U.talk LIFE Podcast

Many children begin to stutter around 2-3 years old.  Fortunately, about 75% of those will recover on their own, but currently there is no way to predict who will and who won’t.  We do know that the longer a child continues to stutter, the more resistant to treatment the problem can be.  For this reason, it is better to treat stuttering early, while the child is still in the pre-school age group. What causes fluency issues?  Although we don’t know exactly, there are several risk factors for persistent stuttering: being male family history of stuttering stuttering longer than a year So how can you help your child who stutters? There are a few basic things you can do as a parent: Be patient, don’t interrupt. Reduce stressors in the home. Avoid fast-paced schedules. Speak slowly. Give your child plenty of time to speak. Use shorter, simpler sentences. Give more praise than criticism by a ratio of at least 5:1. In addition, check in with a speech-language pathologist (SLP) to get an assessment of the severity of the condition and to learn about treatment methods specific for your child.  In general, research shows that these methods have been the most helpful for preschool children: LIDCOMBE METHOD1 – this is a behavioral approach and requires the parents to provide feedback regarding the child’s speech constantly and consistently, both during structured practice sessions and during everyday conversations.   For fluent speech, the parent: Praises. (Good job! You sounded great!) Requests the child to self-evaluate their speech. (How do you think your speech was just now?) Acknowledges the child’s fluent speech matter-of-factly. (That last sentence was smooth with no bumps.) For non-fluent speech, the parent: Acknowledges the child’s non-fluent speech matter-of-factly. (That last sentence was a bit bumpy.) Requests the child to self-evaluate their speech. (How do you think your speech was just now?)     DEMANDS AND CAPACITIES MODEL2– this treatment is based on the theory that stuttering occurs when the language demands placed on a growing child are greater than his current skills or capacities – hence the name ‘Demands and Capacities’. The treatment revolves around reducing the child’s motor, language, emotional and cognitive demands using techniques such as:   Decreasing the child’s rate of speech and the motor complexity of words while at the same time practicing exercises to increase motor skills. (Slow down, use shorter words, practice speech skills.) Lowering the expectations for the child to produce advanced language while at the same time strengthening their language skills. (Use simple sentences, teach grammatical skills.) Reducing stress in the child’s routine while at the same time teaching emotional skills. (Decrease planned activities, teach coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety.) Lowering the child’s cognitive demands by simplifying tasks while at the same time teaching him methods for easy communication. (Teach one thing at a time, teach listening skills, go slow, take turns talking.)   Syllable-Timed Speech3, 4 – This method is one of the simplest to implement, in my opinion. You simply have the child practice ‘robot speech’, where each syllable is separated briefly from the others. So the sentence, “I want macaroni and cheese for dinner”, would be said like this:  “I-want-mac-a-ro-ni-and-cheese-for-din-ner.” Sometimes it helps to have the child clap each syllable as they speak.  This technique slows down their speech while also breaking it up into more manageable segments. The bottom line is that there is no one quick and easy fix for fluency issues.  It takes time and patience and practice to see improvements in your child’s speech. I hope this has been helpful to you.  For lots of great information about fluency disorders, visit The Stuttering Foundation at https://www.stutteringhelp.org/.     1hhttps://www.lidcombeprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/lp_treatment_guide_2015.pdf 2See Franken, M.C. & Putker-de Bruijn, D. (2007). Restart-DCM Method. Treatment protocol developed within the scope of the ZonMW project Cost-effectiveness of the Demands and Capacities Model based treatment compared to the Lidcombe programme of early stuttering intervention: Randomised trial. http://www.nedverstottertherapie.nl  Retrieved from: https://nedverstottertherapie.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/RESTART-DCM.Method.-English.pdf 3Trajkovski, N., et al. Using syllable-timed speech to treat preschool children who stutter: A multiple baseline experiment. Journal of Fluency Disorders (2009), doi:10.1016/j.jfludis.2009.01.001.  Retrieved from:  http://www.unm.edu/~atneel/shs531/syll_timed_tx.pdf 4Andrews C, O'Brian S, Harrison E, Onslow M, Packman A, Menzies R. Syllable-timed speech treatment for school-age children who stutter: a phase I trial. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2012 Jul;43(3):359-69. doi: 10.1044/0161-1461(2012/11-0038). Epub 2012 May 4. PMID: 22562864. Retrieved from:  https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2012/11-0038)

LENORE THE OREOZ GIRL -- A STORY FOR ARTICULATION AND LANGUAGE PRACTICE   This is a video story to help children practice speech sounds and language. It is a great resource for speech students working on the following sounds: • VOCALIC R, especially OR • Z   For articulation practice, have your child or student read the story to practice the sounds in reading. Or, to practice the sounds in conversation, read the story to them first and let them retell it to you.   For language practice, ask the child to retell the story to you, using as many story elements as possible:   • CHARACTER – who? • SETTING – where, when? • PROBLEM – what’s wrong? • FEELINGS – how do they feel? • PLANS – what do they decide to do? • ACTIONS – what do they really do? • SOLUTIONS -- how is the problem fixed? • ENDING – how does it end?   Ask them questions about details of the story. Point out pronouns and ask them to switch proper nouns to pronouns. As they retell the story, check for proper past tense verb usage. To practice inferences, stop the story at key points and ask the child what might happen next. As them what a character might be feeling or what they might do.   This story is included as a downloadable pdf in the online course: VOCALIC R SOUNDS https://www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com/.../spj.../checkout For more tips on speech therapy and online courses, please visit www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com. Have fun!

