Three Valentine’s Day Activities For Your Kids

by Courtenay M. Articulation Disorders Arts and Crafts At Home Ideas Language Development Parents' Corner School Speech Disorders Speech Therapy Techniques
Valentine's Day Crafts

Valentine’s Day Activities           for Your Kids!

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we want to share with you three fun ideas to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your students and kids! Of course, you can pull out some arts and crafts, stickers and colored paper to make homemade cards, but we’ve gone a bit further with some crafty and creative ways to get your involved with your kids, and provide an opportunity for language building and speech therapy techniques. We gathered these activities from some of our favorite Speech Therapy websites, so, grab your scissors, paper and tape and get ready for some Valentine’s Day fun!

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Are Tactile Tools for Speech Therapy An Effective Option?

by Courtenay M. Apps Articulation Disorders At Home Ideas Parents' Corner School Speech Disorders Speech Therapist Speech Therapy Techniques

Tactile Tools for Speech Therapy
Our in-depth look at tools for speech therapy turns toward non-traditional speech therapy methods today. We have touched on terrific apps for families and children with articulation disorder and sites and resources for SLP’s looking to incorporate technology into their practice. Another piece of speech therapy worth discussing are hand-held, tactile tools. Hand-held items are often effective tools for speech therapy. Tactile tools target a range of skill sets from fine and gross motor, articulation, voice and stuttering, listening and sensory skills. Tactile tools allow kids to practice speech sounds, provide appropriate sensory options and can be used in any setting, whether it be home, at a speech therapist’s office or even at school.

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Tools for Speech Therapy: 5 Fabulous Apps for Kids

by Courtenay M. Apps Articulation Disorders At Home Ideas Language Development Parents' Corner Speech delay Speech Disorders Speech Therapist Speech Therapy Techniques

Speech Therapy Apps

Get your iPads ready! Games, puzzles, stories on the go?  Speech Therapy is no longer one size fits all. Recent innovations in technology provide many valuable tools for speech therapy. Apps, iPad games and gadgets offer opportunities for learning at every level of speech therapy and often help make the therapy fun. Of course, apps should not be viewed as a replacement for a comprehensive speech therapy plan, and you should always seek to contact your SLP if you are planning to use applications, games and gadgets in conjunction with your therapy sessions.

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Articulation Disorder Study: Helping Sound the Letter /R/

by Courtenay M. Articulation Disorders Parents' Corner Pronunciation & Lisps R Sound Speech Disorders Speech Therapist Speech Therapy Techniques
Articulation Disorder - Treating the /R/ Sound

Using a tactile tool can help increase success rate in children with articulation disorder.  Image Courtesy of eHearsay: Electronic Journal of the Ohio Speech-Language Hearing Association.

As we finish of our in-depth look at articulation disorders this week, we would like to share with you some details from a recent clinical study which demonstrated the importance of a tactile tool in speech therapy. The study, published in the journal eHearsay: Electronic Journal of the Ohio Speech-Language Hearing Association tested the effectiveness of a hand-held tactile tool, Speech Buddies, in treating the misarticulation of the letter /r/.

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The ABC’s of Stuttering in Children

by Courtenay M. Articulation Disorders Language Development News Parents' Corner Speech Disorders Speech Therapist Speech Therapy Techniques

 

What is causing my child to stutter and how long will it last? Image Courtesy of Shutterstock

What Causes Stuttering and Can It Be Fixed?  Image Courtesy of Shutterstock

Stuttering is a speech disorder in which words, sounds or syllables are repeated or last longer than normal. Stuttering, also called stammering or disfluency, causes a break or a pause in the flow of speech. Young children may stutter when they are first developing their speech and language skills. The stuttering occurs when their speech skills cannot keep up with what they are trying to say. Stumbling over words or speech affects about five percent of children, and generally lasts for several weeks or several years.  Most children outgrow this stuttering phase within their first four years.

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