Toddlers with Autism

A rise in the number of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders has prompted new screening guidelines for pediatricians to identify this disorder early. Many speech therapists who work in early intervention know that therapy is most successful when started early. Children with ASD or pervasive developmental disorders can display a wide variety of symptoms, from mild to severe. It has been my experience as a speech-language pathologist in early intervention that the children with mild-moderate symptoms usually fall between the cracks. My recommendation to parents is that is if you suspect something is wrong with your child's development, go with your intuition and seek an evaluation with a developmental pediatrician. These pediatricians are specialists in identifying developmental delays and can identify the subtle signs of ASD that your regular pediatrician could miss during a 15 minute routine checkup. ASD is a complex neuro-psychological disorder. Children with pervasive developmental disorders are frequently delayed in speech, language and social interation skills. Many of them many also have difficulty regulating their sensory system. Observing your child's play and interaction skills over a period of time is valuable information for anyone evaluating your child. Things to watch for include repetition of the same play activities in a very specific manner or isolated play with the same toy without exploring other toys. It may be difficult to join your child in play as this upsets the routine. Most children enjoy having an adult sit with them to engage in interactive back and forth play. If your child does not try to imitate your words and only has a small rote vocabulary such as saying the ABC's or 123's, or repeats the same phrases over and over, this could be an indication of the need for a more complete speech and language evaluation. A common intervention for children with PDD is "floortime" developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan. It is a way of playing with your toddler to encourage interaction, flexibility and connection with others. As a speech therapist, I have followed these floortime principles while teaching speech and language using my play based activities with great success.
The most important thing for parents to remember is to gain knowledge from a variety of professionals , develop a plan and then really stick with it. I cannot stress how important it is for the entire family to work on language development on a daily basis. I have found that there is a small window of time during which most of the progress takes place, so it is important to put forth the most effort at the earliest age possible. Diane Simon MS CCC-SLP

Baby Einstein DVD's

In a recently published study (August 2007) in the Journal of Pediatrics, it was found that exposure to DVDs and videos such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby may actually slow vocabulary development in infants ages 8 to 16 months of age. Researchers at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute in Seattle WA found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants understood an average of 6 to 8 fewer words than infants who did not watch them. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends no television for children under 24 months. Complete article available at (http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/161/5/473) All parents are interested in preparing their children for preschool and improving academic performance. However, baby DVD's, television and other media for children under the age of 2 may actually have a negative rather than positive impact on linguistic development , as young babies seem to learn language best through interaction with people using story books , toys, warm social interaction and speaking "parentese" (melodic speech) which all foster language development. Parents who select developmental toys that encourage cognitive development and stimulate creative play are more likely to see improved language and social learning skills than parents who rely on educational videos. I also truly encourage parents to avoid excessive use of high tech toys with lights and buttons that require limited interaction between you and your child. I refer to these as "passive toys" since they require little interaction or imagination. The best toys for language development are those which may not initially excite your toddler with lights and action, but instead help your child play and explore with you while developing early language skills for social, cognitive and academic growth to face future challenges with confidence. To learn more about why appropriate toys and play are important for optimal early childhood development visit the parents section of the ceotoddler.com website. The CEO Toddler activity manual is a great tool for parents and can be used as a helpful developmental guide for tracking early childhood language skills. Diane Simon MS CCC-SLP

The Importance of Play

I would like to recommend that all parents read the following article on the importance of play recently published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in Jan. of 2007. www.aap.org-pressroom-playFINAL.pdf
One very important recommendation from this article is that "Pediatricians should emphasize the benefits of "True Toys" such as blocks and dolls with which children use their imagination fully, over passive toys that require limited imagination".

I am sure that many parents are concerned that the toys they select are appropriate to meet their child's developmental needs. However, if you are not an educator or professional in child development, do you really know ? CEO Toddler specializes in selecting pre-school toys to help parents stimulate creative play and imagination in young toddlers at various age levels. Our 3 collections of natural wooden "true toys" have been selected by a Speech Language Pathologist who is a specialist in early language development. Our toys and language activity manual will inspire your toddler to truly become a life-long learner. According to the AAOP article, "Creative play is important for the development of a healthy brain as well as improved academic and social learning. I encourage parents to follow their child's interests and let playtime be child-directed. The key to enhanced learning is through quality interactions and a deep connection that develops when you engage in back and forth play with your toddler. Parents can enrich their child's language development by using play-based activities that are incorporated into the playtime experience. In the early toddler years, interactive and imaginative play helps children prepare for the future. As stated in the article "It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them". "As they master their world, play helps children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the resiliency they will need to face future challenges." I urge parents to think about toys as "learning tools". Parents can have a wonderful impact on their toddler 's learning success by playing at home with the right toys and the right materials.

