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 readingHow to Prepare for Gift Giving and Receiving
9 Easy Ways to Create Sensory Friendly Holiday Decor
The holiday season is a time of joy, celebration, and togetherness. We’ll explore how to create a sensory-friendly holiday environment by making thoughtful choices in your decorations.
Continue readingCommunication Boards by the Pool
Pool communication boards can make it easier for everyone to have a good time in the pool, especially people with communication differences.
Continue readingBe Spooktacularly Ready for Halloween with Speech Therapy
Discover how speech therapy can make Halloween a treat. Explore how speech therapy can help practice Halloween-themed conversations, boost confidence, and improve social skills.
Continue readingTeletherapy Tips for Families
As we are all beginning to adjust to teletherapy as well as online or elearning, we thought it best to share some tips to make you and your loved ones time in therapy, albeit significantly different than ever before, more successful.
- Count on some sort of technology failure – if you count on the fact that the mic won’t turn on or your wifi will be running slow, you won’t panic when it does happen. If there is a technology failure (on your side or on the therapist’s side), the first thing to do is breathe. Next calmly begin to troubleshoot. Prior to the appointment, you may want to trial the mic and speakers on the device you intend to use for therapy. If your bandwidth on your wifi is slow, as those in your home to stay off the network or not engage in activities (streaming videos) that use a lot of bandwidth. If the session can’t happen, you can reschedule. Flexibility is key.
- Create a “Therapy Space” or designate a “Therapy Space” for the duration of the session. You may want to create a ‘Therapy in Session’ sign with your loved one and hang it on the door of the room you are in for the session. If you will be in a shared living area, you may want to consider the use of a headphone and mic combination. This will decrease the amount of background noise your loved one will hear as well as the therapist. Consider scheduling therapy at a time when others in your family would be napping or engaged in more quiet activities as well. Creativity is key.
- Count on staying with your loved one for the onset of the therapy session. For individuals that may need support to pay attention, consider this time extra snuggle time. Have your loved one sit on your lap or very close to you during the session to help guide her/his attention to the therapist. This is time for your loved one to receive the critical therapy services needed as well as a time for YOU to better understand the techniques used to elicit specific behaviors, actions, and sounds from your child. Teamwork is key.
- Listen to the therapist and therapy session. Remember, this is your loved one’s therapy time, not necessarily yours. While it may be hard, refrain from answering the therapist’s questions for talking for your loved one. You may consider the situation/task that the therapist is asking your loved one to do is too difficult, but creating these situations to ‘push’ your loved one to the next level is necessary in progress towards mastery of goals. Trust is key.
- Carryover of all the new skills learned during the therapy session (both for you and your loved one) is extremely important for everyone! You will have new skills to support your loved one as he/she works on speech-language skills. Share what you have learned with others in your family. Help everyone realize the necessary supports to help your loved one succeed. Practice is key.
Keeping in mind the importance of flexibility, creativity, teamwork, trust and practice will ensure your loved ones success with this different approach to speech-language therapy.
More information about the telepractice services offered at Lakeshore Speech can be found at www.lakeshorespeech.com/telepractice or by calling 1-440-417-4190.
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC
Learning 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.
Hope in the New Year
Happy New Year! It’s a new decade filled with hope! Hope for a year filled with much health and happiness! Hope that the closets will organize themselves! Hope that somehow, someway tiny building blocks will no longer find themselves in the path of an adult walking barefoot. Hope that dinner will be made and eaten without issue. Hope, hope, hope!
Hope is what keeps us all moving forward. Setting goals or evening having ideas of what hope can bring to the New Year is expected at this time of year; so long as this hope isn’t a disguise for bringing the feeling of failure to the New Year as well.
Sessions with a Speech-Language Pathologist is filled with the promise of hope and belief in your loved one. Your therapist believes in your loved one and his/her language potential all the while continually promoting your good work at home and navigating the developmental process to guide you all towards mastery and success. Walking out of a therapy session, you and your loved one should have a renewed feeling of strength to continue working on the specific skills, techniques, etc. until you see your therapist again.
Cheers to the New Year filled with much hope, happiness and health!
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC
Sensory Sensitive Holiday Fun!
December has arrived and as with every year, it seems as if the calendar speeds up during this festive time. Packing in all the shopping, decorating and taking in the holiday fun can seem overwhelming. The elves at Lakeshore Speech Therapy took a little time to compile a one stop list of events in the Northeast Ohio area that are sensory friendly. These events are not only sensitive to the amount of unnecessary smells, sounds and sights, but often the pace of the event is slowed as well as those ‘working’ the event have been given some information on how to best engage with individuals with special needs.
- Sensory Friendly “Carol” by Great Lakes Theatre
- Krafts with Mrs. Clause
- Sensory Friendly Santa
- Children’s Museum of Cleveland – December
- Santa Cares
- Westlake Porter Library
- Lakewood Public Library
- Cleveland Public Library
- Cuyahoga Library
- AMC Movie Theater Sensory Friendly Movies
- SkyZone – Sensory Hours
- Kringle’s Inventionasium (While there is not a specific a specific sensory friendly event, when given advanced notice, the website indicates accommodations can be made.)