PRACTICE MAKES…PERMANENT The other day I was talking to my husband about the phrase “Practice makes perfect,” and he said, “No, that’s not true.  It is ‘Perfect practice makes perfect.  Practice makes permanent.” And I thought about that and how that phrase really does apply to speech.   Think about the child who goes to his speech therapist at school and is taught how to make the ‘R’ sound, putting his tongue in the right place, keeping it back and tight, etc.  Then he goes home and practices it the wrong way each night. Practicing it the wrong way will become a permanent behavior just like the original bad habit was permanent.  If he learns how to say the sound incorrectly, it will take a lot of practicing it the new way to fix that behavior.  That’s why it is so important to make sure your child is practicing his sounds correctly at home, and to do that, you have to know the right way to teach the sound.  If you’re not sure how to practice that sound with your child, you can check out online information or follow my courses at www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com. Remember, PERFECT practice makes perfect!

DOES MY CHILD HAVE A TONGUE THRUST?   What is it?  A tongue thrust is when the child’s swallow pattern never changes from the ‘reverse swallow’ pattern that babies use.  The tongue continues to push forward toward the front teeth when swallowing.  The child’s tongue may also do this during speech.  This could cause a lisp, but not all lisps are caused by tongue thrust.   How can you tell if your child has a tongue thrust?  Your child may breathe with his mouth open a lot, and his tongue may rest in a forward position.  He may have trouble pronouncing sounds like S and Z because the tongue wants to push forward, creating a lisp.  He may be a messy eater and drinker because the tongue is pushing forward during eating.  And, strangely enough, the child may grimace or lick his lips before swallowing, causing them to become chapped.  A true tongue thrust will likely cause orthodontic problems and the child may develop an open bite or an overbite as a result of the frequent pressure of the tongue pushing against the top teeth.   A simple test to see if it's a true tongue thrust is to have your child put some liquid in his mouth, part his lips, and swallow.  If any liquid escapes out between his teeth, he probably has a tongue thrust (because his tongue is pushing forward causing the liquid to spill out).   If your child does have a tongue thrust, talk to your dentist to see if an orthodontic device is warranted to keep your child’s tongue away from the front teeth.  A speech-language pathologist can help your child practice correct pronunciation of S, Z, and other sounds that may be affected.   To learn more about how to practice the S and Z sounds, please see my online course for parents at www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com.    

In the past, it was thought that various tongue or mouth exercises, including blowing horns, were helpful to teach children to speak properly.  These exercises are very different from the movements involved in producing actual speech, and so they are called Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises.  Research has shown that these types of exercises are not helpful for typical speech therapy.  It turns out that talking doesn’t require much tongue strength, so exercises that focus on building strength are not particularly helpful.  What’s needed to speak properly is to practice coordinating speech movements with the brain.  In other words, to learn to speak well, practice speaking correctly. When are nonspeech oral motor exercises useful?  If your child has had a stroke or has a neurological weakness of the tongue, exercises might be used.  Sometimes SLPs will use these exercises when treating a true tongue thrust.  However, for most speech errors, including a basic lisp for S and Z, nonspeech oral motor exercises are NOT recommended.  Just teach your child how to produce the sound correctly using proper tongue placement, and then practice, practice, practice! To learn how to teach your child how to produce sounds correctly, check out my online courses at www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com.

Does your child have a lisp?  Here are some fun exercises that will help your child learn to produce 'S' correctly. First of all there’s the Smiling Librarian trick.  First you pucker your mouth as you say ‘SHHHHH!’ and after a couple of seconds, you switch your mouth shape to a smile as you continue to do it.  Smiling should change it to an ‘S’ sound.  Then switch back to a pucker shape and the ‘SH’ sound should return.  Keep trying that to see what happens to your tongue as you do this.  Your tongue should move forward a bit for ‘S’ and back a bit for ‘SH’. Another fun exercise is the rainbird sprinkler -- hold your arms out in front of you, hands together, and imitate a rainbird sprinkler. First you make the ‘T’ sound, one per second, as you slowly move your arms to the right 90 degrees. Then, quickly return back to your original position, making the 'T' sound increasingly rapidly until it is continuous and turns into an 'S' sound.  Basically, the 'S' sound is a 'T' where the airstream is no longer stopped by the tongue but allowed to escape through a narrow gap.  Have your child do the rainbird exercise with you to see if it turns into an ‘S’ sound. Have fun!  

This is a video story to help children practice speech sounds and language.  It is a great resource for speech students working on the following sounds: VOCALIC R, especially ER S BLENDS For articulation practice, have your child or student read the story to practice the sounds in reading.  Or, to practice the sounds in conversation, read the story to them first and let them retell it to you.  For language practice, ask the child to retell the story to you, using as many story elements as possible: CHARACTER – who? SETTING – where, when? PROBLEM – what’s wrong? FEELINGS – how do they feel? PLANS – what do they decide to do? ACTIONS – what do they really do? SOLUTIONS -- how is the problem fixed? ENDING – how does it end? Ask them questions about details of the story.  Point out pronouns and ask them to switch proper nouns to pronouns.  As they retell the story, check for proper past tense verb usage.  To practice inferences, stop the story at key points and ask the child what might happen next.  As them what a character might be feeling or what they might do. This story is included as a downloadable pdf in the online course: VOCALIC R SOUNDS For more tips on speech therapy and online courses, please visit www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com. Have fun!  

