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7 Key Outcomes

In this two workbook set, we will discuss seven focus areas to assess and address communication skills in very young children with childhood apraxia of speech. These seven areas are the “big picture” encompassing all the areas a child may be struggling with, and these will be your key components for establishing a comprehensive speech therapy treatment plan to improve a child’s overall communication skills.

Help! I’m overwhelmed!

Because looking at several different interventions at one time can be overwhelming, especially for parents who are starting to work with their own children at home, I have included a chart so you can easily see the “big picture” as well as one-page summary sheet for each of the seven outcomes so that you can read through all seven areas and determine where you’ll start.

I can help you plan! 

Here’s what’s included on the one-page summary sheets:

• A brief description of the outcome.
• A list of considerations to help you decide if this approach is appropriate for a child’s treatment plan. You’ll learn when an approach is especially useful and when it’s usually not useful.
• A list of questions to help you think about the child’s strengths and needs in each area.
• A step-by-step outline to get you started.

Where Do I Begin?

Once you’ve selected the specific Outcome (or two) you’ll work on first, flip to that chapter and get going! At the beginning of every chapter, you’ll find another copy of the one-page summaries to refresh your memory followed by:

• Detailed discussion of the outcome so you understand why you’re working on this area. (If you’re a therapist, this is the information you’ll need to share with parents!)
• Instructions for implementing the intervention.
• A more specific list of questions in “workbook” format so that you can jot down your answers for contemplation during planning.
• Additional recommendations for selecting a starting point, if needed.
• Step-by-step directions for choosing early targets and activities (with WORD LISTS galore-specifically geared toward toddlers who have also had language delays!)
• Troubleshooting and what to try if things aren’t working and you need to “back up.”
• Guidance for knowing when a child is ready to move on to a new outcome or when it’s best for you to stick with the outcome for a while longer.

Once you’re finished planning, I’ll teach you what to do!

I’m going to do my best to explain what to do and how to do it so that you feel empowered as you put together a plan for a child! As therapists and parents, we need ideas (and lots of them!) to help us know where to begin and then to keep us on track and moving forward. Treating apraxia can be hard, but I can help.

Order your copy today!

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Teach Me To Talk: The Therapy Manual
Pediatric speech-language pathologists RAVE about this manual in courses and follow-up emails! This best-selling therapy manual is essential for any speech-language pathologist, developmental therapist, early intervention specialist or other EI professional who treats toddlers with communication delays and disorders.

Teach Me To Play WITH You
This 190-page manual is filled with simple routines, songs, and games designed to inspire adults to interact with children in ways to motivate them to play WITH you. It’s a book of ideas to get you started so that you’ll know what to do when you play with a child who has difficulty staying with you and paying attention or with a child who seems bored and aloof most of the time.

Building Verbal Imitation Skills in Toddlers
This simple, straight-forward approach is easy for both parents and therapists to understand and implement during familiar play-based activities and daily routines. Laura’s method delivers a framework for knowing where to begin work with a late-talking child, provides ideas for what to try when a young child’s progress stalls, and can serve as your new approach when your standard methods don’t seem to be adequate for a particular child’s issues.

FUNctional Phonology
 All this information lines up perfectly with a parent coaching model. You’re telling parents, “This is what you can do during your everyday routines at home to help improve your child’s ability to be understood.” You’ll also get lots of other tools too- checklists for deciding who is and who is not ready to work on articulation a form to help you prioritize your first therapy goals, cheat sheets for how to cue consonant AND vowel sounds, plus TONS of developmentally appropriate therapy activities that work in clinic, preschool, and home settings.

Let’s Talk About Talking!
n my therapy manual Let’s Talk About Talking… Ways to Strengthen the 11 Skills All Toddlers Master Before Words Emerge, I’m teaching you how to target pre-linguistic skills that establish the foundation for communicating. This is a tremendous resource for both parents and professionals. It’s HUGE – 377 pages – but extremely user-friendly. Figure out what you want to work on with a child using the easy checklist, flip to the chapter for that skill, and get busy! The therapy plan is practically written for you!

