July marks Parks and Recreation Month, a time to celebrate the vibrant public spaces. We turn our focus on Lowell, Massachusetts, where an innovative approach to inclusivity has made a significant positive impact on the community.
Continue readingHow To Create Genuine Connections:Powerful Impact of Communication Boards
Playground communication boards have emerged as a powerful solution to bridge the gap and facilitate meaningful relationships, especially for individuals with communication challenges.
Continue readingHow To Help Navigate Emotions: Emotional Balance Communication Boards
How to Make Play an Important Part of the Day
Play is important at all stages of child development. Play is the ‘work’ of childhood.
Continue readingFollowing Your Schedule: How to get Back on Track
Holidays can be a time when the normal routine is disrupted. It’s time to get back on track and follow your daily routine.
Continue readingTalking and Growing: New Year’s Resolutions for Speech Therapy!
How to Prepare for Gift Giving and Receiving
Getting and giving gifts can be exciting but hard for some individuals. Preparing for this time of the year helps to make everyone’s celebration special.
Continue readingLearning to be Social
The calendar doesn’t lie. How is it we are only 10 days away from Valentine’s Day!? With all the attention on sharing love and kindness on that day (as well as every day), we need to take a moment to pause and take into account the skills that bring people closer are really hard to learn.
Some loved ones pick up on social cues and nuances without issue and others require a very clear explanation. As parents, taking the time to frame acceptable and unacceptable behaviors for your family’s values is crucial. Society dictates a number of ‘unwritten’ rules, which makes learning these skills even more difficult for some. Providing a safe environment to discuss and process these ‘unwritten’ rules is important at every age of development. The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) provide a nice resource for families focused on this area of speech and language.
Your friendly speech-language pathologist would be happy to help you and your family with any questions or concerns you may have related to social communication, social skills, or social pragmatics. Please feel free to give Kelly a call at 440-471-7190 to set up an appointment.
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC.
Revving up the holiday season!
The holiday season is revving up to get ready to roll. While we acknowledge there are significant stressors for you and your loved ones at this time of year, we could also consider the stress and comfort of extended families and friends. It is not your job to do everyone else’s job, however, taking a few moments to realize the impact you and your loved ones have on others could make family and friend gatherings more enjoyable for everyone.
Providing information about characteristics that are unique to your loved one, may create a more tolerant and understanding environment. A simple phone call, text or email to the host or hostess the explain those ‘quirks’ that you and your immediate family may not even notice. For example, let the homeowner know if your loved one needs to see all the bathrooms upon entering a new location or if your loved one may go around the home and close all the doors.
Help your extended family and friends better understand your loved one’s form of communication. Share his/her successes and any ‘triggers’ that may exist (ie: asking more than 3 times to clarify a phrase or word). Provide a few simple tips for the best way to engage your loved one (ie: asking yes/no questions or asking questions about the here/now vs past/ future).
Anticipate situations that may prove to be very stressful not only for you and your loved one, but the host/hostess. Communicate that you may be bringing a different meal for your loved one to enjoy vs eating the traditional meal. Share that your loved one may take a ‘break’ during the meal and what that can be expected (ie: your loved one may need to take a break in a room where you can guide your loved one to quiet area).
Open and host communication and preparation can create a setting where everyone enjoys their time together creating memories!
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Therapy Speech, LLC.
Making a Self-Care Plan
All of the clocks have finally all been changed (except for one, there is always ONE clock in the house that just never quite makes the cut and is never changed), the Halloween decorations have been put away and what is that sound? Silence. The calm before the Holiday Season frenzy.
Take a few seconds of this ‘down time’ to focus on realizing the importance of self-care. Parents and caregivers of individuals with special needs typically do not stop to worry about themselves. Not only is this pattern unfair to your loved ones, but more importantly, it is not fair to Y.O.U.
Consider the five minutes it takes you to read this blog post as the start of your self-care routine. Consider taking this time to make a plan for yourself. Give yourself the opportunity to refill your tank so you can cruise into the Holiday Season ready and rejuvenated.
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC