Category Archives: Uncategorized

What’s in Your House: DIY Activities for Language Development!

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Due to all that’s available online and in stores, many parents feel inclined to buy the newest toys on the shelf to support their children’s development. Unfortunately, as a result, parents can overlook the valuable materials in their own homes! Tons of common household items can be converted into toys or activities that stimulate your child’s creativity, expand his or her play ideas, and facilitate language growth and development. Not to mention encouraging your child to play with common household items can reduce clutter, cut down costs, and help your child get creative with what they have! Here are some common household items that function as agents for language use during play. You might be surprised by all you can do with what you have!

Toilet Paper Rolls

Save your empty toilet paper rolls! Encourage vocal play by turning your empty toilet paper rolls into microphones! Taking turns saying sounds and words into your microphone helps to build your child’s imitation skills. You can also tape two rolls together to make a set of binoculars! Use your binoculars to target object naming and object identification, through fun games like I-Spy and hide-and-seek.

Pots, Pans, and Spoons

Channel your child’s inner musician by playing with pots and pans! You can sing familiar songs or model strings of single words or sounds, such as “tap tap tap” or “bang bang bang,” as you play with your culinary instruments. By imitating the things you say and do, your child is practicing a critical step in learning reciprocal communication.

Laundry Basket

Laundry baskets (or any other open container) can easily be transformed into cars, trains, boats, or planes with a little imagination. As your child drives the makeshift vehicle, model target phrases and environmental sounds, such as “drive,” “go car,” “choo choo,” “vroom,” “beep beep,” etc. After taking your laundry basket for a spin, try using it as a basketball hoop and ask your child to throw different objects inside. This is a great way to target object labels and following single-step directions within a fun routine!

Painter’s Tape

Tape a line on the floor to serve as a road or balance beam. To target verbal requests, rip bits of tape off at a time to verbal requests such as, “more road” or “tape on” or “need tape.” You can also take turns hopping, crawling, or tiptoeing on the tape to practice imitation of gross motor actions! Imitating gross motor actions is a great precursor to imitating gestures, sounds, and words!

Blanket

Aside from using blankets for pretend play (i.e., putting a baby doll to sleep), you can use blankets for a variety of social games. Peek-a-boo is a great game to target joint attention and verbal turn taking. After you lift the blanket up, say the phrase, “Peek-a….” and wait for your child to fill in, “Boo!” before lowering the blanket. This helps build anticipation and establishes a cause-effect relationship between your child’s words and your actions. Other social games include blanket swing, blanket train or magic carpet, and silly sneezes (i.e. Lifting the blanket and saying, “Ah, ah, choo!” as you lower it).

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s responses to noise, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Jill Teitelbaum, MS, CF-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist

Photo Credit: Michal Bar Haim on Unsplash.com

The ABCs: Strategies for Handwriting

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Despite our ever changing world of technology, handwriting remains an essential part of school curriculums and mode of daily communication. Legible and efficient handwriting allows your child to participate in school tasks and keep up with their homework load. Your child may be reluctant to participate in handwriting tasks if it is difficult or if it takes him or her extra time to complete the task. Handwriting doesn’t have to be only copying letters or sentences. Let’s learn how to make handwriting more motivating for your child, so it is less like “work” and more like “play!”

What are the underlying components of handwriting?

  • Fine motor coordination: Handwriting requires the coordination of our small hand muscles and the ability to use both hands for two separate tasks (i.e. holding the pencil and stabilizing the paper).
  • Visual motor and visual perceptual skills: Copying or creating letters requires hand-eye coordination, or using visual input to guide hand movements. Visual perceptual skills also include our ability to discriminate between letters, as well as remember the letters written on the board in order to copy them to our paper.
  • Motor planning: Our ability to use the information in our environment to create, execute, and carry out the motor action of creating letters or sentences. If your child has motor planning difficulties, they may have difficulty with letter formation and legibility.
  • In-hand manipulation: The skill of “shifting” consists of moving the pencil up and down, using your fingers to make small adjustments to your pencil grasp. In order to erase with a pencil, “rotation” is utilized by rotating the pencil to use the eraser and then back to resume writing.
  • Proprioception: The sense of knowing where his/her body is in space allows your child to use the appropriate force on writing utensils.

