Craft For A Rainy Day

by Sarah Chlebek, MS CCC-SLP

Arts and crafts can be a great way to spend time with your children while working on their speech and language.  Children love doing craft activities but sometimes it can be hard to come up with a fun craft to do with your little one especially when you are constantly on the go and don’t have time to clean up spilled glitter or paint.  This week at Anchor Therapies, our sessions focused on RAIN and I would like to share this simple yet fun project with you!  Before, completing the art project, we read a book that focused on rain.  This helped the child better understand what rain was.  We named the different items in the pictures and I asked simple questions about each picture (i.e., what does the boy have on his head?)

Rain, Rain, Go Away

This project will focus on the following milestones: 

·         Sequencing (putting things in order)

·         Following directions

·         Exploring objects through touch

·         Understanding and using new words

Materials Required: 

·         Glue stick

·         Blue construction paper

·        Slick / shiny blue paper

·        Cotton balls

·        Double sided adhesive sheets

·         Computer paper

  

Raindrops:  I couldn’t find raindrop stickers at any craft store, so I made my own.  Take the back off of one side of the double adhesive paper and stick it to the shiny blue paper.  Next, draw the raindrops on the paper and cut them out.

Cloud:  I cut a white cloud out of computer paper and stuck it on the blue construction paper with a glue stick. 

At this point you can grab your kiddo and incorporate him / her in the project.  Help him / her put the raindrop stickers on the blue construction paper.  Talk about the raindrops.  Talk about the color.  Touch them and talk about how they feel.  Count the raindrops as you put them on. 

Next let your child help put the glue stick on the white cloud and give him / her cotton to put in the glue.  Talk about the color and texture.  Take him outside and see if you can find clouds outside.  It will help your child to learn words more rapidly when you have a real object to correlate it to. 

Anchor Therapies, LLC offers services in Chicago and Northwest Suburbs. If you have questions or concerns about your child, give us a call at (312) 715-7218 or contact us to schedule your FREE screening today!     

The Best Sippy Cup for Toddlers

What is the best sippy cup to use for toddlers?

By Stefanie O’Donnell, MS, CCC-SLP

Sippy cups come in practically any shape, size, and color. However, from a speech-language pathologist’s perspective, the most important characteristic of a sippy cup is the spout. The best spout for a sippy cup is a straw (make sure the straw reaches all the way to the bottom of the cup) or no spout at all. Yes, no spout at all. There are many sippy cups available that mimic an open cup, but lessen the spills of a regular open cup. Straw cups and open cups are the best to use with your toddler because they further develop your child’s oral motor muscles, which are important for developing more mature feeding skills and speech-language skills.

Other sippy cup spouts, whether hard or soft, are equivalent to your child using a bottle. How? Your child uses the front muscles of the mouth to drink from a typical spout cup, which are the same mouth muscles your child uses to drink from a bottle. Therefore, the child continues to use only the front muscles of the mouth. In contrast, straws and open cups engage and strengthen the back muscles of your child’s mouth, therefore, allowing your child to develop different oral motor muscles. If the back muscles of the mouth are not developed, it could lead to atypical drooling, tongue thrust (tongue protrusion while swallowing or speaking), or speech sound errors. A child can begin to drink from an open cup as early as 7 months old and a straw as early as 9 months old.

So, next time you are browsing the sippy cup aisle, look closely at the spout of the sippy cup and search for a straw cup or open cup for your child to use. Here are some examples of straw and open cup sippy cups to help your search.

Anchor Therapies, LLC offers services in Chicago and Northwest Suburbs. If you have questions or concerns about your child, give us a call at (312) 715-7218 or contact us to schedule your FREE screening today!

7 Strategies to Keep Your Child Talking This Summer

by Sarah Chlebek, MS CCC-SLP

Summer is around the corner!  What are you going to do all day?  Here are some fun ideas!

Tips to Keep Your Child Talking This Summer:

1. Go Outside:  Don’t be afraid to get messy.  Going outside is a great way for children to get their energy out.  Go to the park.  Go to the lake.  Go for a walk.  Go in your backyard.  You can find nature anywhere!  Children love to explore their surroundings through touch.  So get outside and explore with your child!  Talk about what you see and hear.   

2. Stick to the schedule:  Summer is action packed and filled with activities.  It is important to maintain a routine.  Have your child go to bed, wake up, and take naps at the same time.  Set a schedule for mealtimes and try to stick to it.      

3. Stay social:  Engage your child in group play.  There are many social activities in your community.  Checking out your local library and local children’s gym is a good place to start.   Setting up play dates with your neighbors and friends is another good way to keep your child social over the summer.   

4. Excursions:  Chicago is a great city to explore!  There are many places and sights to experience with your little one!  Go to the museum.  Go to the aquarium.  Visit the lake.  Head outside of the city and visit a farm to gather some local produce.  Check out the new Maggie Daley Park.  Go to Navy Pier.  Go to the zoo.  The options are endless!

5. Play with your child:  Have fun.  Try to take at least 15 minutes every day to devote to play time with your child.  Every activity can be a chance to teach and engage your little one.  Need to send out your mail?  Have your child put the stamps on for you.   Need to go to the grocery store?  Make it fun!  Engage your child in a fun game of helping you find the items on your grocery list.   

6. Free Play:  You don’t have to plan every minute of your toddler’s life.  Let your kids be kids.  Allow free play and imagination.  Self play is just as important as being able to play and interact with others. 

7.Busy bag:   Summer is a busy time and you are probably on-the-go frequently!  Keep your little one engaged by creating a busy bag.  Keep a bag or tote filled with age appropriate toys.  Here are some ideas of toys you could put in your bag:  sticker book, crayons, books, stuffed animals or small plastic animals, blocks, toy foods, puzzles.

Anchor Therapies, LLC offers services in Chicago and Northwest Suburbs. If you have questions or concerns about your child, give us a call at (312) 715-7218 or contact us to schedule your FREE screening today!