Most of us can rattle off the alphabet without having to think. This is a useful skill we rely on to look up a word in a dictionary or a name in a phonebook. Someone created the alphabet song to help us teach it to our children. But naming the letters in order does not automatically teach the child which letter name goes with which visual image. Naming individual letters is a skill that requires m ...[Read More]
Tools: Alphabet Chart for Learning Letter Names
Structured vs. Random Practice—Are Flashcards the Right Strategy?
Is your child having difficulty learning letter names, numbers, or sight words? The teacher is likely to send home a packet of flashcards for practice. But is this an effective strategy for your child? It is true that the fluent reader will automatically call up common words from memory. There is no need to stop and think about them or sound them out. The same goes for such things as letter names ...[Read More]
Tools: Using Form Puzzles to Stimulate Word Imitation
Imitation of sounds and words is an essential step in learning to talk. If your child is late in talking or has speech that is unintelligible, you will find this activity helpful. Most two and three year olds love form puzzles. These are the wooden puzzles in which each removable piece represents a complete, easily recognizable object. Even some children as young as 18 months like them, as do some ...[Read More]
What Are Word Retrieval Difficulties?
Surely, you have sometimes had a word seemingly right at the tip of your tongue without being able to get it out. You might be on the phone and trying to relay information quickly. Perhaps you are in a stressful situation such as a job interview, or you are simply tired or upset. That name you know so well or that perfect word for what you are trying to say just slips away.You know that word is in ...[Read More]
Learning the Speech Sounds
Your baby’s babbling consists of strings of consonant-like sounds alternating with an ah-like vowel sound. While these sounds resemble speech sounds, they are not “phonemes.” The baby is simply vocalizing while opening and closing its mouth. When you imitate your baby’s babbling sounds, you set the stage for baby to imitate your sounds. You match the baby’s sounds, and the baby in turn match ...[Read More]
Apraxia (CAS) – A Motor Speech Disorder
Most of us enjoy trying to recite a tongue twister faster and faster till the words get all “twisted” in our mouths. To the child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), the simplest word may be a tongue twister. Hundreds of quick nerve impulses are needed to produce a single syllable. With that in mind, it is truly amazing that most children seem to learn to talk so relatively easily! For the chi ...[Read More]
Learning Words–Early Stages of Vocabulary Development
You have probably read some of those little “pointing” books with your baby. You know, those books with hard pages and a single object pictured on each page. You point to the picture and name the object. Pretty soon, your baby points to each picture as you turn the page and might even try to imitate the word. This is a great way to stimulate your child’s early speech development and teach some bas ...[Read More]
First Steps in Learning to Talk
Your child’s speech development starts long before he or she says the first word. In fact, some research indicates that a baby learns to recognize the mother’s voice already while in the womb. At just a few months old, babies will distinguish between the language of their environment and a foreign language. Studies showing this did not include a familiar voice, just the familiar language contraste ...[Read More]
CAS – What We Can Learn from Two Case Studies
In Childhood Apraxia of Speech, CAS, the brain has difficulty telling the mouth what to do to produce speech sounds. We might say that the messages from the brain get mixed up before they reach the mouth. The child has trouble imitating the precise movements required to say sounds and syllables. Simple words become tongue twisters. It is a unique disorder, which requires intensive speech therapy. ...[Read More]
Does My Child Have Autism?
Autism is certainly one of the things parents worry about when their child’s speech is not developing as expected. And it is true that late speech and language development is one of the signs of autism. But only a small percentage of late talkers actually are on the autism spectrum. Autism is a communication disorder, a social disorder. Speech is a tool through which humans communicate with each ...[Read More]