Work Work Work

Well Life is busy here. Astrid and soccer and Ingrid with her ballet. She is going to be in the Nutcracker this year so that means some extra lessons. Other than that it is just work work work.

I get the pleasure of being paid to play. I work with 0-5 year olds and try to improve their speech and language skills.....one of the easiest ways to is to play with them. It is called parallel play....whatever they are playing you join in and play along beside them...providing language stimulation through simple dialog. Paralell talk is also important. Talk about whatever they are doing....provide them the language and vocabulary they need during each activity. Reading simple books and just labeling and naming objects around the house or whatever environment is also important. To start them vocalizing...animal sounds and other environmental sounds(car engine, car horn etc) are a good starting point. Repetitve syllable words are the easiest to begin saying....mama, dada, bubu for brother or bubbles, bye-bye etc. Another easy way to stimulate a child's language is by teaching them some simple sign language.....learning to sign "more" is the first sign I teach kids because they can use it to get "more" of anything. I took a picture of Ingrid signing "more". When Ingrid is sick, tired, or just in her daydreamy state she still will sign "more" while she verbally asks for more of something.