Research-Based Suggestions for Teaching Joint Attention to Children with ASD
Children with autism often have trouble with joint attention. They may not respond to people around them and seem aloof. This can become harmful when this lack of interaction leads to a delay in language and learning. The lack of joint attention causes this delay as children learn to communicate verbally and nonverbally by watching and interacting with others.
Joint Attention: How it Plays a Role in Your Child’s Language Development
Joint attention is a child’s ability to focus on a thing or event with another person. For example, a child looks at you and points to a teddy bear on a shelf. This attention or interaction can be verbal or nonverbal, such as gestures, gazing, or verbal exchanges.
Sensory Regulation Explained
What is sensory regulation? It might be a term that you hear your child’s therapist use often. In simple terms, sensory regulation is how our body processes and regulates all the different sensory stimuli it encounters. Our body is constantly taking in different sensations both outside and inside our body, and our body needs to regulate how it reacts to those other sensations.
Most Effective Treatments for Apraxia
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor planning and programming disorder that affects oral motor movement, meaning there is a problem with communication between the brain and mouth.
This disorder can sometimes be referred to as developmental apraxia of speech, or developmental verbal dyspraxia. However, apraxia is not developmental because children do not grow out of it. This is a lifelong condition that needs treatment in order to improve.
What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is classified as a motor speech disorder, meaning there is a problem with communication between the brain and mouth.
This disorder can sometimes be referred to as developmental apraxia of speech, or developmental verbal dyspraxia. However, apraxia is not developmental because children do not grow out of it. This is a lifelong condition that needs treatment in order to improve.
Teaching Reading Comprehension to Students with Language Deficits
Reading comprehension skills are a critical component of being able to succeed in school, yet the strategies put in place do not always help those children that have language deficits, making them fall further behind in their reading comprehension abilities.
Reading comprehension itself is formed of many different skills, each one mastered with time. However, those children with language deficits may have difficulty due to deficits in reading ability, lexical development, and syntactic development. If these underlying issues aren’t addressed, poor comprehension of text will result.
How Language Impairment Affects Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension can be a problem area for those children diagnosed with language impairment. Since reading comprehension is made up of a group of skills, problems in certain language skill areas can affect your child’s reading comprehension. Common strategies put in place to help teach reading comprehension are not effective for those children with language impairments. If these foundational skills are not addressed, a child may continue to fall behind in school and struggle well into their teen years.
Recasting as an Intervention for Language Development
Recasting, like expansions, communication temptations, and verbal routines, is a great tool to encourage language development in children.
A recast is a repeat of what a child said, but with an addition that adds meaning or corrects what the child has said. Recasting is a form of modeling, and what is said by the initiator holds the same meaning as what the child initially said.
What is Recasting and How to Use It as a Parent
A recast is a repeat of what a child said, but the adult includes an addition that adds meaning or corrects what the child has said. Recasting is a form of modeling correct language form, and the recast formed by the adult holds the same meaning as what the child initially said. A recast can be corrective but doesn’t have to be.
SLP Service Delivery Methods: Pull Out vs. Push-In
There is not much in-depth research that has been done on what method is the most successful method of service delivery. This article summarizes an Evidence-Based Systematic Review done on service delivery methods for speech-language interventions, particularly comparing pull out and push-in delivery and group versus individual therapy.
Transform Story Time into Learning through Interactive Book Reading
Interactive book reading is a fun way to build a child’s engagement and interest. It is particularly about helping your child be an active listener and a participant in the storytelling process. While they are having fun, they are also helping develop crucial components of their language and literacy.
Parent-Training as an Intervention to Help Children with Speech Delays
The Hanen Centre’s program called It Takes Two to Talk is designed for parents of children birth to age 5 with language delays. The program teaches parents strategies to teach children to add language to interactions, adjust everyday routines to encourage turn-taking, and to follow a child’s lead. These strategies taught to parents are also great tools for SLPs to use during therapy.
Communication Temptations: What is it?
Communication Temptations is a strategy for parents to use to help build their child’s speech and vocabulary. It operates based on helping your child initiate a conversation or communication instead of just responding. As the name implies, communication temptations are a way to tempt your child to be an initiator, rather than a passive participant when communicating.
What are IEPs and ETRs?
IEPs and ETRs are common terms you might encounter, especially if your child needs speech, occupational, or physical therapy. In this guide, we will break down the basics of what each term refers to and provide some great resources if you’d like to dig deeper about the pieces and parts that make up IEPs and ETRs.
Verb Particle and Preposition Acquisition and Teaching
Studies have shown that verb particles are especially difficult and care should be taken to properly teach students. This can be done through direct instruction. This summary features two articles: one about why verb particles and prepositions are difficult to acquire for language-impaired children, and a summary of how direct instruction can be an effective method of teaching both verb particles and prepositions.
How to Build Vocabulary in Children through Verbal Routines
Verbal Routines and expansions are great ways to build vocabulary in children. When your child begins to enter the stage where they are forming words, it’s important to help teach them by narrating about what’s going on in the world around them.
Create Confidence: the Importance of Self-Esteem in Young Children
When a child feels confident, they feel like they can take on the world. OT,PT, and Speech are geared towards helping build independence and confidence by helping your child build on the skillsets they need to thrive in life. These could be motor skills, communication, behavior, and more.
Dyslexia and the Wilson Reading System
Dyslexia and Language-Based Learning Disabilities may prove as an obstacle for your child as they start to learn how to read and communicate. Although there is no cure for dyslexia, and even the cause behind it isn’t fully understood, it can be addressed through structured, multisensory learning programs. The Wilson Reading System is a great option, especially for those who have not found success with other interventions or thrive with more intensive teaching.