“It’s a language disorder that affects your ability to communicate. It’s most often caused by strokes in the left side of the brain that control speech and language.
People with aphasia may struggle with communicating in daily activities at home, socially or at work. They may also feel isolated.
Aphasia doesn’t affect intelligence. Stroke survivors remain mentally alert, even though their speech may be jumbled, fragmented or hard to understand.”
Valentine Heart Activity
Busy Toddler created a fun and festive activity for Valentine’s Day! Crafts are great for hands on learning and language development. Have your child use their executive function skills (e.g organizing materials, planning out activity) following directions skills (e.g. paint the heart red), or incorporate speech sounds (e.g. try your /s/ sounds 3 times and then paint a heart) for this activity. Check out Busy Toddler’s site for materials and directions on how to complete the activity. She also has a great Instagram for tons of other fun ideas, too!
February Vacation - We're OPEN!
Friendly reminder to all families — we will be OPEN for the entire week of February vacation, including Monday, the 15th! Should you need any adjustments to your schedule, please give the office a call!
Wonderful Winter Activities
Beat the winter blues with these fun winter activities for children! Craft activities have a duel purpose of keeping small hands busy and targeting speech/language goals. Use crafting as an opportunity to increase vocabulary exposure, promote following directions, encourage verbal requests, and more! Follow the link below and have a (snow) ball!
Making Speech “Homework” Fun!
“Life is busy! That’s why it’s so important to find functional – and fun! – ways to elicit speech and language in your home. Board games target speech, language, and social skills while also offering a fun time for family bonding.”
Click here for ideas on how you can target your child’s speech and language goals while playing games you have at home:
Facilitating Speech and Language Skills at Home
At the SLP Center, we know that working on speech and language skills outside of therapy sessions is critical for skill generalization! Current research supports shorter, more frequent practice across daily environments to help facilitate progress and carryover of skills. We’re here to help you with that!
Our speech therapists can provide you with a variety of resources, handouts, and recommendations to help you target speech-language goals at home, on the playground, in the classroom, and beyond.
Talk to your child’s therapist about ways to bring speech and language practice into your everyday routine! You can learn more about home activities to foster speech and language development at the link below.
Keeping Conversation Going During Virtual Holiday Gatherings
Technology can enhance communication and connection, as audiologists and SLPs well know. Here are some tips for a successful virtual holiday gathering:
Set expectations. Agree to certain parameters in advance, such as what time you’ll start and how long you’ll stay online together. Video calls can tire people out faster than in-person gatherings, especially young children or people with communication disorders. Understanding timing can help reduce stress and conflict—allowing everyone to enjoy one another’s company.
Plan conversation-starters or games to keep everyone involved. Designate one person to prepare conversation-starters (Family Dinner Project provides great suggestions). Other ideas include a word game (such as Table Talk or Madlibs), a virtual scavenger hunt—find your favorite family photo and show it to everyone—or a family trivia game (people can use the “raise hand” or “like” features within virtual platforms to answer questions or use free tools like Kahoot).
Keep important traditions alive. Tweak special customs for virtual settings. For example, rather than going around the table and asking what each person is thankful for, collect responses ahead of time in a gratefulness jar to read out loud. Or do a show and tell—bring an item representing what you’re thankful for this year. This might allow for more creativity.
Accommodate family members with different communication needs. Many older adults have some degree of hearing loss—consider modifications to help them stay engaged. For example, seating them closer to the computer or speakers, turning on closed-captioning, and projecting your meeting on a larger screen to allow better access to visual cues—such as seeing speakers’ facial expressions—can all make a world of difference. In addition, online meetings might feel long, overstimulating, or otherwise challenging for children with autism, ADHD, or a speech or language disorder.
Communicate respectfully. Give everyone a chance to speak, try not to talk over others, and limit side conversations during your gathering. This might be more difficult with everyone in different locations but doing so will make the experience better for everyone.
While this will be the most high-tech holiday season yet, families don’t need to go overboard on device use at the dinner table. Stash away individual phones and tablets for the meal so they don’t distract from the main gathering.
By: Diane Paul, Regina Escano Zappi
Happy Holidays from SLP Center!
Sending warm wishes to all for a happy and healthy holiday season!
Please Note: The SLP Center will be closed from Thursday, December 24th through Sunday, January 3rd. We will reopen on Monday, January 4th! You can reach us through the contact page on our website should you need anything. Thank you!
SLPC's Clinicians Get Into The Holiday Spirit!
The clinicians from the SLP Center spent some time team building and getting into the holiday spirit. Big thanks to Barbara Fearing who lead a fun ornament craft for the team. It’s been a hard year for all and it was great fun to set aside some time to get creative! We hope this holiday season brings rest, relaxation, and plenty of fun to you and yours!
