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Welcome back (again) to my Blog Series: The Importance of Play. If you haven’t read my first two posts in this series: Play and Language Milestones & Blocks & Babies, I suggest you read them first. They will give you a better understanding of typical language milestones and early play/language activities. Let’s pick up where we left off. Blocks and babies are useful far beyond the first two years of life, though the play actions and sequences expand and evolve. Let’s stretch our imagination again as we think about how to use these toys beginning at age 2 ½. And just as before, I will use the Westby Play Scale to help us follow along with typical developmental patterns. ![]() Symbolic Level 4: 2 ½ years Play:
Play:
Play:
Play:
Play:
Being a parent, I know that playing with your child side by side may not always be an option. My suggestion to all parents is to always keep an open ear and an open eye to what your child is doing while they play. Reinforce the skills they have through praise and encourage the development of new skills through modeling. You can contribute to your child’s development, even while you talk to them afar during play or hand them a whisk that you aren’t using while you cook dinner. They may be looking for the right tool to “cook” dessert for their doll. I cannot say enough good things about Blocks & Babies. But Play and Language growth can be facilitated using so many different toys (and everyday objects). If you would like more information about Play & Language, would like updates on new blog posts, or have more questions about speech and language development, Contact Black Oak Therapy. Time spent playing with children is NEVER wasted. -Dawn Lanter
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![]() Welcome back to my Blog Series: The Importance of Play. If you haven’t read my first post in this series: Play and Language Milestones, I suggest you check it out before reading this one. Now that I have given you all a little bit of background about the development of play and language skills, I would love to talk to you about some of my favorite toys for play and language development. I get asked frequently about what toys parents should buy for their children. And when you are standing on the toy aisle, I encourage everyone to think about what will promote the most imagination from your child and what toy can be used in many different ways. Two of my favorite toys (and your child may already own them) are Blocks & Babies. The possibilities are endless for ways to play with these and the language skills that you can facilitate by using these toys. I also love these toys because they are two that can be enjoyed from a very early age and for many years to come. Here are some ideas of how to use Blocks & Babies to promote play and language development during the first 2 years. I'm going to continue to use the Westby Play Scale to outline skills are various ages for you to more easily follow along with my suggestions. ![]() Phase 1: Presymbolic Presymbolic Level 1: 8-12 months Play:
Presymbolic Level 2: 13-17 months Play:
![]() Phase 2: Symbolic Symbolic Level 1: 17-19 months Play:
Symbolic Level 2: 19-22 months Play:
Symbolic Level 3: 2 years
Play:
Play and Language growth are so important for your child’s overall development! I hope you picked up some tips on how to use Block & Babies during the early years can be used to stimulate your child’s play and language. These are really two perfect toys for expanding your child’s play and language skills. Not to mention that they are toys your child will benefit from for years! Make sure to look out for my next post in this Blog Series: The Importance of Play. Post #3 will talk about MORE about Blocks & Babies and how to use these simple toys to stimulate play and language development beyond 2 years of age. If you would like more information about Play & Language, would like updates on new blog posts or have more questions about speech and language development, Contact Black Oak Therapy.
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![]() I'm sure many of you have heard professionals talk about the importance of play during childhood. As the American Poet Diane Ackerman said, "Play is our brain's favorite way of learning." I could not agree more. If you have watched a child play, over time you will see their motor skills, cognitive skills, and speech/language skills develop. As a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), observing a child's play can provide me with very useful information about their development. In fact, research shows that from birth to 3 or 3.5 years of age, play skills strongly correlate to cognitive development. Extensive research has been conducted by various professionals, including SLPs, to map out play development as it relates to other areas of development (I even conducted my thesis on the topic of play and language development). Arguably the most well-known and frequently-referenced is the Westby Play Scale by Dr. Carol Westby. In her play scale, she describes stages of play from 9 months to 5 years of age. However, even if your child is not meeting these play milestones at the ages described, you can still follow this developmental outline to predict what play and language skills may emerge next in their development. Westby Play Scale Phase 1: Presymbolic Presymbolic Level 1: 8-12 months Play: Awareness of object when not seen (Ex: finds toy hidden under scarf) Means-end behavior: crawls to get toy. Uses some toys appropriately, doesn’t mouth all toys. Language: No true language, but makes requests and commands. Presymbolic Level 2: 13-17 months Play: Purposeful exploration of toys. Hands toy to adult if unable to operate. Language: Makes commands, requests, protests, labels, responds, greets. Phase 2: Symbolic Symbolic Level 1: 17-19 months Play: Autosymbolic- pretends to sleep, eat, drink from empty cup. Uses most objects appropriately, tool use (uses stick to get toy), finds toys invisibly hidden. Language: Beginning of true communication: functional and semantic relations- recurrence, existence, nonexistence, rejections, denial, agent, object, action/state, location. Symbolic Level 2: 19-22 months Play: Symbolic play extends beyond the child’s self. Plays with dolls (feeding, hair brushing), child pretends to be active with more than one person (feeds baby, himself, and mommy), combines two toys (pours tea from pot into cup). Language: Refers to people/objects when not present. Beginning of word combinations: agent-action, agent-object, action-object, attributive, dative, action-locative, object-locative, possessive. Symbolic Level 3: 2 years Play: represents daily experiences (plays house), events or short and isolated, no true sequencing, events short isolated- no true sequencing, block play is build up/ knock down. Language: Uses all of the above in short phrases/sentences. Use morphological markers such as: possessives, plurals, present progressive and can answer Wh- questions. Symbolic Level 4: 2 ½ years Play: represents events less frequently experienced or observed (impressive or traumatic events: doctor/nurse sick child, teacher/child, store/shopping). Language: Responds to Wh- questions appropriately accept WHY and asks WHY often inappropriately and doesn’t attend to the answer, asks Wh- questions usually puts the Wh- at the beginning of the sentence. Symbolic Level 5: 3 years Play: Continues previous stages but play now has sequence (child mixes cake, bakes it, eats it, washes dishes) the sequence evolves though, not planned. Reenacts experiences with new outcomes. Language: Uses past tense (I ate), uses future tense (I’m gonna eat). Symbolic Level 6: 3-3 ½ years Play: Uses toys to create a scene (barn yard), uses blocks for imaginative play and represent various things (block can be a car and an airplane),uses doll as participant in play. Language: descriptive vocab: color, shape, size, texture, gives dolls dialogue (he said), changes speech depending on listener. Symbolic Level 7: 3 ½ - 4 years Play: Begins to problem-solve, plans ahead (what if), builds 3-D structures to represent structures they have seen. Language: Verbalizes intentions and future events (might, will, would, could), conjunctions (and, but, so, because), begins to respond appropriately to WHY and HOW questions. Symbolic Level 8: 5 years Play: PLANS a sequence of pretend events (organizes what he needs ex: other children and objects), coordinates more than one event happening at one time, highly imaginative (sets scene without realistic props), full cooperative play. Language: Uses relational terms (then, when, first, next). NOTE: FULL COMPETENCE OF THESE PLAY SKILLS IS NOT DEVELOP UNTIL 10-12 YEARS References
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"interactive book reading has moderate-to-large effects on word learning by typically developing children and children with low vocabulary due to environmental differences in input." My first thought is HOW WONDERFUL that research is seeing this method is effective in both typically-developing children and children from low-income families! But my second thought is where does that leave the late-talkers or those diagnosed with a language delay or disorder? Limited research has been done in this area, but one preliminary study has shown that "parents can facilitate word use by children with language impairments" (Crowe, Norris, & Hoffman, 2004). In the meantime, Storkel, et al., 2017, suggests that parents and clinicians continue to target interactive book reading while waiting for the data to catch up. However, it is necessary that language outcomes be continually monitored by a speech-language pathologist to determine effectiveness of strategies. So now that we know that interactive book reading is still beneficial, how can you implement it at home as a parent and how can you support parents if you are a professional? As a parent and a speech-language pathologist, I know that there are challenges to having your child sit still on your lap, follow along, and listen. There are things that parents can do to make book reading not only more engaging for your child, but also even more effective for building language skills. Here are my 7 Tips for Effective Interactive Book Reading! 1. Pick an interesting book: Children learn best when they are engaged. Whether it's a book with textures or flaps for toddlers, a book about something new and exciting, or a book on your child's favorite topic, if it gets your child excited to pull it off the shelf you are off to a good start. 2. Ask questions: Open-ended questions are very insightful into your child's knowledge, opinions, and it helps to teach them about asking questions. You can even ask older children to predict what's going to happen next. 3. Encourage describing: As you go through the book, take time to look at the pictures. Have your child name items, characters, and actions they see on the page. Describe where things are and why they are happening to further expand your child's knowledge of concepts and they're problem-solving abilities. 4. Expand your child's expression: Whether your child uses no words, one word, or complete sentences, you can almost always find a way to build upon what they have just said. A good rule of thumb is listen to your child's nonverbal or verbal expression and expand by 1-2 words. (i.e. child says "cow", you then agree and acknowledge what they have said by saying "big brown cow"). If your child is using sentence level speech, consider adding a describing word or even restating the child's sentence with correct grammatical structure. (i.e. child says "Her says moo.", you say "Yes. She says moo.") 5. Do it Again: Repeating the same books that your child enjoys will ensure that reading is a positive experience. Also, any new concepts or vocabulary they are learning will become more ingrained in their memory with each repeat exposure. 6. Let your child help you read: Throughout the book, pause while you're reading and see if your child can fill in the blank. Make mistakes while your reading, even making it an obvious Uh-Oh. "Old MacDonald had a---Bicycle." See how your child reacts. Even if they have no reaction, you can express how silly that is, get them laughing and then continue on with your story. 7. Extend your learning to play: Keep in mind your child's attention span. Just because your child is done reading after the last page of your book, doesn't mean the learning has to stop there. Try to extend the topic of your book (i.e. farm animals) to what your child wants to play with. Don't worry if you don't have the matching toy set for that particular book. Pretend with your child. Maybe you both can pretend to be animals as you move about your house or build a barn out of blocks with your child. If your child is a late-talker or diagnosed with a speech/language impairment, Contact Us for a FREE consultation to see if we can help you develop a plan for how to expand your child's speech and language skills using interactive book reading or provide advice on other therapy methods. For more information on interactive book reading (also known as shared book reading) visit www.asha.org. To receive a Handout copy of 7 Tips for Effective Interactive Book Reading and for monthly updates on blog posts and future resources as they become available, contact us. References
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