Get Involved!

For families in the area looking to get more involved in the community or are looking for something fun to do locally, here is the link to the Maple Valley Community Center. They offer various programs and support groups for all ages. Check it out!

Maple Valley Community Center

--Megan

4 Easy Tips

It can be hard to communicate with someone with a speech or language impairment.  You often don't know what to do, and many people just avoid the interaction altogether because they're afraid of doing something wrong.

Laura, a young woman with aphasia (a language disorder often caused by having a stroke), created a video outlining some tips for how to communicate with her:
A Lot Of People Find It Hard To Talk To Laura. So She Put Together 4 Easy Tips.
Her tips are helpful for talking with children and adults with a variety of speech and language difficulties: speech sound disorders (i.e. pronouncing certain sounds, like /r/ or /s/, incorrectly), autism spectrum disorder, dysarthria (i.e. weak and uncoordinated speech muscles), stuttering, or even hearing impairment.

--Sarah

Employer of the Year Award!

Rock Therapeutic Services was honored with an Employer of the Year award from Vadis.  See what Vadis is all about here: www.vadis.org

We couldn't be more thrilled regarding our partnership with Vadis.  We feel lucky to have Bernard and Chi Shan brighten up our office with their smiles and laughter!

Happy Birthday Chi Shan!

Please join us in wishing Chi Shan a very happy birthday!  

Chi Shan works 4 hours per week at Rock Therapeutic Services through a program that provides jobs for adults with disabilities.

Chi Shan has an excellent attitude and is always eager to work.  He helps us with sorting paperwork, cleaning toys, and paper shredding.

Everyone in the office seems to smile more when he's around.

Chi Shan got a new Seahawks hat to add to his extensive cap collection and we celebrated with french fries!

Thank you for your hard work Chi Shan and a very happy birthday to you!

-Rock Therapeutic Services Team

How To Use Picture Books to Build Language Skills

For those not familiar with it, Brightly is a fantastic website for parents who want to foster a love of books and reading in their kids.  They have book recommendations, tips for parents, activity ideas, etc.

I especially love their section on picture books.  What I wanted to share today in particular is their article on ways to use picture books to build kids' language skills:

5 Ways to Use Picture Books to Build Kids’ Language Skills

The article is even written by a parent who is also a speech-language pathologist!  She describes how to build vocabulary, social language skills, comprehension, and sequencing abilities while sharing picture books with your child.  Enjoy!

--Sarah

Games to Support Language Skills

Need a last minute gift idea??  These games are excellent choices for family game night:

• Taboo: This game requires 'describing' which helps children express their ideas more clearly.  It also helps with word retrieval and listening skills.

• Scattergories: This game is great for word retrieval.  The object is to write down as many categorically related objects that begin with a certain letter as possible.  For example: A vegetable that starts with C.  Supports working memory and brainstorming.

• Apples to Apples Jr:  A judge chooses a card with an adjective on it.  The players choose a noun or verb card out of their hand that best fits with the adjective card and hands it to the judge, who proceeds to choose the card they think is the best fit.  This game reinforces comparisons, describing, grammar, vocabulary and synonyms.

These are some easy ways to sneak in some learning during game time!

And the answer is Carrot... if you thought Cauliflower that's just weird!  ;-)

Non-Tech Gift Ideas

 We can't deny that technology plays a huge role in our everyday lives.  It has an impact on social interactions as well as language development. Keeping that in mind and with Christmas approaching fast, here are some great non-tech holiday gifts ideas for friends and family! 

http://blog.asha.org/2016/11/29/10-non-tech-holiday-gift-ideas-to-promote-kids-language-learning/

Happy Holidays, everyone!

--Megan