Go Play!

Summer is here!  So get outside and play!  Play is a great way to develop speech and language skills - no pencil and paper required - and what better place to do it than the playground?  The playground is the perfect place to target a wide variety of speech and language skills.  From learning new words and concepts to playing games and socializing, the opportunities are endless.  Learn about some of the easy ways you can include speech and language skills on the playground here! 

Go Play! Tips to Teach Speech-Language Skills on the Playground

Talking to children, made easy

Kids are great.  Maybe they're your own kids.  Maybe they're nieces and nephews, the little ones of friends, or maybe you work with these fascinating tiny humans.  Whoever they are, sometimes it's not easy to know just what to say.  From building vocabulary and pretending as children to understanding and describing more complex emotions and sharing opinions as teens, talking is an amazing way to teach and connect with kids of any age.  Take a look at 

The Star: Talking to children, made easy

Low levels of hormone linked to social deficit in autism

Stanford Medicine reports findings that children with autism present with low levels of a hormone that affects their ability to empathize with others.  Researchers have found a correlation between the low levels of this hormone - vasopressin - and the inability of autistic children to understand that the feelings and perspectives of others differ from their own.  Check out how these researchers investigated this hormone to find these correlations, and what the effects of this hormone may mean for future treatment. 

Stanford Medical - Low levels of hormone linked to social deficit in autism

Baby Talk: From 'goo goo ga ga' to Theory of Mind

Baby Talk: Using Emotion-Based Language With Your Baby Will Help Them Develop Strong Social Skill Later In Life

"Baby talk is a great way to bond with your newborn, but recent research has shown just how important this behavior is in shaping your child’s future social skills as well. According to the study, mothers who used more emotion-based words when speaking to their babies had children who grew up with a better understanding of other people’s feelings." (Dovey, 2015).

Find out more about this research, its findings, and the implications of what it could mean to shift our idea of baby talk from 'goo goo ga ga' to a framework considering emotional language and theory of mind.

Check out the full article, HERE.