Autism Workbook
In this workbook, we will discuss twelve focus areas to assess and address communication skills in very young children with autism or red flags for ASD. These first seven areas are the most important or “big picture” areas for language development. I refer to these areas as “core skills” because you will likely need to develop, or at least strengthen, each area for almost every toddler or preschooler with autism or red flags for ASD. These will be your key components for establishing a comprehensive speech therapy treatment plan to improve overall communication skills. The next five approaches will be necessary for some young children with ASD depending on very specific challenges and their continued struggles to make gains in the core areas. These areas are found in the second section of this manual.

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Teach Me To Talk: The Therapy Manual
Pediatric speech-language pathologists RAVE about this manual in courses and follow-up emails! This best-selling therapy manual is essential for any speech-language pathologist, developmental therapist, early intervention specialist or other EI professional who treats toddlers with communication delays and disorders.

Teach Me To Play WITH You
This 190-page manual is filled with simple routines, songs, and games designed to inspire adults to interact with children in ways to motivate them to play WITH you. It’s a book of ideas to get you started so that you’ll know what to do when you play with a child who has difficulty staying with you and paying attention or with a child who seems bored and aloof most of the time.

Building Verbal Imitation Skills in Toddlers
This simple, straight-forward approach is easy for both parents and therapists to understand and implement during familiar play-based activities and daily routines. Laura’s method delivers a framework for knowing where to begin work with a late-talking child, provides ideas for what to try when a young child’s progress stalls, and can serve as your new approach when your standard methods don’t seem to be adequate for a particular child’s issues.

FUNctional Phonology
 All this information lines up perfectly with a parent coaching model. You’re telling parents, “This is what you can do during your everyday routines at home to help improve your child’s ability to be understood.” You’ll also get lots of other tools too- checklists for deciding who is and who is not ready to work on articulation a form to help you prioritize your first therapy goals, cheat sheets for how to cue consonant AND vowel sounds, plus TONS of developmentally appropriate therapy activities that work in clinic, preschool, and home settings.

Autism Workbook
In this workbook, we will discuss twelve focus areas to assess and address communication skills in very young children with autism or red flags for ASD. These first seven areas are the most important or “big picture” areas for language development. I refer to these areas as “core skills” because you will likely need to develop, or at least strengthen, each area for almost every toddler or preschooler with autism or red flags for ASD. These will be your key components for establishing a comprehensive speech therapy treatment plan to improve overall communication skills. The next five approaches will be necessary for some young children with ASD depending on very specific challenges and their continued struggles to make gains in the core areas. These areas are found in the second section of this manual.

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12 Key Focus Areas

In this workbook, we will discuss twelve focus areas to assess and address communication skills in very young children with autism or red flags for ASD. These first seven areas are the most important or “big picture” areas for language development. I refer to these areas as “core skills” because you will likely need to develop, or at least strengthen, each area for almost every toddler or preschooler with autism or red flags for ASD. These will be your key components for establishing a comprehensive speech therapy treatment plan to improve overall communication skills. The next five approaches will be necessary for some young children with ASD depending on very specific challenges and their continued struggles to make gains in the core areas. These areas are found in the second section of this manual.

Help! I’m overwhelmed!

Because looking at several different interventions at one time can be overwhelming, especially for parents who are starting to work with their own children at home, I have included a one-page summary sheet for each of the focus areas here in this chapter so that you can read through all twelve areas and determine where you’ll start.

I can help you plan! 

Here’s what’s included on the one-page summary sheets:

• A brief description of the focus area.
• A list of considerations to help you decide if this approach is appropriate for a child’s treatment plan. You’ll learn when an approach is especially useful and when it’s usually not useful.
• A list of questions to help you think about the child’s strengths and needs in each area.
• Recommendations for getting started.
• Initial activity suggestions.

Where Do I Start?

