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Parents play a critical role in a child's language development. Studies have shown that children who are read to and spoken with a great deal during early childhood will have larger vocabularies and better grammar than those who aren't. Here are some simple ways to nurture your baby's language development.Posted: Tuesday 23 April 2019 -
Babies, toddlers and children all go through various stages when it come to learning language. Here is a list of things you can look for with your own child(ren). Please remember that these are averages. However, if you have any concern with regards to your child’s language development please contact a Speech-Language Therapist . We know that the best intervention is EARLY INTERVENTION and a parent will never regret seeking the advice of a speech therapist too early!Posted: Tuesday 23 April 2019 -
In order for a child to develop speech, he/she needs to be motivated or tempted to use words or sounds. Opportunities need to be set up where the child wants to vocalize. Speech Therapists use communication temptations to help teach a child to recognize that when he/she uses his/her voice, it causes something to happen. you can do this too! Here are some ideas…Posted: Monday 25 March 2019 -
Our “wait and see” approach to the speech and language development of young children in New Zealand is nothing short of alarming! What we are seeing is the average age of referral to see a Speech Therapist becoming later and later. Instead of a child being referred for an assessment at age three or four years when their difficulties have become apparent, they are coming to us at age five and six years – sometimes even later! If a child’s speech and language skills are delayed at age six, then they were most definitely delayed at age five and four and three! The concerning thing is that the parent has decided, or even worse been advised, to “wait and see!”Posted: Monday 25 March 2019 -
We strongly recommend that you seek the help of a speech-language professional if your child is not achieving the following milestones:Posted: Sunday 24 February 2019 -
It’s really exciting when children start to combine words into little sentences. This usually happens when they are about 30 months old, but it may happen later for children with language delays. There are many things you can do to help your child learn to use sentences. Whether your child is developing typically or has a language delay, you can talk to your child in a way that encourages his sentence development:Posted: Sunday 24 February 2019 -
Do you have concerns that your child might not be meeting developmental milestones? Do you look around at other children of a similar age and worry that your child is much further behind? Here are my top 5 signs that indicate that you might need a speech and language evaluation.Posted: Sunday 24 February 2019 -
I am sharing with you four of my favourite strategies I share with parents and caregivers to help enhance their child’s speech and language skills. These strategies can be implemented anywhere! Try them while you help to dress your toddler, prepare meals, during play time at home, in the car or even at a fun place like at the park. The more you use these language elicitation strategies, the more your child should learn to understand and use words. So, please go ahead and try these techniques today. Have fun and don’t forget to praise your child for all of their attempts at speech and language, especially if they attempt or say something new!Posted: Friday 22 February 2019 -
As a parent it can be hard to know what is "normal" communication development. Just like walking, toilet training, learning to read and every other developmental milestone, there is a wide range of what is considered to be “normal". It's more complicated than just giving you a number, nut i generally suggest to parents that by age two years their child should have a vocabulary of about 50 words and be beginning to link words together into 2-word phrases.Posted: Monday 18 February 2019 -
Hearing your child talk for the first time is a very special milestone moment for most parents – especially the moment they first say “mummy” or “daddy”! For most children this seems to happen effortlessly. This isn’t always the case though. Some children take a bit longer to pick up language skills. Whether your child is an early talker or a later talker, these 10 tips will help you to support their language skills at home.
One important thing before I start on this list though! For some children, following these tips will not be enough. If you are concerned that your toddler is not developing early language, get them referred to a speech and language therapist as soon as you can. The best intervention is early intervention. The earlier a child gets the help and support they need, the better the outcome will be.Posted: Monday 11 February 2019 -
Expressive and receptive language are frequently occurring terms when discussing a child’s language development. But what do they mean?Posted: Monday 11 February 2019 -
Speech Language Therapists use a technique called “scaffolding” – which essentially means to increase or support language development by adding to what the child can say naturally. This helps the child to build upon his language in a naturally occurring context, without pressure.Posted: Saturday 9 February 2019 -
Pediatric speech-language therapists have their own ways for describing the 'types of talk' that benefit children. Two of the most simple language facilitation techniques are self talk and parallel talk. These two strategies are pretty straightforward: talk about what you are doing as your child watches (self talk), and talk about what your child is doing or seeing (parallel talk). These strategies tend to come pretty easily to most parents, although many certainly feel a bit silly talking a blue streak to a little one who doesn't yet always talk back. But it gets easier as you go! (It helps if you already engage in "self-talk" on a regular basis with no one around.)Posted: Saturday 9 February 2019 -
As a pediatric speech-language therapist, I often use indirect language facilitation strategies to help grow a child's language. This time I m referring to expansion and extension - some indirect language facilitation strategies that parents can put in their language-boosting tool box. These strategies are built around a child's utterance (what the child says) and they do not require a response from the child.Posted: Saturday 9 February 2019 -
Silence isn’t golden for 400,000 Kiwis The important role of Speech-language Therapists is being highlighted with a week-long campaign, Giving Voice Aotearoa 2018, to raise awareness of communication disabilities nationwide. 400,000 Kiwis have a communication disability, including an inability to speak and be heard easily, processing spoken and written language, and reading and following signs.Posted: Tuesday 11 September 2018
