The Words of Parents

"The biggest impression on children isn’t made by income, nutrition, or quality of education – as researchers had predicted. The most profound effect on a child’s development is made by words. The words of parents."

 

Had to share this post that I read from The Art Of Simple.  Drives home the point of how much talking to your child impacts his/her development!

Read more here:
More and better words for difficult kids

Eric Carle's Little Cloud and DIY Puffy Paint

We're off to the beach for the weekend, but before we leave, I have to let you know about the super simple craft we did this week.  My favorite part is that you only need 3 ingredients and it's extremely likely that you have them in your house right now!

If you and your little are fans of Eric Carle and his beautifully illustrated stories, then I have the perfect book to go along with this activity.  It's not one of his most famous stories but its a favorite at our house.  It's called Little Cloud.  It's about a little cloud that drifts away from all the other clouds and forms different shapes in the sky (my boys love the shark and the clown he forms).  At the end, the other clouds call Little Cloud back and they all group together and make it rain, which makes it the perfect rainy day book.  I love all the CONVERSATION that this story can start between you and your little one.  My boys have always loved looking up at the sky and looking for airplanes, the moon, and of course, clouds (especially when they look like they're moving).  After reading this story, it's always fun to take a look out the window and find some clouds in the sky.  You can talk about what they LOOK like ("That cloud looks like a dog bone.") and imagine what other SHAPES they may form.  It's a great way to get your little one thinking more ABSTRACTLY and get those IMAGINATIONS going.  Talk about what shapes YOU would make if you were a cloud.  Another fun activity after reading this book is actually ACTING OUT the story.  Pretend to be Little Clouds and try form the different shapes he does in the book, then you can all smush together to make a rain cloud.  If you're feeling really fun, grab a water spray bottle and create some rain of your own.  ACTING OUT stories is a simple and effective way to work on SEQUENCING and NARRATIVE (story telling) SKILLS, as well as, improve MEMORY and COMPREHENSION.  All of these skills are necessary parts of being an EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR, and will be beneficial in the school years. 

We added a craft to our Little Cloud reading this week - Do It Yourself Puffy Paint.  You can use this recipe for any art project and if you'd like add some food coloring to make different colors.  Here's what you'll need:

flour
salt
water

Mix equal parts flour and salt, then gradually add water until a paste forms.  Anthony (3 1/2) helped me mix our ingredients, so don't be afraid to get your little one involved! 

You can use a paint brush to spread your mixture on a piece of paper (thicker paper, foam or cardboard is best since it is very heavy) or make pastry baggies like we did.  Scoop your mixture into a Ziploc bag, push it all to one corner, then cut a small hole in the corner.  Now your little one can just squeeze the mixture out onto paper.  Make its mess free and easy for your really little guys.  My boys love squeezing glue so I knew this was the way for us to go.  I told the boys to squeeze out the puffy paint to make a cloud just like in the story.  Anthony made a huge blob and Michael (2) spread his out more.  Feeling the mixture in the bag is also a great sensory experience.

Now to make it puffy... Put your little one's work of art in the microwave for about 30 seconds (you can keep putting it in if it's not dry the first time around) and watch your artwork rise!  It was pretty cool and perfect to show our cloud getting puffy and "full of rain."

Since our art was supposed to be a rain cloud, we later squirted some silver glitter glue to make rain!

This craft reminded me of our puffy snow paint that we made in the winter, and I think we'll definitely be repeating it again to make something else!

Hope you get to try this one out!


Love & Language,

Marisa

Talk To Your Baby!!!!!!!!!!!

 

As a speech-language pathologist, I have always valued the importance of talking to your baby as much as possible, even as a newborn.  A recent study has found scientific evidence that supports this idea and the role that it plays in a baby’s speech and language development.

American researchers at the University of Washington have now found evidence that talking to your newborn is vital to speech development.  By monitoring brain activity in infants who were just listening to recorded speech, they found that activity in Broca’s area and the cerebellum (which are parts of the brain responsible for the motor movement required for producing speech), as well as in the superior temporal gyrus (which processes language) were  triggered.  The findings, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  further suggest that, “motherese speech, with its exaggerated acoustic and articulatory features, particularly in one-on-one settings, enhances the activation of motor brain areas and the generation of internal motor models of speech.” The babies’ brain activity suggests that the part of the brain used to talk is working long before your little one actually begins to talk.  So what can moms take away from this study????

