Communication Begins Day One of Your Child's Life

Language acquisition begins before your baby speaks his/her first words, before jargon, babbling and vocalizations. Communication begins day one of your child's life. First glances, touch, smells, sounds are all paramount in many facets of his/her development. There are several precursors to language that are essential for healthy development. 

Perhaps the most important is the relationship between you and your child. Most importantly, your child is dependent on you to make certain all his/her basic needs are met; nourishment  safety, health, comfort.  It is your responsibility to create a safe, loving, nurturing environment for your child.  In such an environment a child will feel comfortable to explore their surroundings. In the process of exploration, your child will begin to realize his or her impact on their world.  This valuable understanding is paramount in the development of language.  Once your child realizes that he or she could make things happen they will look to your response for validation.  This non- verbal connection to their caretaker, the ability to feel engaged and connected through facial expressions, eye contact, body language, touch, is your child's first experience with expression and communication.

The Importance of Parental Involvement

This is a great Op Ed piece  by Thomas Friedman.   Thanks for sharing it, Cassandra.

Autumn Fun for the Family!

Now that summer has unofficially ended and autumn is upon us, parents are looking for activities that will engage their children, build their self-esteem, encourage healthy and successful development and not cost an arm and a leg. With a focus on broadening your child’s experiences while encouraging successful motor coordination, language, social emotional, and cognitive development, the following are some suggestions that will take you and your little ones away from the television and the video games and into the truly interactive world.


A child’s play is not only amazing and amusing, but it is also paramount in healthy childhood development. The playground is your child’s early life university. Whether it is the 2 year old dipping one toe and then the other in the sprinklers until she builds her confidence and courage to get her entire body wet -- or the 6 year old challenging the 5 year old to climb higher on the jungle gym -- the playground is an ideal environment for your child to learn how to navigate the world, build relationships and learn about life. The Bleecker Street playground at Bank Street is always filled with children of all ages, as well as activities and equipment that will promote your child’s language, social, and motoric development. The Imagination Playground at Burling Slip is a safe, creatively designed space which encourages child directed, unstructured play.

The New York City Public Library is a great place for your child to build their imagination along with their love for books. Offering activities from arts and crafts to music and film for children, the library is an ideal nurturing environment where your child can flourish. All branches offer story time for children of different ages. Story time is where children and their care takers can enjoy new and classic children’s stories, learn action songs, make friends, and meet other children from their neighborhood.

The zoo! There is nothing more educational and exciting to a child than seeing lioness care for her cub, or watching a polar bear jump in and out of the water. One of the world’s most spectacular zoos is just a short subway ride to The Bronx. The Bronx Zoo has events and exhibits throughout the fall including a scary Halloween celebration for all family members. “ Boo at the Bronx Zoo” runs throughout October and includes a haunted safari, hayrides and parades. Your child will love it.

Rainy day activities can run the gamut from pretend play tea parties to baking chocolate chip cookies, to charades and Pictionary. A rainy day is a great opportunity to engage playfully with your child. The positive interaction between a parent and child is paramount in developing language, self-esteem, and social skills. For great rainy day ideas there are many sites to visit, my favorite site is Amazing Moms. You will find loads of creative ideas to keep your children occupied while sparking the creative fires. One simple project I enjoy and so will your kid constructing a time capsule. A decorated shoe box, and a few keepsakes can create hours of fun and it will certainly make for an interesting conversations between your child and yourself.

Curiosity, exposure, and interaction are key in your child’s development. Participation in simple activities this autumn can encourage healthy development on all levels. Don’t skip the hayrides or the pumpkin patches this fall. Create memories and enjoyment that your child will cherish for years to come!

Preschool is a Time for Exploration

I am grateful that one of my clients shared this article with me.  Alison Gopnik, the author, expresses an interesting perspective on preschool.  She emphasizes the value of exploration vs. instruction for a child of preschool age.  A good and important read!

Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School
New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire.
By Alison Gopnik

Reading is Fundamental

Reading is paramount in your child’s development.  It serves to enhance your child’s language development, creativity and ability to think. It also builds strong social emotional ties and encourages cognitive development.   Additionally, it is a perfect venue to spend quality time with your child.  Even if your baby does not yet understand words, by reading to them, they will begin to recognize and enjoy the sound of your voice.  Reading to your child will assist in creating parent/child bonds that will build your child’s sense of self and safety.  These connections are necessary precursors to spoken language.  Children who form secure relationships early in life with their parents and caretakers are likely to be able to develop healthy social emotional connections with peers and others later in their lives.  Furthermore, as you read to your toddler and begin to identify objects in books and ask wh questions, you are building their vocabulary, their ability to form sentences and narratives as well as enabling them to respond, question and reason.  Children who grow up reading are more likely to pick up words quickly, choose books rather than television, and develop a healthy respect for books.  All of which will lead to a strong foundation for a successful life and academics.

Here are some recommendations for just a few books that you and your children will love...
On Top Of Spaghetti
There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly
Caps For Sale
A Very Special House
Madeline (series)
One Fish - Two Fish - Red Fish - Blue Fish

Shared Experiences

Just a few sites I wanted to share with you guys … they are informative, entertaining, and insightful.

Yike Dat

A site for both parents and educators, YikeDat is a brand new resource for parents and teachers focusing on early childhood.  They update regularly. Expect new information for early childhood teachers almost daily.  There is a section for parents of preschoolers as well.  

Hidden Truths

A really funny blog about one parents experience raising his children

2E Child
A description of a successful ABA therapy graduate. Initially diagnosed as Autistic, he is a 2E child (twice exceptional - In the Autistic Spectrum and Profoundly Gifted). A brief description of his path to enrichment and excellence as laid out by the therapists and by, mostly, his Mother - his chief Instructor.


Autism Mom Rising
A mother of a son with Autism and Landau Kleffner Variant. They have a blast baking around their many food sensitivities and blogging about  their creations. Their show Autism Family Cooking will debut here in 2011. This site also explores the general nuances of life with Autism.

These are mostly inspirational blogs written by parents of children who are both typically developing and who have autism.

What Do Toddlers Talk About?

The development of speech and language can vary between children -- and often does. However, there is a natural progression that typical development follows. Simply speaking, easier skills must be mastered before more difficult ones. Nonverbal benchmarks before verbal. Vocalizations typically emerge before babbling. Shorter utterances come before more lengthy ones. Sounds that require an open vocal tract such as ah come before sounds that require complex coordination of the articulators such as b or p. B and p come before s and z and so on. Additionally, children will typically tell you that there is an apple before they tell you that they eat apple and they will tell you they eat apple before they tell you that they eat apple on table.
While many of us may know when single words start to emerge in a child’s communication, other benchmarks are not so straight forward. When determining language development in your infant and toddler, the following points of reference can help frame typical development from birth to three years of age.
· At 6 months a child should be responsive to his/her name. S/he should vocalize and babble with intonation, respond to different emotional vocal tones and facial expressions, and turn his or her head towards sounds.
· At 12 months a child may be using one or more words with meaning such as mama, or baba. This is when a child begins to express intention. S/he should also understand simple directives when accompanied by visual cues and gestures.
· At 18 months a child’s vocabulary should be approaching 25 word; mostly nouns. S/he should use jargon with intonation, repeat a lot of what s/he hears, and follow simple directives without supporting gestures or visual cues.
· At 2 years of age a child should be able to verbally identify common objects with approximately 65% intelligibility. S/he should produce 1 and 2 word utterances combining nouns with verbs such as “eat cookie”. Verbs and adjectives are emerging in their lexicon and their vocabulary is growing larger approaching two to three-hundred words. Prepositions will also emerge such as on and in. S/he will begin to refer to him/herself as I or me. Their voice quality (pitch and amplitude) will not be well regulated at this time. Receptively, your child typically will follow directives such as “show me” “give me” and the most important “clean- up”
· At 3 years of age, your toddler should communicate with close to 90% intelligibility. S/he should use pronouns correctly. You may notice temporal markers such as the past tense “ed” are emerging in their language. Their vocabulary could be between 500 and 1000 words and s/he produces 3 word utterances. S/he will identify body parts and will be able to answer some “wh” questions such as, what do you do when you are tired? Additionally, a 3 year old child will relate better to their environment and they will begin to comment on their surroundings.
Do not fret, it does not necessarily mean there is a delay or impairment if your child has not met all of these milestones. Language development is influenced and dependent upon so many other factors. If you are concerned, contact your child’s pediatrician or a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist with your questions. They will help you to determine if a full language evaluation is necessary.