Is your child receiving online speech therapy? I'll tell you how to get the most out of it! For more info, visit www.clarityspeechandlangauge.com ONLINE SPEECH THERAPY – GET THE MOST OUT OF IT! Not all online therapy is created equal.  Here’s how to make sure your child is getting the most out of her online speech-therapy sessions. HAVE A GOOD INTERNET CONNECTION USE A GOOD MICROPHONE OR HEADSET HAVE GOOD LIGHTING USE A BIG SCREEN (OR TWO) KEEP THE ROOM QUIET WITH NO DISTRACTIONS SIT NEARBY TO KEEP YOUR CHILD ON TRACK PRACTICE THE SAME ACTIVITIES WITH YOUR CHILD   HAVE A GOOD INTERNET CONNECTION   Obviously, if you don’t have a stable internet connection, online therapy can’t take place.  Either you’ll lose the signal altogether, or the video and sound will be choppy and freeze up occasionally.  Imagine if you’re the speech therapist, trying to hear and observe the child’s mouth to see if they are making the sound correctly, and the video or audio keeps glitching right at the precise moment they are making that sound.  Or if you are the child, trying to observe the SLP making the sound, and she freezes or disappears from the call.  Not a good thing!  Consider upgrading your internet service or going to a location that provides free, stable internet service.  Close down any unnecessary programs that might be running in the background.   USE A GOOD MICROPHONE OR HEADSET For speech therapy to work, all participants must be able to hear, and hear well!  If you have a good headset, let your child use that.  Keep the microphone 3 inches from her mouth and tell her to speak in a normal tone of voice.  If you don’t have a headset, you can just use the internal speaker of your device.  Just make sure the child is sitting close enough that the sound can be picked up adequately. HAVE GOOD LIGHTING Make sure your room has good lighting and have your child sit facing the light source.  If you put your child with his back to a window, for instance, he will be backlit, and his face and mouth will be in shadow and hard for the speech therapist to see.  So, if your room has windows, place your child so that he is facing the windows.  If necessary, turn on a desk lamp and direct it towards your child. USE A BIG SCREEN (OR TWO) Online speech therapy usually requires the child to be able to see 3 things:  Herself, the therapist, and the materials the SLP is sharing in another window.  If the child is using a cell phone, you can imagine that each of those windows is going to be very small.  It is hard for the child to see her own mouth movements and compare them to the SLP’s mouth movements.  And it makes it harder for the child to see and read what is on the shared screen.  Don’t get me wrong, as an SLP we would rather have the child show up to a session using a cell phone than not show up at all!  But keep in mind that she could be getting better help if she has a larger screen.  A laptop or desktop computer with a large screen, or even an extra monitor, would be ideal!  If you don’t have one, check with friends, relatives or neighbors to see if they have old ones lying around at their house.  You’d be surprised how many people upgrade their equipment and then don’t know what to do with the old stuff, so it just sits in their garage or storage room.  They might love the chance to put it to good use.   KEEP THE ROOM QUIET WITH NO DISTRACTIONS I considered making this #1!   You’d be surprised how much background noise a computer’s or tablet’s mic will pick up.  Yay for technology.  Unfortunately, that makes it really hard for the SLP to distinguish the fine details of a child’s ‘S’ sound, for instance.  It’s also hard for the child to concentrate on the therapist if his siblings are playing in the background, or the TV is on.  Also, make sure your child doesn’t have any other distracting tabs open in his browser window – YouTube, unfinished games, email, etc.  We CAN tell when the child’s eyes are wandering from the speech therapy task.      SIT NEARBY TO KEEP YOUR CHILD ON TRACK  Along those lines, stay in the room with your child to make sure he stays focused on the speech therapy tasks.  Young children, especially, might have a hard time sitting still.  Online therapists do their very best to keep the child engaged and focused, but there are limits to what we can do from a computer screen.  We can’t take away that popcorn that your child is snacking on or provide a fidget toy to keep his hands busy.  Parents who are in the room can monitor their child’s behavior and help the therapy session stay productive.   PRACTICE THE SAME ACTIVITIES WITH YOUR CHILD Last, but not least, one of the very best things you can do to make online speech therapy productive, is to follow along and learn what the SLP suggests your child practice.  Learn the techniques to make the sound and help your child practice that sound every day.  That is the best way to get the most out of therapy and help your child progress faster.    If you’d like to learn more about how you can help your child with her speech therapy at home, please visit our website:  www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com.  We offer online courses for parents that include practice materials, as well. Thanks for listening and have a great day!  

Some parents may wonder why their child qualified for speech therapy at school when they haven't noticed any sound errors.  Speech-language pathologists work on many other language skills that are important for your child to learn.  We'll discuss them in this video. For more information, please visit www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com.   MY KID CAN TALK JUST FINE -- SO WHY IS HE IN SPEECH THERAPY? It can be confusing to understand exactly what a speech language pathologist does, because they do so many different things!  People tend to associate a speech therapist with someone who helps kids pronounce their R's correctly, etc.  We do that, but we also help kids who are having trouble with understanding the language they read and hear, and expressing themselves through language. Some examples of things these kids might struggle with are listening to the teacher in class and then remembering everything she says so that they can complete their homework, understanding verbal or written directions that involve doing multiple steps and some planning on their own, listening or reading for details and being able to use them to answer questions, listening for the main idea and being able to explain it to somebody, and writing or speaking their answers in complete grammatical sentences. Some parents may hesitate to have their child pulled for speech at school, worrying that other children will make fun of them or treat them differently.  Why is it worth it to give these kids help with their language skills? First of all, these are skills that will really help kids as they progress through the upper grades, and eventually enter the workforce.  Around third or fourth grade, school can become increasingly difficult for kids with language disorders, because the curriculum become more language intensive.  There’s an emphasis on reading harder texts, and writing in a more formal manner.  By junior high, the reading and writing expectations become even more complex.  A child who ‘got by’ when he started elementary school will quickly fall behind, and this can have long-lasting effects on the child’s future education, career prospects and earning potential.  So the bottom line is, if you suspect your child might have a language disorder, get him tested, and get him therapy if needed. At home, you can help your child to increase his language skills by reading to him and with him, asking questions about what he’s read, and encouraging him to answer in complete grammatical sentences.  For more information on symptoms of a speech and language disorder, please listen to my podcast or read my blog called ‘Does Your Child Have a Speech-Language Disorder?’ I hope this information has been helpful to you.  

