Learning to Speak in Public A great enhancement to any child’s social skills is the confidence to speak in public. Speaking successfully in public is a skill that will serve your child their whole life...
Mark’s Story When our son Mark was 10 years old, he started showing a strong interest in local politics. Because of this, my husband Mike arranged for him to go door to door with us and advocate for a particular congressman we were...
In today’s complex workforce, the worker with a powerful and rich vocabulary will have a major advantage indeed. To me as a mother and speech-language pathologist, vocabulary is one of the very most important skills for our children to develop...
Here is a list of the first 100 words that most children produce. This does depend on their environment, of course, but you can confidently work on these with your child. Remember that they might not pronounce all the sounds in the words...
The Importance of Strong Social Skills in Our High Tech World We all know that in the 21st century, machines and technology have taken over many jobs that people used to do. The use of robots has expanded also. Given this scenario, socioemotional...
Here is a lesson I learned the hard way: whenever we allow our children to get away with things at home, they will think it is okay to do those things in outside settings like school. Because I worked full time and was tired when I got home...
I am just so thrilled that children in Ghana, Africa finally received the books we sent in spring, 2022. There is nothing better than knowing that thanks to your generous donations, children in Africa are being exposed to literacy and helped to...
As school is back in full swing, many of us are thinking about how to set up our young children for success. Even if our children are in preschool and haven’t started their elementary years yet, it’s never too soon to begin working on print...
When children are just learning to read—and especially if they are struggling—a great strategy is to use a picture walk before you actually start to read the book. In the picture walk strategy (taught to me by one of my son Mark’s tutors), you...
Through the haze of my fatigue when Mark was a baby, I learned how to watch him carefully and respond immediately when he initiated communication—verbally or nonverbally. For example, he’d wake up in his basket and start waving his arms. I’d go...
Every parent looks forward to our babies’ first words. We can’t wait for them to talk! Mark played his cards right, and his first word was “mama” when he was 12 months old. We know that most babies say their first word around one year (12 months)...
So when Mark was little, he loved kinetic sand–it was so good for his sensory skills! Today as a practicing speech-language pathologist, I find that kinetic sand is very highly motivating for the kids on my caseload. “Is Miss Cewest...
