Cozy chats about speech, language and learning
I am celebrating my 44th year as a speech and language pathologist and the majority of them have been in the public schools. What is the speech and language pathologist’s role in the schools? Speech-language pathologists (also known as speech therapists) play a vital role…
There never seems to be enough money in the school budget to cover what is needed for the students. This means as school speech and language pathologists or classroom teachers we need to reach into our pockets to help meet this need. Our pockets however…
Repetition of songs and stories help children develop language skills.
Songs are an important language development learning tool. One of my favorite speech and language therapy techniques is using singing to develop language. Using songs for preschoolers for language learning is fun and effective. Preschoolers can learn so much through songs. Why use songs in…
It has been a very different school year! Starting in March 2020 there has been a need to switch from in-person learning to entirely online and now a hybrid model with seeing students in-person and some students online. It has been a year of professional…
Why should we teach prepositions? Prepositions are part of our everyday conversation. They are a big part of what we use when we give directions. Think about some of the early directions that we give our own children. ” Put on your shoes”, “Get in…
Wheels on the Bus Interactive Perhaps there are no other songs that children like more than the ‘Wheels on the Bus’. Many young children love to watch big vehicles. School buses with their bright yellow color, flashing lights, and laughing children draw children into watching…
There are many areas for challenges for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. No two people have the same communicative challenges. Some children with autism spectrum disorder have echolalia. Echolalia At one time the thought was Echolalia was a behavior to eliminate but we have a…
What are pragmatic language skills? Pragmatic language refers to the social language skills that we use in our daily interactions with others. This includes what we say, how we say it, our non-verbal communication (eye contact, facial expressions, body language, etc.) and how appropriate our interactions are in a given situation.
Not all of our communication is verbal. When we examine a child’s speech and language skills we need to include observations and descriptions of how the child is communicating non-verbally. Eye Gaze: A child might look at something they want and then back to the…