Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Stages of Play and Ways to Make The Most Out of Playtime Learning



Wonderful, visually attractive and factual infographic on the importance of play in early childhood. Even if you think you have heard this all before take a glance. In fact, I would love to have this print in my office. 

The author from Nourish shares that just letting the child play is often the best approach but there are certain things you can do to make the most of playtime learning. The graphics clearly share key points in play, the role of play in development, stages of play and ways to support the child’s play. It has excellent content for professionals and when guiding and coach parents and caregivers. 

The graphic’s header has the brilliant quote from Robert Louis Stevenson,

Happy hearts and happy faces, 
Happy play in grassy places— 
That was how in ancient ages, 
Children grew to kings and sages.


Sunday, April 9, 2017

Hearing First's Resources for Listening and Spoken Language Outcomes

This website is packed with resources, tips and inspirational stories to help you reach a successful LSL outcome for your child who is deaf or hard of hearing. Visit the website to learn more. https://hearingfirst.org/


Saturday, April 8, 2017

Milestones and The Little Rocket Scientist

The Milestones of Your Little Rocket Scientist’s Development, Early Childhood Education Degrees. http://www.early-childhood-education-degrees.com/milestones/
Did you know that “by age three, a child’s brain has formed 3 quadrillion connections?”  This link not only provides interesting and motivating facts about early childhood development, but it outlines key developmental milestones across linguistic, cognitive, social, and physical domains at varying age ranges from 0-3 months to 5 years. These milestones are displayed with fun, space-themed, visually pleasing graphics as well as in a checklist format. 

Read on!

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Lynn’s AVT Dollhouse Continuum and How To Follow A Child's Lead

As a follow-up to my post on, Lynn’s LSL Dollhouse Continuum I wanted to share strategies on following a child's lead in Auditory Verbal Therapy while guiding and coaching the families and meeting the child's goals.

Source

I am very intentional when following a child’s lead in order to target specific listening and spoken language areas of need. In reply to your question, I  sometimes brainstorm with the parents but most often model as we play and coach throughout the session a little bit of information at a time. I have found hands-on coaching is most effective. I have a sign in my office that says, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

I have worked with some families who are “good at playing” and many others who do not know where to begin. If the toy doesn’t have batteries and entertains even for a short time they are lost. 

Therefore, I  model how to engage a child in play and also how to join in and play. Being clear about the LSL goals is essential to guide the play.

Here are three strategies, I model and use to Follow the Child’s Lead. 

1. Observe, Wait and Listen (OWL)

Observe for what the child is interested in. 

Wait to give the child a chance to initiate or get involved in an activity

      Waiting can be hard to do! I try to model counting to 10,  looking expectant and leaning forward

Listen to what the child is trying to tell us

2. The parent and I begin playing together with the hope that the child follows and joins in the fun.  When the parents and I are playing (this can be in short spurts) I model the LSL skills we are targeting. 

I love to hear the child come back and use what he just heard modeled. In this situation, language is caught through hearing and not directly taught.

3. I often set up or act out a scenario to encourage the child to communicate. 

For the dollhouse, I may have bits of cracker on the little kitchen table. I often set-up of something unexpected to encourage or give the child a reason to communicate (sabotage).  I always include a broken chair to make a connection to the earlier taught Three Bears story.  


4. Giving the child choices is effective. I may offer the bear family or people dolls to use in the dollhouse.  

Have fun playing and listening together!