Let’s face it… all kiddos, especially our toddlers, over stuff their mouths during meals or snack from time to time. Typically, this happens when our overzealous little ones are beginning to transition to solids or when children can’t get enough of their favorite food or snack. Some kiddos, however, stuff their mouths during every mealtime and snack causing a great deal of concern to parents and caregivers. If your child is a frequent stuffer, here are a couple of tips to help!

1. Pace him! Provide your child with small portions of food at a time – aim for only a few pieces of food during each offering. Make sure these pieces are small and can be easily managed. Also, you can encourage sips of a beverage between bites to help pace your little one.
2. Wake up his mouth before mealtimes. Sometimes, kiddos over stuff during mealtimes because it takes more for their little mouths to feel the same thing that your mouth or my mouth may feel. To account for this, we want to “wake up” their mouths before a meal. You can give them a sip of ice cold water or tart lemonade before they start eating. Brushing your child’s tongue and insides of his cheeks with a toothbrush or a vibrating toothbrush can also serve as a sensory wake up before a mealtime or snack.
3. Alternate tastes/textures during mealtimes. Just as we want to wake up a child’s mouth immediately before a mealtime, we want to continue waking up his mouth during the meal, too. Consider providing meals that contain a variety of spicy, crunchy, cold, or carbonated food and beverage items. These 4 sensory inputs can help a child become more aware of their mouth and organize oral movement more effectively. Foods such as pickles, raw carrots, and spicy dips can be included in the meal. Spices can be added to other foods. Cold, carbonated water can be sipped between mouthfuls. Add lemon to the carbonated water for extra sensory input if the child will accept it. Add ice to other liquids.
4. Use a mirror. Provide your child with a mirror during mealtimes to give them additional visual feedback. They’re watching themselves eat and this can help to increase their awareness about how full their mouth is getting!

**Remember, before trying these tips at home, always consult with your speech-language pathologist to determine the best course of treatment for your child!

Julie Euyoque, M.A., CCC – SLP

It’s hard to believe the holidays are already upon us, and this year could bring some new challenges. Seeing family and friends is a great part of the holidays, but when your family is working with a therapist to meet developmental milestones, these interactions can cause additional stress. You may be wondering how to talk about it with your family. Or you may be wondering how your child is going to do playing, communicating or eating during the celebrating.

Here are some quick tips to help you get through:

• Talk with your therapist about concerns you have, and ask for specific ideas and activities that you can do over the holidays.
• As much as possible, keep your child’s daily routine in tact.
• Talk with friends and family before the actual visit, so you can spend your time celebrating instead of explaining.
• Sometimes, the best way to explain is to demonstrate. Give some information, and then show your family how to do what you are talking about. This gives YOU the chance to be the therapist
• Bring a few of your child’s favorite toys with so that he/she feels more comfortable, and has an opportunity to play in a familiar way.

Realize that your child will likely act differently when put in new environments. This is expected and perfectly normal. Offer your child more help, and be sure to add in some extra positive reinforcement. If you notice the family visits are getting too stressful for anyone, take a break!

Sarah Pifkin Ruger, MS, CCC-SLP

Here are some easy and creative activities you can make at home to practice matching with your children this fall!

Popsicle Stick Puzzles

• Line up and tape five to six large wooden popsicle sticks together on the back to create a little puzzle board.

• Paint the other side of the popsicle sticks or use markers to create a simple picture and let dry. Get creative! For a fall theme, you can draw pumpkins, apples, or a spooky ghost!
• Once dry, take the tape off of the back of your puzzle pieces and play!

This is a great way to get your little one to work on problem solving in addition to working on matching of pictures and colors. For older children, you can help them learn to spell their names or other words by writing a letter on each popsicle stick!

Pumpkin Shape Matching

• Draw or print out a pumpkin on paper or cardstock (cardstock and lamination is recommended if you plan on using it more than once)
• Draw shapes on the pumpkin with a black marker to create a face
• Cut corresponding shapes out of black construction paper (again, cardstock and laminate to use again!)
• Use tape or sticky velcro on the back of the shapes
• Provide shapes for your child to match the pumpkin’s “face”

To make it more challenging or to incorporate movement, print out a few pumpkins with different shapes on each and post them on the wall in your play area. Allow your child to choose a shape and find which pumpkin it matches! This activity will encourage matching and problem solving – and it’s a great indoor activity that gets your child up and moving when stuck inside on cool fall days!

