Play Teach Talk (Tiffany Thompson MA, CCC-SLP)

In this episode, I describe what functions of the brain recent research indicates is being affected by screen use. 

References from Seminar:

▪ Hutton, J. S., Dudley, J., Horowitz- Kraus, T., DeWitt, T., & Holland, S. K. (2020).  Associations between screen - based media use and brain white matter integrity in  preschool - aged children. JAMA Pediatrics, 174(1).  

▪ MacMullin JA, Lunsky Y, Weiss JA. Plugged in: electronics use in youth and young adults  with autism spectrum disorder. Autism. (2016)  

▪ Radesky, J., Miller, A. L., Rosenblum, K. L., Appugliese , D., Kaciroti , N., & Lumeng , J. C.  (2015). Maternal mobile device use during a structured parent – child interaction task.  Academic Pediatrics, 15(2), 238 – 244.  

▪ Yousef S, Eapen V, Zoubeidi T, Mabrouk A. Behavioral correlation with television  watching and videogame playing among children in the United Arab  Emirates. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice. (2014)

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.

I've worked mostly with kiddos under 3 throughout my career, but in recent years I've seen kids up 6 and 7 years old- and I have great news! Even if your child is not using words at 3, that does not mean in all cases that they won't use words.

It can sometimes throw us off as parents and caregivers when our child plays with a toy in a different way it was intended- what are we supposed to do? Follow their lead? Correct them? Show them how to play with the toys in the way they are intended? And how do we use language related to the toys to help build their language?

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

"We can do hard things" is a phrase I use when I'm working with children who are resistant to trying things that are challenging for them. It really is part of the human condition that fear of failure sometimes stops little people (as well as adults) in their tracks rather than to try something and not do it well. 

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

I go briefly over ways you can use toys and your interactions with your child to increase the newness of toys you already have and lengthen the span of interest for play.

ARFID as a diagnosis has only been around for about 10 years. It is one of the more severe issues with "picky eating" where a child eats very few foods, which can cause significant gaps in nutrition. Leaving out critical vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients can affect how a young child's brain and body develop. I cover a few signs of the disorder and how it impacts the child and their family. 

A team approach is crucial to make progress in helping a child learn to explore and accept new foods, which will not only broaden their food repertoire, but opens up social events for which they had typically sat out because of their limited foods.

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

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) | National Eating Disorders Association

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) - Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital - vD (hopkinsallchildrens.org)

What Is ARFID? - Child Mind Institute

In the final episode (probably?) about feeding issues, I delve into why you might be seeing some of your child's behaviors at meal time. If you have concerns about your child's feeding skills and would like more information about whether your child needs intervention or therapy, talk to your pediatrician about a referral to a local pediatric feeding therapist in your town's hospital or clinic. 

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

Two Websites/Instagram Accounts I Follow:

Home - Feeding Littles

Melanie Potock – Pediatric Feeding Expert and Author (mymunchbug.com)

In recording this episode, it really hit me that there is a long process from the simple movements of the mouth in bottle, pouch, and sippy cups to higher texture foods. I cover what the mouth does during breast and bottle feeding, as well as during direct sips from a pouch and a sippy cup with a soft spout. The second part of this episode breaks down the textures after that, and why there is a heirarchy of chewability based on motor skills available to the child. 

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

Co-Regulation is a term that emerged from the concept of self-regulation, or learning how to tune into one's emotions and feelings and engage in ways to calm and soothe the nervous system. Though it is used in different contexts, I discuss what co-regulation means as it applies to parents and caregivers and how they interact with children. How we approach and respond to children can greatly affect how they learn to interact with the world, and how they learn to check in with their own minds and bodies when they experience stress. 

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.

 Co-Regulation From Birth Through Young Adulthood: A Practice Brief (unc.edu)

Using Co-Regulation To Help A Child Develop Self-Regulation - Havern School

How Co-regulation with Parents Develops into Self-Regulation in Children (parentingforbrain.com)

I talk about the pros and cons of both screen-based play and play with toys without bells and whistles. 

