All Entries in the "Therapy Tip of the Week" Category

Therapy Tip of the Week for 6.1.12

Here’s this week’s Therapy Tip of the Week:

 
Part 3 of Introducing Pretend Play to Toddlers with Developmental Delays
Included are extra ideas for helping a toddler expand pretend play and begin to include symbolic ideas.
Sound effects and vocalizations help a child learn to “pretend.”
Don’t forget to target receptive language during play!
If you need more ideas for [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 5.25.12

Here’s this week’s video:

 
 
 
Introducing Pretend Play to Toddlers with Delays - Part 2
Watch for ideas and objects to use in beginning pretend play activities with dolls & other “characters” a child already loves.
The focus of this kind of play is to help a child begin to combine familiar objects and use 2 toys together during [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week for 5.18.12

Here’s this week’s Therapy Tip of the Week:

 
Beginning to Teach Pretend Play to Toddlers with Developmental Delays
Pretend play is such an important cognitive milestone for toddlers. A lack of pretend play is associated with developmental disorders including autism.
Many times toddlers with developmental delays don’t begin to perform very early “pretend” play activities until we teach [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 4.27.12

Here’s this week’s video:
 
Therapy Tip of the Week 4.27.12
In this week’s video I’m sharing ideas for teaching language to toddlers with developmental delays using Mr. Potato Head.
Don’t skip straight to expressive language with this toy. Work on receptive language, or comprehension, first! You can help a child learn to understand body parts and select those parts on request. [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 4.21.12

Here’s this week’s video:
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cause & Effect  Toys
Cognition plays a HUGE role in the development of language. A child must master the important cognitive milestones of cause & effect, simple problem solving, and object permanence BEFORE he or she is developmentally ready to talk.
In the video I showed you a few of my favorite toys for teaching cause & [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 4.13.12

Here’s this week’s Therapy Tip of the Week:
 
 
 
 
Toys with Keys
Young children love toys with keys!
On a basic level, these toys provide not only an opportunity for a young child to develop fine motor skills, but also to practice simple problem solving.
Problem solving is one of the CRITICAL cognitive skills that toddlers must exhibit before they are ready to learn to talk. (If [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 3.16.12

Here’s this week’s video with activities for Easter:

Therapy Tip of the Week for 3.16.12
Easter wind-up toys are a fun way to teach initiation and requesting. There’s a whole “how to” section for using wind-up toys in my book Teach Me To Play WITH You.
The video contains several ideas for using Easter [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 3.9.12

Here’s this week’s segment of Therapy Tip of the Week for March 9, 2012:
 
 

Therapy Tip of the Week 3.9.12

This week’s activities will give you some new ideas to expand your play with dolls, teach names for clothing items, work in some fine motor practice, and even target categorization and/or matching.
Remember to use these activities for receptive language [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 3.2.12

Here’s this week’s Therapy Tip of the Week:

 
Therapy Tip of the Week for 3.2.12
BALL TOYS
Balls are developmentally appropriate and a fun toy for toddlers between 1-3 years old. Remember that you’re looking at a child’s developmental age here. Let’s face it; even older kids love balls!
Ball is also a great, early word for late talkers. Why? Because the [...]

Therapy Tip of the Week 2.24.12

Hi! Here’s this week’s video:
 

  
 
Puzzles
Puzzles are a staple of speech therapy sessions with young children. In the video I explained many different ways to target language and other considerations to improve participation with this activity with toddlers. Here’s a summary of that information:
1.  Offer toddlers variety with puzzles. It is B O R I N G to [...]