Actually, the negation part. 🤷🏼‍♀️ The word “no” is a simple one on the surface, but it’s packed with meaning, and it shows up every day in our regular communication. When we hear the words “no” or “not,” our brains have to think in opposites. We have to take the nouns or verbs that we have heard someone say, negate them, and create a new mental picture based on the information we’re given. That takes a lot of brainpower for our students! This video talks about the importance of negation in language, and some alternative phrases you can use at home for when you need to clearly communicate a directive, and “no ___ing” isn’t cutting it.

Social stories are social situations presented in a simple, storybook format to make them easier for young children to understand. At school, we use social stories for two primary purposes:

1. To help students cope with an unexpected change

2. To explain a problem behavior to a student and what they can do instead

Social stories exist for just about anything. Potty training, nose-picking, loud noises, schoolwide closures due to global pandemics, you name it. They are a great way to make inherently complicated concepts kid-friendly, and you can refer back to them again and again until the concept is understood. I hope these resources help and, as always, let me know if you need anything!

“Give your child choices” is a piece of advice many of us who work with children like to provide as a way to assist with language development and/or curb negative behavior at home. But of course, giving them every option in the world isn’t possible, and it often increases their anxiety to be given that much freedom anyway. So what do you do? A binary choice is 2 concrete choices presented in plain language that a) give the child a sense of agency, b) allow the child to use language to respond, and c) continue to reinforce what is expected of them. Watch this video to learn more!

Visual schedules are a great support tool, but sometimes their magic only goes so far. In reality, even when there are pictures showing what is coming next, children still might begrudge leaving one activity for another. This is where timers come in. Timers can make the transition between tasks easier by giving the child time to prepare and giving them a concrete signal that it is time to move on. This video explains why timers work and tips for how to use them effectively!

To-do lists aren't just for grownups anymore! Children love using pictures to help them know what to expect from their day and prepare for activities to start or end. In classrooms and in speech/language therapy, staff use visual schedules to help our students get used to the routine of preschool and feel in control of what is happening while they are there. This video touches on visual schedules, why they're important, and what to do when the almighty schedule goes awry from something unexpected!

Gentle Sabotage is a secret weapon in the world of speech-language pathology! It’s one of my favorite techniques to use and it’s a very natural way to help children learn to communicate with purpose. This video explains the reasoning behind Gentle Sabotage and some ways you can easily implement it at home.

OWL is a strategy we use often in speech therapy for our students who struggle with joint attention. Joint attention is when one person alerts another person to something they see or hear, and the two (or more) people share that experience together. Joint attention is a necessary first step before intentional communication, and a good way to help establish joint attention with your child is to observe them, wait to see what they do, and listen to the words or sounds they say!

Pause Time is the amount of time we expect it will take someone to respond to us when we talk to them. As adults, we typically allow for about 1-2 seconds of pause time before we start to feel uncomfortable and want to fill the silence. For our students with language impairments, giving them a longer pause time (sometimes up to 45+ seconds!) allows them to do the important work of processing what we tell them and generating a response.

Try it with your child and you might be surprised at all of the things they can tell you!

A core board is a low-tech communication device that includes a grid of color-coded pictures. The word "core" refers to core vocabulary, the 50-400 words that make up the majority of what we say in daily conversation and writing. There are many different types of core boards, but the one pictured below is the one used most often in Wentzville School District. The pictures are color-coded according to their parts of speech (for example, the verbs are colored green).

Similar to American Sign Language, core boards act as a helpful visual aid for students who struggle with receptive language. It's also a good communication method for students who have limited spoken language.

This video explains more about core boards and how to use them, as well as the difference between "core" vocabulary and "fringe" vocabulary.

American Sign Language (ASL) is a great tool you can use to help your child communicate his/her wants and needs. At schools, many teachers and SLPs use ASL paired with speaking when we communicate with our students. We do this because:

• Everybody benefits from visual aids

• It gives students a "backup method" if their spoken language is limited or their speech is difficult for others to understand

• Classrooms can get LOUD :)

This video shows some of the signs that we use most often in our classrooms so that you can use them at home, too!