Specializing in pediatric speech therapy, Northern Virginia’s Children’s Speech Therapy Center (CSTC
Vocabulary helps children to think and learn about the world. The more vocabulary that your child knows, the more they will be able to comprehend what they hear and read. Swipe through our slides for some ideas to help build vocabulary with your child.
For the month of August, we will be sharing some Kindergarten readiness tips. Let’s start with building phonemic awareness! Strong phonemic awareness is one of the strongest predictors of reading success. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate spoken words. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate the individual sounds in those words. Try some of these activities at home to build and reinforce phonemic awareness before your child starts kindergarten!
Many children get completely immersed in water play. It’s a great time to target speech and language goals just by playing with your child. The beauty of water play is that you can target articulation, expressive/receptive language, pragmatics, and/or executive function just by doing an activity that your kids already love. DM us if you need any ideas for water play this weekend! For our local Loudoun families, have you visited the splash pad at Hal & Berni Hanson Park? It’s a summer favorite for eliciting all kinds of language!
Pretend sink/ice cream truck: Great to address following directions, receptive/expressive sequencing (first, next, last), labeling and requesting new vocabulary, pretend play, and turn-taking.
Marble run/magnetic tiles: building toys are a great way to address executive function skills. They involve sustaining attention, organization, visualizing a final product and creating a plan, problem solving, and flexible thinking.
Instruments: Musical instruments can be used to encourage imitation and requesting. They can also be used for labeling, describing, and concept reinforcement (e.g., loud, fast, slow, quiet). Use them to mark syllables in multi-syllabic words.
Dinosaur toys: Target prepositions by moving the dinosaurs around the mat, have your child build a scene and describe it to you. Hide the dinosaurs and work on inferential language by giving your child clues. Practice wh-questions and labeling verbs. Listen to your child’s play schema involving the dinosaurs and expand their language!
Stacking blocks: Work on concepts receptively and expressively (in, out, on, off, big, little), take turns building and knocking down (a toddler favorite!), labeling nouns and verbs (e.g., blocks, colors, crash, build) requesting, and describing the pictures that are on the blocks
Cars: Using cars to practice core words (e.g., stop, go, more) turn taking, requesting, making choices, environmental noises (e.g., beep, vroom, zoom), imitation, use as an opportunity to listen to your child’s
language and expand or comment on what you are doing while playing.
We are all moved in at our new location! Looking forward to welcoming you all next week.
Books are a great way to practice a wide variety of speech goals!!
This month many of our therapists are using The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen to target therapy goals. This book can be used for kids of any age!!
💡Label and identify the characters in the story
💡Talk about how things look and emotions that they are feeling throughout the story
💡Model action words to describe what different characters are doing
💡Basic Concepts: Find something “small” | Find the item "under" the "big fish"
💡Phonological Awareness: RHYMING!! This book is full of rhyming words at the end of every other sentence
💡Higher level vocabulary: This book is jam packed with new words for your reader to learn how to decode and add to their vocabulary
💡 Speech sounds: Find words throughout the story with their sounds in it. Once you say the word, ask the child to repeat the word OR read the sentence again and pause for your child to fill in the word.
- L-blends: glum, gloomy, clam, place, blub, floats, slender, slightly, plants, blinks,
- S-blends: spread, just, scaly, scowl, squid, slender, squiggly, squirmy, squelchy, smile, straight, destined, swimmer, aghast, stone, statue, smooch
- Additional targets: final consonants, SH, CH, initial /f/, final /s/, r-blends and more!!
💡Sequence and retell the story
💡Talk about the main idea and moral of the story
💡Identify narrative structures: Characters, Setting, Problem, Solution, End Feelings
Can you think of additional goals to target??
We are pulling out all of our favorite games to get ready for our summer social groups! This year we are using games to target team building, self-advocacy skills, problem solving skills, future planning skills, and perspective taking. Let us know if you think we are missing out on any great games!
The best way for younger children learn from screen time is to have an adult involved facilitating. Just like reading a book, children will learn more on apps if you talk through what’s happening together. As stated in our previous post, not every moment of the day needs to be educational. 20 minutes of iPad time can also be just for fun while adults finish a task around the house or recharge.
If you want screen time to be an educational experience, engage in the experience with your child and narrate what they are watching or ask questions. However, parents shouldn’t feel guilty about every moment of screen time. If you need to turn the tv on while you cook dinner, there is no evidence that that’s harming your child’s language development. Look at your family dynamics and needs to make a plan that aligns with your ideals around screen time.
As speech therapists we are often asked if the use of technology impacts language development. The simple answer is YES!! Check out these facts about the impact of technology on your growing baby's language development!!
