SPEECH AND LANGUAGE NEWS
November 2007
Dear Parents: I will
be attending the American Speech and Hearing Association Conference November
15, 16 and 17. Therefore, there
will be no speech and language therapy on those days.
At-risk readers: early identification
In
the June issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, the neuroscientists from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon
universities found that functional brain scans and tests of reading skills
strongly predict which children will have reading problems. These combined tests
predicted the children’s future decoding skills more than 80% of the time. For further information see the full
article at:
www.apa.org/releases/bne1213hoeft.pdf.
IMPROVING YOUR CHILD'S ARTICULATION SKILLS
Parents
can improve their child's articulation/phonological skills at home by using
some simple techniques and activities. One of the most important things you can
do is called modeling. Repeat the mispronounced word correctly, in a
slow and clear manner, emphasizing the correct sound. For example, if
the child says, "I see a wabbit", your should say, "Yes,
I see a rabbit, too!" Make sure that you have eye contact
and the child is watching how you form sounds and words. Also, identify the
target sound(s) in words and pictures. You can do this while shopping, reading
a book or looking through toy catalogs. Most important, frequently praise your
children for their efforts. Children who feel confident will improve their
speech faster.