Speech Therapy Ideas at Home
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Explore ideas →Resources for Parents
Speech therapy resources for parents.
Search practical articles and guides on language development, speech, bilingualism, autism, apraxia, selective mutism, and communication at home.
Speech and Language Milestones by Age: Birth to 6 Years
A quick, age-by-age guide to speech, language, and communication milestones from birth through age 6, with signs to watch and links to trusted ASHA milestone resources.
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When Should My Toddler Start Talking? First Words and Early Language Milestones
Wondering when your toddler should begin talking? Learn what counts as a first word, early language milestones to watch for, ways to encourage talking at home, and when it may be helpful to speak with a speech-language pathologist.
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Does Learning Two Languages Cause a Speech or Language Delay?
What parents should know about bilingual language development, vocabulary, and when an evaluation may be helpful.
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When Should I Consider a Speech-Language Evaluation?
A practical guide to the communication concerns that may be worth discussing with a speech-language pathologist.
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Speech Delay vs. Language Delay: What Is the Difference?
Speech and language are related, but they are not the same thing. Here is a parent-friendly way to tell the difference.
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Speech Sound Disorders: What Parents Should Know
A guide to articulation, phonological patterns, intelligibility, and when speech sound errors may need support.
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Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Early Signs and Evaluation
Learn the early signs of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), how it differs from a speech delay, what an evaluation looks for, and how speech therapy can help.
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Selective Mutism: What Parents Should Know
Selective mutism is an anxiety-based difficulty speaking in certain settings, not a choice to refuse communication.
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Helping Toddlers Learn First Words at Home
Simple ways to create more opportunities for early words during play and everyday routines.
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Encouraging Language During Everyday Routines
Turn meals, bath time, getting dressed, and errands into natural language-learning opportunities.
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Choosing Books That Build Language Skills
What to look for in children’s books when your goal is vocabulary, joint attention, questions, and sentence growth.
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Parent Coaching for Speech and Language: What It Looks Like
Parent coaching focuses on practical communication strategies that fit naturally into family life.
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Is it Working? How We Adjust Effective Speech Therapy Strategies for Home
One of the biggest fears parents have when starting a communication journey is getting stuck. You might worry that the goals set during your initial speech and language assessment will become outdated, or that the…
Read article →Real-Time Progress: How Does Parent Coaching for Speech Therapy Work?
If you’ve ever felt like a bystander in your child’s development—watching a therapist play with your toddler while you sit on the sidelines—you’ve likely wondered: Is there a better way? Whether you are navigating the…
Read article →Beyond the Waitlist: Why a Speech and Language Assessment is Your First Step to Progress
Whether you are navigating waitlist for speech therapy or struggling to find an available provider through insurance or Early Intervention in the USA , the "wait and see" period is the most stressful time for a parent.
Read article →How to Say the SH Sound: A Complete Articulation Therapy Guide
Producing the /SH/ sound correctly is a common goal in speech therapy. Many children substitute /S/ for /SH/ , drop the sound altogether, or misplace the tongue. With consistent exercises (speech therapy SH sound…
Read article →Parent Coaching for Speech Delay Online: How It Helps Late Talkers
If your toddler isn’t talking yet, you may hear “wait and see.” But research shows early support matters. Parent coaching for speech delay online is a proven approach where parents learn simple strategies to encourage…
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Can Your Tongue Affect Orthodontic Treatment?
A tongue thrust occurs when the coordination of swallowing muscles becomes incorrect, causing the tongue to push against the teeth during swallowing and even at rest. This can result in tooth movement. Myofunctional…
Read article →Tongue Thrust: What Parents Should Know
The role of the tongue in speech is often overlooked, but it plays a crucial part in proper pronunciation and sound development. During infancy, we naturally swallow with a different pattern, pushing the front tip of…
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Babies Communicate in these 5 Ways
Babies are born with the innate ability to communicate, even before they develop the ability to speak. From the moment they are born, they use a variety of non verbal communication techniques to express their needs and…
Read article →How does Speech Therapy for Toddlers Work?
Speech therapy for toddlers involves the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of speech and language disorders. Toddlers are typically between 1 and 3 years old, and at this age, they are just beginning to develop…
Read article →Kids Games for Good Communication Skills
Games and play are an essential part of childhood and can have a significant impact on a child's good communication skills and their social skills. Games provide children with the opportunity to interact with their…
Read article →What Causes a Lisp and How to Treat Them?
