Reading is a great way to support your child’s language development. Reading will help improve both their receptive and expressive language skills. Studies have reported that reading to your child as early as eight months old can have significant impact on early language development.

Tips for reading with your child:

• It is ok to read the story again and again. Repetition will help your child learn language.
• Choose books with rhymes or songs. Clap along to the rhythm and help your child clap along.
• Talk about the objects and actions in the picture (e.g. “Look the boy is diving into the deep water!”)
• You can expand language (e.g. if your child says “tree”, you can respond by saying “yes that is a big, green tree”)
• Model language by commenting more and questioning less, so that it does not feel like a test.
• Relate the story’s events to the child’s interests, hobbies and daily activities (e.g. “That boy is riding a blue bike like yours”).
• Discuss the story with your child. (“Why do you think the monkey stole the key?”)
• Help your child become aware of letter sounds. (While pointing to a picture of a snake, ask: “What sound does a snake make?”) As your child develops, ask more complex questions. (While pointing to a picture of a ball, ask: “What sound does ‘ball’ start with?”)
• Play sound games with your child. List words that rhyme (“ball,” “tall”) or start with the same sound (“mummy,” “mix”).

Written by Senali Alahakone – Speech Pathologist at De Silva Kids Clinic

Play-dough can be used to create a fun and engaging activity to work on a number of different communication skills. This can include describing, labelling, expanding vocabulary, receptive language, using action words (verbs) and play and social skills. Use the following cheat sheet to help work on these communication skills whilst you and your child are playing with play-dough!

Describing/labelling

Colour: red, blue, yellow, green etc.
Size: big, little, small
Shape: circle, round, square
Texture: smooth, sticky, squishy
Quantity: all, none, empty, full

Expanding vocabulary

Nouns: play-dough, lip, cup, scissors, knife, rolling pin, cookie cutter, table, bench
Concepts: in/out, long/short, more/less, same/different, on/off

Receptive language

Following directions: give directions using prepositions (e.g. under, around, next to, behind, in front, between, on, off)

Action words

• Make – Stick
• Give – Fold
• Push – Squeeze
• Pinch – Pull
• Squash – Roll
• Open – Close

Play and social skills

• Encourage joint attention
• Practise turn taking by taking turns to choose what to make
• Encourage eye contact
• Develop pretend play skills (e.g. pretending to use a play-dough object as something else)

Written by Sarah Pritchard – Speech Pathologist for De Silva Kids Clinic.

The concept of the Zone of Regulation is to support individuals who have difficulty self-regulating and manage their feelings.

The Zones are a categorical and cognitive behavioural approach that therapists use in order to support and teach self-regulation. This approach is aimed to categorise 4 coloured zones which provide strategies to support individuals identify, acknowledge and explore their emotions, feelings, behaviours and manage their sensory needs. The Zone of Regulation is a concept that uses visuals to help individuals understand and express their feelings and level of alertness and explore how it may influence their behaviours.

The four zones that are:

The Red Zone: This is used to identify when an individual is in their heightened state of alertness and feeling intense emotions. These emotions may include anger, physical behaviour, terror or rage.

The Yellow Zone: This is used to identify when an individual is in a state of emotion that is elevated and nearing the Red Zone. An individual may experience sense of worry, excitement, silliness or nervousness.

The Green Zone: This is used to identify when an individual is in a state of calmness. Individuals identified in this zone may display feelings and behaviours of happiness, content or focused. The Green Zone is the zone where optimal learning will occur.

The Blue Zone: This is used to identify when an individual is in a low state of alertness. The emotions or behaviours shown may be the individual feeling sad, tired sick or bored.

Written by Amie Li, Occupational Therapist for De Silva Kids Clinic.

Sleep is such a common problem area highlighted by parents and families. There are many reasons why children may be having difficulties with their sleep cycles. Below are some areas that may impact sleep and wake cycles for your child.

Weighted Products

• Try a big teddy bear or some plush toys in bed, added some weight to the toys stuffing (sand or rice bags).
• A weighted blanket or body pillow in their own bed.
• Weight works for us, heavy doona or cushion to cuddle.
• Deep pressure input such as weighted blankets, tucking in sheets firmly, sleeping in a sleeping bag or hugging a body pillow can sometimes be helpful.
• Some might be comforted by the closed space between mum and dad. Try long pillows on both sides in their own bed. Sometimes it also helps if the pillows smell like the parents so getting the parents to sleep with the pillows one night then having the pillows in the child’s bed the next. Also such things as weighted blankets and tight tucking in can help.

Proprioceptive Input

• Lots of vestibular – hammock spinning, scooter board etc during the day for a few weeks might be worth a try.
• Proprioceptive work – pulling/rowing works to calm prior to sleep along with
  the ‘routine’ that the family are doing.

Break the Cycle

• Break their sleep cycle by waking them at 7 am and not letting them sleep until 10 or 11. It will be a few horrible days but it may break the cycle.

Sounds

• Does Dad snore?  Are they comforted by the rhythm or sound of Dad’s breathing or snoring?
• Try some white noise recordings eg. surf crashing, womb sounds or fan.

Social Stories and Rewards

• Try a bit of a reward system for them to provide some extra incentive to stay in their room. Providing them with a “what-to-do story” or social story outlining calming options they could do if they wake in the night might help. Calming options if they wake may include those that you, the family or your child have already identified; however, some ideas may include things like: listening to relaxing music, hugging a favourite toy or pillow firmly, rolling themselves firmly in their blanket etc.
• Social stories and sticker charts have also helped lots of children be motivated to stay in bed.

Light

• Play around with lighting to check if this is an environmental factor affecting sleep. If inside light is becoming distracting leave an outside light on and note the difference in sleep behaviours.
• Try a ‘Groclock’ – this is a light which changes from a blue night face to a bright sun face to give children a visual cue as to when it is the correct time to get out of bed. You can set the times and durations to your needs and your family schedule.

Written by Alannah Sofianos, Occupational Therapist for De Silva Kids Clinic.

We often have referrals to OT to support children to ‘sit still’ when learning. This is often an important goal for many teachers as wriggly bodies can be disruptive to class learning. From an OT perspective, every person uses a variety of strategies to maintain attention.

Often, we are unaware as to what these may be, or even that we are using a strategy!

Movement is well known to support organisation and attention. Particularly, rhythmic, linear and repetitive motion. Movement however often does not fit into the social structure of learning environments.

Schools and workplaces are now becoming more aware of the positive influence of dynamic workplaces, spaces and access to movement has on productivity.

Some ideas to introduce to your learning spaces include:

• Keeping seated time to a minimum, between 5 and 15 minutes is a great length
• Offer movement breaks every 15 minutes of seated learning for junior years and every 30 for senior years
• Complete work in a variety of spaces and body positions, such as lying on the floor, working on the whiteboard, working outside
• Offer bouncy bounders on the bottom of chair legs (as pictured)
• Offer wobble stools, cushions, fitballs, etc.

Should you need further assistance or want to make an appointment to see an Occupational Therapist please contact us.

Written by Occupational Therapist Laura Taylor for De Silva Kids Clinic.