What can I do to help promote handwriting skills with my child?

  • Promote visual perceptual skills:
    • Mazes
    • Dot-to-dots
    • Word finds
    • Scavenger hunts
  • Do the “Wet-Dry-Try” method:
    • Write a letter on a chalkboard
    • Provide your child with a small wet sponge and a small dry sponge
    • Have your child write the letter using a wet sponge, then using a dry sponge
    • Finally, have your child use chalk to create the letter themselves
  • For older children, try these functional handwriting activities:
    • Write a letter to Santa, the Tooth Fairy, etc.
    • Write a grocery list
    • Help create the family calendar by writing down events
    • Write out a packing list for a trip
  • Promote fingertip grasping patterns by breaking crayons in half. This makes it difficult for your child to grasp the crayon with their whole hand, facilitating a more age-appropriate grasp with fingertips.
  • Facilitate grasping with hand-strengthening activities:
    • Hide beads or coins in Theraputty or PlayDoh and have your child retrieve the small items by pulling apart and pinching the putty
    • Have your child pick up items with a tweezer such as cotton balls, pom poms, or beads. You can also have your child place these items into an egg carton or cut-up foam pool noodles to address fine motor precision
    • Have your child place different sized clothespins on a picture or board
    • Make a 2-inch slit in a tennis ball. Place small items (beads, coins) inside of the tennis ball and have your child retrieve the small items by using their whole hand to squeeze the ball and retrieving items with the opposite hand.

Ways to encourage sensory-based learning with handwriting:

  • Practice forming letters in shaving cream! You can also use food coloring to die the shaving cream.
  • Try sensory bags: You will need a gallon freezer bag. Fill the freezer bag with clear hair gel, then add a few drops of food coloring. Feel free to add glitter! Mix the contents and apply tape over the top of the Ziploc bag. Have your child practice letter formations by tracing over the sensory bag, you can also place a piece of white paper underneath the bag to increase their visual feedback.
  • Write letters on foam sheets for increased sensory input by requiring your child to firmly press their writing utensil into the foam.
  • Encourage letter formation with motivating sensory media: Create letters with Wikki Stix, PlayDoh, beads, or pipe cleaners.
  • Use motivating visual input: Practice letters with a Lite Brite game or using rainbow scratch paper.
  • Turn out the lights and practice forming letters in the dark with a flashlight.
  • Use sidewalk chalk or washable window chalk.
  • For a movement break, have your child attempt to form letters with their body.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s responses to noise, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Robyn Geist, MS, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist

Feder, K.P. & Majnemer, A. (2007). Handwriting development, competency, and intervention. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology 49, 312-317.

Photo Credit: Robin Brenner via brooklinelibrary.org

The Function of Echolalia

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Echolalia is the repetition or “echoing” of sounds, spoken words, phrases, or sentences. Echolalia is a typical function of early language development seen in young children as they begin to learn spoken language. Echolalia can also be a symptom of various disorders including aphasia, dementia, traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, or Tourette’s Syndrome; however, it is most often associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It may be difficult to discern typical versus atypical echolalia and whether or not it is a functional part of your child’s language skills, but there are specific qualities to look out for in order to differentiate the underlying causes.

Types of echolalia:

There are two types of echolalia: immediate and delayed. Immediate echolalia is when a child repeats what they just heard. For example, if a parent asks a question, “Do you want a cookie?” and the child responds with, “You want a cookie?” rather than responding to the question. Delayed echolalia is when a child repeats something they heard hours, days, months, or even years prior. For example, the child may repeat a line from a video they saw earlier that day or a phrase heard at the park the week before.