Best Toys to Grow With Your Child!
Play is the work of childhood and toys are the tools for play. Therefore, when the holiday season comes along its important to find toys that can grow with your child. This is where open-ended toys come into play!
“Toys can be lumped into two categories: ‘one and done toys’ and ‘open-ended toys’. One and Done Toys do the playing for kids. They do the imagining. They do the talking. A toy that needs 57 batteries to sing the ABCs to your 1 year old is a toy you want to run away from. Because those toys are there to entertain your child - instead of your child entertaining themselves. Open-ended toys teach kids. They teach them to imagine. To create. To problem solve. To practice life skills and social skills. Our kids learn best through play – we need them playing with the “right” equipment.”
Busy Toddler compiled a great list of 100+ open-ended toys that grow with kids! Check their site and Instagram for tons of other fun ideas, too! Visit their website here!
Reading Tips for Parents of Toddlers
You may have heard many times (especially from us speech therapists!) that one of the best activities you can do with your toddler is reading. Reading with your toddler helps with vocabulary expansion, stringing words together into sentences, sustained attention, and pre-literacy skills – such as holding the book upright or turning the pages of the book. However, you may question how possible it is to read a whole book with your active and curious child! Check out the link below for some helpful reading tips for parents. Happy reading!
Best Gifts for Kids to Promote Better Eating
“Looking for double-duty holiday gifts? You know, the ones that are fun to open, but also are 100% practical and make your parent-life easier? When kids have fun with food it reduces pressure. The first step to getting them to try new foods! A novel and exciting gift for them, a long term win for you. Here’s my go-to list of top gifts that will help your child eat better. They also pave the way for family mealtime bonding!”
Happy Thanksgiving from SLP Center
From our family at SLP Center to you & yours:
Our office will be closed Thursday and Friday - November 26th and 27th. Please call should you need any assistance with scheduling. We hope you enjoy a safe and healthy holiday weekend!
What is Executive Functioning?
Find some helpful articles on this site for information and tips on executive functioning skills.
“Executive functions are cognitive skills we all use to analyze tasks, break them into steps, and keep them in mind until we get things done. These skills allow us to manage our time effectively, memorize facts, understand what we read, solve multi-step problems, and organize our thoughts in writing.”
If your child struggles in any of these areas, call the SLP Center to speak to a speech therapist today!
November is National Family Caregivers Month!
In honor of National Family Caregiver Month, we want to recognize the individuals who provide physical and/or emotional care for elderly ill or disabled loved ones. These individuals often take on roles that are unfamiliar territory for them. For example, providing household assistance, medical assistance, personal care, emotional support, and becoming an advocate. These selfless caregivers often prioritize another’s needs before their own in an effort to take care of the ones they love. We think it is essential that they seek assistance and support when needed. There are an abundance of senior support groups in the South Shore area. Please feel free to look through the attached list and reach out to a group near you!
Mindfulness For Kids!
“When we teach mindfulness to kids, we give them the tools they need to build confidence, cope with stress, and relate to uncomfortable or challenging moments. The earlier we do so in their young lives, the greater the opportunity to help them cultivate resilience and develop and refine their mindfulness practice as they mature.”
Mindful.org offers great resources, including an introduction to mindfulness, guided meditations, and at-home tips and activities for the whole family.
November 11th, Veterans Day - We will be OPEN!
The SLP Center will be OPEN for normal business hours next Wednesday, November 11th.
Please inform your therapist of any schedule adjustments that you may need. Thanks!
Masks & Communicating With Deaf or Hard of Hearing People
“During a health threat such as a coronavirus, people should wear masks in public. Wearing masks gives people some protection. At the same time, many masks hide the lips and half of the face, which makes it harder to understand speech. It is also hard to understand sign language when the person is wearing a mask. Facial expressions are an important part of sign language. It is very important to wear masks to stay safe during a pandemic, but also very important that deaf and hard of hearing people can understand what everyone is saying.
Our guidelines explain the best ways to communicate with deaf and hard of hearing people while following health recommendations. Our guidelines do not explain how much each mask or face shield protects people from any virus.”
Resuming Regularly Scheduled Snack Time
In light of the start of school, you may have realized that your children’s eating habits look very different now versus one year ago. If you’re finding it hard to get back on track in terms of meals and snack times, check out the New York Times article linked here. The author shares insights regarding her own children’s current eating schedules and tips on how to regain a meal and snack time schedule.
Last Chance for AAC Savings!
Many amazing companies have offered generous discounts up to 50% off applications in celebration of AAC Awareness Month. These companies include Avaz Inc., AssistiveWare, and PRC-Saltillo. These discounts will expire today or in the next few days. Visit our website for more information on all the available sales and how to act now!