ProActive Pediatric Therapy

Sydney’s Tuesday Tid Bit-- How to be a Matched and Balanced Communication Partner One of the most effective strategies we can use as adults when interacting with our children to support their speech and language development is matching our communication to theirs and ensuring interactions are balanced. Be a Matched Communication Partner. This means that we should speak at a level that is similar to where your child is speaking. If your child is not yet using words, then we should be modeling single word utterances that are paired with gestures and/or other fun movements. (because children learn to imitate actions and gestures before sounds and words!) If your child is using single words, then we would be speaking in 1-2-word utterances. Try to expand on what your child said by repeating the word they used then adding a new word to it. The most powerful expansions include one of your child's targets. In an expansion, you imitate what the child communicated, and then add more. By adding words to the child's words you connect a new word to a word your child already knows. which increases the saliency of the new word and makes it more likely that your child will learn this new word. Expansions immediately connect the child's communication to additional new communication and help your child learn new vocabulary and talk in more complex sentences. Be Balanced: Avoid dominating turns with your child. Remember, communication is like a game of ping-pong, not a game of darts. Our children are learning to talk, which is a tough thing to do! So when we ask a question or make a comment, we must be sure to provide children that extra wait time they need to process what they just heard and then formulate their own response. To provide wait time, after you have initiated communication, look at your child expectantly but remain silent. I physically count to 5 in my head to help me because silence is uncomfortable. we are quick to interject with another comment to fill that silene when in reality, we may be eliminating an opportunity for our child to share his own thoughts or feelings. You would be amazed by how much someone has to say when we just give them the opportunity to do so. If after 5 seconds your child does not respond, simply model the desired word/phrase and move on. Do not force or require your child to imitate it. Just model what it should sound like and continue on to the next activity. This helps reduce any pressure the child may feel during communicative interactions. Children learn to speak by watching us and copying us. They are not born with the innate ability to do this. That means we must be providing them opportunities to learn from us. Be Matched by setting up opportunities for them to practice by using simple words and phrases. Your child is much more likely to imitate this vs if we used a 6-7-word sentence. Secondly, be balanced. Do not dominate the interaction by drilling questions at them like you would in game of darts. After you make a comment or ask a question, provide extended wait time to give your child a chance to respond. If they do not respond after 5-6 seconds, then model you could model what they could have said and move on. Examples: Instead of this: Child: Ball Adult: Wow! Watch this! I am going to kick this big ball all the way over there! Try THIS: Child: ball Adult: a blue ball!! (While on the slide) Child: go Adult: go dooooown! Wee! www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/how-to-be-a-matched-and-balanced-communication-partner PROACTIVEPEDIATRICTHERAPY.COM How to be a Matched and Balanced Communication Partner — Proactive Pediatric Therapy

A Parent’s Role in Speech Impairment: Many parents wonder what they can do for their child’s speech impairment. When children struggle to correctly produce their speech sounds, parents can utilize auditory bombardment word lists or repetitive books that are loaded with target sounds to help! Auditory bombardment word lists are lists of words that start/end or contain a specific sound that is read by the parent to the child once or twice a day. Reading words that contain the specific sound the child struggles to pronounce, gives the child an opportunity to hear the sound produced correctly over and over again. You can also replicate this through a repetitive book. For example, if you are working on /F/, Red Fish Blue Fish is a great book. Or if your child struggles with /G/, Good Night Moon or Go, Dog. Go! If you are practicing /S/, try Splat the Cat or Bears Snores On. It’s important to not prompt your child to say these words with or after you as we do not want the child to practice these words with the wrong production. Find a consistent time every day to read a story or read a list of 20 words to your child. Do not overemphasize the targeted sound but pronounce the words as you naturally would. Below are links to websites where word lists can be found. Have you already used books for speech practice at home? If so, what has been your favorite book to use?! We would love to hear about your "go-to" books! www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/a-parents-role-in-speech-impairment https://www.home-speech-home.com/speech-therapy-word-lists.html http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?page_id=55

Emily's Tuesday Tidbits Promoting Language in Everyday Routines: Encouraging language from your child doesn’t have to be another thing added to your to-do list, it can be built into your everyday routines! Please click the blog link below to see three common routines and ideas of how you can promote language growth in your daily routines. Together we can help your child THRIVE! Please reach out to ProActive if you have any questions regarding your child's speech and language development. www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/promoting-language-in-everyday-routines

ProActive was honored to be a part of CR Mom's bloom event. Please check out our video we created for our virtual booth. It includes a tour of our clinic, photos of adorable kiddos and wonderful testimonials from a couple of our families. ProActive wants to help all infants and children in our community THRIVE. Please help us acheive that by sharing our video.