Functional versus non-functional echolalia:

For some children, echolalia is just a meaningless imitation of sounds or words strung together. These children may imitate things they’ve heard recently or in the past with no communicative intent. For other children, echolalia serves a purpose to express wants and needs when they are unable to produce novel statements of their own.  When a child “scripts” (i.e. recites exact lines) from shows or movies, it may appear that they are producing long, meaningful utterances, when in fact they have no comprehension of what they are actually saying. In these instances, they may be using the familiar and memorized words and cadence as a calming strategy, but not to convey a specific message. Functional echolalia, however, is the use of learned words or phrases to make requests and otherwise express wants and needs. Some children will use exact words and intonation in order to get their needs met in a functional way even though they may not yet be able to produce their own novel word combinations. For example, they may say “Are you hungry?” to request food, as opposed to simply stating they are hungry or requesting specific food items. It is significant to note, the child who is “scripting” lines from a movie, may also be using those words as a way to request that movie at that time.

When is echolalia considered typical?

Echolalia is seen in typically developing children during early language development between one and two years of age. While we will continue to see some repetition of overheard language between two and three years of age, we also expect to see a consistent increase in novel words and phrases as well. By three years of age, echolalia should be observed minimally in a child’s spontaneous language, and by four and five, a child is expected to engage in conversations using completely novel language. Children with a language delay or autism spectrum disorder may demonstrate these echolalic characteristics beyond three years of age depending on the severity of the delay or disorder.

While first instinct may be to try to stop the echolalia altogether, it is important to recognize it as either a functional communication tool your child has developed, or as a stepping stone into functional expressive communication skills that can be further developed with the help of a speech therapist. If your child’s echolalia has continued past an age considered part of typical language development or appears “non-functional,” it may be helpful to consult a speech and language pathologist. They can help identify the underlying causes and use these emerging verbal skills to target and build functional communication.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s echolalic language, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Therese Brown, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
Photo Credit: Echolalia Autism (repetitive speech)-Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment via hearingsol.com

The Importance of Promoting Early Literacy Skills

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Literacy skills develop from language skills and language skills begin to develop as soon as your child is born. Your baby begins communicating through eye contact, smiling, crying, facial expressions, and gestures and relies on your response with words and attention to lay the foundation for language and literacy development. Your child’s brain develops the most during those early years, and frequent exposure to language and reading will help build your child’s vocabulary, comprehension, story-telling, reading, and writing skills.

Why is Early Literacy Development Important?
Research shows that babies and toddlers who participate in literacy activities with their caregivers are more likely to develop a sustained interest in reading and writing. Developing an interest in reading and writing early on will have a positive impact on your child’s academic readiness.

Literacy, which is the ability to read and write, is comprised of a variety of skills including letter recognition, phonemic awareness, use and understanding of vocabulary, and story comprehension. These skills begin to develop within the first year of life. For example, when your child is six to twelve months old they may begin to grasp books or pat pictures they are interested in. At twelve to twenty-four months your child may begin to turn board book pages, give a book to you to read to them, and point to and name objects in pictures. Between the ages of two and three your child may start to scribble, request the same story over and over, and begin to complete sentences or rhymes in stories that are familiar. As a parent or caregiver, you can provide your child with positive early literacy experiences, which will lay the foundation for language, reading, and writing skills to develop.

Tips For Promoting Early Literacy Skills:
1. Have fun while reading! If your child is engaged and enjoying themselves, they are learning. You can use silly voices and actions while reading your child a story. This will promote positive feelings towards reading for your child.
2. Talk about the pictures. Rather than reading the words on each page, try talking about the pictures. Point to the objects and actions in the pictures as you describe them so that your child will begin to make connections between the words you are saying and what they see. Eventually you can ask them to describe the pictures themselves.
3. Let your child interact with books. Let your child hold the book and turn the pages even if you need to help them do this. Remember that it is okay to skip pages and to talk about pictures rather than read all of the words.
4. Make books and stories a part of your daily routine. Have books in your car, sing songs and nursery rhymes during mealtimes or play, and make time to look at books before naps and bedtime. Provide your child with frequent opportunities to engage with books and story time.

