Blog
What’s the Difference Between Speech and Language Anyway?
Speech & Language We often hear these two terms used interchangeably, but what is the difference? Speech and language are two distinctly different areas of communication. Speech refers to the sounds we make to communicate and language refers to the actual content...
How to Practice Speech Goals at Home: Articulation
It’s important when practicing articulation at home to practice words your child can produce correctly, without errors. Often, simpler words are better when starting out. Next time you’re here at Small Talk, ask you child’s speech therapist for a list of words to...
Crash Course on Sensory Processing: Part Three
Congratulations on making it this far! Learning about sensory processing can be overwhelming, especially if you have your own little one(s) struggling with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). This post will discuss the second set of categories that focus more on...
Language-Rich Summer Activities for Kids
What does language-rich mean? Our world is full of things to experience and talk about. Language-rich activities provide opportunities to use language and encourage interaction and turn-taking with your child. Participating in these activities with your child...
Crash Course on Sensory Processing: Part Two
In the blog post Crash Course on Sensory Processing: Part One, I discussed the different sensory systems and red flags that can be observed within each. Next, I will dive into Sensory Processing Disorder and the different categories that fall within this disorder....
Crash Course on Sensory Processing: Part One
Sensory processing is complicated. Many of our kids struggle with some aspect of sensory processing and it can be difficult for caregivers to attend to their needs if they don’t have a thorough understanding of their child’s sensory processing challenges. First and...
Why Do I Keep Hearing about Common Objects?
Common objects are something that we work with often here at Small Talk. When we say “common objects” we’re typically referring to pictures of things kids see all the time in their daily life. These could be a car, dog, shirt, chair, etc. Many of our kids have goals...
Stuttering Awareness Week: Dos and Don’ts
In honor of National Stuttering Awareness Week in the United States, we want to help you understand the difference between the natural period of disfluency your child may be experiencing and a child who stutters. Here at Small Talk, we have therapists who specialize...
FACT or MYTH: COVID Masks and Speech
COVID-19 changed a lot of things in our world. One of those big changes was the introduction of masks into our daily lives. But with these new facial “accessories” came some unanswered questions, especially when it comes to speech and language. #1: Mask-wearing ruins...
Auditory Processing in Children
WHAT IS AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER: Auditory Processing Disorder (also referred to as , Central Auditory Processing Disorder, CAPD) is a disorder affected ones ability to process sounds. Individuals with Audiotry Processing Disorder have a neurological defect in the...
Autism and Speech-Language Therapy
April is Autism Acceptance Month. Here at Small Talk Center for Speech and Language Development we work with autistic kids with a variety of identified differences and needs. We use evaluation measures, parent interviews, and our clinical knowledge to help identify these areas and inform a speech-language treatment plan and goals to best help each individual child.
Theme week: Water week
Hot temperatures aren’t going anywhere! That being said, why not structure some fun language activities around cooling down with water activities? Check out some of these fun and interactive activities to do with your kids. Monday: Water balloon target practice Who...
Summer language series: Play Dough week
Play Dough is such a fun, tactile tool to use for play and language stimulation with kids. There are so many fun, easy (and virtually mess contained) games and activities you can use with your kids at home, whether indoors or outside, to have fun and promote language...
Summer language Series: Chalk Week
This summer has been different than any other summer. With the COVID-19 still present in our communities, we understand the challenges of navigating 'summer fun' with your kids. We wanted to offer some suggestions for language stimulation activities that are fun and...
Fourth of July: Celebrating in a Pandemic
This year, 4th of July celebrations will look much different than in years past due to the COVID-19 pandemic with many large gatherings canceled and parks closed to prevent crowds from gatherings. While the typical festivities may not be held, there are safe ways to...
A Special Message from Our Team
Please watch this special message from Small Talk. We wanted to share our success with teletherapy and let you know we are working directly with children and side by side with parents every day, teaching them how to improve speech and language from the comfort of...
COVID-19 Update
As things have continued to rapidly change in the wake of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, Small Talk and Bright Connections Occupational Therapy have decided it's best to temporarily close our office and move forward with teletherapy only. We will be contacting our...
Language milestones for babies: birth-3 years
If you have been following along on our Instagram page, you have probably seen the IGTV videos we have recorded that discuss language milestones for babies and children from birth-3 years of age. As Speech Therapists, we are often asked by parents, "when should be my...
Morning Routines: tips to eliminate the madness
Parents know that mornings are hectic! Some mornings are more chaotic than others, but what if there were steps to take to eliminate the craziness and make mornings more manageable? Try these easy-to-follow- steps to aid in calming your morning madness! Planning the...