The 'Language Processing Hierarchy' is a way for children to organize language concepts from simple relationships to more complex ones. Learn these important skills that your child should know!   WHAT IS THE LANGUAGE PROCESSING HIERARCHY? The Language Processing Hierarchy is a way of organizing fundamental language skills, based on the book, ‘The Source for Processing Disorders’ by Gail J. Richard, Ph.D., CCC-SLP.  Her work is more complex than I can describe here, so I’ll just try to summarize the basic idea of the Language Hierarchy Chart. The idea is that children learn to sort language concepts into categories in their brain, starting with simple relationships to more complex ones.  If your child is given a language processing test as part of his evaluation, he will likely be tested on these same things. LABELING – Can the child name the object? It’s a shoe.   FUNCTIONS – Can the child tell what the object does? You wear it on your foot.   ASSOCIATIONS – Can the child tell what things go with that object? Socks and feet go with a shoe.   CATEGORIZING – Can the child tell what objects are in a certain category? A shoe is in the clothes group or the footwear group. At this level, they also include the following:   ANTONYMS/ SYNONYMS The opposite of hot is cold. Another word for happy is glad. BASIC CONCEPTS This is above, this is below, this is beside, left, right, etc.   SIMILARITIES – How are two objects alike as far as purpose, category or function? A fridge is like a stove because they are both appliances in your kitchen that you use for your food.   DIFFERENCES – How are two objects different as far as purpose, category or function? A fridge keeps your food cold and a stove heats up your food.   MULTIPLE MEANINGS – What are two meanings for this word? Trunk can be the long nose of an elephant or the bottom part of a tree.   IDIOMS – What does this figure of speech really mean? It’s raining cats and dogs means that it’s raining really hard.   ANALOGIES – Comparing something to another thing using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. Life is like a box of chocolates means that you never know what’s going to happen in life just like when you pick a chocolate from a box. You never know what kind you’re going to get. These are all great things to work on with your child!  For more tips on how to improve basic language skills, especially in young children, please watch my video ‘Parents Can Help With Their Child’s Speech-Language Treatment’. Thanks for watching and have a great day!

Are wondering how to prepare for your child's speech-language evaluation? Do you want to know what kind of tests will be given? I'll tell you all about it! For more information on speech and language therapy, please visit www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com. WHAT TO EXPECT AT YOUR CHILD’S SPEECH-LANGUAGE EVALUATION If you suspect your child has a speech or language disorder, you may have taken the first step and requested an evaluation – either with the Early Intervention Center in your community, your public school, or a private therapist. How do you prepare? Really, just make sure your child is happy, well-fed, and well-rested. Take a water bottle if necessary. Visit the restroom beforehand. Depending on where your child is being tested, the amount of time might range from a half-hour to several hours. If your child is very young, I would recommend trying to split it up into half-hour sessions. Also, it’s better to leave other children at home, to minimize distractions. What kind of testing should be done? Ideally, a comprehensive speech-language evaluation should include at least these 5 things: HEARING SCREENING – This is to rule out the contribution of hearing difficulties to the problem. Be sure to tell the examiner if your child has experienced frequent ear infections or has tubes in his ears. This hearing screening might consist of 2 parts: PURE TONE TESTING TYMPANOMETRY TEST   ORAL-MOTOR EXAM (this might also be called an Oral-Peripheral Exam or Oral-Mechanism Exam) – This is to make sure all speech structures are working properly. It can rule out other underlying disorders and may help identify conditions like Childhood Apraxia of Speech. This exam may include: SPEECH STRUCTURES VOICE AND AIR PRESSURE SPEECH-MOTOR SKILLS   INTELLIGIBILITY TEST – This can determine whether your child is on track for speech in spite of any errors. It involves listening to the child speak in conversation and marking how many words were intelligible to the listener. The clinician can also mark down any sound and language errors that the child exhibits in conversation. ARTICULATION TEST – This test can tell you if your child’s speech errors are typical or are a concern. It involves asking the child to produce target words and sentences to see what sound errors they might have. LANGUAGE TEST – These tests can tell you if your child is having difficulty understanding or producing meaningful language. They look at the big picture of communication rather than just sound errors. These tests are designed to measure expressive language and receptive language. They involve asking the child to follow directions, respond to questions, label pictures, choose appropriate sentence structure, describe an object, tell how things go together, label items, etc. POSSIBLE OTHER TESTS: LANGUAGE PROCESSING TEST – This is similar to the other language test; however, it focuses on whether or not your child has trouble with language due to issues ‘behind the scenes’. There may be neurological problems with causes unknown that make it difficult for the child to understand language. A child with a language processing disorder might have trouble with attention, following directions, memory, organizing a cohesive story, and things like that. AUDITORY PROCESSING TEST – This also involves the child’s ability to process language, but it is focused specifically on the child’s ability to use his auditory system in conjunction with his brain to make sense of the language signals he receives. The child may have difficulty understanding speech when there is background noise or identifying the difference between sounds that are similar. SOCIAL LANGUAGE TEST – This test can tell you if your child is using language appropriately in social settings. It is often given to children suspected of being on the autistic spectrum or who may be socially delayed for other reasons.   By now you are probably overwhelmed at the thought of all these tests! Keep in mind that your child may not need all of them, and a good clinician will know how to keep your child engaged and when to stop to give him a break. It’s OK to voice any concerns you might have ahead of time. What happens after testing? It may take a week or two for the clinician to process and score all the tests. Then you will most likely be called in to go over the results and decide where to go from there. What if it looks like your child has a speech-language disorder? Don’t panic! You are not alone. It is estimated that between 5-10% of school-age children have a speech-language disorder. Just congratulate yourself that you caught the problem and are getting your child help early so that they can improve their academic and social success! If you want to find out more about how you can help your child with speech and language at home, please visit www.clarityspeechandlanguge.com.

Sometimes kids get discouraged while working on vocalic ‘R’, because it can take a long time to get it right. To make learning fun, do the ‘R Warmup Cheer’.   For more speech therapy tips, please visit www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com   Sometimes kids get discouraged while working on vocalic ‘R’, because it can take days or months for them to get it right.  To lighten up the mood and help them feel where their tongue should go, I do the ‘R Warmup Cheer’.  The idea is to get them to produce ‘Y’ syllables, because making ‘Y’ moves the back of their tongue to the back of their mouth where it should be for ‘R’.  Most kids can say the ‘Y’ sound in ‘yoyo’ fairly easily.  So the ‘R’ warmup cheer goes like this (and you can’t be afraid to be silly-- you’ve got to own it, and so do they!):  Yo! Yo!  (do the hand motions and the voices in the video) Yi! Yi! Yay! Yay! Yah! Yah! Yee! Yee! Yeeeeee Yeeeeee! Yee Yeeeerrrrrrrr!  And your tongue goes back and up to make the R sound!  (Use your thumbs to represent your tongue going back and up.) The 'EEE' vowel is a good one to practice to try to get an 'ER' sound, because your tongue is up and back in the mouth already. Good Luck!

If you have a child receiving speech services through your public school, you may be surprised to learn that he or she is only receiving 20-30 minutes of therapy a week, and that time is often shared with other students.  Why is this the case?   WHY DOESN’T THE SCHOOL SLP SPEND MORE TIME WITH MY CHILD?  If you have a child receiving speech services through your public school, you may be surprised to learn that he or she is only receiving 20-30 minutes of therapy a week, and that time is often shared with other students. Why is this the case? High caseloads nationwide.  There are some exceptions, but generally caseloads are extremely high across the United States. Because there are so many kids to treat, your school speech-language pathologist (SLP) may have minimal time to see kids.  She also may have to put them in groups for therapy.  This is due to several factors: Shortage of qualified SLPs with master’s degrees Budget restrictions implemented by school districts Over-qualification of some children who have mild speech errors What can you do about these issues?  You can contact your school district administrators to let them know you’d like an emphasis to be placed on hiring sufficient SLPs to meet the caseload demands. You can support your school SLP by practicing at home with your child as much as possible. If your child has a mild speech error, and the IEP team feels it is not severe enough to affect his educational environment academically or socially, you can be supportive of the decision and work with your child at home and hire a private therapist, if necessary.   Paperwork – School SLPs must deal with ever-increasing special education and Medicaid paperwork due to new regulations. Filling out paperwork, sending it home, taking data, writing progress reports, filling out forms for Medicaid – these things all take up a large chunk of your school SLP’s time. What can you do to help? It will help your local SLP if you return signed paperwork promptly. 

Let me share my 6 Favorite Speech Therapy Tools.  They can help you at home as you practice speech with your child. You can find links to purchase these items here:   https://www.clarityspeechandlanguage.com/SPEECH%20TOOLS   MY 6 FAVORITE SPEECH TOOLS   MR. MOUTH – or whatever it’s called.  This is great for showing kids where to put their tongue.  It’s actually a puppet, although I haven’t been able to puppetize it successfully, if that’s even a word.  But the kids like it and it makes it easier to see where their tongue should go.  There are a lot of sounds where this is important, especially /r/, since the tongue goes back in the mouth for that one.   TONGUE DEPRESSORS – These come in boxes of cherry or grape flavors, and so the kids don’t mind as much having a stick put in their mouth.  These are great for showing where to place the tongue, or for holding the tongue back where it needs to be.     TONGUE LIFTER – This is like a fancy tongue depressor that is shaped to go around the tongue and make it easier to push the tongue back to make sounds like /r/. They are not flavored, but they are smooth and come in fun colors.   BOOKS – Colorful picture books are great for getting kids to practice their speech sounds. I like the ones with lots of pictures and just enough words to give a variety of speech sound opportunities. The Lazy Ladybug -- this is one of my favorites because it has all the sounds in it (I think?).  It’s a cute, easy story to read and have them retell, with a fun ending.   HAND MIRROR – A must for speech therapy! This enables the child to see where they are putting their tongue, how they are shaping their mouth, if they are holding their jaw still, etc.   MY VIDEO COURSES – Well, of course I’m going to include my video courses, because they have lots of practice videos and pdf docs that you can use to have your child practice every sound in every position. Check them out!   You can find links to all these items HERE.   Thanks and have a great day!        