Pumpkin Face Matching

• Print out several (5 or so) simple pictures of pumpkins with different jack-o-lantern faces.

• Using construction paper or colored felt, cut out a large pumpkin outline and different styles of eyes/mouths based on the simple pictures of the different jack-o-lantern faces.
• Have your child select one jack-o-lantern and select the correct features to make that face.

Not only is this a great activity to practice matching, but it is also good for shape recognition. You can also incorporate number concepts by encouraging your child to count the pieces used for each face.

Kimberly Shlaes, MAT, DT

Reading books with your child is a great way to bond, and to encourage early language skills; however, toddlers are not always as cautious as we would like when interacting with books. Board books are built to hold up to small fingers and mouths repeatedly tugging on the pages. When choosing board books to engage your child look for simple repetitive language, and clear simple pictures that are likely to hold a child’s attention. The following books are some favorites that are sure to withstand the test of time.

1. Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you See? by Eric Carle
   This book provides great illustrations of animals. The repetitive rhyming texts allows young children to “read” along with their caregivers. Try pausing as you get to the end of a phrase, and allow your child to fill in the familiar text.
2. Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton
   Once again rhyming text helps to keep little ones This is a great book for introducing animal sounds.
3. First Words by Bright Baby
   This simple word book has one image per page allowing your child  to learn new words as you label images in the book. The clear realistic images allow for generalization of new words into his/her every day life.
4. Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
   This book has very few words per page allowing your child to use his/her own language to describe the scenes.
5. Where is Baby’s Belly Button? by Karen Katz
   This book helps introduce body parts, and the lift the flap format will keep young children engaged.
6. Where is Spot? by Eric Hill
   This is another lift the flap book to help keep little ones engaged. This book is also great for working on “yes” or “no” questions.
7. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
   This book combines a repetitive narrative with flaps for little ones to lift. There is a good reason that this book is still popular after 25 years.
8. Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli
   This book, along with the other Leslie Patricelli board book, have simple repetitive language and themes, paired with simple pictures. These books do a great job of teaching early concepts to curious young minds.
9. Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
   This is another great choice with a relatable theme, and a simple engaging rhyme scheme.
10. The Little BlueTruck by Alice Schertle
    Another book made the list due to its simple, engaging rhyme scheme. This book is also a great choice for introducing animal and environmental sounds to your child. Try pausing to allow your child to fill in the sounds as you read.

Story time should be enjoyable for both you and your child. Don’t worry if your child has not yet developed the attention span to listen to a whole story. Allow your child to get up as needed, and wander back to the book when he is ready. Keep in mind that it is not necessary to read every word on the page. Simply identifying pictures as your child flips through the pages is another great way to introduce your child to the joy of reading.

Meryl Schnapp M.A., CCC-SLP

Children learn best when actively participating in hands-on activities. Here are four great Fall activities to promote speech, language and development in your little ones!

How do you elicit language with art?

Start by laying out the materials. You can get them out one by one to help keep your child’s attention. You will discuss the supplies, and what you can do with them. Additional ideas for enhancing language and learning are listed under each activity.

1. Fruit Loop Fall Tree Craft

Materials:

• Fruit loops cereal (or healthy alternative)
• Glue
• White cardstock paper (Don’t have cardstock? Try gluing two pieces of regular paper together.)
• Toilet paper roll
• Scissors

Directions:

Cut out the top of the tree with the white card stock paper. Cut two slits across from each other in the empty toilet paper roll. Put glue all over the tree top and decorate with fruit loops. Be sure to lightly press on each foot loop to make sure it sticks. Allow fruit loops to dry and slide the paper tree top inside the slits!

Enhance the Activity:

Start by playing with the fruit loops only and allowing your child to decide what color they want to use in their tree. Work on developmental skills such as counting, matching and sorting. For example, sort the colors they want to use (say, red and green). Discuss each step as you’re doing it using key sequencing words such as, “first,” “next,” “then,” “last.” Label objects and verbs as you work (trunk, leaves, tree, glue, scissors, cut, press). Use prepositions (on, in) while placing fruit loops on the tree. Expand language by talking about where you see trees, who lives in trees (squirrels), and asking simple questions like “Do trees grow?”