 

 

1.       Talk, talk, talk to your babies!  About anything and about everything!  Just listening to your voice is helping their speech and language development.

2.       Use “motherese” when playing with your baby.  Not sure what “motherese” is?  It’s what most people would refer to as “baby talk.”  It is usually delivered with cooing and gooing, high in pitch, elongated vowels, and heavy intonation. 

3.       Don’t forget to “mamama” and “bababa,” too! This study suggests that parent babbling is a key part of the process!

4.       Read to your baby.  This will offer even more exposure to spoken language. 

5.       Sing your heart out!  Having your baby listen to different rhymes and patterns will continue to stimulate parts of the brain crucial to speech and language development.

6.       Know that your baby is listening LONG BEFORE he/she says that memorable first word!

 

Read more at: Babble to your baby from birth! Cooing at newborns is vital to speech development

 

Love & Language,

Marisa

 

PARK & LEARN!

 

 

The summer has had us out and about most days – beach, pool, play dates, zoo visits – you name it!  But there are still days that we spend at home and even inside.  Today, inparticular, we stayed home and I had a major mission to clean the house.  Spending so much time out of the house and packing and unpacking bags has left a mess over here (even more than it usually is).  On days like these, I try to set up the boys with an activity that will keep them entertained and give me a chance to get some things done.  This is what we did today and they really enjoyed it!

My boys love any kind of vehicles, and Anthony (3 ½) especially loves roads and parking garages.  We’ve spent many hours on the floor drawing roads with all the houses on our street, Anthony’s school, relatives’ houses, highways, intersections, exit ramps and parking lots.  Today, we expanded on our regular roads and turned them into a learning experience.  I simply drew a few roads that all led to a parking lot.  I made lined parking spots and in each one put numbers, letters, and each of the boys’ names.  I told the boys that I worked at the parking lot and as they drove their cars around, I would tell them where to park.  I would call out a number, letter or one of their names.  While the boys were just playing the way they always do, they were also practicing NUMBER and LETTER RECOGNITION.  Anthony got a total kick out of this and since he does know his letters and some numbers, I started to make it a little more challenging for him.  Instead of telling him the number or letter, I would hold up a certain number of fingers to tell him which number and tell him the SOUND the letter makes to tell him a letter.  I only used numbers 1-5 and letters A-F.  Since Anthony especially enjoyed it so much, I’ll add more numbers and letters another day.  You can put anything in your parking spots and use it as a fun way to keep your little one busy and teach them at the same time!

 

Let me know how this one works out for you and your little one!

Love & Language,

Marisa

The Follow-Up

Last week was Anthony’s 6 month follow-up visit at the pediatric ophthalmologist.  It was 6 months ago that we learned that Anthony has astigmatism in both eyes as well as anisometrophia.  Anisometrophia, I have learned, is a visual condition in which a person sees differently from each eye.  Left untreated, anisometrophia may cause a person to develop a “lazy eye.”  I had never speculated that Anthony had any vision issues so hearing this for the first time was an emotional experience for me.  I am pleased to report that 6 months later my feelings of worry, fear and sadness have subsided (mostly) and a new emotion has very unexpectedly come to the surface when thinking about my little boy wearing glasses… PROUD.

I took Anthony to pick up his glasses on a Saturday not knowing what to expect when he would be given his first pair of glasses and expected to wear them all the time.  Anthony sat down across from the optometrist who showed him his glasses, adjusted them to fit perfectly on his little face and told him how to take care of them.  There sat my little boy, just 3 years old, nodding his head and listening intently.  Other customers who walked by smiled at him and then at me and I wanted to cry.  Not because I was sad or worried or scared of what was next, but because I was so PROUD of Anthony.  He seemed like such a big boy sitting in that chair and getting his first pair of glasses was another notch in his “growing up belt.”

