Carly Berkman-Stern Speech Therapy

Summer 2024 photo dump: a summer full of sister time, matching outfits, and oh-so-many firsts! And let’s not forget the birthdays! 🎂

Turns out that it’s been a much busier summer than I even realized! My favorite moments were our afternoons at home watching the girls bond and evening stroller walks in the neighborhood in our handy double stroller! 👯‍♀️ Going through all of my photos since June makes me extra grateful for phone cameras so we can reminisce these “good old days” forever 🙏🏻🥰

Personal goal for the fall and back to school is to up my speech content game! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Special 📸 shout out to and !

👶🏻: Squishy Mar

🏆: 12 months old!

🧑‍🧒‍🧒: at least we got some great photos on the day that she actually turned 12 months old! I’m going to miss the monthly scramble with to get this little mover to pose!

🗣 milestones: how has it been one year of development already?! Marni has learned to do so much so quickly! She is now pointing intentionally, shaking her head “no,” reaching for desired items, saying “hi,” laughing in response to anticipated/humorous routines, stopping when told, “no, Marni” (before getting herself into trouble!), and looking for assistance when her big sister withholds a high value item. This is a lot from a communication perspective- go Marni Moo!

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

You are 3️⃣, Juliette!! Everyday we wonder how you could possibly make life better, and every day you do just that. This year was the most special one yet, as we watched you become the best big sister to the best little sister, Marni, who adores you 🥰 You have blossomed into a curious, school-loving student who is surrounded by the most special family, friends, and teachers. (You love them so much that you wanted to share your birthday gifts with everyone today!) I could listen to your friendly voice and thoughtful anecdotes all day long, and cherish all of the days that I do. Even when I’m sure I’m listening to a negotiating teenager, which I’m def not ready for! 😂

Keep being you sweet girl!! We love you to the multiverse and back times a google!!

👶🏻: Squirmy wormy

🏆: 11 months old!

🧑‍🧒‍🧒: cannot believe I have an 11 month old on the eve of a 3 year old 🥹

🗣 milestones: soooo busy!!! Always on the move and exploring objects, alerting to sounds, and reacting to environmental stimuli with facial expressions, sounds, and body movements (will start to speed crawl in the opposite direction when she knows someone is coming to take something from her or move her!). Recently started testing out her vocal cords— they def work! 😱🤣

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

👶🏻: Mar! (As said with enthusiasm by Juju ☺️$

🏆: 10 months old!

🧑‍🧒‍🧒: in love with learning about Marni’s sweet, giggly, happy, individual personality more and more each day

🗣 milestones: continues to overgeneralize her production of “dada” and “daddy,” but is starting to incorporate some new sounds too! Demonstrating understanding of basic directions 🧭 pulling up to stand!! Marni is so busy and active, she is fitting the stereotype of the second child who wants to catch up to the first. In fact, she’s moving so quickly that this mama let her fall off of the window seat while we took the second pic, hence the red nosey 😔

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

I just keep telling myself— we get to go back in two weeks for camp!! 🥹☺️😭🤗

We are so lucky that Juliette’s teachers fostered the most beautiful first year of her academic career. Her school showed her love and comfort while empowering her to try new things and accept changes and challenges. And of course, one of my fave parts- watching Juju’s language explosion right before our eyes! 🗯️

She made the best of friends with the sweetest little bunch of almost three year olds, as did we with their families (social skills ✅👯‍♀️👯!) Even though it might look a little different next year, feeling grateful that we get to do it all over again for years to come with Marni, too!

This school year also marked my own first from the parent-side of school life. Having spent many years being mesmerized by watching the development that occurs throughout the course of a school year from the “other side”/SLP perspective, I always wondered what it would feel like to go on this journey with my own children. And boy is it INCREDIBLE! 🙏🏻🏫🖍️📚

Happy summer everyone!!

📸: & 🤗

👶🏻: Mar Mar

🏆: 9 months old!