Early Literacy Skills Are Developed Through Early Experiences:
Remember that early language and literacy skills are learned through every day experiences with you and your child. Through playing, talking, singing, and reading together, your child is developing early language and literacy skills. While your baby or toddler may not be ready to read or write yet, exposing your child to frequent opportunities to interact with books and tell stories will help to develop your child’s vocabulary, comprehension, story-telling, reading, and writing skills. Remember, it is never too early instill a love for learning and reading in your child!

Questions or concerns?
If you have questions or concerns about your child’s early literacy skills, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Claire Kakenmaster, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist

Photo Credit: Child, Fun, Family, Love via Pixabay.com

Social Work: Destigmatized and Unfiltered

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When you first hear that a social worker is going to be making weekly home visits, what is the first thing that comes to mind? DCFS? Domestic violence? Child abuse? There are many misconceptions about what social work actuallyisand what social workers actually do.This blog will help provide some information to understand the differences between what social work is and how it can help.

What is social work?

The term social work can be a very broad and general term, so what do social worker’s actually do? They help people in need. Social workers work in a variety of settings including hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. As a pediatric therapist, sessions can occur in any and all types of environments that are best suited to address your child’s goals of the session.

Early Intervention:

Most Early Intervention social work sessions occur in the home and a social worker will work collaboratively with the family to target specific goals for the sessions. A social worker can facilitate and locate resources as needed within the community, such as food pantries and daycares. Sessions can focus on specific challenging behaviors/daily routines that your child may be struggling with. A social worker will provide parent education and implement strategies when working with challenging behaviors. Counseling services are frequently provided to all families and referrals are made as needed.

Private Therapy:

Social workers directly work with your child and family to focus on any area that your child is experiencing difficulty with i.e., difficulty in school, aggressive behaviors, emotional regulation, and mental health concerns. Social workers also provide counseling services to address topics of grief and loss, difficulty with family transitions, and facing peer pressure. Families are active participants in the child’s therapy through interventions and strategies that are learned and implemented at home.

How can social work help my child?

Social work services help children and families by providing education and interventions specific to each family. Working with a social worker can help create essential age-appropriate disciplinary techniques and establish boundaries within the home. Increasing your child’s social-emotional and regulation skills will help children communicate and become cognizant of their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Counseling services create a safe environment for your child to express their feelings while understanding how to self-regulate through everyday stressors.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s social emotional development, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Kelly Scafidi, MSW, LCSW, DT
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Developmental Therapist

Photo Credit:Andrew Branch via StockSnap.io

Sitting Up Straight: The Importance and Impact of Postural Stability

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Whether sitting at a desk at school, eating at the dinner table, or simply playing with toys on the floor, seated activities are an integral part of your child’s life. While we may not think of sitting as a complex task, it provides your child with a stable base to develop essential fine motor, visual-motor, and self-care skills. If you notice your child slouching frequently, propping his or her body against a desk or table, or fatiguing easily during seated activities, your child may be struggling with postural stability.

What is Postural Stability?

Postural stability refers to your child’s ability to achieve and maintain an upright and unsupported sitting posture against gravity. While seemingly simple, unsupported and stable sitting is dependent on a variety of factors, including muscle strength and tone, joint range of motion, the alignment of the body against gravity, and the support your child’s body receives from contact with surface they are sitting on. Core and trunk strength are essential for postural stability. If your child has a weaker core, you may notice slouching, propping of his or her head in the hands, heavy leaning against the back of a chair or the top of the desk, or sliding/falling out of chairs.

Why Does Postural Stability Matter?

While children are often on the move, a majority of their learning time takes place in a seated position. When children have to devote an excessive amount of energy to merely sitting up, the resulting fatigue can affect their ability to focus on classroom learning. Moreover, a strong and stable core allows your child to reach the arms away from his or her body in order to use the hands. Therefore, handwriting, scissor use, table-top crafts, self-feeding, and toileting tasks can all be negatively impacted by poor postural stability.

