A scrap of paper and pen stopped my toddler's daily tantrums This winter, my son really loved going outside, but it inevitably resulted in a terrible toddler tantrum. We live in New Hampshire, so from January to March our yard was covered in snow.  There’s never a moment where I’m sipping hot coffee, looking out the window at a cold snowy day and saying “man, I need to go out there.” But almost every day I found myself agreeing to head outside into the slush. Here’s where the big ol’ toddler tantrum hits... My son’s a little strong-willed and he KNOWS that he needs boots to go outside ..read more

Is your little one GRUNTING and SCREAMING instead of using actual words? This article is for parents of 18 month olds who are not talking yet. If that’s you and your family, you may have come back from your last doctor appointment with a note to “keep an eye on it.” You’ve probably heard about the 3 year olds who miraculously start speaking in sentences. That is to say that you’ve probably reached out to other people and been told not to worry and to wait and see. For a worried parent, that advice is painful and information is power. So here we are with some information! Table of contents (1 ..read more

There are exactly FOUR parent factors that impact a child's language development. If you want to hear the knitty gritty research, go ask Megan Roberts and Ann Kaiser in their research article, The Effectiveness of Parent-Implemented Language Interventions: A Meta-Analysis.  These women reviewed 18 studies to figure out how parents affect language growth. They found four different factors  that play a major role in language learning. Factor 1: How much you interact with your child Holy Mom Guilt Batman. The amount we interact with our kids actually impacts their later language ..read more

One of your kids has a communication challenge and the other doesn’t. Does this sound familiar?  You may see… Frustration Interrupting Power struggles Miscommunication I’ve pulled together the hive-mind of my mom friends  I asked my favorite mom-friends (who have multiple children) to share their insights. Then I combined what they know (life with kids) with what I know (speech-language pathology) to share some tips with you. There’s a shift after you add a second child to your family. With two or more children, parents have to split their attention. Now add a communication challe ..read more

When I was researching what to write about – I asked some folks in my NH Toddler’s facebook group what they were most nervous about and I shared my own fears about toddler social skills: that somehow this socially isolated time would forever impact my son’s social development. You want to know what they all said? “SAME” So – since social skills are kinda my jam – I decided to look into this topic a little further Table of Contents: Disclaimer What is Social Communication? How common are Social Communication Disorders? Important Social Communication Skills for Toddlers 5.5 Ways to Support Soc ..read more

Why you might want to know some games you can play without toys… Today we’re going to talk about both the benefits of toy-free play and a variety of games you can play without toys.  My husband and I are rather minimalist, so we encourage our family to limit the number of physical gifts they buy for our son. If he gets a new toy, then we are quickly finding some toys to donate or store in the attic.  Our son is going to hate us when he realizes what’s happening. We not only like the cleanliness of having minimal toys, but also the benefits of having to engage with fewe ..read more

As you may have noticed, I’ve finally jumped into the world of SLP Instagram. One of the first accounts to catch my eye was Tandem Speech! Emily Cohen is a Speech-Language Pathologist out in Austin, Texas (TX) who loves helping families to use play to support speech and language development. I quickly reached out to Emily and was so excited when she agreed to connect and share some of her awesome insight with me (and all of you!). There is so much information in this interview about teletherapy, play, private practice, and networking. I am grateful for the time and energy that Emily put into t ..read more

Now that you’re done with your clinical fellowship, let’s start at the beginning. When did you decide to become a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and what drew you to the field? I decided to become an SLP my junior year of high school! There were many contributing factors to this decision.  I took a course in high school in which we took personality and military based assessments to look at strengths and weaknesses in STEM areas (STEM: science, technology, engineering, and math). Across the board, SLP, Occupational Therapy, and a few other therapies came up consistently. Part of that co ..read more

Alexa is a graduate student in New York Bre is a graduate student studying remotely from Utah After my interview with Heena, a graduate student from Connecticut, I was curious about other SLP graduate students. Are SLP students across the country experiencing similar barriers to starting their careers? I reached out to a couple of Facebook groups and heard back from Alexa Vahlstrom, a graduate student in New York, and Bre Quinn, who is studying remotely from Utah. Here’s what we discussed: Please note: I am reflecting these conversations to the best of my ability. I may have made some tw ..read more

Are you a busy SLP who knows that your students should be practicing their skills with contextualized materials, but you aren’t sure how to pull that off? Keep reading to get some ideas on how to use firefighter activities with your students this week! It can be really overwhelming to stay caught up with new curriculum-demands and scheduling challenges. It’s not overly complicated, it just takes a ton of time, which we know you don’t have. Let me do the internet searching for you. Every Saturday I share a new themed-unit. I share a few books, some videos, and related games. More important ..read more