Speech and Language Milestones: A Guide for Parents Understanding the typical speech and language milestones for your child can help you track progress and determine when it's time to seek support in the form of a speech therapist, occupational therapist, or even a physical therapist. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) provides valuable insights into these milestones, offering a guide for parents to support their child's communication development. In this

Creating a language-rich environment for your child can be crucial for fostering their speech and language development at home. Although hitting those speech and language milestones is a HUGE deal, there's a whole lot of groundwork to lay before that! Your child's language development depends on many factors, but the most crucial one is...their environment! Want to create a language paradise that will make your child's vocabulary bloom? Let's explore what we can do at home

A child's first words in their speech and language development are often nouns (e.g., doggie, mommy, daddy). Nouns are tangible, we can point to them, hold them, and show them to a child who is learning their first words. But, as language develops, it's important to incorporate verbs as well. When a child has about 50 single words, they are ready to start combining the words into phrases (e.g., Daddy ball, Mommy up). This often happens between 20-24 months old. To support the

Speech therapist recommended activities in Brooklyn throughout February Storytime at Books are Magic on Smith Street Where: Carroll...

Speech therapist recommended activities in Brooklyn.

The holiday season continues! In the last blog post about the holidays, we discussed some ways that parents of a neurodivergent child can prepare themselves for interactions with family and friends. This week, we are going to talk about how parents of a neurodivergent child can prepare them for the holidays – meeting new people, going to new places, and experiencing completely new situations. We know that every neurodivergent child is unique…it would be impossible to create

The holiday season is upon us! With Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and more holidays right around the corner, here are a few tips for supporting and advocating for neurodivergent children as they interact with family and friends. Oftentimes there is a network of people surrounding your neurodivergent child on a day-to-day basis who understand their profile and needs. Their teachers, parents, caregivers, or related service providers are all people who likely have a strong

Let’s talk about the importance of choosing developmentally appropriate toys for toddlers to support their play, problem-solving, and language development. Choosing the right toys available for your child is important. A small amount of thoughtfully selected toys is more beneficial than a large amount of toys. Some considerations to determine if the toys you are introducing to a child are considered developmentally appropriate toys: Does the child have the fine and gross mot

Neurodivergent children and the holidays: preparing them and supporting them during it

Gestalt Language Processors (GLPs) are children who develop language in chunks and gradually breaks down these chunks to use them in a flexible, self-generated manner. Advocating for a Gestalt Language Processor is important because many people are not familiar with this normal, natural way of developing language. To better understand how a Gestalt Language Processor develops, it's helpful to compare their development to Analytic Language Processors (ALPs). ALPs are kids who