Speech 4 Kids

It is with great sadness and excitement that I share there will be a change in ownership at Speech 4 Kids. Kimberly Gardener, OTD, OTR/L, SWC, CAS, my dear colleague and friend will be taking over ownership of Speech 4 Kids and starting a multidisciplinary practice including OT, PT and Speech services starting January 1, 2021. Leaving my full responsibilities at Speech 4 Kids has been an emotional decision for me, as Speech 4 Kids truly represents an extension of my family. H...owever, I am more than confident that Kimberly will be an amazing owner of Speech 4 Kids and will continue it as I have, if not better, as she is an amazing business owner and therapist. She is extremely knowledgeable, research driven, and passionate about children and therapy. This year has been a challenging year for everyone. What it has taught me is that life is short and family is all that matters. With that being said I have decided to relocate to the Atlanta area and provide my daughter the opportunity to grow up surrounded by our family. I want to take this time to say THANK YOU, to the Speech 4 Kids community who over the last 15 years has supported me and Speech 4 Kids. I could not have done it without you. I want to thank both current and past families and all of the professionals over the years that have given me the opportunity to work with such incredible children. It has been beyond fulfilling for me to have worked with so many amazing children, families and professionals. I have cherished every moment and I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities and all of the amazing people I have met. Thank you for being part of my journey. With my Sincerest Gratitude, Andree James, MS., CCC-SLP Licensed Speech Language Pathologist

Holidays always provide great speech and language opportunities. Research supports that children learn best when they’re motivated and excited, and who isn't excited about Halloween?! By incorporating speech-language goals into holiday activities, you can encourage your child’s development in a fun and engaging context. Below are our 4 favorite Halloween activities to foster speech and language development at home: Pretend Play Trick-or-Treating - Every child looks forward to... trick-or-treating and that activity will be greatly missed this year. Give your child an opportunity to trick-or-treat during pretend play! Set up pretend homes with different characters and have your child go from "house" to "house" trick-or-treating! Make a Halloween snack - Cooking is a fantastic way to work on sequencing and executive functioning skills, in addition to vocabulary and descriptive language. Find a creative Halloween snack to make with your child and have him write out the steps needed to make the snack. Ask him to describe each step while making the delicious treat! One of our favorite snacks is creating a spider out of Oreos, candy corn, frosting and pretzel sticks! Do a Halloween craft - Ask your child to follow a series of directions when making a cute pumpkin or scary witch. When they finish they can describe the picture to you! The internet has endless ideas for creative kid-friendly crafts. Choose your favorite and work on it together with your child! Dress up in Costumes - Costumes are what Halloween is all about! There's no reason you and your family can't still get dressed up! You can even go through costumes from the past few Halloweens and have your child change costumes throughout the night! Close your eyes before he comes out in his costume and ask him to give you clues to guess what he is!

One of the best ways to keep a conversation going is by asking questions. But what kinds of questions should you be asking?! . Not all questions are created equal! While some questions keep the conversation going, others can bring it to a dead stop. . It’s important when communicating with your child to ask open-ended questions. They dig deeper and require more of a response from your child than a one word answer. Instead of asking How was your day? where you get the dreade...d one-word response good, ask your kids What did you do today? to get more of a conversation going! #speechtherapy #speech4kids #speechpathologist #language #speech #askingquestions

More pizza making with this little guy who’s ready for discharge! We started working together October of 2019 at 2 years old with no words and few signs! Once quarantine hit he was producing single and two word phrases independently. 7 months of teletherapy later, we’re ready for discharge and having a pizza party to celebrate this little guy turning 3! #earlyintervention #speechtherapy #articulation #languagedelay #october #halloween #pizza

Whether your child is going to school or staying home, it is important to create a weekly routine for your child with a mix of fun and educational after school activities. Below are a few of our favorites picks: Virtual or Park/Backyard playdate - Social interaction is imperative for children. If your comfortable with a distanced playdate, bring out a soccer ball and let the kids kick it around from 6-feet apart while they name items in a category or say the ABC's. If you are...n't comfortable with a distance playdate, do the same on Zoom or FaceTime! Hold the camera kick the ball with your child, pretending to be his friend on Zoom, and have his friend's caregiver do the same. This will simulate the experience of kicking the ball with a friend! Bike Riding - Get outside with your kids and go for a bike ride! After a day of sitting at the computer, time outside is just what the doctor ordered...for both of you! This is another activity that is great to do with friends! As you are biking around the neighborhood, play "I Spy" while describing and guessing different things you see along the ride. Arts & Crafts - Take your art supplies outside in your backyard or on your balcony and let your child get creative! Incorporate language by having them follow your directions by adding different elements to their artwork. You can even ask them to create a book, and each day have them add a new page to their book, with pictures symbolizing their day. Then ask them to describe their day to you with the visual aid. Books - Add some time in the day to read books your child actually wants to read! If your child is young, set aside time to read together, pointing out important elements in the pictures and asking simple questions. If appropriate, discuss rhyming words and the alphabet while reading to target pre-literacy skills. If your child is older, set aside time for them to read a book of their choice on their own. When they finish a chapter or two, sit down and ask your child for a synopsis of what they read, discussing main ideas and key details.

It’s October so naturally we’ve started to pull out all of our favorite pumpkin and Halloween activities! Starting the morning off with super simple songs 5 little pumpkins video! Great to engage those little ones via teletherapy!

