SpeechTea Blog

  • 3 Mistakes I See EI Providers Make (and what to do instead)

    by Erin Larsen
    Hi SLP friends! Today I want to talk about 3 mistakes that I see EI providers make. Now I’ve done early intervention either part time or full time...
    Posted in early intervention, therapy tips

  • How To Carryover Early Intervention Strategies In The Home

    by Erin Larsen
    In Early Intervention, we often have the benefit of seeing the child in their own, natural environment. We can assess the hurdles they may have to overcome in their homes and we see the areas where we can educate the parent or caregiver. But how can we make sure the therapy techniques we model and educate on are being transferred over on a daily basis?
    Posted in early intervention

  • Building Verbal Imitation Skills

    by Erin Larsen

    Now that you’ve educated the parents, coached them through strategies, and their child is demonstrating the Pre-Linguistic Skills we addressed in our first two blogs, we can start building on those skills! But where to begin? Think back on how you observe children acquiring language. Does a 1 year old spontaneously go from never making any verbalizations to suddenly responding to verbal routines or saying “hello” and “mama”? Not typically. All of those small little coos and giggles eventually manifest as whole, recognizable words over time and with the right encouragement.

    Posted in early intervention, parents, therapy tips

  • Pre-Linguistic Skills: The Foundation of Language

    by Erin Larsen
    Pre-linguistic skills are the underrated (and often forgotten!) foundation that allows children to build language, and they must be thoroughly developed. In my last post, I listed them out for you, but let’s look at them further!
    Posted in early intervention, parents, therapy tips, toys

  • What To Do When Parents Ask, 'When Will My Child Talk?'

    by Erin Larsen

    Now that you have a fresh caseload with eager parents and children waiting for your expertise, the only thing that could bring you down is a parent coming into a session after a few weeks of therapy and asking, “So when exactly will my child begin to actually talk?”. While disappointing to hear, often we forget to educate parents on a crucial part of early intervention therapy: pre-linguistic skills!

    Posted in early intervention, parents, therapy tips

  • 5 Tips to Increase Sustained Attention

    by Erin Larsen
    Read my 5 top tips on increasing sustained attention in your speech therapy sessions.
    Posted in behavior management, early intervention, therapy tips