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 within pretend play:

A New Theory of the Progression of Pretend Play Development | Psychology Today

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

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 words.

Visit my website at PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children.

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 & ages.

11 Tips to Improve a Child’s Communication Using Signs (asha.org)

Hand Gestures Boost Spoken and Signed Language Learning | The ASHA Leader

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.

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 book, talking about what they are doing, and solving problems you see in the books.

Wimmelbook Publishing – We open seemingly endless worlds

Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go: Scarry, Richard: 8601420760561: Amazon.com: Books

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 within your typical play. 

Resources: 

Speech Sound Disorders (asha.org)

Home - Apraxia Kids (apraxia-kids.org)

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.

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!

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 (common pictures with text)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? by Bill Martin Jr (Rhyming)

Please Baby Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis (Rhyming, action words, can be used with sign)

PeekaWho by Nina Laden (Rhyming, Flap Book)

If you've read this far- there are a few other books I'd love to share! All children, even readers, love books with complex pictures and no text that have lots to look at.  I would recommend these for children who are a little older and have the attention span to look at a busy page. Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day is a fabulous book in which the nanny dog takes his infant friend Madeline all over the city when her mother goes away. The illustrations are beautiful and there is a lot to talk about in each scene. Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry also has a page full of pictures with lots going on- this one does have minimal text. 

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 PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children.

Related Links:

Why chatty, flashy toys may not be best for babies - CBS News

Do Blinking, Singing Toys Really Teach Babies? | Parents

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: 

#281 Skills Toddlers Must Use Before Words Emerge - #4 Joint Attention - teachmetotalk.com

How to increase toddler attention span - Teach Your Toddler To Talk

15 Activities to Increase Your Toddler's Attention Span (mylifeandkids.com)  (This link has lots of pop-ups)

Simple Trick May Improve an Infant's Attention Span | Live Science  (an article about research related to increasing child attention)

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.

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 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 better communication skills.

Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain: Suskind, Dana: 9780525954873: Amazon.com: Books

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.

All things about how awesome the parents are that we see in EI therapies

The creators, definition of, and description of how parent coaching can create increased progress in therapy and independence and empowerment for parents who are using the model all week long.

Visit my website at PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children.

Additional resources for learning about the coaching model for therapy: 

What is Parent-Coaching anyway?- Parent-Coaching Mini-Series Part 2 - (thesltscrapbook.com)

Coaching - EI Excellence

Early Intervention - A Coaching Model | Achievement Center of LECOM Health, Inc. (achievementctr.org)

This episode goes into detail regarding therapy as a contract, collaboration between parents and therapists, and challenges to consistent services with tips on how to navigate when a therapy contract needs to change. Touches on Coaching Model, which will be further explained in Episode 3.

Visit my website at PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children.

The first episode of Play Teach Talk covers points to think about when you are making the decision regarding whether or not you want to pursue an evaluation to determine if there is a delay in your child's speech or language skills, and resources for  more information about child language development for the youngest communicators. 

Link to Developmental Milestones for Speech and Language 

How Does Your Child Hear and Talk? Speech, Language, and Hearing Developmental Milestones From Birth to 5 Years (asha.org)

This is the link to the federal early intervention program in my state- all 50 states have this program.

NCEI - CDSAs

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 work.

How to Do an Effective Time-Out | Psychology Today6 Successful Time-Out Tactics (parents.com)

What to do when time-outs don't work (ages 3 to 4) | BabyCenter (This is a great resource if you've tried the techniques and they just don't seem to work)

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 Biting: How To Stop a Toddler From Biting – Cleveland ClinicUnderstanding and Responding to Children Who Bite | NAEYC

Anger, Irritability and Aggression in Kids > Fact Sheets > Yale Medicine

Toddler aggression: When to worry and how to stop your toddler from hitting | BabyCenter

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 explain why there is confusion in a young child.

Why Does Consistency Matter in Parenting? (verywellfamily.com)

Why Consistent Parenting Is So Important, and So Hard | Psychology Today

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 Treatment

Visit my website at ⁠⁠PlayTeachTalk⁠⁠ for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-.or visit my YouTube Channel ⁠⁠Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

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 reading skills.

Whole Word vs Phonics - Reading Wars! - Understanding the Differences between these 2 Approaches - Learning Reading HubPhonics vs. Whole Language | Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. (institute4learning.com)

Visit my website at ⁠⁠PlayTeachTalk⁠⁠ for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-.or visit my YouTube Channel ⁠⁠Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

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.

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 my website at ⁠⁠PlayTeachTalk⁠⁠ for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-.or visit my YouTube Channel ⁠⁠Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

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 experience and one where there are lots of "no"s.

Visit my website at ⁠PlayTeachTalk⁠ for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-.or visit my YouTube Channel ⁠Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

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 in young children-.or visit my YouTube Channel ⁠Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

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 some of these strategies rather than using "no" or putting a child in time out. 

Visit my website at ⁠PlayTeachTalk⁠ for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-.or visit my YouTube Channel ⁠Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

Taking turns with your eye contact, smile, voice, and body movements are all precursors to learning to interact with a communication partner. Taking turns in play is also essential as a part of participatory play. I share a strategy from a recent therapy session that might help your child to learn how to move a ball back and forth between you. 

Visit my website at PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-or visit my YouTube Channel Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

It's wonderful to be here! Creating a resource for families to learn about speech and language development and all of the developmental skills that evolve in conjunction with them has been a pleasure. I'm looking forward to feedback and ways to add more value to this podcast as it grows more in 2023. 

Visit my website at PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-or visit my YouTube Channel Tiffany Thompson - YouTube

I offer a few suggestions to help reduce visual distractions as your child is learning about play and language through their toys.

Visit my website at PlayTeachTalk for journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses offered twice monthly to enhance language skills in young children-or visit my YouTube Channel Tiffany Thompson - YouTube