Childhood Speech, Language & Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know

All children go through periods of saying “ting” for “thing” or “feets” for “feet,” and no two children learn to speak on exactly the same schedule. This informative, reassuring guide helps parents and teachers identify normal speech development and potential problems, with advice on when and where to seek help, how to support your child’s prescribed speech program, and how to lessen the risk of speech or language difficulties. Easy-to-understand question-and-answer format; guidelines for assessing your child’s speech and language development; practical strategies for coping with stuttering, poor listening or memory skills, vocal fatigue or hoarseness, ear infections and hearing and much more; and ways to enhance speech and language development that both you and your child will enjoy.

This book is an engaging, reader-friendly work which guides parents through the formative years of a child’s life. This well-regarded book is now available in paperback, newly revised to reflect the most recent studies. The new edition features information from the latest research, including traumatic events in the news, television and learning skills, physical activity, and temperament.

With a specific focus on the brain, the book takes the reader through specific phases of child development beginning with Life in the Womb an going through the first six years of life. Each chapter ends with a section “To Think About,” addressing such practical matters as good-night rituals, reading books together and coping with conflict.

The first five years of a child’s life are the most critical for speech and language development, and, as a parent, you are your child’s primary language role model. So what are the best ways to help your child develop the all-important skill of communication? Inside, you’ll discover all of the essential steps and checkpoints from birth through age five, tips to help your child progress on schedule, and easy methods to:

• Evaluate and monitor your child’s language development
• Understand and deal with environmental impacts such as television and cultural styles
• Recognize the signs of language development problems

First of all, know this — you’re smart and can learn! You just learn differently. This guide will help answer some of your important questions about having LD, such as “Why is it hard for kids with LD to learn?” and “What happens when you grow up?” It will also provide suggestions on how to deal with issues in school and take some of the mystery out of what having LD means (and doesn’t mean). Includes resources for parents and teachers.

This book uses the Building Blocks model. The Building Blocks model is practical, supported by research, and easy to implement. It identifies ten areas important to school success (the building blocks), divided into three levels:

1. the foundational level includes attention and impulse control, emotion and behavior, self-esteem, and learning environment blocks
2. the symbolic processing and memory level contains the visual, auditory, and motor skills blocks
3. the conceptual level comprises using strategies and thinking with language and images

Parents, educators and general-interest readers will relish a fine book which surveys how language develops in kids. Why isn’t language developing for so many? This explores links between reading, writing, listening and speaking, revealing how these are learned and what happens in the process breaks down at various stages.