Creating Voices Therapy

We want our little ones to work to gain our attention and engage with us. Children are developmentally ready to initiate with us from a very early age. While initiation is listed as the last prelinguistic skill, this skill must emerge alongside using gestures to communicate and vocalizing purposefully.
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"A child’s ability to initiate is a major diagnostic factor in determining whether he or she is a late talker or if there’s a larger developmental problem."-Laura Mize. Initiation is often what helps us differentiate between individuals with learning differences or late talkers, as late talkers often intimate interaction with others, just non-verbally. We want to assist all children in taking the lead to get their wants and needs met.
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In the slides above we discuss strategies to help your child initiate and truly learn how powerful they are!
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Based on Laura Mize- "Teach Me to Talk"
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Gestures are so important!
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This non-verbal method of communicating is important because it signals that a child understands that he can get their message across to you even if they do not have words, or in combination with words. This is one of the most important places to start when you have a child that may have motor planning difficulties or Childhood Apraxia of Speech! It can also be an indicator of future language development and needs.
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Here are some definitions and some ideas on modeling gestures!
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It is really important to mention that this is a big red flag. If you notice your child is not using gestures by 15 months you should contact a slp for help! bring up your concerns to your pediatrician. We of course don't want to alarm anyone, but want to educate you to work on getting help for intervention!
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