June 22nd, 2010 Help my child’s not talking! Posted by Melitsa in Media, Podcast, Sites to visit, Thought of the week, language

What should I do?

This is the common cry on forums and mother/child groups up and down the land. Not many of us have enough experience other than our own children in knowing if what we as seeing is typical or not.

Below are three real life examples from parents…..

My son is 20 months old and he does not talk alot, we read to him and as he points to things we talk about what they are.  The Dr.  says all of his other communication skills are great but I am starting to get concerned that he does not say a lot of words, at time he will repeat what you say but not on a consistent basis.  He has said mamma and dadda for a long time.  Does anyone have some advice or some activities my husband and I can use to help this process?

It’s become obvious that my son is having trouble with speech, specifically stuttering and having a hard time getting the words to come out.  It’s been going on for about 9-12 months and I thought it would get better or he would grow out of it, but it’s just getting worse.  So much so, that last night he was crying because he couldn’t get the words.

I thought my daughter had a problem with her speech b/c at 1, she wasn’t talking, everyone including Drs. told me I was over worried, (she will talk) they told me ,( give her time !), at 2 she wasn’t talking, nothing, zip! Same scenario, im a worried Mom, she’ll talk when she wants too. At 3 still not talking, Drs. after Drs., even switched Drs., im still a worried Mom, after all Albert Einstein didn’t talk until he was much older than that! So at 4 my daughter started talking, but we had a prob., it sounded like Chinese, very weird, so I took her to the DR and demanded that they evaluate her! So they did and she failed everything! So she started speech therapy and she was talking in 1 yr., yes, at 5 yrs old she could finally talk. They asked me why I waited so long to have her tested, I was like, don’t even go there! She’s 11 and still in speech. I say if you think there’s a problem, make them listen to you! Do something about it. I wish I hadn’t listened to family, friends and Drs., they all were wrong! I knew something was wrong and I wish she would have gotten the help she needed sooner!

Raising Playful Tots is an Internet radio or Podcast available 24hrs a day . Host: Melitsa Avila of Play Activities. Download each episode yourself visit each show notes to do this or have iTunes do this automatically for you.

Week 13th June 2010: Talking Tots with Lisa Houghton. Lisa share answers to questions like those above in this weeks show. A must listen if you have a little one.

Raising Playful Tots show 29: Talking Tots

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June 3rd, 2010 Relax and be Commercial free Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Podcast, play activities

I’m excited to share that I have an article over at Relax magazine all about Savvy Summer Fun. There are lots of other great articles about parenting in this print and online magazine. Check out the old shoe activity……we all have one of those lying around.

With Summer it doesn’t tend to happen as much but Autumn isn’t far away and the dreaded Halloween/Christmas presents starts. How do we raising our kids in this commercialized world? Who are the CCFC? and how can limit the pester power?

Raising Playful Tots is an Internet radio or Podcast available 24hrs a day . Host: Melitsa Avila of Play Activities. Download each episode yourself visit each show notes to do this or have iTunes do this automatically for you.

Week 30th May 2010: Campaign for a commercialized free childhood ( CCFC) with Josh Golin. Josh is the associate director of the CCFC and shares some amazing facts, studies and inspiration to sharpen our awareness of Media and Marketing to your kids.

Listen to the show

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April 29th, 2010 We Play Posted by Melitsa in Homemade, Media, Memes, Podcast, Sites to visit, Thought of the week, pretend play

We play in the kitchen.

Welcome to the drums section of a very loud concert ( Can you hear me shouting that!)

or is it official taste tester of the new and improved LO sauce. Better than mummy’s with the secret ingredient?

or is it just fun to take things out of cupboards and off tables and line them up in a row?

I think it’s all three and more.

This post is part of Childhood 101 ” We Play”

“Come over and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up” and see the others.

We Play….

Mentioned in the Raising Playful Tots Podcast

Raising Playful Tots is an Internet radio or Podcast available 24hrs a day . Host: Melitsa Avila of Play Activities. Download each episode yourself visit each show notes to do this or have iTunes do this automatically for you.

Week 25th April 2010: Positive Parents with Sue Atkins. Sue is a Parenting coach and Author of Raising Happy Children for Dummies about being a positive parent.

Listen to the show .

Keep up to date with new show by signing up for the newsletter. When you sign up for the newsletter you get a free 11 page special report 10 ways to extend your child’s play. New show on Wednesday!

April 14th, 2010 Discussion starters for young children Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Media, Podcast, Thought of the week, language, play activities

When you ask your child, ” How was your day?” We don’t always get the type of conversation we bargained on. This type of direct conversation certainly doesn’t seem to work with mine, for sure. However if we’re doing a side by side activity together or next to each other we seem to get a better result. Maybe it’s boys? ( Any girl mums care to comment?)

Don’t overlook the small stuff

We have quite a few magic paint books. You need just water and a paintbrush. The paint appears on the page. You do have to be careful not to overwet otherwise the colours will run. In general we’ve had a lot of beginner exploratory fun with paint books like this for the baby and toddler….even on an airplane. But that is a whole other story.

At one time we had so many of the books and the older boys grew out of it so I put them up. Now this last week I got them out for the baby/toddler to try some mark making fun.

Life got busy and the two older boys asked if they could do one after flipping through the book.

While I did some work on the table they both worked at their picture

Don’t always follow your instincts

My initial reaction was to say I’ll get the other paints out or you’re too old. But it was there and I was time pushed so hey. Why not!  It would be fun. My biggest concern was it would take  one minute to do because they have the fine motor skills and well for them it’s just easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Also the trend is to go higher and not lower. Was I dumbing down their learning by letting them do something so easy! OK so that’s the first 20 seconds of thought.

In my hesitation, they let me know they would handle it all. Getting the paintbrush, water cup, newspaper, scissors etc. Each brother backed up the other. “I’ll get the water because I’m bigger.” “I know where the newspaper is and I’ll put it away this time.”  Nothing wrong with their persuasive skills. I hope in 10 years time it is still there for their essays lol.:) I agreed on the fly.

I’m glad I did.

What happened?

I must admit I didn’t complete the work entirely that I was doing.

I did have interesting discussion for 20 minutes or so with my boys.

Each talked about the picture and things they painted seemed to trigger another story or something they had to tell me. Maybe it was the subject of one of them- a birthday party! I don’t know but all my misgivings about this simple paint activity slipped away. They talked about school, friends, and asked those way out questions you can only get from kids.

Photo books are another way to do this activity. There is a contest over at Raising Playful Tots with Books by Tara. I interviewed her about her photo books and had a chance to use these at home, thanks to Tara.

Dreaming with Rousseau (Mini Masters)

Dancing with Degas

These art books are also another great way to stimulate discussion and conversation.

Discussion and meaningful conversation happens in many ways in a family. I’m so happy to have found a few other discussion starters that work with my family.

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