Jodie's Tuesday Tidbits: ProActive tips for schooling at home SCHOOL IS STARTING (in some way, shape, or form!!) Whether your child is fully online this fall or has a hybrid model of partially at home classes and partially online, the challenge for parents is real! How do we help our kids be at their best for learning during these trying times? These are definitely challenging times. Remember-this will NOT be a forever situation. If while spending all of the extra time with your child you begin to see difficulties with learning, concentration, or motor skills, please don’t hesitate to call us! We are dedicated to helping children find joy and TRHRIVE! https://www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/proactive-tips-for-schooling-at-home #ProActivetipsforschoolingathome

Lisa's Tuesday Tidbits: Improved weight gain, strengthened immune system, greater stability of heart rate/ breathing/ temperature regulation; increased milk supply, AND help with brain development. Want to know what one thing could be so powerful? Skin to skin care!! There is a large body of evidence that supports all of these benefits and more for your newborn baby. And better yet- these benefits continue months after your little one is born. Skin to skin (or kangaroo care) care has numerous benefits for mommy (daddy) and baby during the first week of life. Did you know this same skin to skin contact has continued benefits long after the first week of life? Read more at the link below to our Proactive at Home blog Together we will help your child THRIVE! #skintoskin #Tuesdaytidbits www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/skin-to-skin-benefits-beyond-the-first-week

Thank you Variety Club and Transamerica for providing this bike for Nora! The pure JOY on her face says it all. She is so happy to be able to ride her bike! We love helping children THRIVE!

Please help us to welcome Mallory, our Office Manger, to ProActive Pediatric Therapy. Mallory comes to ProActive with great experience and a passion for helping kiddos and families.

Tuesday Tidbit from Emily October is AAC awareness month and we at Proactive Pediatric Therapy want to highlight the importance of AAC and its use during the upcoming Halloween festivities! AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication and is used to describe any type of communication other than verbal speech. Communication types such as, sign language, gestures, eye gaze, speech-generative devices, communication boards, etc. are examples of this. Approximately 4 million people in the USA rely on some type of AAC to communicate in their everyday lives (Beukelman and Mirenda, 2013). We hope these tips and tricks are useful to your family for this upcoming holiday. Have a fun and spooky day! Learn more about how to integrate AAC into your holiday at our blog post. We are here to help your child THRIVE! www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/trick-or-treating-using-augmentative-and-alternative-communication-aacnbsp PROACTIVEPEDIATRICTHERAPY.COM Trick-or-Treating using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)  — Proactive Pediatric Therapy

Sydney's Tuesday Tidbit It’s not uncommon for families to think to themselves, my child is a baby, they shouldn’t be speaking yet, they don’t need speech therapy. Or they may think, I can understand everything my child tells me, so why would I need to have a speech evaluation done? The reality is, speech-language pathologists support a wide range of communication skills and speaking consists of much more than just speech. Read more about how ProActive can help your child THRIVE through Speech Therapy with the link below. www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/speaking-is-more-than-speech PROACTIVEPEDIATRICTHERAPY.COM Speaking is more than Speech — Proactive Pediatric Therapy

We love when families share about their experience at ProActive. I'm so thankful for Emily Brandt... I've waited so long to find the perfect speech therapist for Landon. I'm beyond pleased with how hard she works with Landon, I'm thankful she's one of the first people to see all the potential that little boy has and she pushes him to where he is actually growing. He completely adores her, trust me he gets a big grin when it's time to see " his Mrs Emily". I highly recommend her if your child needs speech therapy. Thanks Emily Brandt for helping this beautiful young man grow with communication.

We love helping families THRIVE! Thank you to Z's family for sharing their story. If you have questions or concerns about your little one's development please reach out!

So much to be thankful for on our 1st Anniversary! We had a great day celebrating with our staff and families. We seriously have the most amazing team! Thank you to all who have supported ProActive. It means so much to us! We love seeing our kiddos and families THRIVE!

ProActive is honoring the tiniest miracles of our community on World Prematurity Day. Did you know that 1 in 8 babies born in the United States are born premature? We would love to see pics of your preemie miracles! Share a pic or your miracle to be entered to win a book. Together we will help your child THRIVE!

One of the best parts of the holidays is the food, wouldn’t you agree? This year, invite your kids to participate in the cooking/baking while targeting this important skill to encourage their language growth! Together we will help your child Thrive! www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/making-thanksgiving-treats-while-promoting-language

Need a smile today? If so, this video is just the thing you need! This patient’s mom turned a verbal routine used in speech therapy as a game in the car and her son is clearly loving it! Here at ProActive, we loving seeing our therapy bring JOY to our families! Together we can help your child THRIVE!

Look at this cutie rocking his new bike from Variety- the children's charity! He loved it from the moment he got on the bike and he loves to go FAST!!! We also love his ProActive Pediatric Therapy shirt! Thank you Variety for providing this opportunity for Oliver!

ProActive had the honor of presenting Max with his new bike from Variety- the children's charity! His smile says it all!! Pure JOY!! It is wonderful to add fat wheel training wheels and seat with a back to a two wheel bike so it is more stable. Now Max has a bike that works for him and can bike with his siblings!

A couple of weeks ago, Lisa talked about how development is similar to the development of a strong, sturdy tree. This picture provides some greater details of how development occurs. In order optimize development of various skills such as fine motor skills, speech and communication skills, complex thinking, and most importantly, self-confidence and JOY, the critical pieces of nervous system development need to be in place. Ensuring all of the foundational skills are developing correctly will help prevent issues or struggles later on in life. Early identification of concerns + early intervention is key to supporting a strong foundation of development. ProActive Pediatric Therapy therapists are experts in early identification and intervention. Our goal is to be proactive in helping your infant and child’s nervous system have the foundational skills necessary to grow and THRIVE! www.proactivepediatrictherapy.com/new-blog/foundations-of-development PROACTIVEPEDIATRICTHERAPY.COM Foundations of Development — Proactive Pediatric Therapy