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

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

A quick little FYI about Play Teach Talk. 

playteachtalk.com

I go into depth about language modeling for kiddos who have reached the 2-3 word mark for communication, and how to further advance their skills. 

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'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

Some of us were not raised with Nursery Rhymes likes Mary Had a Little Lamb, or the tunes to the songs feel outdated. What are other options for singing with your child?

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

Gracie's Corner TV – Come sing and dance with Gracie as she takes a fun imaginary journey with family and friends! (graciescornertv.com)

JOOLS TV™️: Home of the Original Trapery Rhymes™️ – Jools TV

Bino and Fino - African Culture For Children

Peppa Pig: Nursery Rhymes - Peppa Pig (Video Clip) | Nick Jr. US

Classical Nursery Rhymes: Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I'm a Little Teapot, The Farmer in the Dell, Old McDonald, Five Little Ducks, 

Five Little Monkeys, Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, If You're Happy and You Know It, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

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. 

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.

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

Teaching emotions can be difficult: I recently watched a series from Brene Brown in which she notes that even adults break down their language about emotions into three general descriptions: Mad, Sad, and Happy. If we, as adults, use simple language to describe emotions, how can we help children learn about using language for their own? I talk about how to work with the littlest ones on learning how to describe emotions, and why flash cards and books can be good tools, but how focus on emotions in action may be more helpful for developing a deeper understanding of them. 

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

Additional resource:

How to Teach Kids About Emotions | Psychology Today

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

In speaking with one of my families, I thought it might help to distinguish the difference between an infant playing with sounds and an older child imitating sounds and words. I hope this sheds some light for why some children seem to make lots of sounds as babies, but when it's time to build their own sound or word vocabulary, there seems to be a lag in skills (which we sometimes think is regression, or losing skills).

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 cover a few ways to help build higher level literacy skills for your older toddler by recognizing the sounds letters make and using branding to talk about the sounds that make up the logos of your child's favorite places to go in your community.

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

At the forefront of the Neurodiversity Movement are Autistic people who are advocating for their own rights. This is an exciting time, as there are more ways for even nonverbal communicators to find their voices through visual and augmented means like social media. I cover the definition of an ASD diagnosis, what this can look like in small children, why it is hard to diagnose in those under 3, and the differences between language development in girls and boys with ASD. I touch on "masking" and "gestalts", which will be future episodes.

For More Information: 

Home | Autism Speaks  (It should be noted that there is not an autistic person on the board of this organization).

Early Signs of Autism Video Tutorial from the Center for Autism and Related Disorders | Kennedy Krieger Institute

Autistic Self Advocacy Network (autisticadvocacy.org)   

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

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

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.

Lying underneath many of the other developmental skills that a child learns is their executive function skills. I cover what that term means, and touch on how deficits in these skills can affect other areas of development. 

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.

Executive Function Skills By Age: What To Look For | Life Skills Advocate

Strategies to Strengthen Executive Function | Psychology Today Canada

How to Boost Executive Function in Children & Why It's Important to Helping Them Thrive - Hey Sigmund

Ms Rachel has become every child's favorite YouTube star! Her videos are educational and animated and fun for our kids. However, watching Ms Rachel or any other educational video may not give you the "results" you are looking for in building language. I talk about why in this episode.

Learning to count with 1:1 correspondence is an essential skill to learn, upon which we base future math learning. I discuss the difference between counting in rote and in correspondence, and how to build these skills. 

Check out my website at PlayTeachTalk.

I offer journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses to optimize your toddler's speech development.

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 interview Lisa Costa, MA, OTR/L, who is certified in Hippotherapy, to give us a peek into the therapy, who does it, what ages of children can be involved in the therapy, and the benefits it has. We also go into Therapeutic Riding and touch on other therapeutic benefits that riding and interacting with horses can have. 