Does your child have speech sound errors, but you’re not sure which ones?  I'll give you some examples to help you figure it out.   Does your child have speech sound errors, but you’re not sure which ones?  Let me give you some examples to help you figure it out.  I’ll start with some of the more common ones. L and Initial R – These are often mispronounced with a ‘W’ sound, like  ‘wabbit’ for ‘rabbit’, or ‘wike’ for ‘like’.  “I see a wabbit!  I wike it!” S and Z – These are often mispronounced with a lisp.  It could sound like a TH, SH or ZH, as in “thoup” for “soup”, “shun” for “sun”, or “zhebra” for “zebra”.  “Can I have some thoup?”   “The shun is bright today.”  “Where are my glashezh?” TH – This might be pronounced as an F or a D.  A child might say ‘free’ for ‘three’, or ‘duh’ for ‘the’.  “Duh dog has free puppies.” Vocalic R – This is the R that is connected to a vowel sound, like the ER at the end of ‘teacher’.  Vocalic R errors can range from a mild accent to a definite distortion that can make a third grader sound like he’s talking baby-talk.  A child might say “dowa” for “door”, or “teachoh” for “teacher.”  There’s a wide range of distorted sounds for this one.  “My teachoh is nice. She’s at the dowa.” SH, CH, & J – These sounds will often be substituted with T or D.  Sometimes the SH might be said with an S instead.  For example, “shoe” might be pronounced “sue” or “too”.  “Watch” might be pronounced “wat”, and “pajamas” might be pronounced “padamas”.   “I take off my sues and put on my padamas.” P & B – These sounds might be deleted altogether, as in “maw” for “mop”, or “ee” for “bee”.  Because these are some of the easier sounds to produce, these errors would most likely occur in very young children or those with co-occurring developmental or health issues.  G & K – These sounds might be mispronounced as D or T.  For example, “dog” might be pronounced “dod”, or “cat” might be pronounced “tat”.  “I see a dod and a tat.” F & V – These might be pronounced as P or B, as in “pun” for “fun” and “ban” for “van”.   “It’s pun to go in the ban!”  I hope this helps you decide what sounds your child might be producing in error.  Thanks and have a nice day!

Research shows that parents who practice with their child at home can improve their child’s speech and language skills.   Hi, my name is Carol Edgel, and I’m a certified speech-language pathologist.  I hope you’ve already had a chance to watch my video, How to Tell If My Child Has a Speech-Language Disorder.  In this video, I’ll summarize the importance of parents being involved in their child’s speech and language therapy.  Research shows that parents who practice with their child at home can improve their child’s speech and language skills.  First of all, let me just say that it seems obvious that parents should be the child’s main teacher of speech and language, as they are the first and primary influencers in a young child’s life.  What the child hears and learns as an infant and toddler can have a big effect on their skills later on.  The more a child hears words pronounced correctly, or sentences constructed correctly, the more they will imitate that.  Repetition of these forms is crucial for learning, and who better to do it than the child’s parents?  They are around the child the most, and can incorporate learning into daily life in subtle ways. Let’s talk about how parents can improve their child’s language skills.  This is taken from the research article, “The Effectiveness of Parent-Implemented Language Interventions: A Meta-Analysis,” by Megan Y. Robertsa and Ann P. Kaisera.   PARENTS TEACHING LANGUAGE Parents can improve their child’s language development by doing 4 things.   Increase parent-child interaction – It sounds simple, and it is! Just interact with your child more.  Take a walk and talk about what you see.  Have him help with chores or cooking and talk about it.  Play with toys or games together and ask him questions.  Interact and talk as much as you can.   Respond to child’s communication – This begins early, when a parent responds to an infant’s verbal or non-verbal attempts to communicate. It continues as the child grows.  Respond to your child when they are trying to communicate with you, as much as possible.   Increase the amount & quality of language – As we said above, talk as much as possible with your child, but be sure to use correct grammar when you do it, even with young children. You may shorten your sentences, but you can still use correct grammar.  Use a variety of words; don’t always ‘dumb it down’.  Studies show that a child’s receptive vocabulary correlates to what he hears from his parents.  Frequently label things you see together. “That is a skyscraper.  That is asparagus.  That is a telescope.”   Use language learning support strategies – When your child speaks, repeat and expand upon what he says. For instance, if he says, “Baby cry,” you could respond, “Yes, the baby is crying.  I can hear him crying too. I wonder why the baby is crying?”  So not only did you expand what he said into a complete sentence, you repeated the -ing form of the verb three times.    Now let’s talk about how parents can improve their child’s speech skills.  There are many different strategies for teaching speech sounds, and the research shows that parents who are taught these strategies can be effective in helping their child improve their speech.  One such article is “Evaluation of Parent- and Speech-Language Pathologist–Delivered Multiple Oppositions Intervention for Children With Phonological Impairment: A Multiple-Baseline Design Study,” by Sugden, Eleanor, et al.   PARENTS TEACHING SPEECH SOUND SKILLS Parents can improve their child’s speech sound development by doing 4 things:   Model Correct Speech – Just as with teaching language, it’s important to speak often around your child, and to do so correctly. Model the correct pronunciation of a word.  If your child says, “I want to go wif you,” say, “You want to go WITH me?”   Teach the Correct Way to Make a Sound – It’s important to teach the child exactly what he needs to do to make the sound correctly; sometimes modeling it is not enough. If you are not sure how to teach it, ask your child’s SLP, google it, or take a mini-class*.   Practice With the Child Frequently – Practice makes perfect! There’s no way around it.  Have your child practice the sound by itself, in words, in phrases, in sentences, and in conversation.  There are a number of games and cards you can use to encourage your child to practice.   Incorporate Practice into Daily Life –To really become fluent speaking correctly, your child must incorporate those skills into everyday conversation. Find subjects that include your child’s speech sound, and have conversations about it.  For instance, if your child is working on ‘R’, you could talk about rain, rabbits, or railroads. Talk with him as much as possible, in a variety of locations, and listen for his speech sound.  Encourage correct production (without embarrassing him in public).   So there you have it – simple ways you can help improve your child’s speech and language at home.  You can make a difference!    *For specific methods on how to teach your child different sounds, check out my course ‘How to Teach Your Child Speech Sounds’ at clarityspeechandlanguage.com.  There are also courses on how to teach each individual sound to your child.  I give you step by step instructions and include practice materials as well.   Thanks for watching and have a great day!