How lack of sleep affects learning in children
4 Ways lack of sleep affects learning in children Children who are not getting enough sleep will see negative effects in regard to planning, organization, attention, memory and behavior. Read on to understand exactly how these areas are affected by lack of sleep in...
20 questions to ask your kids instead of asking, “what did you do today?”
As parents, we all want make connections with our kids and show interest in their days. It can be so challenging to find out how their days were by asking broad questions that were all so guilty of. Starting the conversation can often times be the most difficult, but...
Speech related effects and elimination of pacifier use/thumb sucking behaviors
Pacifiers and thumb-sucking behaviors are perfectly normal and adaptive for children under the age of two. For children at this age, pacifiers or thumb-sucking help soothe and regulate emotions. While some parents worry about how these behaviors affect speech, the...
Clean up… Clean up… Everybody everywhere…
With toddlers (and even teens) clean up time can be such a daunting time. After much time spent having fun, what kid ever willingly cleans up before moving on to the next activity?! Here are some ideas for making clean up fun and effective! Use clean up time as a...
Late Talkers
While all children develop [speech] at their own pace, when it comes to speech development, it can be unsettling to parents to ignore milestone expectations. There are speech timelines in place as a guide for understanding a child’s growth and development, but when...
IEPs (Individualized Education Plan) for School services: what to expect and what the paperwork means.
If your child is school-aged and you have any speech/language concerns, you have likely addressed these concerns to your child's classroom teacher. Whether or not these concerns are shared amongst you and the classroom teacher, you have the right to request an...
Thursday Therapy Thoughts: Board Games
Who doesn’t love playing games?! Games allow kids to have fun while learning and targeting specific speech and language skills. Speech-Language Pathologists are known for their wide library of games, most of which are childhood favorites for parents. While it is...
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
WHAT IS CHILDHOOD APRAXIA OF SPEECH: ASHA defines Apraxia as, a motor speech disorder that makes it hard for children to speak. In order to speak, messages are sent from our brains to our mouths. The diagnosis of apraxia (or childhood apraxia of speech [CAS]) has...
Thursday Therapy Thoughts: Sidewalk Chalk
Sidewalk Chalk: Sidewalk chalk in the summer, one of the greatest childhood past times. Such a fun, inclusive and creative activity that engages children, and adults, with endless possibilities. Listed below you will find some of our favorite language skills to target...
Thursday Therapy Thoughts: Puzzles
Who doesn’t love doing puzzles, especially on a rainy summer day? Puzzles can target multiple interests in children, from themes like: transportation, sea animals, farm animals, colors, shapes and beyond. No matter the preference or level, puzzles can offer fun for...
Speech Sound Disorders in Children
As children acquire language, they may develop sounds in the wrong manner. When there is a noticeable speech sound disorder in children, the most common sign is that people can’t understand the child when they speak. This may be due to one or several of the following...
Thursday Therapy Thoughts: Play-Doh
Play-Doh: Who doesn’t love play-doh? It is another accessible therapy material that engages children and increases natural play to help promote, practice and help develop essential language skills. It can be used indoors, on rainy days and outside on sunny days. There...
Thursday Therapy Thoughts: Bubbles
Bubbles: Bubbles are probably one of our most favorite…most accessible...most portable and...most magical therapy tools in our office. Bubbles can be used in so many ways to promote, practice and help develop essential language skills. With summer (finally) here, it...
Autism Awareness
When considering language, detecting Autism seems to be one of the greatest sources of anxiety for parents. Even though your child may exhibit common signs/symptoms associated with the diagnosis, it may not necessarily mean that your child has Autism. Autism (or...
Delays in Receptive and/or Expressive Language
A child’s speech and language skills develop as they grow, from infancy-to-school age. There are expected patterns and proposed timelines for which these skills develop, and when there is a disruption to the suggested sequence, it can cause concerns in parents. These...
Speech Apps
Many educational apps can be easily incorporated into the therapy setting and can be used to collect data, record conversational samples, motivate students and/or be used as an augmentative assistive device. Every therapist has their favorites and choosing the most...
Language and Literacy in Children
LANGUAGE & LITERACY: Language and literacy development usually begins from birth to 3-years-old. Exposure to books and literacy-based materials are linked to early language development in children. According to research (www.zerotothree.org), the interactive and...
Our Facility
Our facility has been designed with your child in mind. We have created a fun and comfortable learning environment with individual treatment rooms to ensure that each child receives full and complete attention. We also have a large gross motor room to facilitate the...