Better Speech and Hearing Month

Hello from your friendly therapists and staff at Kids Place Therapy Services! It is officially May, which is Better Speech and Hearing Month. Better Speech and Hearing Month is an annual event that provides opportunities to raise awareness and promote acceptance of communication disorders and hearing loss. Additionally, Better Speech and Hearing month promotes effective treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience challenges with communication. At Kids Place Therapy Services, our dedicated speech language pathologists work towards improving pediatric communication in all forms, including verbal communication, non-verbal communication, and augmentative and alternative communication. There are many ways that parents and caregivers can promote language growth within the home, including floor time and play, reading books, singing songs with gestures, and narration of activities. Communication comes in many forms, and May is the time to appreciate all of the different ways we are able to communicate with one another. Happy Speech and Hearing month from Kids Place Therapy Services!

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Autism Awareness and Occupational Therapy Month

Hello from the KPTS staff! It’s hard to believe that it’s already April.  As we enjoy the spring weather, let’s also remember that April is also Autism awareness month and Occupational Therapy month.  If you have anyone special in your life who has Autism, you know that it can be challenging for them to keep their bodies regulated.  OT practitioners provide families with strategies to help their children remain calm.  Now that the weather is getting better, you can take your child to the park and have them swing and climb up slides to receive the sensory movement they seek.  Since April still brings us with rainy showers, you can continue to engage them in movement activities inside, including  obstacle courses, animal crawls, jumping onto cushions, and rolling in a blanket when you can’t go outside.  Remember, after doing fun movement activities, you also want to provide your child with something that calms them down including giving them deep pressure massages, providing them with a weighted blanket, or having them engage in tactile play with sand or play doh.

 

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Bundle up, it’s January!

Free vector watercolor hello january lettering
Hello from your friendly therapists and staff at Kids Place Therapy Services! This cold weather has taken over and January is here! While you’ll find most of our therapists inside with some hot cocoa, slippers, and blankets, we do know a thing or two about having fun outside in the snow. Snowball fights, pushing sleds, building snowmen, shoveling snow, and building forts are a fun way to get your kiddo outside and helping while also providing opportunities for heavy work. You can also work on vocabulary targets such as objects (shovel, snow, sled, hill), descriptors (cold, light, fluffy, sharp, strong), and actions (slide, push, lift, scoop) as well as gestalts (Let’s dig deeper, it’s so heavy, he’s so tall, there’s too much snow). If your plan is to keep indoors on these cold January days, winter crafts can be a great way to incorporate different textures such as cotton balls or marshmallows. Penguins, fluffy polar bears, and snowmen are just a few ideas for winter crafts this month. Books are another great pastime when escaping the cold. Some themed books for reading in winter include There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow; Sneezy the Snowman; Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?; Over and Under the Snow; and Tacky the Penguin. These books provide opportunities for imitation and production of a variety of vocabulary targets, animal and environmental sounds, and more! Picture scenes within these books are another great way to work on answering wh- questions.  Whether you are staying indoors or braving the snow, stay warm and have a blast!
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Art of Thanksgiving: November!

 

Happy November from you friendly therapists and staff at Kids Place Therapy Services! Although we may be shivering in these colder temperatures, the KPTS family is excited for the season of giving. November is a wonderful time to give thanks for your family and friends as well as to take advantage of these last few weeks of fall. Scavenger hunts and walks outside can be a great way to incorporate language and movement into your kiddo’s routine; there are so many colorful leaves, acorns, and pinecones to collect before winter arrives. These leaves, acorns, and pinecones can be utilized in art projects, described using rich language, put into fall themed sensory bins, and incorporated into books and stories. Some great fall and Thanksgiving stories you might want to check out during your next library visit include: How to Catch a Turkey, Llama Llama Gives Thanks, There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey, Turkey Trouble, and ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving.  Get reading, have fun, and stay warm!

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A Spooktacular October!

It’s October and the KPTS team is ready to get spooky. Fall and Halloween activities are a great way to get your child engaged. If your child is a mover and a shaker, making leaf piles, climbing bales of hay, pulling wagons of pumpkins, picking apples, and completing fall scavenger hunts can be a great way to add movement, heavy work, and fun in the fall months. Food based activities for fall include making smores, baking cookies and pies, making soup and chili, baking pumpkin bread, and making candy apples. For some Halloween razzle dazzle, painting and carving pumpkins, telling scary stories, making Halloween costumes, and creating Halloween decorations can provide fun for the whole family. Last but not least, your family can turn into zombies using toilet paper or ghosts using sheets for Halloween games. As always, have fun and stay spooky!

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