What Does Poor Postural Stability Look Like?

Some common signs of postural instability include:

  • Extreme or exaggerated slouching when sitting in a chair.
  • Leaning heavily or laying torso on the table or desk.
  • Frequently falling or sliding out of chairs.
  • Sitting in a “W” position.
  • Walking with a wide-legged stance.
  • Leaning against walls or holding onto rails for increased support.
  • Excessive fatigue following prolonged sitting (e.g. after school).

What Can I Do?

You can try to help improve your child’s postural stability through the following activities:

  • Knee walking: Try walking, playing catch, or playing “keep it up” with a balloon with your child standing on his or her needs. This helps to build the trunk muscles necessary for sitting balance.
  • Wheelbarrow walking: Encouraging your child to wheelbarrow walk helps him or her to engage their core and trunk, as well as build upper body strength. If provide support further from the core (e.g. holding the knees instead of the hips), your child will get a more intense core workout!
  • Animal walks or yoga poses: Encouraging your child to bear walk, crab walk, or perform other animal walks promotes core and trunk strengthening. Additionally, a variety of yoga poses (e.g. plank, boat, candlestick, etc.) promote overall strengthening which is great for postural stability!
  • Set your child up for success: Observe your child’s sitting environment. If your child’s feet are dangling in the air when sitting in chair, try providing a step stool or even a pile of books to rest his or her feet on. This will provide your child with a more stable base of support from the sitting surface.
  • Wedges or inflatable discs: There are a variety of tools available to help develop your child’s sitting posture. Sitting on a wedge or inflatable disc encourages your child to engage his or her core and prevents some slouching from occurring.

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s postural stability, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Natalie Machado, MS, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist

Reference:

Case-Smith, J., & Clifford O’Brien, J. (2015). Occupational therapy for children and adolescents (7th ed.). Canada: Mosby, Inc.

Photo Credit:

Anissa Thompson via freeimages.com

Developmental Therapy: Destigmatized

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What is developmental therapy?

Developmental therapy focuses on your child as a whole. Therapists look at a child globally (i.e. cognition, social-emotional development, speech and language development, fine motor, gross motor, and self-help skills). Developmental therapy typically begins during your child’s most significant time of development, between ages birth to three. During this time, your child is creating the foundation for their developmental track. A developmental therapist will focus their sessions on your family’s needs and your child’s needs.

What does a developmental therapist do?

Developmental therapists (DT) assess a child globally to determine their areas of strength and need. A DT also looks at your child’s home and/or school environments and their daily routine to see how their surroundings attribute to their development. DTs then service your child as needed using a combination of play and parent education. Children use their cognitive processing, memory, and attention span to regulate themselves and to help them understand their environment. DTs provide your child and your family with the tools to help them develop in their natural environment. A DT’s ultimate goal is to empower your family in understanding and navigating their child’s learning process.

What are the benefits to developmental therapy?

Developmental therapists look at how a child is developing in every area of development. Sessions may focus on joint attention, engagement, play skills (functional and symbolic), attention span, following directions, frustration tolerance, cognition, social sills, preschool readiness, etc. DTs can also provide support for your family’s daily routine goals (i.e. sleeping, meal time, going to the park). Your child’s developmental therapy may include a combination of these areas based on your family’s needs.

Common misconceptions:

Although your child may benefit from developmental therapy services as a young child, this does not mean they will always be in a special education program. Many children who benefit from developmental services are provided the tools that will help them succeed when they enter school. Developmental therapists are trained to provide the children and the families that they service with the resources to help children succeed throughout their development.

If your child is demonstrating difficulty in one or more of the areas discussed above, consider contacting one of our developmental therapists.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s development, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.comor at (773) 332-9439.

Rachel Weiser, MS, DT
Developmental Therapist

Reference: EB Pediatric Resources, Inc. (Chicago, IL). What is Developmental Therapy? Retrieved from: http://pediatricresources.org/developmental.html.