Lisps are not uncommon. Parents of children speaking this way or even adults who have one often wonder what causes a lisp. One typical form of speech difficulty is a lisp. When an adult or child has a lisp it can be…
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2 Reasons to Continue Speech Therapy in the Summer for Kids With Receptive Expressive Language Disorder
You and your child might want to take a break from speech therapy during the summer, but there are numerous reasons to continue. Additionally, online therapy sessions are great for kids who have a receptive…
Read article →Help for the speech impediment R: Sound: When Should Parents Get More Help?
Is your child saying Wabbit instead of Rabbit or Maw instead of More ? If your child's language contains these and other mispronunciations of the R sound or a “speech impediment r” issue, we are sure that you have…
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Don’t Say “Say”: Toddler Speech Delay Exercises
Parents who are interested in getting their toddler with a speech delay to learn to speak often try to get them to repeat what they say by saying “say…” For example, “say more” or “say mama.” Yet, when we try to prompt…
Read article →Toddler Stuttering? When To Be Concerned
It might be alarming to notice your toddler struggling to express themselves. This is especially true if your child previously had no problems speaking but has recently started stuttering for unclear reasons.…
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2 Best Ways to Fix a Lateral Lisp
Parents are often concerned when their child’s speech does not sound correct. They want them to sound like everyone else. Often, what they might be hearing is a lisp. There are a few kids. The first is a frontal lisp…
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Sign Language for Children: Our Top 10
There is a lot of misunderstanding regarding using sign language for children who have a language delay. Teaching sign language to young toddlers has been found to be beneficial whether or not they have speech and…
Read article →Summertime Speech Therapy at Home
It’s almost summer and that means that the kids will be ready to take in the sun and have lots of fun! Don't let your child's break from school cause them to fall behind with their speech and language goals; instead…
Read article →3 Year Old Milestones for Speech and Language
In other posts, we listed milestones for 2 year olds and what to do if your toddler is still babbling but not yet talking, and in this post are continuing with 3 year old milestones. The birth to three period is a time…
Read article →Speech Therapy Exercises for Kids
Working on speech therapy exercises at home might be beneficial for children for a variety of reasons. When a parent is unsure whether or not their child needs speech therapy, they may opt to work on some speech…
Read article →How to Teach the S Sound at Home
When parents work with their children at home on their speech therapy goals, progress happens faster (and so does graduation from speech therapy). So here, our resident articulation expert speech therapists go over how…
Read article →Finding Private Speech Therapy Near Me
Many parents' initial reaction when they notice a language or speech issue with their child is a feeling of concern. They may be approached by a teacher or pediatrician with the suggestion that they get an evaluation…
Read article →Trouble with the /R/ Sound (Rhotacism)? Read This Guide
Many children and adults experience problems pronouncing the /r/ sound and are unsure of whether they can fix it or if speech therapy is needed? The /r/ sound is one of the most difficult consonants in the English…
Read article →TH Words for Kids. How to Help Your Child at Home
Many children have a hard time pronouncing their TH sounds correctly. Our speech therapist specializing in articulation will review this typical speech error and what you should know to assist your child master this…
Read article →Does My Child Have an Expressive Language Disorder?
Children begin to learn and express themselves as soon as they are born. Their ability to convey their wants, needs and thoughts through words, improves as they grow older. Some toddlers and young children miss their…
Read article →What Does a Speech Therapist Do?
In speech therapy, the speech language pathologist (SLP) evaluates, diagnoses, and treats a variety of communication issues, such as stuttering or apraxia of speech, articulation issues and language impairments in kids…
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Autism Therapy At Home: Ideas from a Speech Therapist
You know your child best. So you know that even if they have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), or have red flags for ASD, they are completely unique and cannot be compared to another child with the…
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My Name is Kate: Great Therapy Books for Kids
Are you looking for a book to add to your list of therapy books for kids? Here's one to add. This book tells the story of Kate, a little girl who has Childhood Apraxia of Speech. The disorder makes it hard for her to…
Read article →Speech Articulation Issues in Children and How to Help Them
Speech articulation issues in children are characterized by a difficulty making the sounds in words properly when talking. There are developmental norms for when a child is supposed to master each speech sound, and…
Read article →Is Your 2 Year Old Not Talking But Babbling?