The first day he worse his glasses until about 6PM and then asked to take them off.  I expected that he wouldn’t be able to wear them all the time at first because even for me it takes a little while to adjust to a new prescription.  The following day, we had a family party and he seemed to forget the glasses were there and wore them right up to bed time.  I breathed a sigh of relief and was again so PROUD of him.  He’s worn his glasses every day since.  Anthony does need to be reminded to take them off before going to sleep and usually to put them back on when he wakes up but rarely complains about wearing them throughout the day.  Several (and sometimes a hundred) times a day I get, “Mommy will you clean my glasses?” which I am more than happy to do.  And the eye rubbing that brought me to the pediatric ophthalmologist?  Completely dissipated.  He doesn’t ever rub his eyes anymore. 

The summer time complicates things a bit because he takes them off to go in the pool or run through the sprinkler.  It worries me when he has them off for long periods because I know that they are helping him to develop healthy vision.  I also have to make sure that he’s put them in a safe place and that they go right back on when he’s done with the water. 

When people meet Anthony for the first time or we see people we haven’t in a while, the first comment to him is usually a compliment on his glasses.  I don’t think he minds the extra attention at all!  And I am happy to see people being positive and encouraging. 

 

 

 

 

Our follow-up exam did not require a full eye exam.  We just met with the ophthalmologist who quickly examined his eyes and had him look at some pictures.  I wasn’t sure if we would have to move on to patching, as it is a possibility with his condition.  (Some children have to wear a patch on their “good eye” for a certain period a day in order to strengthen the weaker eye.)  And although I did feel somewhat emotional at that appointment, I watched my son following directions, answering the doctor’s questions and even ask some questions of his own, and I felt PROUD of my little boy.   I am super happy to report that the glasses are doing their job of correcting his vision and that the doctor doesn’t see any patching OR surgery in his future.  There is even the possibility that he will not need to wear glasses later in childhood.  The doctor said that we had caught his vision issues early on and that really has helped to make glasses his only necessary treatment.  We’ll be back there in 8 months for a full eye exam and to re-evaluate his prescription. 

 

 

 

Sharing this experience on my blog has led to some really positive things for me.  So many people reached out to me whose children have vision issues or who have experienced some issues of their own.  When going through something for the first time, it’s always nice to hear from those who have been down that road before.  It was encouraging to hear their stories and know that how I felt was normal and hear the success that their children have had with wearing glasses.  I was also able to share my story and “Anthony Is Getting Glasses” book idea on a website for parents of young children with glasses.  I was more than happy to share with other parents what I found helpful. 

The most common comment I get from people when they see Anthony wears glasses is actually a question – “How did you know he needed glasses?”  The answer, I didn’t.  I now feel so fortunate that I didn’t ignore his eye rubbing or cancel my appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist when it seemed to stop.  Anthony was just rubbing his eyes and my pediatrician recommended I check it out.  It opened up a whole new area of interest for me and I am just so glad that we were able to get my son the help he needed. 

 

 

Wondering how to know if your child has vision problems?  Here are 5 signs of eye and vision problems, according to the American Optometric Association:

1. Excessive tearing

2. Red or encrusted eye lids

3. Constant eye turning

4. Extreme sensitivity to light

5. Appearance of a white pupil

 

·            And from my own experience and readings:

• Eye rubbing

 

•     Complaining about things being blurry

•     Complaining about pain in or around the eye

• Squinting

 

• Sitting close to the television

 

• Tilting the head

 

• Covering one eye

 

And if you're just concerned or unsure, follow the advice of my

pediatrician, who always says, "it's never too early to get a good

eye exam."

The American Optometric Association is a great resource.  You can find information about vision development, what you can do as a parent to encourage health vision development, as well as what you can expect at your baby’s first eye exam.

I’ll leave you with some facts about children’s vision:

Nearly 1 out of 4 American children between the ages of 3 - 16 wears eyeglasses.

1 in 20 has amblyopia (lazy eye).

10% of American children under the age of 12 need vision correction.

Vision and eye health problems are the second most prevalent and chronic health care problem in the United States; affecting more than 120 million people.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Love & Language,

One PROUD Mama