Photo credit: Tanaphong Toochinda via unslaps.com

Why OT?: Destigmatizing the Need for Therapy

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“Why was my child recommended for occupational therapy, they don’t have a job!” You might have many questions if your child has completed an occupational therapy evaluation and was recommended to receive occupational therapy services. What does this mean, exactly?

What is occupational therapy?

The term “occupational” does not refer to one’s employment, in this instance. Occupationscan be defined as activities that support the health, well-being, and development of an individual (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2014). An occupational therapist’s job is to increase the engagement and participation in meaningful daily activities that support your child’s learning, growing, and most of all, fun! There are a wide variety of circumstances that may affect your child’s optimal engagement in day-to-day activities at home, at school, or in the community.

How is occupational therapy going to help my child?

The benefit of occupational therapy is that practitioners are equipped for focusing therapy on a widevariety of skills required in your child’s daily life, such as:

  • Fine motor skills
    • Your child uses fine motor skills to write their name on their school work and to tie their shoes before heading out to play!
  • Visual motor skills
    • Your child utilizes visual motor skills when playing catch in the park and to copy written work from the chalkboard in the classroom.
  • Self-help skills
    • Self-help skills help get your child out the door in the morning! Your child needs to eat, get dressed, and use the bathroom to start their day.
  • Gross motor skills
    • Gross motor skills are required to walk to the front door and down the stairs safely to begin your child’s commute to school.
  • Sensory processing and regulation
    • Your child’s body is constantly processing sensory information in their environment to attend to and enjoy their world.
  • Executive functioning skills
    • When recalling the steps of their favorite family board game and following their teacher’s instructions, they are using their executive functioning skills, i.e., working memory, sequencing, and problem solving.
  • Social interaction skills
    • Your child utilizes their social interaction skills to make new friends and keep familiar ones.

What does it mean if my child was recommended occupational therapy?

Receiving a recommendation for therapy can be difficult and may bring about many questions and concerns regarding your child. Common concerns after receiving a recommendation for your child to receive therapy are “Will my child be singled-out from their peers?” or “Will my child always need therapy?”  When your child receives a recommendation for therapy, it does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong. A recommendation for occupational therapy does mean that a trained therapist has noted suspected concerns that warrant further evaluation. As an occupational therapist, many times I am asked, “Do you work with children with disabilities?” and my answer is, “Yes I do, but not exclusively!” Just as pediatric occupational therapists work on a wide variety of skills, we also work with a wide variety within the pediatric population. An occupational therapist will utilize a holistic approach to empower your child and your family so they can live their life to the fullest in their daily routines, school activities, and excitement within the community.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s engagement in meaningful daily activities, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Reagan Lockwood, MOT, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist

Reference: American Occupational Therapy Association. (2014). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain & process (3rd ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68(Suppl. 1), S1–S48. http://dx.doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2014.682006

Photo Credit: Photo by Thiago Cerqueira on Unsplash

Co-Treatment 101: What is it? And is it right for my child?

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Co-treatment, or sometimes referred to as a co-treat, refers to when two different disciplines provide treatment for one child at the same time. For example, the speech-language pathologist and occupational therapist work together to implement both of their goals into one therapy session. Co-treating can be any combination of therapists, including developmental therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, social workers, nutritionists, or any of the other members on your child’s therapy team.

When it comes to therapy, doesn’t more equal better?

Not necessarily. There is no one-size-fits-all recommendation for therapy frequency and is entirely dependent on the needs of your child. Some children benefit from multiple sessions of the same discipline to provide intense focus on specific goals, while others may benefit from a combined therapeutic approach. When an increase in therapy is recommended, it is best to consider both individual and co-treatment sessions.

What are the benefits of a co-treatment session?