🧑‍🧒‍🧒: the mom of 2 guilt continues to be real over here! Posting 9 month pics a few days after 8 month pics 😭🫠)

🗣 milestones: Marni’s first two teeth have broken through! Teething caused a bout of tricky feeding bdays but we’re back in action now. Officially sitting up and loving her new world perspective. Waving!!! Intentional gestures are starting and this SLP mama is ready for all the communication! 🥰

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

👶🏻: Marni Mars

🏆: 8 months old!

🧑‍🧒‍🧒: the mom of 2 guilt is real over here! Totally forgot to post this before Marni turned 9 months 😭🫠)

🗣 milestones: sitting up!! Loving her new view on the world and access to toys and objects. Loves engaging in reciprocal exchanges by babbling, smiling, cooing, and especially giggling! Not super into purées anymore, so we’re trying out more BLW options. Demonstrating a strong cough to expel anything that hasn’t been broken down enough and pulling apart pieces of food to put small bites in her mouth 😋

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

April is Autism month 🤗 This year, I had the profound realization about how much has changed (FOR THE MUCH BETTER!) when in comes to inclusion over the past 15 years. Moreover, when I think back to my first years in the world of speech language pathology, so much focus was dedicated to shaping neurodiverse students to meet the social “norms” that society deemed “appropriate.” This may have looked like inhibiting behaviors such as stimming, fixating, rigidity, sensory seeking, or abruptness and attempting to replace them with more “socially acceptable” behaviors such as flexible thinking and overall regulated presentations. The goal has always been to help our students reach their potential and function as contributing members of society, however, I can’t say we always had the right approach to doing so.

But, I do feel proud to have worked with many colleagues and students who are all about changing this perspective! Today, it is much more common to find therapists who are neurodiverity affirming. This means that rather than trying to change who our neuro diverse students are, we work with who they are to help them meet their potentials.

To help spread awareness- recognize the next person you meet for who they are and what they have to offer to your day!

👶🏻: Moo moo

🏆: 7 months old!

👩‍👧‍👧: better late than never (by a record of 9 days! 🫠)

🗣 milestones: moving and grooving! Marni is army crawling and trying her very best to sit up. She is super responsive to her name (especially when addressed by Juliette!), strong eye contact, and engaged in reciprocal exchanges by babbling, smiling, cooing, and especially giggling!

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

For anyone looking for an AMAZING OT to support your kiddo with their developmental needs, I can’t recommend enough!! She is an expert, kind, patient, and a fellow mama of 3!

👶🏻: Squishy mar mar

🏆: 6 months old!

👩‍👧‍👧: finally accepting the lack of scheduled naps and feedings and letting Marni lead the way more 😄

🗣 milestones: major improvements with solids! Now able to manage more mixed consistencies, can self-feed with some finger foods, and took sips from an open cup given lots of support! Also showing continuous intrinsic desire to communicate- scanning the environment, smiling when looked at or spoken to, trying to reach and scoot towards familiar faces! The best!

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

👚: beautiful personalized sweater baby gift from 🙏🏻🥰🙏🏻 we love thinking of you guys while we wear it!!

I really do enjoy the spirit of love that is brought about by Valentine’s Day (perhaps because I’m a Valentine’s baby a heart 🤗), but when you think about it…the concept of “love” has many elements that require higher level thinking skills that our little ones or kids with learning delays may not be able to grasp yet. 💗

It’s important to set our kiddos up to understand that love isn’t just a feeling, it is how we act towards others as they learn and grow, helping their loving contributions to make the world a better place! 💕💜😍

💜💕 Swipe ➡️ for some handy things to keep in mind as you’re talking about “love” on Valentine’s Day or any day!💜💕

Sending love to everyone!

Today marked the start of my social language group at our preschool and it was SO much fun! As I have been preparing and share the news of this class, some have shown curiosity about what socializing has to do with a speech therapist. Here is the short answer— EVERYTHING!

Speech and language skills are the foundation for becoming successful communicators. And successfully communicating is how we grow as social beings- positive contributors to society, leading fulfilling lives through connections with others!

For children with language delays, social skills are an area that need particular attention to social skills because communication relies on successful understanding and use of language.  But, social skills can be hard for lots of people for different reasons! Regardless of the cause, one of the best ways to help improve social skills is through the use of social skills groups. Working on social skills in a group setting allows children to practice unspoken “rules” of communicative interactions with their peers in a safe, strategically structured, meaningful setting will carry over into real-life everyday scenarios!

