New York City is home to a wide variety of museums—from science museums to art museums to history museums, NYC has it all. Throughout the five boroughs you can find museums where your family can explore and learn something new. Museums are fun to visit and it’s a great way to enjoy quality time together with your family. For children, visiting museums have educational benefits that go beyond the lessons they learn in school. Visiting museums with your child can help develop his language skills and build awareness of the world around him. Many kid-friendly museums in New York City offer workshops/activities and educational events where you and your child can explore and learn something new together.
Whenever I come across a website that I think could have a meaningful positive impact on the work we, as speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and educators do, I feel I immediately have to share such a resource on the Speech Buddies blog. Today, that site is Teachers Pay Teachers, an ingenious market, for educational resources developed by teachers, that anyone—teachers, SLPs, homeschoolers, grandparents—may access a la carte for a nominal fee.
There is plenty of frenetic activity during the holidays—baking, wrapping, picking up in-laws at far-flung airports—but the holiday season is also a time when our regular routines grind to a halt. Kids stay home from school, appointments are put off until after the New Year, and cold weather drives even the most driven among us to hunker down inside.
After the candy—never forget the candy—our favorite part of Halloween is the sounds. From ghostly “boos” to sickening “slurps,” Halloween is a time when kids and grown-ups get to dress-up, be silly, and make some extra-goofy noises. For kids in speech therapy, Halloween “sound science” activities are a great way practice new sounds and skills. And, they are also a cool way for the whole family to have even more fun experimenting with the chilling, spooky, and goofy effects sounds can produce.
With so many speech therapy activities that emphasize articulation, fluency, and pragmatic language use, pronouns can sometimes get overlooked. Does your youngster mix up his “he’s” and “she’s?” It’s perfectly normal for a young child to occasionally mix up pronouns, and remember that every child’s language development is different. The typical toddler will begin to learn more nouns and pronouns when he reaches 24 to 36 months of age. When your kidlet is 24 months old, he will typically begin to use “I,” “me,” and “you” correctly; however, it’s common to mix up the “I” and “me.” He’ll likely master it by the time he reaches the ripe old age of 36 months. But you can help encourage your child’s language development and correct his pronoun usage with at-home speech therapy techniques. Collaborate with your youngster’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) for age-appropriate techniques, and check out our suggested speech therapy activities below for inspiration.