Once you’ve selected the specific Focus Area (or two) you’ll work on first, flip to that chapter and get going! At the beginning of every chapter, you’ll find another copy of the one-page summaries to refresh your memory followed by:

•  A list of potential goals.
• A section highlighting the differences noted in very young children with autism for Focus Areas 2-12.
• Detailed discussion of the focus area.
• Instructions for implementing the intervention.
• A more specific list of questions in “workbook” format so that you can jot down your answers for contemplation during planning.
• Additional recommendations for selecting a starting point, if needed.
• More activity options when I think you’ll benefit from additional ideas.
• Troubleshooting and what to try if things aren’t working and you need to “back up.”
• Guidance for knowing when a child is ready to move on to a new focus area or when it’s best for you to stick with the focus area for a while longer.

Once you’re finished planning, I’ll teach you what to do!

I’m going to do my best to explain what to do and how to do it so that you feel empowered as you put together a plan for a child! As therapists and parents, we need ideas (and lots of them!) to help us know where to begin and then to keep us on track and moving forward.

Order your copy today!

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Although not an academic text, Teach Me To Talk: The Therapy Manual is used by SLP grad programs throughout the USA and around the world in their Infant Toddler courses!

The full title for this book is Teach Me To Talk – The Therapy Manual: A Comprehensive Guide for Treating Receptive and Expressive Language Delays/Disorders in Toddlers and Young Preschoolers. Every language milestone from under 12 months until age 4 is included in this resource.

The practical treatment manual is divided into 2 parts.

Part I

Includes the background information to make sure you understand WHY you’re doing what you do in sessions! You’ll learn the overall philosophy, rationale, and treatment hierarchy recommended for successful language therapy with toddlers for the developmental areas of social, cognitive, and both receptive and expressive language skills.

Part II

Outlines a comprehensive list of therapy goals with highly detailed instructions for targeting each milestone in sessions with a variety of activity ideas. Specific recommendations are provided to help you tie each goal to realistic and practical carry-over “homework” for parents and caregivers.

The last two chapters contain activity recommendations based on the KINDS of play we use in therapy and when/why to use those categories and then finally a few problem-solving examples to help pull together all of the information.

Two sample treatment session outlines are provided along with specific toy recommendations so you can make sure you’re planning successful and realistic sessions for toddlers.

Multiple charts and “handouts” are provided throughout the manual, not only your professional reference, but to share with families, caregivers, and other therapists you’re mentoring.

The regular price is $58.00.

Save more when you purchase this manual in addition to other products! Check out The Therapy Manual Combo Pack which is perfect for SLPs building their resource libraries and sharpening their clinical skills.

If you’re new to  teachmetotalk.com, you may prefer to purchase this therapy manual along with Teach Me To Talk the DVD so that you can also watch therapy sessions with toddlers. Many new SLPs or SLPs who are new to early intervention and pediatrics report that “seeing” sessions with young children was more helpful to get them going or provide a needed refresher than any other professional development activity they pursued. The order that set here.

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Do you get blank stares when you tell a child, “Say ____,”?

Imitation is the core skill that many late talkers, regardless of their official diagnosis, haven’t yet mastered. Building Verbal Imitation Skills in Toddlers is a must-read tool for parents and speech therapists.

Many toddlers with developmental delays lack the fundamental skills necessary to begin to imitate single words, yet that’s just what we expect them to do when we write IFSP or IEP outcomes such as,

“Logan will use a variety of words to communicate his wants and needs to his parents and caregivers.”

As SLPs who work in early intervention and preschool programs, teaching verbal imitation is where our treatment plans usually begin. We jump right into treatment by ‘following a child’s lead’ during sessions and narrating play with single words in hopes of jumpstarting expressive language. We advise parents to model functional vocabulary words during daily routines so that the child will begin to repeat those words. If it were really that easy, would that kid be on your caseload in the first place?

As a parent, you may be surprised or confused when your toddler doesn’t respond as you coax them to try to say words.

Helping very young children with developmental delays learn to talk, and specifically learn to imitate words, requires that we revisit how imitation develops.