2. Apple Stamps 

Materials:

• Apples, cut in half from top to bottom
• Large paper
• Paint (use what you have – examples include red, brown, green, yellow)
• A smock!
• Glue
• Optional Materials:
  • Paintbrush to paint branches
  • Scissors and green construction paper to cut out leaves and caterpillars
  • Black marker to make a caterpillar face

Directions:

Cut the apple in half. Pour paint onto a paper plate (or other surface) and dip apples into the paint or use paintbrush to paint and smaller amount of paint onto the apple. Stamp the painted apple onto the paper and create you very own apple design! You could stamp brown paper bags for your child’s lunch, small paper and turn it into a “Thank You” card, or large paper and paint in tree branches. Be creative and have fun with it! For the optional part of this project, you can paint the branches ahead of time for younger kiddos.  You can also pre-cut some leaves and caterpillars, but older children can do that themselves. After the apples are stamped, add the leaves and caterpillars.

Enhance the Activity: Example discussion and language opportunities for this project include…

Cut an apple in half. Ask, “What do you think we are going to do with the apples?” (prediction).

“I have an apple. It’s a fruit.” (category). “What do you do with an apple?” (object function).  “I wonder how they taste?” (sweet, crunchy, juicy). Let your child try a piece.

“I like red apples, do you? What other colors can they be?” (describing). “Can you think of other things that are red?”

(category).  “Hmmm, where do you think apples come from? Do they grow on the ground?” (in/ on-prepositions)

“I have some paint too. What else do I need to go with paint? A brush? Why do I need a brush?” (Wh? questions, object function).

Continue discussing the glue, scissors and paper. Vocabulary may include sticky, wet, sharp, cut… you’ll think of these as you go! Include words like “first,” “next,” “last” as you go through the steps of your project to practice sequencing and following directions. Asking questions like, “Okay, what do you need first?” to ensure understanding. Use verbs like dip, push, stamp. Quantity words could include few, many and some.

3. Cinnamon Dough

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
• 2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons Canola Oil
• 1 cup water

Directions:

First, combine the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and ground cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Next, add the water and oil and stir it all together. Cook it over medium heat stirring continually until a ball forms. Then, dump it onto the table and knead it a bit.  (You may want to do this part at first because the dough will be quite warm).  Once it’s mixed up a bit and cooled off, give a section to your child.  They will love to squish it while it’s still warm.

Enhance the Activity:

Baking is the perfect way to practice sequencing skills and following oral directions! Encourage these skills in your little ones by having them follow directions involving “first,” “then,” “next” and “last.” Ask “WH” questions to ensure understanding. For example, “What will we put in NEXT?” Use self-talk to talk about what you are doing to your child. Narrate your actions – for example, “I am kneading the dough. Now, it’s your turn to knead the dough.”  Talk about what your child is doing, seeing, or touching. Narrate what he/she is doing – for example, “Bobby is mixing the flour. Great job mixing Bobby!” (parallel-talk). Discuss action words and vocabulary including: mix, stir, pour, squish, etc.

4. Easy DIY Bird Feeders

Materials:

• Toilet paper rolls
• Peanut butter
• Bird seed
• Butter knife or other tool for spreading

Directions:

Give each child a toilet paper roll and have them carefully cover it in peanut butter. Once covered have your kiddo roll the toilet roll in bird seed. That’s it!  Once the feeder is covered in seed it is ready to be hung. You can hang it directly on a tree branch or string rope, yarn or shoe string through it and use that to hang it. Your child will love watching for birds to come eat from the feeder they created!

Enhance the Activity:

Talk about each material as you take it out. What is it? Why do you need it? (WH questions). Label the tools and materials. Present clear and simple directions for your child to follow. Talk about and identify actions words from the activity: roll, stick, spread, hang etc. Before and After: Take a picture of the materials before you begin, at the end of the finished product and after a couple of weeks when the birds have eaten the seeds. Discuss before and after! How is it the same? How is it different?

Kelly Fridholm, M.C.D., CCC-SLP