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

There are lots of options available to have child care in the US. I go over the most common options, the star rating system for daycares, and additional things to look for when you are doing a walk-through of a center. 

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.

How Points are Earned - How Points are Earned (ncdhhs.gov)

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

In this episode, I describe how you can enhance your child's ability to build phrases, sentences, and recall stories better using the novel decorations, events, and routines that happen around the holidays. Any event that is interesting to your child is a great opportunity for learning. Model the language around the objects and activity that is interesting to them. 

This is the final episode of Season 3! See you in January 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

Just a quick episode as a reminder that children are all unique and develop in their own ways, and meeting them where they are and encouraging them to do more is more important than meeting any specific goal on a developmental milestone chart! I discuss reasons why a child might follow a different path developmentally. 

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

Progress in language skills can sometimes be less transparent than it is in other areas of child development.

Check out my website at PlayTeachTalk. 

I offer journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses to optimize your toddler's speech development. 

How our body moves food from the mouth through the intestines has a large impact on how we perceive food, eating, and meals. I use a few anecdotes about clients I've seen regarding how issues with their GI systems affected their choices of foods and behaviors around eating.

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

There is a period of time in all children's expressive language development in which you may see dysfluencies of speech (stuttering). We all use some dysfluencies in our speech (pausing, saying "um" or "like"), but when should you consult with a speech pathologist to see if testing or therapy is needed? 

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

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

I update parents on a recent article that discusses use of AI to help teach language to children who are bilingual or multilingual in a language that is not mastered by their available SLPs. 

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

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)

In the final episode of Season 2, I discuss where we will go from here in season 3, and how to be aware of what is "common" (what you see your child's peers doing) versus what is "typical" (within the usual expectations for development with children your child's age). 

The podcast will return September 7, 2022! 

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

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)

I cover feeding therapy with broad strokes: What it is and who does it. Further explanation about feeding therapy and what contributes to it in future episodes to come!

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

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.

I interview Megan Hardisty, PT, DPT, who gives us insight into what physical therapy is and how it is used for young children. 

Pathways.org | Tools to maximize child development

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

If your child has a hoarse voice, even if they are 3 or 4 years old, they can be successful in therapy to treat their voice. I go over ways to help your child use their voice in a healthy way and some of the options for therapy and treatment for voice disorders in young children. 

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

Pediatric Voice Disorders | Durham, Raleigh, North Carolina | Duke Health

Pediatric Voice Disorders: Evaluation and Treatment | The ASHA Leader

Having the bottom half of our faces covered throughout the past few years has had an effect on children's language development. I discuss how to help children attend better to language modeled by others.

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 like kiddos who get stuck using the sign for "more" to ask for anything, I have kiddos who get stuck using "help me" for all of their needs. I discuss how to move past using a single phrase as a catch-all.

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.

Reducing sounds or syllables in words can be typical of children under 3 as they learn speech. How can we help a child learn how to place syllables on words? I give a few strategies to help your child become more aware of the parts of words. 

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

Sometimes using a screen is unavoidable. What apps can you choose that will be more educational and useful for language building? I give several recommendations for free and low-cost apps that I like to use. They won't be as high-motivation as watching a YouTube video or playing some of the fast-movement games, and that's actually a good thing- high use of screens in young children has an effect on their brain development- so much so that the guidelines for screen time were updated in 2021. I will be covering those guidelines as well as recent research about screen time to help make sense of why certain types of screen use can be better for younger children. 

Apps I cover: Toddler Flash Cards, Joy Doodle, Autism iPlay, Card Talk, Snap Scene Lite, Sensory Light Box, and Peekaboo Barn. 

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

This is the first episode in a series of strategies to teach higher level language skills to older toddlers (2 1/2-3 years) who are comprehending language very well. Idioms are used frequently in our daily lives, but are not literal. There are many books on the market that help visualize idioms. I cover a few common idioms and a few from other countries as well!

Check out my website at PlayTeachTalk.

I offer journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses to optimize your toddler's speech development.

