Therapy

A variety of activities for toddlers

A variety of activities for school age children

AAC and Emerging Language Calendar 

Write in a journal

Journaling is perfect for handwriting practice and has the added benefit of strengthening language arts skills. In the summer, children have more time to devote to using their imagination on paper. If children struggle for a topic to write about, choose a simple topic, such as a description of their favorite animal or a vacation they’ve recently taken. Big Sheet Draw and Write Paper is ideal for young letter learners who will do best with a combination of drawing and writing. Plus, you can build your own journal with the pages.

Tips for Families for Summer

 1. Show children how to make letters and numbers correctly by modeling them for your child. 

2. Watch your child write and work together for just 5 minutes a day! 

https://www.lwtears.com/blog/fun-writing-activity-kids-home-keep-journal-or-blogs 

Sand Scooping

Prepare students for their first cursive connections by making big, swooping arm motions in the air. Have them pretend they are scooping sand on the beach.

As students pretend to scoop sand and put it in a pile, they'll learn how to mimic and change directions in a stroke and and put it in a pile, they'll learn how to mimic and change directions in a stroke.

How To:

• Students put left hand out to the left side.

• Have them make a scooping motion with their hand, as if they are scooping sand.

• Have children put the “sand” on top of a pile.

• Repeat. The scooping motion (under curve) naturally changes into a piling motion (over curve) as children pretend to scoop and pile sand.

hhttps://www.lwtears.com/blog/handwriting-and-keyboarding-through-summers

Explore this amazing website for new and exciting themed workouts for the whole family! No equipment required! Gather the pack and have some fun! 

darebee.com/

Head for the nearest playground for an hour of swinging, climbing and sliding.

Bouncy houses, ball pits and climbing tubes at indoor play parks also provide good exercise.

Practice rolling, kicking, throwing and catching balls with your child. Use large Nerf balls or soft, lightweight rubber or plastic balls.

Play Tag, Follow the Leader, Ring Around the Rosie, London Bridge, Duck Duck Goose, Simon Says and Red Light/Green Light. At toddler and preschool ages, focus on active games where everyone gets to play. Wait until children reach school age to introduce elimination games and games that require children to be still or take turns.

To practice balancing, hold your child’s hand while he walks along a curb or low wall. Create a balance beam in your yard by laying a 2x4 board on the ground (stake the ends to prevent it from moving). Or create a circus high wire by placing a line of masking tape on the basement floor.

Ride-on toys, tricycles and scooters provide excellent large muscle exercise.

Provide your child with toys that can be pushed and pulled, such as large trucks and cars; wagons; and play shopping carts, lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners.

Engage in imaginary play with your child. Pretend to be super heroes, airplanes, zoo animals, galloping horses, 

Bilateral Coordination

• Roll dough with a rolling pin

• Hand clapping games

•  Squeeze objects (i.e. glue) with both hands

• Use both arms to twirl streamers or scarves

•  Build with building blocks

•  Trace patterns on paper

• Draw a picture using stencils

•  Tear lettuce into pieces to make a salad

• Spread icing on cookies, cakes, etc. 

Grip Strength 

•  Squeeze putty, flour sifter, plastic squeeze bottles

• Squeeze juice from a lemon or orange

• Squeeze a spray bottle (water plants, clean windows)

• Stir batter in a bowl

• Staple papers together with a small stapler

• Use a hole punch to make dots or creative shapes

Finger Dexterity 

• Press cookie cutters into dough or putty

• Play with finger puppets

• Play pick-up sticks games

• Screw and unscrew small lids, nuts or bolts

• Fold paper (i.e. origami, airplanes etc)

• Hold a handful of marbles, transferring one at a time into a container

• Draw shapes and write words in a variety of mediums (shaving cream, sand, finger paint, hair gel etc).

• Draw designs on an Etch-A-Sketch board

• Play board games with small pieces to manipulate

• Use fingers to sprinkle toppings on food (sprinkles, shredded cheese).

These songs and videos for kids are perfect for taking a short brain break from distance learning.  These songs will motivate your kids to dance, sing, move and get their wiggles out to reset their bodies and minds to focus for more learning!

Anxiety can trigger many feelings such as fear, nervousness, hopelessness, and anger.  It can lead to negative thoughts and can have a significant impact on a child's mood and functioning.  Anxiety can keep kids from performing to their potential, forming new relationships, or having new experiences.  Learning to manage anxious thoughts and developing healthy coping mechanisms are essential skills for kids and teens. 

It's all about getting active and exercising everyday at home! Simple, quick moves for kids to help them build their muscles, strengthen their bones, improve flexibility and even burn calories! 

This may help keep your student comfy and quiet-under table hammocks! Let the hammock snuggle your child up, providing  much needed calming sensory input!

The original photo was taken and shared by Lori Frederick

This is her instagram! www.instagram.com/p/BB-uYI8DZPd/ 

Kids love being active and the options and movement brought by these seats is a fun alternative to the boring sitting still that is challenging for many kids. An added bonus, increased focus and doing better in school too!

Wondering exactly HOW to model AAC for your child? Are you a parent that has a lot of questions? Like: "Do I select every word in a sentence?" "When do I model?" " Why is modeling important?"

Toys to Encourage Good Speech & Language Skills

Non-Technological Ideas to Foster Speech-Language Growth At Home

Speech Practice On-the-go & At Home

Strategies to for use and carry over of AAC at home.

Language opportunities for using AAC at home. 

Even if your device or system looks different, there are some great ideas here!

Tobii Dynavox Learning Visual Home Schedule. 

Visuals to assist with daily routine

  A collection of videos without any dialogue. Use these videos with your child to talk about what they see, describe what is happening, how a character feels, ask varying who, what, where, when, and why questions. 

With schools closed and treatment moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, parent involvement is more important than ever to support children with their speech-language homework. Making speech carryover practice easy to implement can increase the likelihood of parent/caregiver participation. 

A parent friendly website for speech and language therapy information and ideas for activities at home

A variety of books that can be read or have the option along to read aloud and activities to go along with it. 

Speech and Language home activities. 

For children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, the social aspect of language is often difficult and hard to learn. Pragmatics refers to the social communication and language skills we use in our day to day interactions. 

Speech and Language Songs aims to create speech therapy songs that help children communicate more effectively 

A variety of activities to assist with speech, language, and AAC to do at home!