Today we’re sharing our favorite tips and tricks to elicit ‘r’ productions from your kids. 1. Have your child identify the back of his tongue, tip if his tongue and back molars. 2. Using a mirror, have your child practice retracting his tongue and lifting the sides of his tongue to touch his upper molars. You can use a lollipop to stimulate the sides of the tongue and back molars to ensure correct placement. 3. Ask your child to hold ‘kr’ and ‘gr’ sounds, since the tongue is ...already retracted for back sounds. 4. Make sure to use a mirror when practicing so your child can see his open mouth position, as the lips don’t touch when producing ‘r’ variations. #speech4kids #slplife #group #speechpathology #slp #speechtherapy #slpeeps #speech #language #slpsofinstagram #pediatrics #speechies

Speech 4 Kids is looking for a highly motivated, energetic, creative, compassionate and dependable SLP to work both virtually and in the clinic starting October 12th. If you know of anyone who might be interested please contact [email protected] and we can share more about the position!

It's no surprise that in-person schools will look drastically different than last year. It's important to prepare your kids for these differences, no matter their age! Here are a few ideas on how to best prepare your child when the time comes to return to in-person school: 1. Create a social story about a little boy/girl going to school with appropriate text and pictures. Include all of the new policies you know your school will be implementing. For example, draw a picture of... the pick-up/drop-off line and how your child is expected to be dropped off at school. Create dialogue for your child, the teacher and whoever will be dropping him off. If your child has already started school and they are experiencing difficulties separating, create a social story about separating from mom/dad/nanny! 2. Read books about going to school. If it's your child's first time ever going to preschool, read books like Pete the Kitty's First Day of Preschool to familiarize your child with the preschool routines. 3. Role-play what school will look like. Take out your child's favorite toys and recreate a preschool setting. If your child will be expected to wear a mask, place a piece of cloth over the doll's mouth to recreate an accurate portrayal of school. 4. Get a class roster so you can schedule a virtual play-date or set up a social distanced park gathering with other kids in the class! If your child has already started school, don't worry it's not too late! Set up these additional opportunities for the kids to socialize outside of the classroom to ensure a positive school experience for your child!

Movement breaks are KEY to incorporate during teletherapy sessions and hullabaloo is one of our favorites! This game is a perfect way to work on following directions, basic concepts and identifying categories! #speechtherapy #speechlanguagepathologist #hullabaloo #cranium #slp #language #followingdirections #speech #therapy #pediatrics #movement

While we've all become more comfortable using virtual platforms, below are some tips to set your children up for success as they begin their virtual school year. Most schools have increased the length of the virtual school-day, so these tips are even more beneficial to incorporate into your child's daily lives. Create a visual schedule - Give your child a visual schedule so they know what to expect from the day. Make this a fun activity and involve your child! Take out the ar...t supplies and have him/her decorate the schedule, so it's something they are excited about. Set up an in-home classroom - Dedicate a small space specifically where your child will log onto his/her zoom sessions. Only have things on the table that your child will need for the day to prevent unnecessary distractions. Remember, less is more! Use a timer - Set a timer between activities, screen time vs. break time, or subjects so your child knows what to expect and when a break is coming. This will imitate the presence of a bell that may go off if they were in-person. Incorporate movement breaks - This is SO crucial for our kids. Movement breaks are key throughout the day. If their teachers aren't already adding in movement breaks, help your child find an opportune moment to add in a quick movement break for themselves. Whether the movement break is jumping up and down a few times, completing a short obstacle course while answering questions, dancing or moving locations, it is important that your child moves his/her body to support his/her attention and learning capabilities.

Looking for some fun activities to do at home? We will be posting monthly speech and language activities to keep your kids engaged and motivated! This month, the theme of our activity is Fall! Who Can Participate: Any age... What You Need: 5-6 leaves, glue, markers, paper, paint Target Goals: Descriptive language, compare and contrast, following directions, wh- questions, speech How to Implement: Ask your child to collect 5-6 different leaves on your next walk around the neighborhood. When you get home, print out or draw a tree. Have your child glue the leaves on the tree or dip the leaves in paint and stamp them on the page with the tree. Depending on what you want to work on, you can ask your child to compare and contrast the leaves, describe the leaves, follow your directions of where to put the leaves, answer questions about the leaves, tree and picture, or practice speech sounds by making the tree a 'S' tree with 'S' word leaves or whatever other speech sound you are targeting. #speech4kids #speech #language #artandcrafts #fall #autism #followingdirections #descriptivelanguage #speechies #slp #slplife

/G/ood morning Speechies and Parents! Today we are giving your our top tips to elicit our voices back sound /g/. Typically most kids have mastered this sound by 3.5 years old, so if your child is still struggling, these tips are for you! 1. Using a tongue depressor or a lollipop, push the tip of the tongue down and the back of the tongue up. If your child produces /d/ for /g/, the tongue depressor will hold their tongue down and your child will start to produce the /g/ sound.... 2. Have your child practice sucking through a straw. Difficulty producing back sounds can be a result of reduced tongue retraction skills. When sucking through a straw, a child retracts his or her tongue, so this is a great skill to practice to get that /g/ sound. 3. Have your child lay on his or her back. When you lay on your back, your tongue typically falls into the back of your mouth. In this position, have your child produce /g/. 4. Read books with lots of /g/ sounds! Present as many models of /g/ as possible to give your child a lot of exposure. 5. Have your child place his hand on his voice box so he can feel the vibration when turning on his voice, producing /g/ instead of /k/. /G/ood Luck!

Wishing our wonderful owner @andjamslp a very Happy Birthday today!

Are you concerned about your child's language development and unsure how telehealth can be productive with a child under the age of 3? Well we are here to help! Our owner, Andree James, MS., CCC-SLP has over 20 years of experience working in early intervention and is currently offering virtual consultations. During your consultation, Andree will answer all of your questions about your child's language development, share how telehealth can be effective and impactful for not o...nly your child but your entire family, provide language based strategies to support your child's language that can be implemented throughout your day and MORE. Contact Speech 4 Kids for more information 310-839-1974 or [email protected]