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

In this episode of the podcast, I note several signs that a child might have an (as of yet) unidentified feeding issue. These soft signs can be less clear in indicating a feeding issue, but should be watched if you see one or more of them on a regular basis and there is not an alternate explanation for them.

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

It is common to see kiddos who previously did not communicate or follow directions, but were laid-back, to start to make refusals and protest when they have been through a few months of speech therapy. I explain why and ways to help your child work through their frustration. 

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

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!

Does your child eat only "bland" looking foods?  (yellow, tan, brown, white- with a dash of red)

Though they chew foods well, do they seem to be stuck eating only a few of them? 

Do they seem to get very upset if their usual foods are not available and they have to substitute?

Your child might be making food choices that feel safer for them based on how they are processing food-based information (appearance, taste, smell, texture). I cover ARFID and a few strategies that are used to help expand preferred foods. 

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

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.

When children are referred for speech language evaluations, the usual concern is that the child is not using as many words as would be expected. There are, however, many other valid ways to communicate, and the development of gestures, signs, facial expressions, and tone are all equally as important. 

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

I break down the motor ages of foods to try with kiddos based on how they are moving and why we see children cough on foods even when they like them. 

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

Natural Language Acquisition can happen through two paths of development: Analytic language, where children develop language in the ways we learned in school, by sounds, single words, and then word combinations. But there is another type of language acquisition that we have known about but has not been the focus of therapy until only recently: Gestalts. I go into some detail about how children learn in this way. Check out the links below for more information about the stages of learning. There is also a link to a video that teaches about these stages. It's long (about 3 hours), but will be helpful for any parents who suspect that their child might be learning language in this way. 

What is Gestalt Language Learning? - Associates in Pediatric Therapy (kidtherapy.org)

https://youtu.be/JwzkwkyjSLY (This is the link to the Video)

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

In this episode, I describe targeting skills in a child's "Zone of Proximal Development" to ensure that a child is being challenged, but just enough.

Have a great August-see you after Labor Day!

How Vygotsky Defined the Zone of Proximal Development (verywellmind.com)

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

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.

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.

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.

Megan Hardisty joins me for another episode to talk about the AT lending library and the "magic" that can be created by using assistive technology to support a variety of developmental skills, while allowing children to explore their world and have new experiences as they develop. 

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

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

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 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

I love talking about helping our visual learners with speech! Language is primarily an auditory channel skill for most learners, but visual learners may need you to break down language in a way that supports their learning style. I cover ways to support this learning style and give a boost to your visual learner's understanding.

Do you have a child who doesn't let you know until the verylastminute that they have to use the bathroom? Does your child not ask for food and then seem to get really hangry? Does your child not seem to have awareness of when they have gotten too hot or too cold, and you're putting a blanket on a child with a blue nose? They may have an issue with interoception. I go over what this means and the types of activities that can help children tune into their inner states more readily. To see if your child could benefit from these activities, consult with an Occupational Therapist with training in this area of development.

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

 The 8th Sense Explained: 7 Interoception Activities for Kids (merakilane.com)

Interoception: The Secret Ingredient | Dana Foundation

This was such a fun podcast to record! I go into how to start working on having your child recall stories in short, 3-4 part sequences, and I also talk about a strategy I use for building stories and working with a child's imagination on an even higher level.

Check out my website at PlayTeachTalk.

I offer journal entries, YouTube videos, and short courses to optimize your toddler's speech development.

Link to Sequencing Cards: 

Amazon.com: Super Duper Publications | Sequencing Fun Deck Flash Cards | Educational Learning Resource for Children : Toys & Games

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!  

With so much of our world being presented in visual form, children are not encouraged as much to use their imagination to generate mental pictures of the world around them, and this can effect ability to comprehend reading in the future. Working on learning how to make a "picture in your head" of common objects at a young age can help with learning as children become readers. 

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

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.

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

There are several no-tech toys that can be used throughout a toddler's first few years to teach a variety of different play and language concepts. These toys can be recycled at different learning points to teach different things. To make the most use of the toys you purchase, try to choose based on the value they will give you over time. 

