Do any other families just absolutely shudder at the idea of mealtimes? Well trust me, you are not alone.

You can start reading with your children from as young as birth! Reading is amazing to help support your child develop their ability to talk and understand words, and eventually be able to read and spell those words later on. But how should we be reading with our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers?

Now is the time to start helping your child get ready for school. Even if your child went to school last year, returning to school after a long break is a big change.

After you meet with your lovely speech therapist and a thorough communication assessment has been completed, your therapist may recommend therapy to help your child achieve their communication goals.

OTs talk a lot about pincer grip development. This is when a child can isolate their thumb and index finger to pick something up, rather than using their whole hand.

Handwriting help is one of the most common reasons for referral to an OT and with good reason – Handwriting is HARD!

Gestures are a prelinguistic (pre-talking) skill that are crucial for communicative development. Children use gestures intentionally to communicate with their hands, body or facial movements.

Another one of those milestones which parents have to keep track of.. there are loads! So, I have made an easy visual to help you along your way. Feel free to get in touch and I can send you a copy!

Teaching the concept of long & short sounds, addresses the phonological process of ‘Stopping’. Stopping occurs when a child stops the air flow required to produce some sounds (sh, s, v) 🌬

Blossom conducts all assessment and therapy on ZOOM 👩🏼‍💻 I chose to take this approach to ensure all children, no matter their geographical location, could access Speech Therapy 😊

A simple reinforcer which kids love and can enjoy the excitement of via ZOOM 👩🏼‍💻

Here is an activity I did on Friday to introduce some new Minimal Pair cards to a client 🤩

A little bit about... EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE. It is SO important for children to be able to express their needs, wants and thoughts/feelings. Here are a few milestones for expressive language development 🥰

I am lucky enough to have started small group therapy with students at one of our Broken Hill Primary Schools. We are using the Sounds-Write programme, which I completed training in at the beginning of the year.

A few milestones for receptive language development 🙌🏼 If you would like a more detailed version of milestones - reach out to us for a chat!

Selecting books which have lots of rhyming words is a great way to introduce the idea of RHYME 🥳 This beautiful book, written by Mem Fox, had lots of opportunities to introduce rhyme - 🐑😴

SYLLABLES 🥁 - Awareness that words are made up of small chunks or beats 😊 Understanding the syllable structure of words is a key phonological awareness skill.

Blending sounds: The process of putting sounds or syllables together to make words.

Imitation is a prelinguistic skill. This means that it is a skill children learn prior to speaking at word-level. So how do we work on imitation skills? 🗣

A quick idea for getting loads of trials in a 30 minute session targeting the troublesome R sound 🥴