Information from this post was derived from:
https://identifythesigns.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Be-Tech-Wise-With-Baby.pdf
Check back tomorrow for more information regarding technology use with toddlers!!
CSTC Therapies is now offering teletherapy. Please call us at (703) 723-7270 if you'd like to set up an appointment!
Due to weather, CSTC Therapies is closed today, February 20th. We will reopen normal business hours Thursday, February 21st. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
CSTC Therapies is closed today, January 14th, due to weather! We will reopen normal business hours tomorrow, Tuesday, January 15th. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
Due to weather, CSTC Therapies will be closed Monday MORNING, January 14th. As of right now, afternoon sessions are still on. Will update if this changes. If you cannot make a session, please email us [email protected]
Children's Speech Therapy Center will be closed from Monday, December 24th - Tuesday, January 1st. Therapy will resume as normal on Wednesday, January 2nd. Please email [email protected] with any questions you may have. Thanks and Happy Holidays!
CSTC Therapies is closed this afternoon, November 15th, due to weather. Please stay warm and safe!
I'd like to welcome our new therapists, Miss Bryanna and Ms. Sara. We are so happy to have you guys on our team! We miss Ms. Ioana already! Good luck in CA!
CSTC Therapies is open today!
CSTC Therapies will be closed Tuesday, March 14th due to the weather. We will reopen on Wednesday, March 15th.
Exercise Is ADHD Medication
Physical movement improves mental focus, memory, and cognitive flexibility; new research shows just how critical it is to academic performance.
I've heard great things about this park!
Clemyjontri Park is a Northern Virginia favorite! Named after the park donor's four children; Carolyn (Cl), Emily (emy), John (jon) and Patrina (tri), the 2+ acre all-inclusive, adaptive playground consists of 4 outdoor “rooms” surrounding a centerpiece carousel!
Our most recent article on DullesMoms..
Children’s Speech Therapy Center is a well-known private practice specializing in pediatric speech therapy...
Another great article by one of our therapists, Susan Morgan. "Inadvertently Supporting Challenging Behaviors"
A great read about too much screen time...
Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are now growing up in environments saturated with a variety of traditional and new technologies, which they are adopting at increasing rates. Although there has been much hope for the educational potential of interactive media for young children, accompanied by fe...
Wonderful idea for the holidays!!
Help kids realize that EVERY person can make a difference in the world, no matter how small they are. This calendar is filled with small acts of kindness that any child can do on their own to spread joy to others.
Newcast on NBC about screentime featuring a family from Ashburn and research from my alma mater!
Research by Professor Lauren Myers and Lafayette students was featured on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
Wondering about some fall themed activities you can do with your children.. here's the answer!!
Children’s Speech Therapy Center (CSTC) is a well-known private practice specializing in pediatric speech therapy and conveniently located in Ashburn, VA. When your child needs a speech and language professional, navigating all your options can be time-consuming and frustrating! Let Children’s Speec...
Checkout our new column on DullesMoms!
Children’s Speech Therapy Center (CSTC) is a well-known private practice specializing in pediatric speech therapy and conveniently located in Ashburn, VA. When your child needs a speech and language professional, navigating all your options can be time-consuming and frustrating! Let Children’s Speec...
Exploring how we can connect mindfulness techniques to our children's social abilities
Psychologist Abra Garfield (2015) explains, “mindfulness techniques stem from Buddhist practice of meditation originating about 2500 years ago. Mindfulness meditation was used widely for spiritual and intellectual development, to strengthen concentration, unlock human potential and reach a state of…
Great read!
Every parent is eager to hear their child use words and start putting sentences together. But did you know that there’s a long list of things a child must learn about communication before he can begin to communicate with words? Find out what these “pre-language” skills are, and how you can promote t...
How Parents Can Dramatically Improve Their Child’s Attention Span During Playtime
Parents can help improve their child's attention span during playtime with simple eye contact.
What’s the Difference Between Dyspraxia and Apraxia?
Learn why childhood apraxia of speech is sometimes called verbal dyspraxia. Find out what the difference is between apraxia and dyspraxia of speech. An expert explains.
What Screen Time Really Does to Kids' Brains
Too much at the worst possible age can have lifetime consequences.
CSTC Therapies will be OPEN on Tuesday, February 16th. We will open the office at 1pm.
CSTC Therapies is closed today, February 15th in observance of President's Day.
CSTC Therapies is OPEN today February, 9th 2016
44081 Pipeline Plz, Ste 120
Ashburn, VA
20147
| Monday | 9am - 6pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 6pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 6pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 6pm |
| Friday | 9am - 3pm |
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Ashburn Pediatric Dental Center
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