Parents sometimes think speech-language therapy is only for young children.

When children are struggling, these support providers can help.

At school, work, and in the community, you’ll find groups of people doing fun things that you want to join. Here are some helpful ways to enter social groups and make new friends.

It’s not always easy to make new friends at school, work, or in the community. This guide for all ages offers helpful suggestions for how to get started.

There are lots of opportunities for local community outings with your children during the last month of summer.

Jump into July with these fun, local activities for all ages!

Many children experience dysfluency during their early language years. You will typically see this occur between the ages of 2-5 years of age. At this time in a child’s life, they are going from using 1-2 word phrases to short and simple sentences, asking and answering questions, and understanding a wide variety of vocabulary that they may or may not be able to explain yet. If your child begins to stutter, here are a few things to ask yourself.

Your vocal cords are two bands of muscle in your larynx (mid-throat area) that rest at the top of your trachea (see picture). They function to protect us from choking on foods/liquids. They also vibrate to produce our voice. Vocal cord tissue is resilient but can be damaged. The first line of defense in keeping your vocal cords healthy is to practice good vocal hygiene. If difficulties persist after several weeks of implementing vocal hygiene strategies, a consultation with an ENT would be warranted.

Neurodiversity (“neuro” = brain + “diversity” = varieties) is a term used to describe differences in the ways individuals’ brains work. This is in contrast to neurotypical brains that function within an established range of expected development. So, what falls under neurodiversity? Any person with a brain difference is neurodivergent, including those who are gifted, autistic, and/or have genetic variations, ADHD, learning difficulties, mental health challenges, and more. It is important to understand that not all brains function the same way; they are diverse.

Your child needs speech-language support – but where do you go??? Speech-language evaluations and therapy can be delivered in a variety of settings including schools, private clinics, and outpatient facilities. Qualifications for therapy depends on the setting you are seeking.

Speech-language therapy can support your student at any point in their academic career. Language is an essential element of communication and learning at school. Students in nearly all grades and subjects rely on listening, speaking, reading, writing, and social skills. Higher-level language skills, like inferencing, connecting, problem-solving, organizing, and more, become more important as students advance through grade levels. When students have strong communication skills with the adults and children around them, they are much more likely to be successful in school. Here are a few ways in which a speech-language pathologist can help:

Learn about the benefits of private-pay services.

The earlier that services are delivered, the more likely children are to develop effective communication, language, and swallowing skills and achieve successful learning outcomes (Guralnick, 2011).

Over the past 20 years, parents have become increasingly interested in teaching their young children sign language. Other parents wonder about the downsides of sign language, with concerns that sign language will keep their child from speaking or isolate them socially. Luckily, the research here is clear: Sign language does NOT impair social or language development. In fact, early exposure to sign language actually improves child development in several ways.

We all know that encouraging our children to read is important. We want them to do well in school (where reading is a must). We know that reading helps with critical thinking. And we might even hope for them to enjoy discovering new ideas and adventures in stories. But how can parents support our children’s literacy at home? There are important and different reading strategies parents can incorporate at each level of development.

In the United States, Thanksgiving is widely considered a time of reflection. Setting aside the complex and controversial history of this holiday, Thanksgiving offers opportunities for fun, meaningful family conversations with children of all ages.

The “new” speech and language milestones being suggested don’t jive with the evidence-based norms we have been using to measure development for decades.

Children learn most of the speech-sounds in English from ages 1-6 years in a generally predictable order. When children have trouble with a sound or multiple sounds, we get lots of questions from parents about how we can help.

Children generally learn the speech-sounds of their language in a predictable order by certain ages. A recent cross-linguistic review updated this normative information by gathering previous results from the best studies and averaging the data (McLeod and Crowe, 2018).

All children need to hear that they are valued. Sometimes, children with communication disorders need a little *extra* reassurance.