Excerpt from the book:

Imitation emerges very, very early in typical development and often occurs without direct teaching. Many times parents are teaching a baby through imitation without being consciously aware of the process. An infant’s earliest social and communicative interactions consist of looking at his mother and instinctively copying her facial expressions and vocalizations. The mother hears her sweet baby’s coos and repeats those sounds. The child responds by moving his arms and legs and vocalizing even more. During these back and forth gazes and early ‘conversations,’ an infant, only a few months old, begins a life-long process of imitating another person.

In the second six months of life, this process evolves as a baby begins to imitate her parent’s actions with objects. A parent shows a child how to stack blocks or operate the new Busy Box. Actions begin to look more like communication when a child copies a parent’s movements in early social games like Patty Cake and Peek-a-boo.

Contrary to what we may have been taught, teaching imitation first begins with teaching a child to imitate actions, not words, during play. For many of the children we see, this serves a dual benefit of helping them learn how to play.

Just beyond actions, we move on to helping a child learn to imitate other kinds of body movements and gestures that become communicative.

Even then many late talking toddlers aren’t yet ready to begin to imitate single words. The child may need to learn several ‘in-between’ steps before he’s ready to begin to imitate single words. Learning how to imitate mouth movements, early vocalizations like fake coughing and sneezing, play sounds like blowing raspberries and animal sounds, and easy exclamatory words such as “Wow!” should dominate our early sessions with late talking toddlers.

Many times parents and therapists don’t see success with late talking toddlers because we’re not working on the right things. Changing our approach to target imitation in its earliest and easiest forms is the place to begin.

Read more about the book:

In this 180-page therapy manual Laura Mize, pediatric speech-language pathologist and founder of www.teachmetotalk.com, explains the hierarchy of verbal imitation skills she teaches to therapists throughout the country.

This simple, straight-forward approach is easy for both parents and therapists to understand and implement during familiar play-based activities and daily routines.

Laura’s method delivers a framework for knowing where to begin work with a late-talking child, provides ideas for what to try when a young child’s progress stalls, and can serve as your new approach when your standard methods don’t seem to be adequate for a particular child’s issues.

Each of the eight levels is broken down into its own chapter and includes:

• A detailed description for each level so you’ll know exactly what to do to teach the new skill. The rationale is presented so that you’ll understand why you’re working on each skill and how the skill relates to overall speech-language development.

• This information is critical for parents to understand as they work with a child, but often SLPs and developmental interventionists aren’t exactly sure how to explain what we do so that parents are able to carry-over those successes. Laura’s practical style will fill in that gap so that you’ll know what to say and how to teach parents to follow-through at home.

• The prerequisite skills a child should have mastered before each level is realistic are listed. You’ll know exactly when a child is ready to work on the next level. This will prevent a child from going weeks or months without seeing any measurable progress. You’ll also receive suggestions for targeting the prerequisite skills so that you help the child progress when he seems to be “stuck.”

• A chart is provided for each level with many, many examples of the skills to target with a young child to move him along to words. There’s no guessing! You’ll know exactly what to work on with a child to address each new level. Each chart is a great tool for therapists to copy for parents & caregivers to reinforce what you’re working on during visits and for “homework” between sessions.

• Each chapter includes a list of time-tested and toddler approved materials to use during play and during daily routines for each level. All activities are appropriate for use during therapy sessions in a clinic setting or during home visits with parents and siblings.

• Specific ‘how to’ instructions for eliciting each skill are included for each level. This information is especially helpful for parents, for therapists who are new to early intervention and have limited treatment experience with late talking toddlers, and for experienced therapists who want to expand their repertoire of proven treatment strategies for young children with speech-language delays.

• Troubleshooting tips for additional ideas are listed at the end of each chapter. There’s no more second-guessing why a child isn’t making progress. You’ll receive specific instructions for what to try if you’re not seeing results, and the next steps are outlined so that you can move a child forward.