We hope you are able to take a few moments and enjoy these events with your loved ones.
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC
A Candy Plan!
You’ve planned the costume, you’ve walked the route, you’ve practiced knocking on doors… a few more thoughts to help make your family’s trick or treat evening sweet.
What will you do with all that candy? Once your loved one sees her/his bounty of sweetness, she/he may not want to part with a single piece. Create a plan and share that plan well before that candy is in your house.
Will your family spend the last minutes of Halloween counting and sorting candy? Will there be a huge candy trading event in the middle of your living room? Providing a plan for the evening can make a difference in ending the evening on a sweet note.
Create a ‘buy back’ program if you would prefer your loved ones not have free access to that much candy. Make your program work in a way in which your loved one will receive a certain number of dollars, stars, tokens, etc. when they ‘trade in’ a certain number of pieces of candy. Check with your dentist to see if they are offering a buy back program.
Create a ‘decorate a gingerbread house’ program. Decorate a box with pictures of gingerbread houses. Put candy that could be used to decorate a gingerbread house in the box. You now have everything you need to decorate your holiday gingerbread house.
Create a ‘week long candy plan’. Divide a shoe box into 7 sections. Place one or two pieces of candy in each section. Give your loved one the opportunity to choose the candy in one section every day.
Whatever your plan, share it with your loved ones well before the candy starts pouring in the house. Make it very clear where the candy will be stored and what the plan will be once it is collected. It may feel like you’re taking the fun out of the candy collection, rather you are providing the framework for a fun and enjoyable evening from start to finish!
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC.
Friday Night Lights, Coming Soon!
It’s almost impossible to believe that August has come and will be leaving in a few days! Time flies when you’re running at land speed records in a million different directions. First day of school pictures have been taken and posted, ‘normal’ routine has started, and “Friday Night Lights” will soon be starting! Those “Friday Night Lights” can help build language as well as social skills more than you have thought.
“Friday Night Lights” harkens memories of high school football, marching band, and hanging out on the bleachers with your friends. Add adulthood and a family and “Friday Night Lights” might not conjure up the same warm feelings as it once had. Running to the restrooms, purchasing way too much from the concession stand and listening to complaints of being bored or the seats are too hard…..ah yes, “Friday Night Lights”. Preparing your family for these evenings can only make those “Lights” shine brighter.
Just like the football team, cheerleaders and marching band, your family ‘team’ needs to practice for the big night as well. How do spectators practice? Read on.
Go to practice games and rehearsals. Chances are the local middle and high school teams and marching bands are practicing daily. Take advantage of these less formal settings to PRACTICE sitting on the bleachers. Take note of any issues related to the bleachers (seats are too hard, sitting up high is scary, being able to see through to the ground is scary) to find the areas that are most comfortable for you and your family. Visit the restrooms. Locate the changing area if needed. Bring your family members in to the restrooms to become familiar with these surrounds so there won’t be any issues when there are larger crowds. Experience the sounds of the practices to decrease being alarmed during a game. The whistles on the field, the marching band playing the fight song, the cheerleaders cheers, all of these sounds are new and can be very upsetting. Help your family anticipate these sounds.
Learn the lingo. If a family member is non-verbal, create signs that have simple messages – Go Team – to get them to be part of the fun. Practice simple messages for family members with limited language – Go! – Fight! – Win! A football game is language rich. Choose one or two words that will have the most meaning and practice at home and at practice games.
Recognizance. Get the low down on your local “Friday Night Lights” game by making it a date night or going alone. Take note of how crowded certain sections of the bleachers become. When the marching band plays (typically there’s a pre-game and of course the half-time show). Where the cheerleaders stand. If there is a mascot. And maybe the most important piece, what is offered at the concession stand. These pieces of information will help you to better plan and anticipate your family’s needs during the game.
Concession stand mania. So much of the game is about the food and rightfully so. Make a plan for how your family will make purchases. Make that plan very clear to everyone to avoid melt-downs at the stadium. Create a snack board of the items at the concession stand (You have this information because you went to the game alone before.). Not only does a snack board provide a visual cue for everyone, put gives non-verbal members of the family a way to communicate their choice without play the ‘yes/no’ or ‘point and cry’ game.
Set a time limit, initially. At the onset of the season, you may need to make it very clear when or how long your family ‘team’ will be attending the event. You want to leave the game on a high note. Setting this parameter may avoid a melt-down when it is time to leave. Give a concrete time that may or may not necessarily be associated with the clock. Because of your recognizance trip, you have the information you need. Give warnings prior to departure time (“After this song, we are leaving.” “When the cheerleaders finish we are walking to the car.”). Expand the amount of time you spend at each game you attend, if only by 10 minutes.
Don’t forget, this is fun! Time together is the biggest victory of all! Enjoy!
Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC