by admin | Mar 4, 2016 | news
In recent years we have been bombarded by various places dedicated to the early stimulation of our children through reading, writing and even numbers. Many of these approaches are positive for a child's development, yet the benefits of singing have sometimes been neglected. Parents should sing to their children every day. This interaction has been shown to avoid delays in language development. Singing lullabies to infants and toddlers is very much like talking. Each lullaby carries implicit melodies and inflections from the mother tongue, preparing the child's ear and brain for language. It has also been shown that singing activates both hemispheres of the brain. It has also been discovered that children's response to recorded music is very different from music that comes directly from their parents as singing with their parents becomes reciprocal communication precursor to oral communication.
So let's sing moms and dads!
by admin | Feb 28, 2016 | news
I write this article thinking of all those moms who say things like this in the consultation: "to be able to rest I put her to watch TV", "see how well she behaves when she watches TV", "the nanny sleeps it like this, with the TV on" or "the grandmother takes care of it and since she is so tired, they watch a lot of TV". If your child does not yet speak and loves to watch TV, it is very likely that this is a key factor in changing the environment in which it develops. The general recommendation is to try not to expose them to it before the age of two, since it is associated with the appearance of delays in language development and neuronal alterations due to the prolonged exposure of some images and changes in light and colour; but it is also necessary to be realistic. In many of our homes young children are exposed to it for different reasons. This is why instead of totally eliminating it from our lives I recommend turning it into a tool. I explain it with a real-life example: you are tired after a day's work, you decide that you want to rest for a while and sit your child down to see something he likes. While the child is focused, you check his Facebook, answer messages, end the program and get up. This was wasted time for your son because at that time he received information but there was no reciprocity in the communication. If, on the other hand, you share what he or she is seeing and comment on things like: what is Mickey doing? Where did they go? What color is her dress? See what dinosaur is bigger! Does it look big or small to you? And a while later they comment again; at that moment television becomes a learning tool and your child will have taken advantage of the time sharing his world with you and exercising his communication skills. The same principle applies to tablets and cell phones. My recommendation is to use them with measure (less than two hours a day and in short intervals) and always supervise and accompany. If it is impossible for you to accompany your child, it is better to engage in another activity . Remember that the secret is to turn your "enemies" into friends.
by admin | Feb 27, 2016 | news
People often ask me: Is it really bad to use a pacifier?
With a newborn baby and as a speech therapist I had decided not to use a pacifier with my son. NEVER! Just as I had decided to breastfeed for two years, and just as one decides a thousand things ... but along the way you have to make changes, even if you do not want. I wanted to avoid doing so because of the effects it can have on speech development and also to avoid the typical comment: a child of a lollipop therapist! Yet a few days after her birth she was exhausted, with cesarean pains, nursing, not sleeping, and caring for another child. It was too much for me and guess what? The pacifier turned out to be my salvation... I just wanted to sleep and as a last resort I gave up: desperate I went to look for a pacifier. My son accepted it and made him (us) sleep like never before. This gave me a new perspective on all that information and advice we moms get and how sometimes not following them is only related to a survival issue.
For those of you who bear the guilt of offering your children a pacifier. There's no reason to feel bad. Pacifiers are perfectly suitable for children during the first year of life. However, try to limit its use after 6 months (I only offered it at bedtime) and try to eliminate it by 12 months. One option that was easy for me was to give him along with his pacifier, a toy he associated with bedtime. In my case it was a salamander called Charlie, a stuffed animal with lights and relaxing music. The first day we removed the pacifier was Charlie who accompanied my son and told him that the pacifier would never come back. He never asked about her again.
If you have any anecdote or advice regarding the dreaded pacifier please share it with us.
by admin | Feb 26, 2016 | news
When my son turned 7 months of age we sensed that he was drooling excessively (sialorrhea). With our previous son we had not experienced any difficulty in this aspect. Many people thought it was normal because of the teething process but did not think it was normal to get so wet. He sensed that more than excess saliva, as many thought, could be a difficulty in swallowing it. As a speech therapist I knew that to help him I had to strengthen his orofacial musculature (tongue, palate veil, cheeks, etc.) since drooling could be the product of hypotonic muscles. Many times moms worried more than they should but I didn't really want to risk any difficulty in the development of their speech and for this reason we implemented two exercises very easy to do at home. 1. I decided to teach him how to drink with a straw. To start you can use a small tetrabrik straw juice (there are many options on the market). How do we get the baby who drinks from a bottle or breast to learn to drink with a straw? Very easy ! Little by little you should press the container until small amounts of juice come out. Your child will quickly learn to suck to get the juice, to swallow and will understand the process. Once the child begins to drink from the container with straw gradually press the straw in order to exert force on his musculature trying to suck the juice. The straw exercise strengthens the tongue, so that it is able to carry the saliva to the back of the mouth to be swallowed . Another very effective technique is the electric toothbrush , obviously appropriate for the size of your small mouth .
The electric toothbrush inside your mouth: cheeks, tongue and gums two or three times a day helps to increase the sensitivity of the mouth and that increase makes the child more aware of his drooling. You can also use an always small vibrator.
The combination of both exercises can be the solution of drooling in your little one ! It worked for me, if you decide to try it at home tell us how it goes ! You can send us videos and photos and thus share your experience with all of us.
Dew
by admin | Jan 31, 2014 | news
The best toys to stimulate language development are those that encourage exchanges in contexts that are meaningful to your child. Recreating the immediate world through play is fundamental to developing proper communication.
No toys on this list are specifically designed to teach vocabulary and are toys that your child probably already has.
It is important to take into account certain characteristics when we go to choose a toy so that in addition to entertaining the child, helps him in his development process.
Keep in mind that the toy is versatile, that is, it can be used in a variety of ways and during different stages of a child's development.
Also that they relate to meaningful and familiar experiences for your child (i.e., that everyday actions such as feeding, bathing, dressing can be reproduced).
They also help social interaction, i.e. toys that are fun to play with other children or parents.
Some examples:
Mr. Papa's face:
There are a variety of opportunities to work on the language with this toy as it includes many accessories. You can work on body parts, clothes, emotions, etc.
Blocks: blocks stimulate creativity and imagination. The child who plays with blocks reinforces symbolic play, sizes, shapes, colors, and problem solving, among others.
Casa de Muñecas /La Granja:ideal games to build imaginary scenarios (feed, build, clean) to work onomatopoeia, semantic fields, functionality of objects.
Musical Instruments: Music is excellent for the development of many areas of the brain that are directly involved in language development. It is excellent for the development of auditory discrimination, prosody, fine motor, coordination, creativity, imagination etc.
Board Games: with games such as Memory, Pictionary, Monopoly you can work taking turns, sequences, memory, problem solving, quantity concepts, etc.
These are just a few examples of the benefits you can get with accessible toys, many can even make them at home with waste material and as a family project. Remember that the important thing is not whether it is an expensive or exclusive toy but functional and fun.
Lic.RocioVargas Moya
Terapeuta del Lenguaje