• A handy, one-page quick reference chart is included at the end of the manual. This is particularly suited for therapists to use as a ‘cheat sheet’ during sessions or to provide for parents as an overall guide for treatment.

Because young children learn best during play, Laura provides specific examples for using this approach with the following five common toys toddlers love bubbles, farm animals, baby dolls, Potato Heads, and cars and trucks.

Additionally, Laura lists specific recommendations for using this approach at home for several daily routines including meals/snacks, bath time, dressing/diaper changes, reading books, and playing in the kitchen.

If you’re a speech-language pathologist or developmental therapist looking for ideas to teach parents to use to incorporate language learning, then this is the resource for you! All charts and activity pages can be copied to share with parents as ‘homework’ for between sessions.

This resource is INVALUABLE for therapists who work in programs embracing a ‘no toy bag’ or consultative approach. Not only will you receive many, many practical ideas, but you’ll have plenty of written ‘how-to’ directions to share with parents in an easy-to-understand format.

PayPal customers can easily order with PayPal Express through our online store. Click the link above to order.

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This 190-page manual is filled with simple routines, songs, and games designed to inspire adults to interact with children in ways to motivate them to play WITH you. It’s a book of ideas to get you started so that you’ll know what to do when you play with a child who has difficulty staying with you and paying attention or with a child who seems bored and aloof most of the time.

This is a highly successful beginning treatment approach for toddlers who are at risk for or who have already been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.

Chapter 1

An introduction for parents explaining why social interaction is the foundation for language development. A child who isn’t interested in being with or communicating with other people for most of any given day isn’t developmentally ready to understand and use words. All communication begins with being social. Once a child learns to love being with you, he forms the foundation necessary to help him understand and use language. You’ll learn how to interact with him so that he’ll learn to interact with you. 

Chapter 2

The Easiest Beginner Routines and includes step-by-step instructions for 22 fun play routines. Young children with social and language delays best learn how to interact with others during the structure of a game. On each page you’ll find:

• The name of the game
  
• Materials required (if any)
  
• Description of a child’s preferences to help you decide if this game is a good match for your child
  
• Detailed instructions on How to Play
  
• Keywords and sounds YOU should say when playing to elicit a child’s first word attempts
  
• List of child’s goals so that you’ll know what responses to shoot for, how to help your child move to a more advanced response, and how to measure progress
  
• Problem-solving tips specific to each game
  
• Ideas for expanding the game and new games to try when he’s mastered the first one

Chapter 3

Early Toys you’ll find ideas for play with children who may not be interested in toys. Most of these games are with toys you probably have at home. Some aren’t toys at all, but household items you likely already own. These are my go-to games when I need to get a child’s attention in the beginning sessions when he’s not with me yet. At the end of the chapter, I list toys I use every day in speech therapy. 

Chapter 4

It contains words and instructions for 33 Fingerplays and Songs I use in play with toddlers and young children. As in the previous chapters, you’ll find a section for Child’s Goals and ways to expand the game into your daily lives.

Chapter 5

Solutions for Problems during Play, you’ll find suggestions for new things to try when what you’re doing isn’t working. Problems include:

• Places toys in mouth
• Avoids interaction with people
• Doesn’t like toys
• Lines up toys rather than playing
• Holds toys instead of playing
• Repeatedly pushes buttons
• Prefers TV/videos to people and toys
• Sensitive to touch and sound
• Uses parent’s hands to operate toys
• Odd, repetitive, or self-stimulatory behavior
• Throws toys
• Constant motion
• Short attention span
• Aggressive
• Tantrums and meltdowns
• Difficulty with transitions
• Doesn’t like to share or take turns
• Lost in own words instead of playing or listening (using jargon or echolalia)

Chapter 6

Includes my list of references and recommended reading for parents.

This is a great parent training tool! SLPs and other therapists in early intervention programs will love how this book is organized in a format with activity pages that can be easily copied for distribution to parents.

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I have a great tool for you!

