Speech Services

Tips for Families in Supporting Their Children with Disabilities in Virtual Formats

Free Informational Handouts for Teachers and Parents

CDC Developmental Milestones Birth - Five years

Easter Seals My Social Distancing Story

Easter Seals School Closure Toolkit for Children with ASD

7 Strategies to Support Individuals with ASD through Uncertain Times:

1. Support understanding

2. Offer opportunities for expression

3. Prioritize coping and calming skills

4. Maintain routines

5. Build new routines

6. Foster connections (from a distance)

7. Be aware of changing behaviors

Hume, K., Waters, V., Sam, A., Steinbrenner, J., Perkins, Y., Dees, B., Tomaszewski, B., Rentschler, L., Szendrey, S., McIntyre, N., White, M., Nowell, S., & Odom, S. (2020). Supporting individuals with autism through uncertain times. Chapel Hill, NC: School of Education and Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retreived from: https://afirm.fpg.unc.edu/supporting-individuals-autism-through-uncertain-time

ARTICULATION

Speech production refers to the child’s ability to rapidly and sequentially produce a variety of consonant and vowel sounds in a coordinated fashion in order to combine these sounds into words. Spoken language is a complex motor process that requires the coordination of articulation, respiration, and phonation to produce intelligible speech.

Articulation Resources for Families [Created by Heidi Hanks, M.S., CCC-SLP]

The Process of Articulation

Additional Free Resources for Articulation:

http://testyyettrying.blogspot.com/p/downloadprint-free-speech-articulation.html

https://www.speechteammate.com/free-articulation-worksheets

RECEPTIVE AND EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE:

Receptive language or the language students understand, affects their ability to answer questions, follow directions, and comprehend a story. Expressive Language or the language students use affects their ability to express their thoughts and feelings, as well as their ability to narrate a story, use complete sentences and appropriate grammar. Receptive and Expressive language are used together to communicate orally.

Suggestions to support your child's language development:

1. Model developmentally appropriate utterances necessary to participate in all daily activities (e.g., “May I have milk please”, “I like playing with blocks”, etc.). 
2. Provide a consistent daily routine; prepare your child for changes in advance if possible.
3. Correct any grammatical or sound errors that may occur by repeating or recasting with the correct production slightly emphasized.
4. Engage your child in activities that require listening and following directions. Simplify complex directions.
5. Read and tell stories daily. Talk about the character(s) and setting. Ask your child who, what, and where questions about the story. Ask your child what he/she thinks will happen next in the story. 
6. Simplify higher-level "wh" questions (e.g., where, when, why, etc.) by providing forced choices (e.g. “Why was the boy in the story happy? Because he got to play with his friend or he liked his lunch?”). 
7. Ask “what doing” questions about activities or pictures (e.g., “What are you/they doing? “What am I doing?’ “What is he/she doing?).
8. Provide opportunities for your child to practice turn-taking (e.g., playing games, sharing information during family time, etc.).

PRAGMATICS

Pragmatics refers to social language, how a student interacts with their peers and with adults.

FLUENCY:

Fluency refers to the smoothness and rate with which sounds, syllables, words, and phrases are joined during oral language. 

The Stuttering Foundation

National Stuttering Association

The Stuttering Home Page

Fluency Therapy Home practice kit - TPT

PrAACtical AAC