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The response to Covid-19, not the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus, caused a negative and perhaps lasting impact on the speech and language development for some children. When federal and local governments and businesses started to respond to the pandemic in 2020 with school and business closings, mask mandates and social distancing it caused a drastic change in the environmental surroundings for our children. Our children learn speech and language from interactions with the many peers and adults they encounter and from new experiences and places. Once we realized that the environmental changes were going to endure, we became concerned about [...]

The Ultimate Playroom for Speech-Language Development The Porch, an online resource that delights homeowners who are moving or who are improving the homes they live in, reached out to Kidmunicate for our expert opinion on how to set up a playroom for speech-language development and we were happy to do so. The article is titled Expert Advice to Design the Ultimate Kids Playroom at Home. They explore the following topics: What activities can parents implement for their kids to learn different languages? What toys and products can help kids to develop sensorial skills? Tips to create a multi-age playroom? [...]

When a lawyer is advocating for expanded services from a school district for a child with special needs, they often turn to Kidmunicate to perform a comprehensive speech and language evaluation. We wanted to teach our readers how to use the law to get better outcomes for a child, so we reached out to Veronica Baxter, blogger and legal assistant working for a busy family law attorney in Philadephia. Advocating for Services for Children with Special Needs Every child has unique needs. This article will set forth the possible services your school district and the government can provide to [...]

Kidmunicate Offers Teletherapy (On-line Therapy) During this national emergency for Covid-19 (coronavirus), we have been listening to clients who are very concerned about the virus, but also concerned about the continuity of their child’s speech-language therapy. Continuity of therapy is important, so Kidmunicate worked tirelessly to implement a plan to minimize disruption of client therapy.  We were one of the first speech-language therapy clinics to close due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) to protect our clients and staff and to limit potential spread within our communities. During that first week we were closed, we invested in a teletherapy platform that is [...]

A child with speech issues can feel isoloated. Being bullied makes it worse. Children with speech-language disorders are 5 times more likely to be bullied. A recent Penn State study showed that 44% of stutterers were victimized while 9% of non-stutterers reported bullying. For children coping with speech difficulties life is a bit more challenging. These children certainly do not need a bully making life harder. Here are some sad statistics from StopBullying.gov Nearly 30% of US students in grades 6-12 have been bullied and 30% of kids admit to bullying others. 70% of both students and teachers say [...]

Prepare your child for a move to a new house with this autism social story. Small changes in schedules or environment can be difficult to handle for children with autism. Moving to a new house and perhaps a new city with a new school is no small change and can be very traumatic for a child with autism. Regardless, sometimes a move to a new house or a new city becomes necessary when life takes a turn like when a parent changes jobs or gets transferred. Some parents find the need to downsize to save money or upsize to [...]

Today May 14th is Apraxia Awareness Day. I guess you can say that Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is somewhat rare because it is a motor speech disorder that affects 1 to 2 out of 1000 children, but it’s not rare to us at Kidmunicate. We see children with CAS all the time. And it is certainly not a rare problem for the parents who have children dealing with the issue. It's an every day reality for them. CAS is a disorder that makes it difficult for children to speak intelligibly. You may be surprised to learn that a [...]

We were impressed with Spark Cards for speech and language development. The nice folks at SPARK Innovations sent us a box of Spark cards to review. We are always looking for fun and engaging materials to keep our speech therapy on the cutting edge, so we gladly accepted the offer. We were not paid for our opinion. According to SPARK Innovations product description on Amazon, SPARK stands for Sentence Formation and Predicting, Answering Questions, Retelling Skills and Knowledge of Basic Concepts. I would add the following S - Sequencing P - Problem Solving A - Analyzing situations R - [...]

A Social Story Dining Out - How to prepare your child for a meal in a restaurant. Mindy is a mom of a son who is not on the autism spectrum but does have speech and behavioral issues. She wants to go out and enjoy a meal in a restaurant with her entire family, but typically avoids it because of her son's problems coping in a restaurant. Eating in a restaurant is typically an indulgence, but going to a restaurant is often a necessity. Did you know that according to a Gallup Poll 45% of Americans eat in a restaurant 1 [...]

Use Arts and Crafts to Practice Speech at Home Speech pathologists often use arts and crafts for speech therapy. It's a colorful and creative way to engage a child while they practice receptive and expressive language skills. Why arts and crafts for speech therapy? For years, Kidmunicate speech pathologists have been incorporating naturalistic methods like art therapy into their treatment plans. We often use arts and crafts for speech therapy to address receptive and expressive language issues. Receptive language is the component of speech that refers to an individual’s ability to comprehend language, while expressive concerns the ability to communicate [...]