It’s my therapy manual Functional Phonology and it’s filled with practical information to help you address speech intelligibility in toddlers.

FUNctional Phonology: A Language-Based Approach for Treating Speech Intelligibility Problems in Very Young Children

You can’t address a toddler’s articulation skills with methods recommended for older kids without some tweaks! Let me show you how to modify what you do so that you can be more effective.

If you’re a parent and aren’t sure HOW to cue a child to change the way he pronounces words, then this therapy manual is definitely for you!

For therapists, the best part is learning how to teach parents what to do at home.

The subtitle of this therapy manual should really be…

“I don’t like to focus on articulation with toddlers, but when I do, here’s what works best.”

If you’ve followed my work for any length of time, you know that I’m a self-described “language-language-language” therapist. I will ALWAYS believe that WHAT a toddler says is much more important than HOW he says it.

But…

Clearly, there are times when we should address speech intelligibility in toddlers.

That’s what this therapy manual is all about… helping you know who’s ready to work on speech intelligibility, who’s not, what to do to get them ready, and then finally, what to work on and how to work on it. Whew! That’s a mouthful, but it’s the summary of the manual.

This program is based on teaching (correcting!) early phonological patterns – which is how speech develops in toddlers – but it’s also language-based meaning that your target words are completely relevant and functional for toddlers – not random words that fit the speech sound or pattern but provide no “real life” application for 2 and 3-year-olds!

You’ll also notice the word FUN capitalized in the title. I won’t do anything with a little friend that’s not fun! Let’s face it… working on changing how a young child says a word can be t.o.r.t.u.r.e for everyone involved. To combat that problem, I’ll give you play-based therapy activities as well as practical ways (and words!) to use during everyday routines for families at home… It’s SUPER FUNCTIONAL.

Here’s the outline from the Table of Contents with a brief description of what you’ll find in each chapter:

Chapter 1… Is There a Problem?

Red Flags That Indicate a Significant Speech Intelligibility Problem in Toddlers

Chapter 2… Guidelines to Determine Readiness… To Treat or Not to Treat?

Learn the 7 factors that tell you when a child is developmentally ready to target speech intelligibility and when he’s not. You’ll also find recommendations for how to proceed when a toddler is not ready yet. I’ve included a great checklist to use with families, especially useful when parents are pushing you to address artic goals when you know there are other things that you should address first.

Chapter 3… Prioritize Your Goals

Read an Overview of the 6 Priority Patterns to Increase Speech Intelligibility in Toddlers. I’ve tweaked these patterns based on newer research. You’ll also get another great yes/no checklist to help you informally assess a toddler’s status with each of the priorities so that you can easily determine your goals and share your clinical decision-making process with parents.

Chapter 4… Principles for Designing Sessions for Toddlers

Essential tips for achieving success with toddlers while working on speech intelligibility including how to:

1. Keep it Fun!
2. Keep it Real!
3. Keep it Realistic!
4. Keep it Meaningful!
5. Keep it Moving!
6. Keep it Easy (Enough)!
7. Keep it Going! Involving Families, Teachers, and Other Important People

Chapter 5… Tips for Teaching Toddlers New Sounds, Patterns, and Words

Fantastic “how-to” information for parents and for therapists! You can’t use the same methods for treating artic in toddlers as you do with older kids. Learn some tricks that work!

Chapter 6… Treatment Strategies and Activities to Target The 6 Priority Patterns

Here’s THE MEAT of the MANUAL! You’ll get:

• A description of each of the six patterns you’ll target and why it’s important for improving intelligibility
• A list of my BEST treatment tips to get you started as you begin to teach a toddler the new pattern
• Potential word lists for each priority beginning with a list of First Targets that are the easiest to produce and (hopefully!) the most relevant and functional for a toddler. By easiest, I mean that the word contains sounds in the most facilitative contexts for success. You’ll get next sets of words containing the pattern in more difficult contexts too so that you can “bump up” kids who are ready
• An entire section of activity ideas that have worked well with toddlers over the years in my own practice. Activities are organized into Moving Around and Sitting Down options to help you implement my “Move – Sit – Move – Sit” philosophy. This is a critical piece of success and failure during sessions with toddlers.
• EASY ideas for targeting the pattern during everyday routines at home. Therapists can use these recommendations to share with parents as “homework” between sessions. Parents can get this information directly to work on speech all day, every day.
• To wrap up this chapter, there’s a section on Troubleshooting with ideas to try when the initial recommendations are not working.