Is your 2 year old not talking but babbling? At Therapy Works Together, We receive a lot of questions from parents who want to know if their child needs to see a speech language pathologist. If a 2 year old is not yet…
Read article →How to Stop Stuttering: 3 Tips to Reduce and Manage Stuttering
Stuttering is a speech disorder that disrupts the normal flow of speech. A child or an adult who stutters repeats or prolongs sounds, syllables, or words. Many people want to know how to stop stuttering. Treatment with…
Read article →What Do Parents Need to Know About a Phonological Processing Disorder?
A phonological processing disorder impairs a child's ability to produce sounds and/or is an impairment of the mental representation of spoken sounds. A phonological processing disorder, which is in the family of speech…
Read article →7 Ideas for How to Help a Child with Speech Delay
As speech therapists, we cannot minimize the importance of speech therapy early in a child’s life if delays are observed. What we’ve observed to be even more essential is parental involvement in speech therapy and…
Read article →Wondering How to Help a Child with Speech Apraxia? 3 Tips for Parents.
One of the things parents worry about most when they get a diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a feeling of helplessness. They know that speech therapy is crucial to helping a child communicate well, yet…
Read article →Types of Lisps and When to Get Help
There are several different types of lisps, each with its own characteristics that parents should know about. They are very common in young children and may continue into adulthood if not treated properly and early.…
Read article →Selective Mutism Symptoms or Just Shyness? When to Get Help.
Some children may simply be shy and not like to talk to others. They might talk when they are in a comfortable situation or with people they know. Yet some children will not talk at all. Parents may be worried that…
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11 Tips to Engage Your Child During Online Speech Language Therapy
Online speech language therapy can help children at any age. And let's face it, since COVID and the instability is causes may be here to stay for a little bit longer, virtual learning might still end up being a part of…
Read article →Parent question: What are two year old speech milestones?
One of the parents coming to Therapy Works Together for a screening for her child asked the speech therapist: “What are two year old speech milestones? I’m not sure what my child should be saying.” Kids are growing up…
Read article →Video Series: Practicing Speech Therapy at Home - Do You Need Something Special?
Parents play a very important role in their children’s progress when they attend speech therapy and in language development in general. Practicing speech therapy at home gives parents more opportunities to experience…
Read article →Mixed Receptive and Expressive Language Disorder. What Can Parents Do?
When a child says their first words it is one of the greatest joys of being a parent. So when there is a problem with understanding or speaking, parents are worried or frustrated. The child may often feel the same.…
Read article →Parents Need the Right Diagnosis for Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is considered to be a rare speech problem in children. However, because it is rare and researchers believe that other types of problems may occur more often than this does there has…
Read article →Speech Delay Toddler Tantrums? Here's What to Do.
Research has shown that toddlers who have fewer than 50 words by age 2 are twice as likely to have severe and frequent temper tantrums. A Speech delayed toddler tantrum is more difficult because parents are not sure…
Read article →How Many Words Should My Child Have?
Parents are often asking our speech therapists: How many words should my 2 or 3 year old toddler say, as well as “when should babies say their first words?” Language development milestones mark the stages of language…
Read article →Speech Therapy Online For Toddlers - How it Works
Many parents may find speech therapy for toddlers to be a bizarre concept. How do I get my child to sit through an online session and participate in the conversation with the therapist? It's possible that your child is…
Read article →Parents Can Improve a Child’s Language Skills at Home with 5 Tips
Parents play an important role in improving their child's development of speech and language skills. Although language is something that children learn naturally, sometimes they need the push and guided help from their…
Read article →4 Coping Strategies for Stressed Parents of Kids with Speech-Language Delay
Feeling stress as a parent is a real thing, and these days it's even worse. With the instability of Covid 19 and a changing landscape impacting families, those stressed parents of kids with speech language delay or…
Read article →Improving Language Skills in Kids With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Sometimes parents of children with Autism think that if their child isn't speaking by age 4 or 5, they aren't likely to ever speak. Kids with an autism diagnosis, kids who are non verbal or even those that have a delay…
Read article →Does My Child Need Speech Therapy?
It's almost unbelievable that as soon as you give birth to your baby, they start to communicate with you through glances, sounds, and touches. Babies quickly learn about the world through their senses.
Read article →Parents: "Late talkers twice as likely to have severe, frequent temper tantrums."
Perhaps as a parent you've assumed that speech delayed toddler tantrums are obvious, but now there is the large scale data to show that.
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