There are many reasons why your team of therapists may recommend a co-treatment for your child. Below are just a few:

  • Co-treatments with OT or PT
    • When sensory regulation support is needed in order to attend to therapy activities
    • Gross motor activities may increase your child’s verbal output
    • Postural support may increase your child’s success in various therapy activities
  • Co-treatments with DT or SW
    • Behavioral strategies may be easier implemented with two trained therapists to support your child’s needs
    • Your child requires additional support to establish early developmental milestones prior to focusing on more complex therapy tasks
  • Co-treatments with SLP
    • When your child demonstrates a receptive language (comprehension) delay and benefits from modified cues for therapy directions
    • Appropriate language models can be implemented into structured tasks to increase verbalizations
  • General benefits
    • Therapists are able to brainstorm new therapeutic strategies and modify approaches in real-timeto see what works best for your child
    • Your child is already receiving multiple therapies per week and may become fatigued with additional sessions

How do I know if a co-treatment session is right for my child?

The first step is to talk to your current team of therapists to review your child’s individual goals. Depending on their needs, you and your team will be able to decide if a co-treatment session would be beneficial for your child. If you do decide upon a co-treatment, discuss the therapy plan prior to implementation to make sure that your child is not being placed under too many demands. A successful co-treatment will use basic principles of resource allocation to guide therapy – basically, your child only has so many resources to spend on one difficult task at a time, so they should not be challenged in both discipline areas during the same task (i.e. working on both speech therapy and occupational therapy goals while playing with one toy). This most likely will be asking too much of your child and will often cause them to be unsuccessful with both goals.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about implementing a co-treatment session for your child, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Autumn Smith, MS, CCC-SLP
Director of Speech-Language Services

Photo Credit:rawpixel.com

Speech Therapy: Debunked

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Most people have had some exposure or connection to speech and language therapy, whether it was for themselves, a friend, or a family member. It could be that your child has recently been recommended speech therapy and you are not sure what this will entail. In this blog, I hope to debunk a few common misconceptions regarding speech and language therapy, as well as provide a brief overview of the field of pediatric speech-language pathology.

Common Myths and Misconceptions: Debunked
While it may look to the outside world that we are simply playing with toys and games, there is a method to this play-based madness. Our job is to find out what motivates your child and use it to target their therapy goals. When your child is a toddler, this might mean making a cow jump over a barn. While that isfun, your speech therapist may be working on improving your child’s engagement and ability to imitate play-actions, which will hopefully lead them to imitating sounds and words. A population that is often thought of when discussing speech therapy are those with disfluencies, or those who stutter. This is true but is a small percentage of children worked with for a general speech therapist. Articulation therapy is another familiar area, as many of my friends remember being pulled-out of class to play Candyland and work on speech sounds as a child.  Although I do own Candyland and use it semi-regularly, there is so much more we, as speech-language pathologists, do to help improve your child’s communication skills.

What is speech and language therapy?

Variety is the spice of life, and as speech therapists, we get a good taste of this! Speech therapists have a broad scope of practice when it comes to the pediatric population. Below are a few of the most common areas a speech therapist might help your child with.

  • Articulation/Phonology:The actual sounds your child makes to create words.
  • Motor planning:Your child’s ability to plan and execute the fine motor movements required to speak in words, phrases and conversation.
  • Language:The words and phrases your child both usesand understands.
  • Feeding:This involves oral-motors skills like sucking, chewing and swallowing. Also, the sensory processing of different textures, tastes and consistencies.
  • Voice:Your child’s vocal quality. Is it appropriate for a child their age and size or is it breathy or hoarse?
  • Fluency:The way your child’s speech flows.
  • Pragmatics:Your child’s social communication skills, such as making eye-contact, initiating communication with peers, and taking conversational turns.
  • Advocacy: Your child could benefit from additional therapies that you may not be aware of. Your speech therapist can help advocate for your child to ensure they get the best possible care from a qualified team of providers, if necessary.

If your child is demonstrating difficulty in one or many of the areas above, consider contacting one of our speech-language therapists.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s communication or feeding skills, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Ana Thrall Burgoon, M.S., CCC – SLP 
Speech-Language Pathologist

Photo Credit: Photo by Leo Rivas on Unsplash