Chapter 7… What is This? Diagnostic Information for Speech Intelligibility Issues in Toddlers

Get information related to the 5 main diagnoses that result in unintelligible speech including speech delay, phonological disorder, dysarthria, childhood apraxia of speech, and lastly, some information about autism and speech intelligibility. This section will help clear the murkiness that occurs when we try to sort out a firm diagnosis in a very young child who is not easily understood.

All this information lines up perfectly with a parent coaching model. You’re telling parents, “This is what you can do during your everyday routines at home to help improve your child’s ability to be understood.” You’ll also get lots of other tools too- checklists for deciding who is and who is not ready to work on articulation (best for helping justify your decision to eager families!), a form to help you prioritize your first therapy goals, cheat sheets for how to cue consonant AND vowel sounds, plus TONS of developmentally appropriate therapy activities that work in clinic, preschool, and home settings.

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Before any kid begins to talk, he’s mastering these distinct skills. When anyone skill is disrupted, there’s likely a language delay. When several are missing, a stall in language development is inevitable. When a child struggles to attain many of these skills, a long-term communication disorder is likely.

Learn what to do to get these all-important areas moving along!

Here’s how the book is organized:

In Part One:

You’ll read a summary of all 11 skills – along with a discussion of expressive language development so you can know what’s normal. This is important for parents who are wondering things like…Is this a big deal? How far behind is my child? Should I worry?

ln Part Two:

You’ll find an entire chapter devoted to each of the 11 skills.

• A description of each skill, including what it looks like when each skill is present and what it looks like when each skill is not developing in a late talker. This information will help you decide if the area is an area where your child struggles.
• A summary of how this area typically develops. This section alerts parents to any differences in their child’s history that they may have This information often helps us pinpoint where (or when) the initial breakdown occurred.
• A brief section explaining what a young child will continue to struggle with as he gets older if there’s no real improvement in this area. This provides the “big picture” for parents who may not realize the significance of delays in these foundational skills.
• An explanation for why the skill is important for language development. This section ties each skill to what parents of late talkers want most… to hear their child talk!
• Ways to know when a child is developmentally ready to target the skill. This section includes the prerequisite skills a toddler should achieve before beginning to work in this area. In other words, this section will help you decide if this skill is a realistic goal. If a late talker has not met the prerequisites for a skill, don’t waste time working on something that’s too hard for both of you. Back up and work on those prerequisite milestones to ensure success before tackling this skill.
• A comprehensive discussion of my very best strategies for strengthening each skill. These are the things that work to help late talkers! If you’re a therapist, this section can be your treatment plan for working directly with a child or the strategies you’ll recommend (and model!) as you are coaching families. For parents, this section is a guide for what you should do with your own child. No matter what your role, there’s no guessing or wondering if you’re addressing the right things. This is exactly what everyone should be doing to improve each specific area.
• A list of recommended materials and activities for working on each skill.
• At least 7 to 10 (sometimes more!) activity pages for my favorite play routines to address each skill. You’ll find step-by-step instructions in the section called “How to Play and What to Say.” Therapists can copy these pages to share with parents for follow-up and home programming.
• Troubleshooting tips with additional ideas to try if you’re not seeing progress. Don’t move on or give up without reading and implementing the ideas in these sections for each skill!
• A section with further recommendations to pursue if there’s little to no improvement despite your best efforts.
• A brief summary of “what comes next” in the continuum of language development. Once a child has mastered the skill you’ve worked on, then he’s developmentally ready to move on to these next few skills. Sometimes the skills are not quite as “sequential” as we’d like and it makes more sense to move on to the skill(s) listed in this section rather than the next highest number.