There are multiple avenues to receive speech-language therapy for your child, some that are free to you.   Hi, my name is Carol Edgel, and I’m a certified speech-language pathologist.  I hope you’ve already had a chance to watch my video, How to Tell If My Child Has a Speech-Language Disorder.  In this video, I’ll tell you how to get help for your child.  There are multiple avenues to receive speech-language therapy, some that are free to you.   PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT:  First, check with your community’s public school district.    Preschool-Age Children -- If your child is a toddler or preschooler, you will want to search the school district’s website for a department called ‘Early Intervention Resources’ or something similar. That is where you can take your young child to be tested for speech-language disorders, as well as any other conditions that might affect your child’s learning.   School-Age Children -- If your child is attending public school already, check with your child’s teacher and express your concerns. Chances are the teacher may have noticed some issues as well.  The teacher can contact the school’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) to set up a screening.   Keep in mind that the child must have a communication disability that affects his/her education in order to qualify for free services through the school district.  Typically, a child must receive in-class intervention measures by the teacher or SLP for a few weeks or months before any formal testing can be done.  However, if your child qualifies, he will eventually receive an IEP and speech-language services through the school SLP.   CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS: Some states or communities have charitable organizations that will pay for speech-language therapy for qualifying children.  It is worth your time to do an internet search, ask your local pediatrician or children’s hospital, or the local school district to see if they have resources to recommend.  Sometimes children can receive therapy from a charitable organization as well as school-provided therapy, which is double the help for your child.   PRIVATE THERAPY – If you are able to pay for private therapy, your child may receive more individual attention than what he receives through the school district. Individual sessions allow the SLP to focus solely on your child’s goals and needs, and can often speed up the improvement process.  Also, sometimes a child may not qualify for services through the school district if the evaluation team determines that the speech errors are still age-appropriate or that the speech disorder does not affect his education.  Even if your child is young and only has one error, you may still wish to treat it.  Private therapy is a good way to accomplish this.   PARENT PRACTICE – Even if your child is receiving therapy at school or elsewhere, parent involvement is crucial! Research shows that parent involvement can benefit a child’s speech and language progress.  If you haven’t already, watch my video, Benefits of Parents Practicing Speech and Language With Their Children.  Also, I have a list of research articles on parent involvement on my website, clarityspeechandlanguage.com.  You can make a difference!   Online Courses for Parents -- To help parents teach their children speech skills and practice them more effectively at home, I’ve created courses with instructions and practice materials.  The courses will walk you through the entire process, step by step and sound by sound, making it easy and painless.  Please check out these courses at clarityspeechandlanguage.com.   Thanks for watching and good luck!  

