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Best Spring Books for Toddlers & Young Kids
We are all so. ready. for spring. Am I right? Before having kids, I always loved implementing seasonal and themed books into therapy sessions whenever possible. As a mom of a 3YO & 4YO, I love storing our seasonal books. When it’s time to pull them out, it feels like old friends. Seriously. One of the best things? My kids have come to love the day we pull out seasonal books for whatever is coming up next! It feels like Christmas morning without buying any presents, and that is a parenting win. So let’s get into it! Our current *growing list* of spring favorites, sorted by topic. See tips at…
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Best Busy Books for Toddlers & Young Kids
Calling all parents! Keep reading if you have ever found yourself in any of the following situations : Sound familiar? While there’s obviously never one solution, here’s one of my best *go-to’s* for all of the above: Busy Books. These are the *tried and true* books I throw in my bag before a doctor’s appointment with the kids, rotate in the car if we have a longer than typical drive, or pull out as an alternative to screen time. There are bins of these strategically placed throughout our house so they are always accessible and easy for us to pull out during the times in the day we need them…
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Using Storytime to Grow Your Child’s Language Skills with 3 Easy Tips
Picture this: You have a baby, and along with a lot of other things, people give you books. Then that baby grows, and at some point along the way, storytime with that toddler likely becomes a part of your daily or bedtime routine. As a parent and pediatric SLP who has worked with a lot of littles over the past 10 years, here’s one big thing I’ve learned: It is our instinct as parents to ask our kids questions. I’ll say it again: So now picture this You are reading a book to your toddler, and you end up sounding like this: Does this sound like you? If so –…
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Using Thrifted Books to Encourage Speech & Language (FEBRUARY)
Check out our favorite thrifted book finds from February, why we love them, and how you can use to encourage speech and language skills at home!
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18 Fall and Halloween Books to Increase Language
It’s that magical time of year again! Fall is my favorite season for many reasons, but one of the biggest is all of the fun themed activities and books. There are so many great books for fall and Halloween available, but I’ve developed some favorites for therapy over the past several years. I’ve also been growing our library at home as my oldest (17 months) is much more interested in books this fall and starting to choose his own favorites. (For more info on how early to start shared reading with your little one, go here!) Read on for my favorite fall/Halloween books for therapy and my own little ones,…
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4 Tips for Using Books to Teach your Toddler Fall Vocabulary
Happy fall, friends! There truly are so many wonderful things about this season. Sweater weather, football, coffee, pumpkin patches…you name it. Every year in my speech room, we do a lot of fall themed activities, books, and games (think: apples, leaves, pumpkins, Halloween, harvest, Thanksgiving, etc.) What’s not to love? This fall, I’ve been really looking forward to doing all the fun fall things with our 17-month-old, who is so much more cognizant of the world around him than he was last fall. We are planning a trip (or multiple trips) to the pumpkin patch, decking our front porch with mums, going on leaf hunts, planning themed Halloween costumes…you get…
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3 Easy Language Activities for your Toddler using Washi Tape
Here’s the deal – as a mom and an SLP, it feels like a big responsibility to make sure I’m including creative language activities in our typical day at home. Specifically my 16 month old (and especially as that 16 month old is adjusting to lots of change with a new baby sister around). As a parent, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need high end or specific toys to work on language. Sometimes, I have to remind parents of littles I work with that the takeaway is NOT to go out and buy the toys we use in therapy to have at home…
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5 Tips for Practicing Speech and Language Therapy at Home
Let’s be real, finding time for practicing can be hard. Do you have a child in speech or language therapy? If you suspected/were told by your pediatrician that they needed it, there’s probably some relief in knowing that they are now in a place that will allow them to get the extra support they need. We want our kids to be confident communicators! This will look different depending on your child’s needs. Maybe they’re not talking, maybe they are talking but are really hard to understand, or maybe they have difficulty understanding what is being said to them. One thing that parents who are new to the world of therapy…
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Hudson’s First Amazon Christmas List
How is it already that time of the year again? And how on earth is my tiny little newborn baby now 7 months and getting ready to celebrate his first Christmas? Over the past year, I’ve been making a mental list of my favorite toys that I’ve used in therapy with littles that I wanted put on my own little guy’s first Christmas list. I have a lot of patients on my caseload who are 3 and under. What do I go for when they come into my room? And more importantly, what do they go for when they come into my room? With kids this little, I think it’s…
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5 Daily Routines to Support your 1-year-old’s Language Skills
I’ll just say it: speech therapy can be overwhelming. If it was a surprise when your child was referred for an evaluation or a surprise when therapy was actually recommended during that evaluation, it can be even more overwhelming. All of a sudden, you have not only committed to another weekly (or multiple times/week) obligation, but you are also most likely expected to participate, and responsible for implementing strategies/helping your little one practice at home. No pressure! Like many SLPs, I believe that part of being a speech therapist is not just working with the child, but also working with the parent (e.g., the patient’s parent). This can mean helping…