In Part Three, you’ll find handouts:

• A quick and easy checklist to help you spot which skills are present and what’s missing.
• A chart of all 11 skills with a short description, a one-sentence explanation of why the skill is important for language development, and a few beginning strategies perfect for using during visits with families.
• A one-page handout of SIMPLE IDEAS for EVERYDAY ROUTINES so that families can work on building these skills during things they already do at home.

This is a tremendous resource for both parents and professionals. It’s HUGE – 335 pages – but extremely user-friendly. Figure out what you want to work on with a child using the easy checklist, flip to the chapter for that skill, and get busy! The therapy plan is practically written for you!

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When a child hasn’t mastered several skills from this list, a language delay or disorder is likely.

When a child hasn’t mastered most skills listed above, a significant language delay or disorder is inevitable.

Parents – this list may help explain why your child isn’t talking and communicating yet.

Therapists – use this list as a screening tool and more importantly, to help you plan treatment.

This list can also shed some insight when a child’s initial progress seems to have plateaued. Usually plateaus mean a child’s skills are emerging but not mastered and the child needs some additional practice time OR plateaus can mean there’s still something missing that no one’s addressing.

View the The Let’s Talk About Talking Therapy Manual here. 

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3 Different Plans

In this therapy manual, I will introduce you to three different plans, all evidence-based, along with a whole bunch of strategies and activities so that you can pick and choose whatever seems to fit for where you are as a therapist or a parent working with a late-talking toddler or preschooler.

Plan A is a fantastic method for FAST results for toddlers with primarily expressive language delays.

Plan B focuses on the best strategies to teach parents for building language at home in everyday routines. Plan B is a fantastic “package” for teaching strategies to new therapists, our colleagues in other fields, and teachers… all in one place with questions for helping guide your sessions and coach parents.

Plan C teaches the foundational pieces of early language development with loads of questions and recommendations to guide parents and therapists in developing your plan for a child.

Help! I’m overwhelmed!

Many times, parents (and therapists!) don’t know where to start when they first begin to work with a late talker. I’ve included checklists, charts, and handouts to help you every step of the way. You’ll begin by choosing your plan with questions to help you pin-point exactly where to begin and what to do to work with late talkers at home, at daycare or preschool, or in clinical settings.

I can help you plan! 

Each of the three plans contains:

• A detailed discussion of the plan so you understand the main components of using that approach with a late talker. (If you’re a therapist, this is the information you’ll need to share with parents!)
• Detailed instructions for implementing the strategies with TONS of examples so that you’ll know ‘how to play and what to say.’.
• Extensive lists of questions in “workbook” format so that you can jot down your answers for contemplation during planning. (If you’re a therapist, you can use these questions with parents during sessions to select family-driven strategies and decide “what comes next.”)
• Step-by-step directions for choosing early goals (like first target words!) and lots of activity suggestions with fantastic ideas for therapy all specifically for toddlers and preschoolers
• Troubleshooting and what to try if things aren’t working and you need to “back up.”
• Guidance for knowing when a child needs a new approach or when it’s best for you to stick with the plan for a while longer.

Once you’re finished planning, I’ll teach you what to do!

I’m going to do my best to explain what to do and how to do it so that you feel inspired, strengthened and equipped to put together and execute your plan for your own late talker!

For me, honing in on what’s best for late talkers and organizing it into a real ‘plan’ has helped me tighten up my approach and I know it can help you too!

The post THE LATE TALKER WORKBOOK appeared first on teachmetotalk.com.

Sometimes in our zeal to help, we give parents too many new things to do, too many new ideas to try and they become overwhelmed. These research-backed techniques are simple to model and easy for parents to learn.

Use the chart to guide your work with Spanish-speaking families with toddlers who are not yet communicating and talking.
For a full explanation and lots of new therapy ideas, check out The Late Talker Workbook.

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