SLP Mommy of Apraxia

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  • DIY “Park your speech!”

    DIY “Park your speech!”

    Do you have a kiddo who LOVES cars and needs a different activity besides flash cards to work on his speech sounds? Check out this super easy parking lot activity.

    I bought a cheap black poster board from the dollar store, and mapped out a street and parking spaces using white and yellow crayons.
    This boy was working on ST blends so we said “stop” each time he parked a car; however you could glue pictures or write target word or sounds into the spaces and have them say it each time they “parked” a car!
    It’s also great if the child is only at the single sound level. Just repeat the sound and pretend it’s the sound of the engine!

  • Language with a loom

    Language with a loom

    OT and PTs can have fun and creative activities for children. They provide good tactile and/or sensory activities that can also be great for practicing speech and language at the same time. 

    This loom idea from the Inspired Treehouse is a perfect example! For instructions on this easy to make loom check it out here! http://theinspiredtreehouse.com/fine-motor-activities-simple-outdoor-weaving-loom/
    We started first by cutting strips of material…a good fine motor activity. When my kids are cutting I have them say something for each cut. You can just make the /k/ sound, say “cut” if you’re working on initial /k/, final /t/, or on your CVC syllable shapes for apraxia therapy. For Ashlynn, we said “snip” since we are working in CCVC syllable shapes, including /s/ blends. 
    You could also practice sentences that you could set to song like “Are you sleeping” but sing “Are you cutting, are you cutting, yes I am!” 
    Melodic intonation therapy like this is easy and fun for parents to do at home!

    Next, we set our sites on weaving. This activity is great for locational words such as: top, middle, bottom, under, over, up. Kids with language processing deficits frequently have difficultly with comprehension and following directions that include these concepts. 

    Ashlynn kept wanting to start in the middle of the loom and I had to keep reminding her and showing her to start at the bottom. Then while we were weaving we chanted “in then out, in then out” to get practice with these concepts; however you could also practice saying just “in” or “out” or “up” if you’re working on VC syllable shapes.
    When you’re done you can give silly directions like, “throw the ball OVER the loom” or “roll the ball “UNDER” the loom. 
    We made this over a course of two days and now the kids have a little hideaway in the backyard!

  • Speech & Language with puzzles

    Speech & Language with puzzles

    Sorting is an important foundational skill that sets up the building blocks for logical thinking and organizing.  These skills are necessary for later educational development in math (i.e. order of operations, geometry), reading (identifying main idea and relevant details), and writing (developing a topic sentence and organzing relevant details).

    Most parents have simple puzzles like this at home.  When my daughter was two, I held the pieces and gave her two choices.  She would have to make a sound or word approximation (because of the severe apraxia) to request and then I would give her a piece and she would find the appropriate place.

    Now that she is 4, I laid out the pieces as you see below, and she sorted them using a sentence: “A cat is a pet.”  “A tiger is a zoo animal.”

    To promote pre-literacy skills (exposure to print, print awareness), I wrote the name of the category on a sticky note and put it above the puzzle.

    That’s it!  Happy playing!
    Skills addressed:
    Sorting
    Classifying
    Expressive language
    Early-literacy skills
  • CV BINGO printable FREE!!

    CV BINGO printable FREE!!

    Speech therapy for apraxia requires a motor based treatment approach that works up through a hierarchy of syllable shapes with lots of repetition, repetition, repetition.  Unfortunately, repeating the same syllable shapes is limiting and many times boring. 

    I decided to create some BINGO game sheets that can be used, starting with the CV syllable shape.  Look for more to come if you’re interested!

  • Why we need milestones, and why I can still be proud of my daughter.

    Why we need milestones, and why I can still be proud of my daughter.

    I recently read a blog article about not buying into speech and language milestones.  The writer asserts:

    “Because here’s what I think of traditional milestones: f*ck them…………My baby will do that when she’s ready. This is not the Olympics, people.”

    She went onto explain that parents seem to make milestones into some sort of competition, and she doesn’t want to buy into that.  I get her point probably even more poignantly that she does.  

    My child was late with all of her milestones, and because she was late, I felt the sting and continue to feel the sting every time someone else’s child on social media or in my life meets a milestone with which my daughter still struggles.   

    This author was already sick of the comparisons, real or imagined, and just wanted to enjoy her baby.  Yeah I can relate, but lucky for her it seems, her child was just on their own timeline and would still go on to develop typically.  Some kids aren’t so lucky, and those “milestones” become very important so that kids can get early intervention when they need it.

    Oh she goes onto say, “Is your pediatrician happy at your baby’s checkups? Good……remind yourself that no one’s counting.”

    Unless of course your pediatrician IS concerned, or worse they’re not and your child misses valuable early intervention.  

    Oh, and no one’s counting, unless of course you get to feel a punch to the gut when you are faced with low standard scores, percentile ranks, and descriptors like “definite dysfunction” or “severe apraxia of speech” or “below average,” in black and white reports that have your child’s name on the top.  Lucky for her, her pediatrician is happy and no one is counting.  

    What about the other kids she wasn’t considering who don’t meet them?  

    Yes, milestones make any parent crazy.  Yes, parents can get stuck on being overly proud of their offspring, but then again, they should be.  They’re the parent!  I’m proud of Ashlynn for other qualities that maybe some other kids her age don’t yet possess as adeptly including: 
    Empathy
    Sensitivity
    Kindness
    Thoughtfulness
    Optimism
    Perseverance
    Bravery
    Compassion

    And why shouldn’t I be?  I’m her parent, and I’m supposed to be proud of what she is good at.  I don’t look at other parents with disdain who have kids meeting or blowing the lid off the milestones.  Jealousy maybe, but not disdain.  I think, good for them.  They should be proud of their child,  and every child deserves and needs their parents to be proud of them for their unique God given talents.

    So, I decided to write a printable for the parents who are forced to look at milestones.  Who have googled milestones and felt the pit in their stomach when they know their child isn’t meeting them. I wrote this so that parents will not say “F*ck them” but will instead pull up their big girl panties, and get the help they need for their child, no matter how hard and painful it is.


    Speech and Language Milestones: Birth to 3




  • Speech and Language with Post it Notes

    Speech and Language with Post it Notes

    My daughter loves Post it Notes.  LOVES them.  She loves writing some small scribble on them and then proudly sticking them up around the house to put on display.

    Today we drew pictures that included her target sounds to work on speech, but we also drew shapes to work on our pre-writing strokes for OT.

    Based on the response from my facebook post, my kid’s not alone in loving them!  Try it!  Easy and fun way to get speech practice in at home.