Child's Play Speech Pathology

Thank you for another wonderful year! Our team will now be taking a well-earned break. We can't wait to see all of our little friends and their families in the new year and see what 2023 has to bring.

👂 The other two tiny bones in the middle ear are called the hammer and anvil 👂

Lest we forget.

A very Happy Easter to all of our wonderful families. We hope you have a restful and restorative long weekend.

It's World Health Day! This year's focus on Our Planet, Our Health.

"Are we able to reimagine a world where clean air, water and food are available to all? Where economies are focused on health and well-being? Where cities are liveable and people have control over their health and the health of the planet?" - WHO

Happy World Autism Awareness Day!

Each and every day we are grateful for our autistic clients, families and friends. Thank you for sharing your unique view of the world with us, you make it so very bright.

Excited to celebrate Autistic girls, women and gender diverse friends today!

Happy World Autism Awareness Day!

Each and every day we are grateful for our autistic clients, families and friends. Thank you for sharing your unique view of the world with us.

❤️❤️❤️

It's Neurodiversity Celebration Week! Neurodiversity is a buzzword right now for sure, but what is it and why is it such an important concept?

Neurodiversity is the idea that people think, learn and do things differently, and that these differences are not wrong, they are a part of the natural variation in human brains.

The neurodiversity movement is about breaking down stigma around diagnoses like ASD, ADHD, dyslexia, tourettes and many more. Previously these diagnoses were considered atypical, disordered or other. Therapies were focused on "fixing" the differences that came along with each with the aim of bringing a person closer to what is considered neurotypical. Instead, the neurodivsity movement teaches us that differences don't have to be weaknesses, and that these differences are normal.

As therapists working with people with neurodiverse brains, it's helping us to take a critical look at the therapy approaches we use and the goals we target. How do we best build communication skills in a way that honours neurodiversity and doesn't try to quash it? How do we build our clients up, as they are, instead of sending the message they need to "look normal"? We haven't got all of the answers, but we're excited to continue to learn and grow.

Happy World Down Syndrome Day! 💙🧦 💛

We like to compare children learning to talk to the process of building a tower. Think of each piece that makes up the tower as a skill. Before the next pieces can be added, the ones they are built upon need to be in place and stable. If too many pieces are wobbly or missing, the tower can only be built so high.

It's much the same for learning to communicate. Before a child can add their talking piece to the tower, they need to have the imitation piece solidly in place to build upon, and before this they must have the connection piece set, and so on.

This is why, when you are working with your child on learning to talk, it is often the missing pieces or skills that come way before talking that are the most important to foster.

Happy International Women's Day!

Working in a female dominated field gives us a unique opportunity to witness the incredible things women achieve. The passion, compassion and generosity of women on our team, or who we are grateful to call friends and colleagues is awe inspiring. Countless children have a brighter future because of the amazing women in Speech Pathology and many other female-lead caring professions and we are excited to celebrate them and all women today!

We love a messy room at the end of a session because it means:

✅ A child's ideas were followed
✅ Strange and wonderful opportunities for language stimulation were found
✅ A sensory need was explored and sensory regulation better supported
✅ Saying "no" didn't block chances to connect and communicate

and most importantly...

✅ We had fun!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You don't get one without the other...

One of our most frequent questions is "what can I do to help my child learn to talk?" and our answer is always the same. The single best thing you can do to improve your child's communication is to get down on the floor and play!

We recommend setting aside at least 20 minutes each day to get on your kids level and have some fun with them. From here, countless developmental milestones can grow!

Quick fact about Bilingualism and language delays...

Babies are developing skills that will lead to talking from the moment they enter the world (and probably even before that!). Swipe along to learn about the earliest skills that set the foundation for becoming a communicator.

Happy New Year!

BRB... Taking a much needed break 🎄

A huge thank you to all of our clients and families for making this a stellar year. There's been plenty of ups and (lock)downs, but through it all we've loved to watch our little ones flourish. Have a fun, safe and very well deserved break and we can't wait to see everyone when we reopen on the 10th of January.

Merry Christmas from Rylie, Kate and Melissa!

Supporting toddlers as they are learning to talk starts with some very important basics!

1) Play on the floor - playing with your child is enormously beneficial for learning to talk and connect, and doing it on their level by sitting and playing on the floor can make it even more powerful.

2) Let them lead - let your child set the agenda when playing to foster a deeper connection (and we know communication is ALL about connection).

3) Respond enthusiastically to attempts to communicate - responding to any attempt to communicate, whether with words, a look or a gesture, helps to reward these attempts and encourage a child to communicate more!

Feelings! We're learning about emotions today with the help of our pineapple friend.

Many children find it difficult to identify emotions in themselves and others, and this can lead to some sticky social situations. By building our little friends knowledge of emotions we can help them to become more in tune with themselves and others.