Diane Simon MS CCC-SLP
www.ceotoddler.com

How Parents can develop their toddler's speech and language skills using toys

Parents often ask me what they can do at home to encourage speech and language development. The best way to teach communication is by being interactive and talking to your toddler during playtime. Although it is nice to build your toddler's vocabulary with educational videos, there is one crucial piece of language development missing in videos. It is almost impossible for real communication to take place without face to face interaction with another person. Language is a process of reciprocal interaction, one person is the sender and the other is the receiver of the message. The goal for parents is to develop a continuous back and forth interaction with their toddlers. It is sort of like a game of tennis, if the other person does not hit the ball back, the game ends. Similarly, if you ask your toddler a question and you get no verbal or gestural response, the game of communication ends also. At first, it may seem like you are doing all the work to keep the game going, but if you are persistent, your toddler will soon begin to respond and even initiate a playtime interaction with you. I have listed some suggestions for parents to help their toddlers develop speech and language skills during playtime. If your child is non-verbal, it is fine to play using gestures or sign language while you model the words outloud that go with your actions and those of your toddler as well.

1. Select a small play room in the house to organize all your child's toys on shelves. Keep some of your toddler's favorite toys up on shelves or in clear containers so your toddler has to name the toy or point to the one he or she wants. If your container has a hard to open lid, that is even better since your child will need to ask you for help to open it.

2. Try to take turns with your toddler while playing with the toy. Some children may not like you to take a turn , but be persistent and say "Daddy's turn, or Mommy's turn." Your turn may have to be very short until your child gets used to the idea that they get the toy back when your turn is over. If your child has trouble with giving up a toy to let you have a turn, try buying 2 of the exact same toy truck and then exchange the same toy back and forth with your toddler.

3. Once you have established good turn taking with your Toddler, begin adding simple words that go with your actions when it is your turn. Toddlers learn new words by imitation. So, if you add words that go with your actions, your Toddler will eventually try to imitate what you did and said. If you ever watched two toddlers play together, they are constantly imitating each other. A simple example of this is to take a toy truck and bump it into another vehicle while saying "beep-beep." For older more verbal toddlers, try pushing the truck and say "Truck go" or "Daddy drive truck."

4. Select toys that are good for turn taking and have multiple pieces or some action associated with it. CEO Toddler toys are all interactive toys and are easy to take turns with. If you need help thinking of things to say and do in order to stimulate language during playtime, just follow the play 2 learn language activities included with each CEO Toddler toy. I personally wrote all of of these activities myself and I recommend them to parents I work with everyday.

5. If you would like more language activities to challenge your toddler in the areas of listening, speaking, interaction and thinking, the CEO Toddler Work Manual contains over 4o different receptive and expressive language enrichment activities. It also allows you to keep track of your toddler's progress. It is best to make learning language fun for your toddler. Many parents have enjoyed using the manual with toys they already have at home while including siblings or other family members too.

I hope your toddler enjoys being a CEO Toddler... I invite you to have fun and
"Play 2 Learn Language" with us everday!

Who is a CEO Toddler?

CEO Toddlers are Children with Endless Original Ideas! They are Toddlers who have developed extraordinary listening, interaction, speaking and thinking skills. The idea for CEO Toddler came from parents I met who wanted to start their Toddlers on an early path toward success. Well, most of us know that CEO's of large corporations are successful, but what are the qualities of a successful CEO? Well, most CEO's are high achievers, very intelligent, and have extraordinary communication and creative thinking skills! I therefore would like to invite you to put away the high tech toys and videos in your house and begin to play creatively with your Toddlers! By following the play 2 learn language activities and using interactive toys from the CEO Toddler Work Manual, your Toddler is soon to be "Driven for Success!" I invite you to work 2 play, and play 2 learn language with us! Please re-visit this blog for weekly posts from me, CEO Parents, CEO Professionals and Friends of CEO Toddlers!

Diane Simon MS CCC-SLP
CEO of CEO Toddler