Supporting AAC at Home and Beyond
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) gives children a powerful way to express themselves when speech is difficult or unreliable. Whether AAC is used temporarily or long-term, success depends on more […]
JOINING IN: Understanding and Celebrating Your Child’s Stimming
What Is Stimming? “Stimming” refers to self-stimulatory behaviors—like hand-flapping, rocking, spinning, humming, tapping, or repeating words or movements. These behaviors help autistic children regulate emotions, express joy, manage stress, and […]
Shared Book Reading
Shared book reading, interactive reading between a child and an adult, is a powerful and engaging way to support language development across all ages. The benefits of shared book reading […]
Everyday Moments Matter: Modeling Core Vocabulary for AAC Users
Core vocabulary words are the 200-450 words that make up 80% of what people use in everyday conversation across age, setting, gender, and disability. These are the words that are […]
First-Then: Communication Milestones
As pediatric speech/language pathologists, we often encourage parents to use “first-then” statements to help build a child’s language skills. For example, “First shoes on and Then outside” or “First clean-up […]
Modeling Language from Your Child’s Perspective
When modeling communication for a child with a language delay, you may have been given the advice to “speak from the child’s perspective.” This means putting yourself in their shoes […]
Summer Speech Boosters: 10 Fun Language Activities for Families on the Go
Summer is full of sunshine, snacks, and special moments with your child—and it’s also the perfect time to help their speech and language grow! You don’t need fancy tools or […]
Today, I’m Going to Give it My…Some.
The truth is, sometimes life is hard. Often it is busy. And crazy. As caregivers our priority is our children, helping them get the most out of every day. There […]
Promoting Speech/Language Outdoors
Winter in Minnesota and Wisconsin brings the snow and cold, short days, yet during this time there are still many fun outdoor activities to keep your kids busy while promoting […]
Early Gestures
At Masonic Children’s Clinic, we provide therapy services to children between the ages of birth and nine years. When people ask me about the work I do and learn that […]
Play or Therapy? Who Says There’s a Difference!
Throughout my time working as a speech language pathologist, I have often heard parents comment, “Oh, our last speech therapist just played with our son” or “it wasn’t real speech […]
When is Christmas Coming?!
MOMMY, MOMMY, WHEN IS CHRISTMAS COMING? Years ago, I was at my neighborhood Early Childhood Family Education class that I went to with my 3 ½ year old. We were […]