First 100 Words (bright Baby Series) First Edition By Roger Priddy (board Book) : Target

Fisher-Price Baby's First Blocks Set, Shape-Sorting Toy - Walmart.com

Amazon.com: Baby Crayons 12 Colors Finger Crayons Painting Pencil Sticks Washable for Toddlers,Kids,Children,Boys and Girls,MeteorShower Safety and Non-Toxic Stackable Crayons : Toys & Games

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.

I wanted to bring in people of other therapeutic disciplines to talk about their jobs and how what they do impacts the development, attention, and speech of the youngest children. Tempe Morgan, COTA/L was gracious enough to talk with me about her experience as an Occupational Therapy assistant, and how she uses therapeutic strategies to help children get in that "right spot" to engage in their occupation, play. What resulted was a very fun exchange about how speech therapy and occupational therapy overlap, and how we can present therapeutic strategies and interventions in ways that allow us to continue to "play" while challenging a child just enough to gain new skills. 

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

A few videos to check out:

https://youtu.be/ggyuXVAG5lI (Vestibular Processing)

https://youtu.be/GwoEwW2tgbI (Proprioception)

https://youtu.be/vS9TT_bDZfE  (Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Nervous System)

This is a short and sweet episode that describes a strategy I use to help transition kids from one activity or routine to another, whether they are moving away from or toward the more motivating activity. 

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

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.

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.

Responsive Feeding is another buzzword going around the parenting and childhood development communities. I discuss what it entails. 

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

What is Responsive Feeding? | The Nourished Child

Responsive Feeding Infosheet - Baby Friendly Initiative (unicef.org.uk)

I go over several resources for families who have children under 3 to support not only language development, but overall development in the first years of their lives.

Mentioned during the podcast:

Community Alternatives Program for Children (CAP/C) | NC Medicaid (ncdhhs.gov)

Early Head Start Programs | ECLKC (hhs.gov)

Family Support Network (fsn-oc.org)

Autism Society of North Carolina | Find Help (autismsociety-nc.org)

Home • ZERO TO THREE

I recently attended a training that went further into depth about how motor planning skills can affect how children play with toys. Does your child move very quickly from one toy to another without really stopping to play with them? Do they seem to play with a preferred toy in the same way all of the time? While we sometimes look at these types of play as being characteristic of children on the Autism spectrum, the simple play and quick movement to new toys may have to do with a breakdown in motor planning skills, from having a concept of how they want to play with the toy, all the way to whether they can take the feedback they get when their intent goes wrong and adapt to it and change their approach. 

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.

Motor Planning: Learning How to Use the Body – BabySparks

5 Therapist-Approved Motor Planning Activities | NAPA Center

Does it hurt or benefit a child to be exposed to two (or more) languages? I talk about the different types of language acquisition, the concept of a dominant language when children are exposed to more than one language, the "silent period", and how best to present languages to children to help them build strong skills in both languages.

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

Use body movement, narrating routines that children typically do not do, and objects around your home to teach language! I share strategies that are not the typical toys off the shelf to teach understanding and use of language.

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

Daycares often require children to be potty trained before moving up to classrooms for older children. What are some of the reasons why children might not be ready to potty train? I give a few tips to help make the process easier.

During my time in the homes, I have seen a few concepts go out of style for teaching kids under 3. Educational toys are not being geared towards these concepts, and that can make teaching them a little tricky. Listen for the ones that need extra supervision from an adult.

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 go into depth about neurons, synapses, and myelinization, synaptic pruning, and how screen use can affect this process in the brain in the time of peak development.

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

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

In our fast-paced world, I make a case for using a pause as a strategy to enhance receptive and expressive language skills. 

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

I reference this book/program in the podcast:

It Takes Two To Talk – Hanen Workshop for Speech-Language Pathologists

I realized I left out the places where you can pursue a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. I rectify that in this podcast.