May is Better Speech, Language and Hearing Month!

Hooray!  May is Better Speech, Language and Hearing Month!

Although it is important to think about developing and protecting our speech, language and listening skills all year round, here are some ideas and websites you can use with your children in to celebrate this month!  Visit www.twomeyspeechtherapy.com/parents/ for more information.

• Protect Your Ears! A recent poll reported more than half of all high school students experienced symptoms of early hearing loss likely due to the increased use of portable and personal electronics.  Encourage your child to turn down the volume and replace in-the-ear earphones with headphones worn outside of the ear. Visit www.listentoyourbuds.com for more information and fun activities.

• Take Care of Your Voice! It is important to stay hydrated and avoid excessive abuse to your voice, especially during allergy season.  Aim to drink eight glasses of water a day and encourage your child to refrain from yelling and over exertion of his or her voice.

• Play language games and sing songs in the car or when spending quality time together!  Songs such as the “Name Game Song” encourage sound awareness and development of rhyme.  Language games such as I Spy promote vocabulary growth and the Picnic Game (Mom is going on a picnic and she is bringing apple pie, Dad is bringing sandwiches and I am bringing…) promote memory and develop language processing.

• Check out these websites for fun online language activities:  www.storyplace.org ;  www.eduplace.com ; www.funbrain.com; www.arcademicskillbuilders.com

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