Skills that can be improved through the SLP perspective:

💜Problem solving (identifying the size of a problem)
💜Being “flexible”
💜Sharing
💜Identifying and labeling feelings
💜Personal space
💜Empathy/perspective taking
💜Initiating play with a friend
💜Reading social cues
💜Self-advocating

👶🏻: Marni moo (nickname that’s sticking ☺️)

🏆: 5 months old!

👩‍👧‍👧: elated by Marni’s giggles and smiley greetings, there’s nothing better!!!

🗣 milestones: easing up on solid food presentation due to some difficulty managing thicker/mixed consistencies (oatmeal) and digestion trouble, though she continues to want to gobble everything up! Rolling all around, grasping objects and bringing them to her mouth (including my face which is the sweetest!), mouthing teether toys, attending to environmental sounds and visual stimuli, loves when Juliette plays with her

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

There are many ways we can use daily routines to target speech and language goals for our kids (focusing on vocabulary, following directions, asking/answering questions, etc)). But...it is also important to take a step back to look at how our own use of language can impact the flow of these routines!

For example, when we are rushing and focused on the end result, we may lose the mental bandwidth to verbally explain to our child what is expected of them in a given moment. On the other hand, as we are transitioning into a more consistent routine, we may have already developed a useful “script” that is effective for keeping our kids grounded and regulated and they prepare for their next steps of the day (“one more minute, and then we’re going to be all done”).

In our household, I’m trying to keep it together enough to take my own advice. Bedtime has been quite a doozie over here! That’s why I decided to make matters more tangible by putting the language around bedtime into the form of a social story. After reading the story with Juliette, I was able to carry over the phrases we’d reviewed throughout bedtime tonight, and (call it coincidence!) it went more smoothly!

If you’re home for winter break, it’s a great time to think about making some modifications ☃️

👶🏻: Mar Mar

🏆: 4 months old!

👩‍👧‍👧: very behind on speech-related content! Trying to balance staying present with staying productive 🙃

🗣 milestones: it’s the giggles that get me! Marni loves being spoken to, she recognizes when she is being addressed and lights up (lots of engagement!). Another big one: SOLIDS! Getting better each day at managing purées with improved oral motor strength and coordination 🤗.

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

Utmost thankful for these sweet little turkies and our life together!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who makes everyday special for our family!

👶🏻: Marni, not to be confused with the fashion brand, Marni ☺️

🏆: 3 months old!

👩‍👧‍👧: soaking up newborn snuggles and sounds for as long as they last

🗣 milestones: cooing in response to voices and eye contact, reaching towards and grasping objects, responsive to variated intonation, starting to mouth hands and objects, enjoying being her sister’s real-life baby doll!

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

👚: thank you so so much for the perfectly unpersonalized, super stylish, ready-to-wear sweatshirt!!! How cool?!?

Gotta get back into speechie activity mode with my maternity leave ending and fun sessions on the horizon! Given the timing of my return, Halloween is one of my favorite themes to get into because there are so many easy ways you can get creative to make targeting speech and language goals more fun. Seriously, give a 5 year old some sensory slime and tell me they didn't have fun and I won't believe you! 😄🎃

Here's what my girls will be waking up to:

🎃 Halloween PJs with lots of accessible vocab to prepare them for what they'll see lots of while trick-or-treating

🎃 Simple Halloween coloring mural for letter recognition (early literacy skills!) that we can use to hang on our candy table for trick-or-treaters

🎃 Silly sensory bowl (of course!) with pumpkin mochi's, paper filler, pom pom's (Juliette's favorite), and pipe-cleaner spiders (thanks dollar section!)

🎃 Pumpkin eggs filled with spooky vocab words like "worm pizza" and "mummy mac and cheese." These are super fun to hide around the house- when you find an egg, open it up and practice saying the word inside!

🎃 Make-your-own pumpkin face parts to stick into a real pumpkin- targets facial expression

🎃 A theme! This can be a great way to make working in categories tangible (doesn’t need to be as cheesy as ours! 😂)

Cherishing my crew 🙏🏻🇮🇱

Thank you so much for capturing Marni’s first moments in life and ours as a family of 4 (plus 🐶!) !