Parents often can see that their child is struggling with communication, but they don’t know exactly what to call it, or how to help.  I’m going to walk you through the different types of speech-language disorders and how to recognize them.   Hi, my name is Carol Edgel, and I’m a certified speech-language pathologist.  In my years of teaching, I’ve noticed that parents often can see that their child is struggling with communication, but they don’t know exactly what to call it, or how to help.  Even the child’s teachers might not know how to label it.  In this video, I’m going to walk you through the different types of speech-language disorders and how to recognize them.   SPEECH SOUND DISORDERS:  First there are Speech-Sound disorders.  These involve the child mispronouncing sounds.  We can divide speech-sound disorders into 2 general types:   Articulation Disorder – this is when the child has only a few errors. For example, the child may say, “free” instead of “three”.  F/TH is a fairly common error among young children.  Depending on the child’s age and how hard he is to understand, the child might need to be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.  It is always better to begin treatment while the child is young, before he has had time to build up incorrect speech habits.   Phonological Disorder – this is when the child has many errors and is very hard to understand. The child is unable to understand the rules of sounds (phonology).  Here is an example of how a child with a phonological disorder would speak.  If the teacher says, “Tell me what you did last summer,” the child might respond, “We went to Talifonnia an wen to Ditneywan, an we wen to da beats an went surpin. Den we wen to Wedo Wan an Sea Wood an I saw sarts an pendins.  Den we tame home adin an dat’s all.” The child exhibited many substitution errors, as well as deletion and distortion of other sounds.  Rare condition -- Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) -- this is when the child cannot coordinate signals between his brain and his speech articulators in order to form words correctly.  His errors will be inconsistent, and he may exhibit groping behaviors.  The cause of CAS is usually unknown, and it is different than apraxia in adults.   Because a child with CAS or a phonological disorder will probably have many errors that make the child hard to understand, he should be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.   LANGUAGE DISORDERS:  There are many facets of a language disorder.  A child may have difficulties in one area or several.   Syntax/Grammar – this is when the child struggles with the rules of language and can’t put together a complete sentence correctly. He may struggle to use the right verb form or pronoun when he speaks or writes. Using the same vacation story above, a child with a grammar problem might say it this way:  “I go California, go see Disneyland, go at beach and do surfing. Then us see Lego Land and Sea World, I see sharks and penguins.  Then us go home, go home again and that’s all.” Notice how the child is pronouncing his sounds correctly, but is using the wrong verb tenses and pronouns, among other things.   Language Processing – this is when children are slower to interpret and respond to the language signals they receive.  It can take them longer to answer questions, follow directions, write a paper, or do anything involving language. It’s not that they don’t want to listen, or respond, or follow directions, it’s just that they can’t keep up with the rest of the class.  This is different than an attention disorder like ADD/ADDHD, although they can occur together.   An example would be a child who struggles to follow multi-step directions at home or at school.  Imagine if a first grade teachers is telling the class, “Take out your math book and turn to chapter 2, exercise 1.  That should be on page 54.”  Already the child will be struggling to follow the directions but the teacher will continue, “Now get out a piece of paper and write your name on the top right corner and number the paper from 1-10 down the left-hand side.”  By now the child will probably be asking the teacher, “What?  What do we do again?”  or turning to his neighbor and saying, “What page?  What do I put on the paper?”    Language Comprehension – this is where the child just doesn’t understand the language input. Even if they understand the meaning of words, they may not understand the subtleties of how changing the order of words in a sentence can change the meaning.  Or they may hear the words of a story but not understand the underlying message or theme of the story. For example, you may read your child the story of The 3 Little Pigs, and ask her, “What was the main idea of this story?”  She may answer, “Pigs!”  If you push her by saying, “Yes, there were pigs in the story, but what was the problem?” she may give up and say, “Umm… I don’t know.”   Language – Vocabulary – this is when children do not know the amount of words that they should know by their age. It interferes with their ability to understand others and to communicate what they want to say.  It may take them longer than average to learn and store the meaning of words, and so they might need help catching up.  This can be a particular problem if they don’t know ‘academic’ language, or language that is used in the classroom frequently, such as: title, author, absent, conclusion, community, arrive, exit, and many more.   If you suspect your child has a language disorder, she might need to be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist, depending on your child’s age and performance at school. As with speech-sound disorders, it is best to catch language disorders early and begin treatment when the child is young.  The child’s problems with language can become more evident as they get older and try to keep up with the increased demands of the upper elementary grades and beyond.   FLUENCY DISORDERS – this is when the child stutters or clutters. It is not related to what your child’s teacher might call fluency of reading, or how fast and accurately they can read.  Here we are talking about how smoothly your child can speak without multiple repetitions of sounds and words.   Stuttering – this is when the child is repeating sounds and words so frequently that it interferes with communication.  It may often cause stress and tension behaviors while the child is trying to get his words out – blinking, licking lips, fidgeting, groping mouth movements – anything to ease stress or postpone having to get the words out.   Most of us are familiar with what stuttering sounds like.  And most of us repeat our words or sounds on occasion.  When the amount of stuttering reaches a certain point, it becomes an issue.   For example, using the vacation story from earlier, the child who stutters might respond this way, “I–I-I - I went to Ca-Ca-Ca-Ca- California………….. We-We-, you know, we- went to D- d- d- Disneyland.  To Disneyland. ……And and and we went to Sssssss Sea World.”   Cluttering – this is when the child speaks unusually fast and in a somewhat disorganized way. It may sound as though they are speaking in rapid spurts, and the syllables in a word may blend together. We see cluttering less commonly, but it is worth mentioning here.  It can co-occur with stuttering.   It is not uncommon for children 3-4 years old to exhibit some  stuttering behaviors.  Often, they will grow out of it, but it’s hard to know who will and who won’t.  If your child has fluency symptoms that make it hard for family, friends and teachers to understand him, it may be time to have him evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.     OTHER DISORDERS – You may not be aware that there are other disorders that speech-language pathologists work with that may first occur in children or adults.   Voice Disorders – this is when there is an issue with the vocal cords.  Symptoms may include a very hoarse voice for an extended period with no known illness, or a voice having an unusual pitch or sound. Swallowing Disorders (dysphagia) – this may be a problem for newborns, or older patients who may have suffered a stroke. The patient is unable to use their tongue and other swallowing mechanisms correctly. TBI-related (traumatic brain injury) cognitive or speech disorders: A stroke, injury or illness might cause memory, executive functioning, or speech/language disorders in children or adults.  Aphasia, Apraxia, and Dysarthria are some speech conditions that might result.   I hope this mini-course was helpful to you.  Please check out our other courses at clarityspeechandlanguage.com.  Thanks and have a great day!

In this episode, Phyllis discusses her spiritual journey with a Zen Buddhist sect, and her experiences at Zen Buddhist retreats.  She also talks about the Buddhist monk who taught her, and who she later discovered was a sexual predator.  We discuss how she took back her life and became more self-aware. 

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In this episode, Phyllis tells us how she confronted her abuser and her mother, how she was able to heal and move on from the abuse, and how we can overcome difficult things in our lives. 

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In this episode, I discuss why I started the podcast.