January 25th, 2012

Family Literacy Day-January 27

What could be a more important gift to your children than a love of reading? Family Literacy Day is January 27.  Here are my thoughts about ways to help your children love reading and writing:

BABIES:

  • Words are the foundation of literacy so talk to your baby.
  • Look at books with simple pictures. Buy board books, so they don’t get torn. Babies love touchy feely books (so do I!)
  • Let them play with things that help develop fine motor skills such as pouring water, putting things in and out of containers.  Occupational therapists are always keen on developing the pincer grasp.  Think of the fingers you use to open a clothes peg-these are the same ones you use for writing.  Peg boards are good for this.

PRESCHOOLERS:

  • Go to the library regularly.  Most libraries have story book time-they know how to make it fun. Great for listening skills.
  • Make book reading a part of the daily night time routine.
  • Choose picture books and let your child tell you the story by looking at the pictures.
  • Encourage your child to draw, paint and colour-have lots of washable felt markers and scrap paper around.

EARLY READERS:

  • Talk about letters and words.   Play rhyming games.
  • Allow you child to take books they he chooses out of the library.
  • Listen to your child read books with simple words.  Continue to read more difficult books to your child.
  • Keep encouraging drawing, but now add words to the picture.  Have your child print the words or help if needed.

PRETEENS:

  • Continue to read to your child or take turns reading great classics.  How about Treasure Island  or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
  • Give books for gifts or get a subscription to a kids magazine like National Geographic Kids or OWL.
  • Comic books are okay-anything that keeps them reading.
December 20th, 2011

Blocks, a Ball and a Book-a Christmas Story

At this time of year many of us are extra generous.  We contribute more to the local food bank or drop coins in the kettle when we pass the Santa ringing bells.  Sometimes it’s hard to decide which charities to support.  This year the decision was easy. I work with children under the age of [...]

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November 28th, 2011

Speech Sound Problems-Why Me?

Parents often wonder why their child has a speech sound problem.  Some parents say their child is lazy.  I want to make it very clear that this is never the case.  When it comes to children with a few speech sound errors we don’t usually know why they are delayed, but we know they can [...]

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October 24th, 2011

Stuttering Awareness Day-October 22

Better late than never!  Did you know……. More than 68 million people world wide stutter 4 times as many males than females stutter Stuttering can be treated Famous people who have had this difficulty include;  Marilyn Monroe, James Earl Jones, Carly Simon, Winston Churchill, King George VI of England. These facts and much more information [...]

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NOTE: This blog contains general information only. For particular information about an individual child it is recommended that you see a qualified speech-language pathologist. See the links to CASLPA and ASHA in the sidebar to find a qualified clinician.

For ease of reading, I have chosen to use the following conventions: Parent means parent or teacher. He means he or she when talking about a child. Child means child or student.