💬 also grateful for all of my clients who made my maternity leave possible!

Marni’s second month brought a whole new meaning and perspective to being a parent. Holding M and J even tighter— grateful that they are safe in our arms and able to thrive 🇮🇱

👶🏻: Mar Mar

🏆: 2 months old!

👩‍👧‍👧: feeling proud to be able to instill the values of Judaism in my children

🗣 milestones: smiles in response to interactions, increased engagement and attention to sounds/voices, exploring basic cause and effect interactions

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

What can we do to support our little ones when conversing about the complex topic of "war," "murder," and "death" are not age appropriate yet?

For children under 4, a great place to start is by reinforcing the importance of compassion, respect, kindness to ALL. Children at this age learn through observation and experience. Now more than ever, let's do everything we can to be role models who instill empathy in our children, while also showing them how to be strong and be who they are meant to be!

2 babies, 2 milestones, same day…it’s crazy how splitting myself in half actually makes my heart double!! 💜💗💜💗

👶🏻: Marni Moo

🏆: 1 month old!

👩‍👧‍👧: gradually learning how to split herself in two, while the love in my heart doubles!

🗣 milestones: appearance of facial expressions, such as sleepy smiles, pursing lips, raising eyebrows, and grimacing, subtly varied cry sounds (especially for hunger!) and beginning to make eye contact and pair with our voices. *rolling over is halfway from tummy to back 😊

📸: Juliette & Marni’s Daddy

One week with Marni in no particular order: the week my heart doubled in size as did my lack of sleep 🥹☺️🥰

👶🏻: Baby Marni

🏆: 1 week old!

🗣 milestones: latching for nursing and bottle feeds (no tongue tie seems to make a big difference- Juju’s was severe), age appropriate head and neck strength for respiration, phonation, and swallowing, alerting and attending to environmental sounds!

📸: Marni & Juliette’s Daddy

Our hearts are exploding with joy, gratitude, and a strong sense of deja vu welcoming our newest addition, Marni Arden!

She’s already made her dad a “girl dad^2,” given Juliette her official “big sister” title, and made her mama’s heart double in size, and we couldn’t be more grateful that she’s made us a family of 4! We love you so much already sweet little sister!🥰🙏🏻👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

…more speechie mama content to come!…

What timing that I learned that today is National Sisters Day! A bond I’m going to be learning about very quickly any day now 🥰 After googling the significance of this day, I learned that it’s also National Friends Day. I hope our two girls have a bond that represents both!

But then, further research revealed that it’s also National Root Beer Float Day, National Fresh Breath Day, National Wiggle Your Toes Day, and American Family Day 🤔 so this realization at least broke me out of my recent ongoing state of emotional overwhelm and made me feel more light hearted about it all! 😂

Would love any sages of wisdom on what to expect from sibling-hood as a total newbie to this journey! 📝⬇️ TIA!

📸: 👨‍👧‍👧

It's August! We've reached the midway point of summer!

😎For many students who receive speech/language services, the break from school also means a break in treatment. July tends to be a particularly checked out month, as kiddos excitedly soak up their break from the school year grind and enter the (much needed, IMO) "la la land" that camp provides

😎Now that this cloud nine has reached it's peak, and some kids are even home from camps etc, its not too late for parents to help their children maintain communication skills learned during the school year in fun and meaningful ways!

😎Providing your children with fun, engaging activities is a great way to make practicing skills more enjoyable and less daunting to go back to upon transitioning into a new school year

😎Check out this list for some ideas to get you going, or DM me for more individualized suggestions!

Happy Summer!!

Happy happy happiest 2nd birthday to our sweet sweet Juju bean!! You are endlessly curious, smart, and evermore gentle, kind, and silly 🥰 Even though I wish I could freeze time in this moment, I can’t wait to watch you flourish in your second year of life and as you become a big sister! Keep on being you!!

We love you to the multiverse and back times a google, Juliette!!

📸 credit: !! 🙌🏻👏