Things Every Parent Should Know About Play | NAEYC

Ideas for setting up a room or space for your child to optimize the time you spend in language learning tasks. Your child will be exposed to language all day long; however, when you want to teach more focused language skills, this is a way to "engineer" your environment.

In this episode, I give parents ideas regarding how to model language for their children all day long, how to work language learning into routines, and how to be a "language model", focusing on specific words to optimize progress in language development.

In this episode, I give you 10 of the major reasons I see in my practice that children are not using words to express themselves. Visit my website at PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children.