The Speech Dynamic Blog

Costco and Social Skills? Would you believe I have never been to Costco? Maybe it’s because we are a family of two or maybe it’s my love for Trader Joe’s, but I am never buying a single box of toothpaste ever again!   My Costco experience was different from my typical grocery store experience. Walking […]

Social Skills in Preschool Just like any other skill, social skills and play develop in stages. By the time children reach preschool, they are engaging in a much more interactive form of play called cooperative play. During cooperative play, children organize themselves into specific roles (“You be the mommy and I’ll be the baby”) and […]

Language Development and Preschool The preschool years are an amazing time for children to soak up language! There is no shortage of options or philosophies when it comes to early education. No matter what you decide, here are five things you want to look for in a school to support development of speech and language skills: […]

Executive Functioning  Skills It’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly telling kids what to do. Repeating yourself over and over  without results can be frustrating for both parents and educators, as well as for children.  Constantly giving directions loses its effectiveness and starts to feel like nagging.  We also miss out on valuable […]

How Choices are “Magic” In my article, “Why I Don’t Say Say to Your Toddler,” I discuss why I don’t advocate demanding early talkers say a word. How do you encourage language then? In addition to setting up the environment to create communication opportunities (putting things out of reach, keeping items in containers, etc.) there is another […]

Self-Regulation: If you’ve taken an Intro to Psychology or a Child Development class, you may be familiar with the “Marshmallow Test.” This experiment was first performed in 1960 by Stanford Psychologist Walter Mischel.  Mischel gave preschool children the choice between one marshmallow now or two marshmallows fifteen minutes later. The children were left alone with […]

Movement and Learning More and research shows us the negative effects technology can have on our brains and learning. However, increasing evidence shows us the value in moving and being outside for a healthy body and mind.  Even just 5-10 minutes of outside time has been proven to restore mental energy, reduce stress, improve short-term […]

Play and Developing Brains: Walk down any toy aisle and there is no shortage of new and exciting toys.  It’s easy to think the more “bells and whistles” the better. In fact, simple toys such as blocks and baby dolls provide children with everything they need for building important cognitive and language skills. Play and […]

Visualizing and Learning – The Connection “I don’t know,” answered the mummy. “Tushman asked me to hang out with him at the beginning of the year, and he must have told all the teachers to put us next to each other in all of our classes, or something.” The mummy shrugged. I knew the shrug, […]